Speaking of issues, Marnie has a few of her own. She has always been pretty self-centered and not very self-aware, and that’s on full display in this episode as it opens with a hilariously cringe-inducing video of her covering the song “What I Am” by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians. It’s a bad song (sorry, Edie Brickell fans), it’s a bad video and it is yet another reminder that she is still not over her relationship with Charlie, who apparently posted the video to YouTube in better days.
Where the self-centeredness really comes into full relief, though, is during Hannah’s birthday party, which Marnie could not have made more about herself if she had been holding a sign that said “Look at me, everyone!” In addition to implying that she would be covering part of the bar tab, an implication that doesn’t sit well with Hannah’s parents, who are actually footing the bill, Marnie tries to convince Hannah to do a duet with her of the song “Take Me or Leave Me” from Rent. Despite Hannah clearly and unequivocally telling Marnie she had no desire to recreate that specific moment from their past, Marnie pulls her up on stage later to do it anyway.
The various threads of the episode all seem to be building toward an epic meltdown at the party that never really occurs. After Hannah and Marnie’s duet is broken up by Ray’s fight with Hannah’s boss, the show then cuts to Hannah and Adam on their way home after the drama has passed. Nothing particularly awful happened to Hannah despite the earlier foreshadowing of her telling Adam how terrible things always happen to her on her birthday.
But wait! This is Girls, so our protagonist isn’t going to get off the hook that easy. When she and Adam arrive home after asking each other “Hey, whatever happened to Caroline,” guess what? There’s Caroline, bottomless in their bathroom and sporting one hell of a bush. Caroline is now in full mental breakdown mode and ready to prove to Hannah what Adam has been saying about her all along: that she’s bad news.
“She got in,” Adam tells Hannah after they’ve put Caroline to bed. “I told you. And she won.”
Now that she’s in, what does it mean for Adam, Hannah, and the other characters of Girls? Caroline has the potential to be one of those characters who is a force of nature, destroying everything in her path. Will she tear Adam and Hannah apart, or will the relationship they’ve built survive this latest test? I’m not convinced the show needs another character in the mix to stir things up. There was enough potential conflict already among the existing characters. But if it keeps going at the level of quality it has had so far this season, I certainly won’t complain.
