After
being dreadfully underutilized in the past three episodes, Shoshanna, and,
better still, Jessa are given center stage. Jessa receives a subplot where we
finally confront just how much of a sham her marriage to Thomas Johns is.
Forced to attend dinner with Tom’s parents, Jessa appears keen to go out of her
way to make the occasion implode (mentioning, quite hysterically, her time
spent addicted to heroin in college). Not that Tom’s mother is helping; she’s
so judgmental that she doesn’t even give Jessa a chance in the first place. By
episode’s end, Tom and Jessa have given up all pretenses that their marriage
was anything more than a bad life decision. “You have another story for your
fucked up collection,” Tom yells at Jessa; ironically the sentiment holds a kernel
of truth hard to deny. Why does Jessa keep gallivanting from one excursion to another
with no consideration for consequences? (remember, we first met her needing to
get an abortion) She’s ignoring deeper problems, problems that extorting
$11,500 isn’t going to even begin to alleviate.
Shosh
(sporting an adorable hairstyle) is starting realize just how deeply she’s gotten
involved with Ray. Ray is a welcome addition to the main cast and he gets in
some memorable lines (his explanation of Marnie’s fascination with Charlie’s
butthole is a wonderful monologue delivery), but it’s not all fun and games.
Shosh has apparently been oblivious to the fact that Ray has essentially been
living with her for nearly a month. Ray is technically homeless and felt too
uncomfortable to admit it to her. This leads to a great scene where, while
waiting for the subway, Ray asks Shosh why she’d want to be with someone like
him: “I’m a loser!” “Because I’m falling in love with you,” she says, and he
tells her that he loves her too (D’awwww. The feels; there are so many feels
happening). Ray and Shoshanna remain rather adorable, and Zosia Mamet and Alex
Karpovsky’s very different comedic styles bounce off eachother well (a great
example of this is Shosh making up an elaborate excuse for being late, and Ray
simply admitting they’re late because they had sex).
Marnie
shows up at Hannah’s party because she wasn’t really processing the fact that she
and Hannah just had a major fallout (Does nobody read my reviews?! Come on
people: get your shit together). If that weren’t enough, Charlie and his
girlfriend Audrey are there, and things become even more terribly awkward
(which is funny for us at home, but dreadfully uncomfortable for everyone else.
Except Ray who is above this nonsense). Audrey and Marnie keep sniping at
eachother (played well by both Allison Williams and Audrey Gelman), and it
becomes such a nuisance (Audrey claims that Marnie is stalking Charlie and
tells her to commit suicide: “She’s too self-involved to kill herself,” Hannah
says with her usual lack of tact) that Marnie asks Hannah to choose for one of
them to leave. Hannah however has never been good at defusing situations and
leaves the choice up to Charlie. Marnie storms out, and an ungodly idiotic
Charlie chases after her. Marnie tells him that she feels insecure around
Audrey, but Charlie lets her know that no one can compare to her. He tries to
get some make out action (with an excessive amount of fondling), but Marnie
quickly stops him. I’m seeing someone she tells him (creepy Booth Jonathan who
is an awful human being; somebody needs to sort out their priorities).
These
are all storylines that needed to be dealt with (although in the case of Marnie’s,
they could have gotten away with not doing it, but its ends up providing such
good material that I can’t really complain), and the series handles them quite
well. Gathering together the majority of the characters, and fairly quickly,
allows for this to be one of the punchier episodes of the season yet. And Jessa
has been so unjustly underutilized and her story provides so many necessary
answers (while also being quite funny) that it didn’t matter that she’s primarily
very disconnected from the rest of the story.
A solid exploration of characters, a boatload
of great, well-delivered lines, and some much needed plot development, and you
have arguably this season’s best episode.
Stray
Observations:
-“I
made a mistake trying to repurpose you” – Elijah’s appearance is brief but the
script still manages to slip in some great lines, including the initial set up
of the “butt plug joke” (“And I paid for your butt plug” “Well, you’re probably
still using it”), one of the episode’s funnier gags that gets great payoff
later.
-Audrey
is starting a mustard seed company. Which isn’t all that interesting, but the
jokes about it sure are: “Nothing that great. Nothing like condiments”
-“I
mean I hate this restaurant, but I don’t even care cause I’m so excited” –
Jessa’s dinner ending disastrously should have been seen coming from the get
go.
-“It’s
like a clit in your butt”
-Of
course Marnie doesn’t like the word “butthole”.
-What’s
the winner for most self-involved statement from Hannah?: “I am grown up that’s
why I cooked all this food” or “I think I feel how everyone feels like I have 3
or 4 folk albums in me” (the latter all the better because we walk in on the
tail end of the conversation).
-Other
great lines from the dinner: “…Except Spain because I’m avoiding someone”; “…Practically
cumming out of your eyes”; “I never shot it. I only snorted it”; Tom Johns
describing the marriage as a “Union of souls”; “And this is why we didn’t
invite you to the wedding”
-“Sometimes
I wish people would just tell me what to do the next day” – Someone wants to psychoanalyze
Marnie’s troubling need to be told by guys what to do/behave, etc.? It’s kind
of disturbing.
-“That
little ewok in the capris?”
-“What
was I supposed to do? Lie?” – Another very telling line about Jessa.
-“I’m a
miracle! I’m a unicorn!”
-Jessa
apparently has described Tom Johns’ apartment as “the set of gay Entourage”.
-“You
just snot rocketed in the tub!”
Grade:
A
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