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Girls Recap: Shosh + Ray 4 Ever

Honestly, this was not my favorite episode of Girls, especially on the heels of last week’s coke-fueled fever dream, which I thought was the strongest episode to date since “Welcome To Bushwick, AKA The Crackcident.” It’s no accident that this week’s half hour devoted a hefty percentage of time to the unraveling of Jessa’s marriage, which was obviously never going to last and worked better played for laughs than mined for drama.

The last straw for Thomas John is when bohemian Jessa, his “paradise wife,” goes to dinner with his parents (their first time meeting her) and makes no attempt to hide her checkered past as a heroin addict (which is also when we learned that she only went to Oberlin for seven months, which actually makes a lot of sense) or her general free spirit, frustrating to John because he apparently thought she could turn her personality on and off to suit the company she’s with, which he should have immediately realized she was incapable of doing. Sure, she shouldn’t have to, but since she’s also one of the more (if that’s possible) grating characters on the show, I couldn’t really blame him. A verbal agreement to pay her $30,000 in alimony and a smashed “Humie” award later, Jessa is out of the fancy Williamsburg condo and back in Hannah’s apartment…convenient, since she’s in need of a roommate.

Will everyone in the cast end up living with Hannah at some point in the series? This episode also marked the departure of Elijah, which was devastating since he’s currently my favorite “Girl.” He takes way less offense to Hannah evicting him and keeping the furniture George paid for than I would. It’s not really like Elijah to be a doormat, but he’s gone forever so I guess we’ll never understand why he’s so quiescent in this case. Hannah uses her payout from her JazzHate article (“How I Convinced a Former Addict to Procure Cocaine for Me, After Which I Found Out My Gay Roommate and Best Friend Had Sex and Then I Slept With The Former Addict,” I assume) to cook dinner for her “favorite people,” which includes Ray, Shoshonna, Charlie and his new girlfriend, and a pity-invited Marnie.

Marnie actually shows up, making things very uncomfortable, although she is generally polite and nice to everyone. Charlie’s girlfriend can’t take her presence for one second longer, however, and lashes out about how she’s “always” around. Marnie storms out when Hannah refuses to intercede and make peace between her guests and ends up on the roof, and Charlie goes to console her because once a doormat, always a doormat. Marnie lets him compliment her and explain that his girlfriend was “intimidated” by beautiful, clean, poised Marnie, but when he kisses her she rebuffs him by saying she’s “seeing someone.” The someone she’s seeing is Booth Jonathan. After that terrible sex last week? Please. Charlie storms off and returns to the party to find that his girlfriend has also left. Hannah is as great at throwing dinner parties as she is at everything else (horrible, awful, terrible, no good and very bad).

And Shoshonna! Sweet Shoshonna is horrified to realize that Ray stays at her apartment Monday through Sunday, erupting in the middle of dinner with a “Omigod, do you LIVE with me?” She freaks out through the meal and all the way to the Bedford L stop, when Ray interjects to tell her she can just admit it — he’s a loser who doesn’t have a place of his own. Instead, she tells him she’s falling in love with him. He freaks out that it’s way too soon for declarations of love, then makes one of his own. Love is real! See you next week.

TAGS: girls HBO | lena dunham

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