Girls Season 4 Episode 7 recap
Obviously they matter. Of course people need to know what other’s names are, of course you want to know their reactions to them. Hannah dates a guy named Fran.
But I digress.
Fran is completely endearing, isn’t he? I have absolutely no idea why his name is Fran, but he keeps the amusing and charming thing going. Are all the charming guys teaching in high schools in Brooklyn? Charm, of course, is the problem for Hannah and Adam and probably Marnie, while we’re at it. It is, in Hannah’s words, ‘tricking people and confusing them’. Her feelings about Adam are so rapidly becoming secondary to her feelings about Mimi-Rose, an artist who is trying to make something that says something, even if it’s bad.
Hannah isn’t really upset about Adam, although she should be, and I’ll get back to it later. She’s upset because the idea that Mimi-Rose is attractive has little to do with the fact that she’s attractive or successful – it’s the fact that she doesn’t give up, that she still sees herself as an artist so she can keep trying, that Hannah really bristles at.
I understand this feeling, and on one level I really appreciate it because, as I’ve said in this space before, Hannah doesn’t have a responsibility to hate Mimi-Rose (bias: also, how could you?). Her reasons have to do with being thrown over for a woman she sees as a better model of herself.
And so they have one of those crazy nights in the city when you’re in your 20s. There’s a plan in place but each cab ride or location change, and there are always many, begins a reset in the night so that it could go anywhere. I love those nights. I love that there were some traditional New York locales. Yes, a Laundromat and a deli are stereotypical, but sometimes this show is so claustrophobic it needs a few changes of locale. It can’t just all be Elijah snarking at Hannah in her bedroom, although I imagine that after she went out he stole the gecko shirt to Instagram and snicker at.
But mostly I like the ‘moving night’ part of the night because the way the cabbie treats Hannah after she apologizes is the way Adam treats Hannah all the time. She is a pro at admitting to her flaws, or at least the ones she feels like admitting to, but hasn’t learned yet that there are people who will exploit her openness, even though it happens every year on this show. As soon as Hannah apologizes, the cabbie tries to pin the accident on her. I can’t be the only one who has Adam flashbacks.
Adam pins everything on Hannah. And yeah, showing up at the art show was kind of a dick move in the sense that it makes other people uncomfortable, but he sees himself as having no blame in any situation. He also doesn’t blame himself for any disloyalty or for wanting the shiniest fruit on the tree or whatever. Why should he? Hannah will take on his guilt for herself. It’s kind of her M.O.
I keep liking this show more and more, not least because we get to see more of Fran next week.
As for Jessa, she is a repugnant person (although if I’m sticking to my usual creed, you can’t break up happy people and all that). I assume the entire thesis of Girls is to show this, and to explain how you expunge repugnant people from your life. That’s all the time and attention this atrocious character deserves.
