The Book of Rannells: Girls: Season 4, Episode 4 – “Cubbies” (2015)

This episode feels fairly disjointed to me.  While there are several distinct plots, there are a number of scenes that just kind of feel there, even if some of them are pretty entertaining.  It makes the episode as a whole kind of sloppy for me, despite enjoying it for the most part (brief relationship spoilers.)

Hannah attempts to correct her missteps from last episode with her fellow writers and, naturally, only makes it worse.  A visit from her dad has her asking some hard questions and trying to figure out what she really wants.  Marnie and Desi’s relationship has hit an impasse, which puts a damper on their music.  Ray and Shoshanna both feel fed up, Ray over the noise pollution outside his building and Shoshanna over a disheartening series of job interviews, and they bond while running errands together.

Hannah’s grad-school stuff is getting pretty wash-rinse repeat:  Hannah thinks she’s clearing the air but is in fact tone-deaf and wildly immature, her classmates speak in measured tones about how offended they are without mincing words.  Points in this storyline start to get ridiculous in how thoroughly Hannah fails to do a single thing right.  There is, however, some forward momentum in this episode, and I really like the scenes with Hannah and her dad.

The Shoshanna-Ray plot is fun.  I never really liked Ray until after those two got together, and even though they’re not a couple anymore, they still get each other on this offbeat level, and it’s nice to see them being friends and supporting one another in their respective crises.  “Old Man Ray” standing in the street shouting at traffic is a great image, and I enjoy Shoshanna’s quest to solve Ray’s problems through finding the perfect T-shirt (just go with it.)

As usual, the Marnie/Desi stuff is more “meh,” for me, but I am a big fan of Marnie pestering both Jessa and Shoshanna to listen to one of their songs on her phone when they get together at a bar.  Marnie’s just so Marnie about the whole thing, and Shoshanna’s feedback is hilarious.  On a side note, the end of the episode features the introduction of a new character going into the second half of the season.  I won’t get into spoilers at the moment, but her name’s Mimi-Rose, and she’s played by Gillian Jacobs, a.k.a. Britta from Community.

There’s regrettably little Andrew Rannells in this episode.  Elijah is only in one scene, where he’s amusingly annoyed at Hannah doing nothing (i.e., avoiding writing) while he’s “working” on an article to accompany some photos he took.  The things Elijah consider creative and/or career pursuits are so wonderfully random, and I get a kick out of his declaration, “We’re in Iowa.  They don’t know what a fucking release is.”  Still, it’s not enough!