"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Thursday, January 30, 2020

The Book of Rannells: Girls: Season 6, Episode 2 – “Hostage Situation” (2017)


A bit of an odd episode, but I like it quite a bit.  While it shows plenty of the characters at their worst, it also finds some of them ultimately taking steps to try and improve their lives (relationship spoilers.)

Hannah is heading off on another trip, this time a weekend in Poughkeepsie.  Rather than for work, though, it’s to very reluctantly help Marnie in a lie:  Marnie’s been seeing Desi again behind Ray’s back, and “going upstate with Hannah” is her cover.  The three of them head out together, and the weekend getaway quickly goes off the rails in a surprising way.  Meanwhile, Shoshanna ropes Elijah into coming with her to a professional women’s event hosted by two of her former friends from college, and things get tense when Jessa invites herself along.

Some of Desi’s whole thing goes over the top, but I like a fair amount of his nonsense, like his weird “Where’s Waldo?”-esque outfit, significantly quoting Simon & Garfunkel, and Hannah’s description, “He’s like someone from the Pacific Northwest knit a man.”  More importantly, this plot has some good stuff for Hannah and Marnie.  The events of the episode force Marnie to take a hard look at herself and her choices, and Hannah offers some supportive tough love with a dash of her own self-reflection.  Considering where both of them begin at the start of the episode, they come out pretty well.

I enjoy the Shoshanna plot, too.  This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Shoshanna start to get over Jessa, but this is probably the most serious she’s been about it.  Seeing her old friends and where they are now makes her think about professional opportunities she lost out on because she was following Jessa around, and while she does admittedly attempt to shift blame by putting it all on Jessa’s bad influence, Shoshanna seems to get that it’s ultimately up to her to decide which influences to nurture in her life.

I’m pretty sure this is the first time Elijah has ever shared a plot with Shoshanna and Jessa – they’ve certainly been in group plots together, but I think this is the first time it’s been just the three of them together onscreen.  Shoshanna and Jessa obviously have a lot of history and a specific dynamic together that’s changed over the seasons, and Elijah makes an interesting addition to that.  His imitation of Shoshanna calling to beg for his help/moral support at this event is hilarious, and it won’t surprise you much to learn that, even though he’s there, he doesn’t offer much of either.  Instead, he mostly provides great reaction shots and makes his own fun; he has an awesome unspoken exchange with a waiter before leaving Shoshanna and Jessa to their drama.

Despite being next to no help, however, Elijah is adamant about his intention to help, especially in comparison to Jessa.  This might also be the first time we’ve seen Elijah interact with Jessa since she got together with Adam, and in light of his obvious allegiance to Hannah, he’s not prepared to cut Jessa any slack.  I appreciate that Elijah isn’t in this plot solely to give him something to do and to add more humor to the Shoshanna-Jessa story – when you add the dimension of Jessa/Adam, it gives him more of a personal investment in the plotline, and quite a bit of dirty laundry gets aired between these three.  I especially like how immediately Elijah goes on the defensive when Jessa tells him to grow up.  It’s a subtle thing, but, as with his reaction in the last episode to Marnie suggesting he take an acting class, it’s a small reminder that the stuff from the end of last season is still on his mind; this is a sore subject for him, although none of the other characters seem particularly aware of that.

Besides this plot, we also get a fun scene between Elijah and Hannah near the start of the episode.  As she prepares for her trip with Marnie and Desi, Elijah critiques her secret-keeping skills, they once again demonstrate the weird level of their closeness, and the scene ends on a hilarious sight gag that retroactively puts the whole thing in a new perspective.

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