Girls Season Premiere Review: “Females Only”/”Truth Or Dare” (Season 3, Episodes 1 & 2)

And sure enough, episode two starts with that time-honored tradition: the road trip. Adam is at the wheel, even if he’s not totally on board with “rescuing” an addict from rehab (don’t forget: he has some past experience with addiction). Shoshanna is along for the ride, too, and she has her typical manic energy, which is not unlike that of someone who is addicted to blueberry Red Bull.

Hannah sums up their trip succinctly. “This road trip is just so unremarkable,” she says. “You know what I mean? It’s just so similar to other road trips I’ve seen in various media.” And really, it’s not particularly remarkable in comparison to the last episode. The pace is slower and the laughs are fewer. But that’s one of the things that works about Girls: it can take a step back, change its pace up, and still be a pretty damn good show. Unlike a show like, for instance, Veep, which is like a shark that can’t keep moving or it would die, Girls is a lot more versatile. If it has any other analogue in contemporary TV shows, it would be Louie.

There’s a certain melancholy to the road trip. It takes place in late autumn, or perhaps early winter, when there are no leaves on the trees but no snow on the ground. The hotel that Hannah, Adam and Shoshanna stay in for the night is just as depressing as you would expect a hotel in the middle of nowhere to be. And it is in that hotel that Hannah and Shoshanna have a talk, about Jessa and about adulthood. Shosanna hasn’t gotten there yet, and that fact is epitomized by her continued idolization of Jessa despite all the evidence of just how messed up she is. Hannah has done some growing. She sees Jessa’s flaws and sees her sadness. Above all, she sees how her youthful “f–k it” attitude is just a front for her dysfunction. That is an adult realization.

Before Jessa leaves rehab, though, she is let down by a father figure one more time. This time around it is in the form of a friend she had come to respect and perhaps legitimately think respected her. It’s too good to be true, though; he’s just another disappointing male figure in her life. When he informs her of his intention to have sex with her, the scene might as well be punctuated by Sigmund Freud jumping out of the corner and yelling “Aha!”

What Jessa can’t get from a father figure, though, she can get from someone else: a sister. Hannah tells her how much she missed her and, although not in so many words, how much she cares for her. There’s a real bond there, and the smile that creeps across Jessa’s face hints that maybe she finally understands the importance of that.

It’s a tender and sweet ending for the double-dose premiere of this season of Girls, and it bodes well for the episodes to come. The show hasn’t forgotten its funny bone, and it certainly hasn’t forgotten its heart.

Choice lines from the first two episodes:

• “Why didn’t you tell me you were suffering from mental illness? That’s something we can work with!”
• “I worry that if I tell anybody they’re going to ask me to do sports.”
• “This isn’t the time to discuss my incredibly exciting professional endeavor.”
• “I will never be bored as long as there’s Halloween.”
• “I’m going to go, and I’ll come back whenever the cum parade has, like, paraded on by.”