Enough of this Brooklyn slacking. Time for Hannah Horvath to get to work!
So on Sunday’s new “Girls,” Lena Dunham’s irrepressible character dresses up nice, goes into the self-consciously spiffy office of the internet concern JazzHate and listens to the story ideas spouting from the editor named Jaime (pronounced Jame): “You could have a threesome with a bunch of people you meet on Craigslist. Or you could do a bunch of coke an just write about it…”
Such are the painfully self-obsessed concerns of the edgy modern website. Ruling out threesomes (concentrating on one sexual partner is tough enough, she says) Hannah agrees on the coke assignment, becoming the latest in a long line of writers since Thomas de Quincy to ingest an illegal substance and say it’s for work!
Hannah conspires with her ex-boyfriend and current gay roommate Elijah to buy some coke from the shady looking guy on the first floor of their apartment who everyone assumes to be a junkie.
Well, that’s another wrong assumption, since Laird (what a wonderful name) declares he’s turned clean, and is addicted to nothing more than pomegranate juice, cartoons and a ratty stocking cap he wears
Still, he knows some people and agrees to help Hannah out because he sort of has a crush on her, is surprised a young girl would even talk to him, or both.
Such begins a real tour de force of an episode full of frenzied dance, blurted declarations and little of the complaining, moaning and snark that sometimes gobbles other episodes (Also: Adam, having been taken down to the hoosegow on a reluctant 911 stalking call Hannah made last week, does not appear at all). Half of Hannah’s friends scarcely appear, though there’s a brief porch sale scene in which both Jessa and Shoshanna turn out some good lines (the former: “Enjoy the blouse, one of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers gave me a great compliment on it once”; the latter: Ray’s been keeping her up all night because he wants to watch old “Ally McBeal” reruns.
Allison Williams’ Marnie, though, has a big role, as she runs into that self-satisfied artist from last season with the backward name, Booth Jonathan, while at the embarrassing men’s club where she works in shorts and suspenders (like a “slutty Van Trapp sister” it was described last week).
He has some sort of spell on her and she leaves work to go see his “work” in his impossible industrial site. First there’s a blood soaked dollhouse that is at once homage to Kubrick’s “The Shining” and Dunham’s one full length feature, “Tiny Furniture.” (“I love it,” Marnie marvels).
Then he locks her into a bigger work, a Nam June Paik ripoff cage of flashing TV screens showing a decomposing wolf head (from the opening credits of “True Blood”?), crying babies, wriggling maggots and animals in the wild devouring other creatures. The creepiest thing about it? It’s all to the tune of Duncan Shiek’s “Barely Breathing.”
Booth Jonathan leaves her in there long enough so he can get some work done on his other pieces, like driving nails into teddy bears. When she finally gets released, she’s understandably outraged, but also marvels at his talent. They move to the bedroom, where there’s a bondage scene that Brian Williams will not like seeing.
The bulk of the episode is Hannah and Elijah’s wild ride, though. They’re spewing declarations even before they leave their apartment, and when he suggests they write all their brilliant ideas down, she is encouraged to write them on the wall (where “raise show dogs” suddenly doesn’t look so brilliant).
They get a wave of paranoia in the blur of people at the subway entrance, but are soon at a club where the heralded DJ duo Andrew Andrew are spinning, and there’s more coke to be had, this time on screen.
There follows all kind of exuberant dancing to Swedish pop music that everybody knows the words to (particularly Icona Pop’s “I Love It”).
Weird that both HBO “comedies” Sunday featured scenes of chopping lines of cocaine in a public restroom. Probably more of a coincidence than a reflection of the zeitgeist (however that’s also what Lady Sybil may have been ingesting on Downton Abbey as well, come to think of it).
At any rate, the extra rush inspires Elijah to spew the truth — specifically confessing to his sexual tryst with Marnie a couple of weeks (and episodes) earlier. Hannah is not happy to hear of this, which is probably why they had previously been keeping it secret.
They have it out at a brightly lit drug store where Hannah declares “I was meant to be your last!” (straight partner, that is). Then she kisses him to see if there is anything there. There isn’t.
Then Laird pops up in the next aisle. He’s not really buying socks there as he initially claims, but has been following Hannah all night. “Like the mom in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” he says.
Hannah considers him “basically my guardian angel” and now the three of them confront Marnie in Booth Jonathan’s odd studio. It’s not a pretty scene, Marnie knows she’s busted and apologizes, but it doesn’t stop Hannah from making the bigger point: “I am not the bad friend and you are the good friend. You are the bad friend.”
This distinction is very important to her.
Also, she informs Elijah: “You know you’re moving out, right?”
Finally, she says goodnight to Laird at his door, and as kind of a thanks she begins to make out with him, which he can’t quite believe is happening.
“Just for tonight,” she informs him, adding that important excuse for every aspect in her life that she will soon exploit online: “For work!”
Will Elijah’s ouster mean we will only be able to see Andrew Rannells on “The New Normal” now? How will Hannah be able to afford living by herself, especially when JazzHate only pays $200 per article? Finally will Booth Jonathan hire Marnie to be his personal curator (while wearing the same hostess outfit)?
What I do know is that next week’s episode will be pivotal ones for Jessa and Shoshanna and maybe Marnie too.