Recap: Girls 5.8 "Homeward Bound"
“Why am I here?” Shoshanna yells after an obese man slams into her on the people mover at the airport upon her return to the United States.
I feel like every one of our Girls has said or thought this, or some variation of this, at point or another this season: Marnie questions why she’s married to Desi; Hannah questions why she’s with Fran; Shoshanna questioned why she was in Japan, and now she’s questioning why she came back to the U.S.; Jessa questions why she doesn’t follow her heart and be with Adam. “Why” is not the question they should be asking, but “How?” Maybe if they answered the “how,” the “why” would follow and maybe, just maybe, they’d learn from their mistakes.
One of my biggest ongoing struggles with this show is the lack of resolution. Fran and Hannah got into a pretty heated fight last week when she flashed her lady bits at her and Fran’s boss to get out of trouble, yet we never really saw them work through it. Instead, we’re left to assume they talked it out and everything was fine – or maybe this is a reflection of the characters: they didn’t work through this week’s issue, so neither can we.
Of course, when we rejoin them this week they are in a fight again, and they are saying things to each other you’d expect them to get out during a “work it out” conversation. I’d assume in the theoretical “work it out” conversation we didn’t see, Hannah would’ve made clear she doesn’t want to be with Fran any longer before agreeing to go on a three-month-long road trip just the two of them. But, alas, that seems to have not happened as she makes Fran pull over and chase her around a campsite before demanding he leaves her there to find her own ride home.
It’s been obvious for a while Fran is too straightlaced for Hannah, and worse, she seems to bring an angry side out of him – whoever Hannah is with, they need to have patience and the ability to handle her strange, loose cannon way of thinking. Needless to say, Hannah is right: they were never a good fit, and she doesn’t belong with him. Right now I’d say she doesn’t belong with anyone. She needs to work through some stuff internally before she can really connect to another human being in a healthy way.
Hannah catches a ride from Ray, who drives all the way upstate in his new coffee truck to get her, and he wrecks his truck during a most unexpected sexual interaction between him and Hannah, and then she finds herself hitchhiking with a fella she learns is escaping an abusive relationship. His excitement and energy about starting a new life in New York City feeds into Hannah and you can visibly see the change in her as the distant city lights come into focus. Perhaps we won’t see a new Hannah – she is who she is, am I right? – but maybe we’ll see a Hannah who accepts who she is and finds someone who can do the same. As they say, there’s a lid for every pot.
I realize this episode was not primarily about Hannah and Fran, but it was the most important storyline and the only one worth talking about in depth. With that being said, here’s a quick summary of what the other Girls were up to this week:
Caroline disappeared, citing her urge to harm her and Laird’s baby and herself, prompting Adam and Jessa to step in and help Laird take care of the baby in Caroline’s absence; Adam was better at it than Jessa.
Marnie and Desi are working together on recording a new song for their tour, but Desi refuses to talk with her – something Desi’s new flame/the tour decorator (a very welcome Lisa Bonet – where’s she been?) has strongly encouraged him to do.
Shoshanna runs into Scott at his favorite sushi place. She tells him she’s going on welfare and he pretty much tells her she’s insane and selfish.
Don’t miss the two-part season finale of Girls Sunday, April 17 at 10 and 10:30pm ET on HBO.