Girls Recap: Season 2 Episode 4: It's a Shame About Ray

For whatever reason there were two episodes of Girls this week. I have no idea why HBO did this but it kind of gave me a funny Rip Van Winkle feeling. Maybe I fell asleep and lost a week. In any case I really enjoyed this episode and would not mind if the whole show was about Shoshanna and Ray.

It starts off with Hannah kicking Elijah out of the apartment. I kind of glossed over that scene because it is Hannah being a giant ass. Then we cut to her talking to Charlie and his little Navaho GF before a dinner party that Hannah is throwing to celebrate that she got paid for her writing. It seems that Gawker-like company paid her for her coke-fueled adventures in the last episode so she makes Pad Thai for her friends. However she invited Marnie but didn't think she would show up. More Hannah being a giant asshole for treating her "best friend" like a piece of crap by putting her in this situation.

Then Ray and Shoshanna show up. Shosh makes all sorts of excuses why they were late involving her earring being left in a car and other weirdness. Ray says they were actually having sex and she doesn't have to lie. They then have dinner and of course the conversation turns to sex. They trade various barbs about butt-plugs (which Shoshanna has never heard of) and how Marnie hates the word butt-hole. Then the Navaho goes off on her telling her she is a "Stepford wife" and forces her to flee to the roof. There is an interested scene of the Navaho getting freaked out looking back and forth with a very scared look on her face. She seems to be losing Charlie which isn't much of a loss IMO.

Of course idiot Charlie goes after Marnie. That guy is the worst. He then tries to cheer her up and then in doing so cops a feel and kisses her. Wait this girl dumped you and you have a new girlfriend and then you pull this. Marnie to her credit pushes him away saying she is seeing Booth Jonathan. Wow talk about your crappy choices. It is either worthless, clingy scumbag Charlie or freaky Ewok Jonathan. I hope the Marnie getting-hit parade ends with this episode.

Hannah finally does something laudable when Charlie calls Marnie a cunt. She goes off on him while defending her friend saying all the bad things that happened to her. Also I noted that Hannah did not add anything about herself to that list of bad things. Finally, Hannah thought of someone other than herself. This is the person from the first season that I sometimes enjoyed watching. 

Then we get to one of the best scenes in the entire show's brief history. Shoshanna finds out that Ray is basically homeless and is living with her. He then proceeds to eviscerate himself while they are waiting for the subway. He says that he is a 33 year old loser whose most prized possession is a signed photo of Andy Kaufman. He was counting the days until she found out that he was a loser.

He then asks her "why am I worth dating?" Shoshanna then says in her tiny little voice "because I am falling in love with you." Then Ray freaks out saying "it is too soon to say that. Just too soon." Then Shoshanna apologizes and when the subway car passes and Ray says " I love you so fucking much."

Bang! That is why I watch this show. The characters that Dunham has made are very real feeling. You want to see them succeed or fail and lead interesting lives. That scene was head-and-shoulders above anything in Sex in the City or nearly any other romantic comedy could muster. It was outstanding and a credit to Alex Karpovsky and Zosia Mamet acting chops. If Girls can muster scenes like this it will become a very iconic HBO show.

Finally we have Hannah singing Wonderwall to herself in the tub. I guess she is depressed or something but it is hard to tell. Jessa then pops up after she has broken up with Thomas John and is gob-smacked. She is crying like crazy because her whole world has been thrown up in the air. She has to start from scratch again. Jessa then strips and gets into the bath with Hanna and they console one another. Hannah then does a sweet thing by cheering her up and being funny. I guess there is a heart under all those self-possession after all.

In any case the next episode has Hannah probably hooking up with the Nite Owl from Watchmen (Patrick Wilson.) I am hoping it isn't focused too much on Hannah doing a bunch of the same crap. I want more Ray and Shoshanna.