Rewatching
this episode, I don’t enjoy it as much as I remember from the first time I saw
it, but it still has some good stuff in it, albeit not as much Elijah as I
thought – one of the scenes I was thinking of must be from a later
episode. Plots are starting to slide
into place as the final season nears its midpoint. Note:
there’s a big ongoing arc that gets introduced in this episode, but I’m
going to see how long I can get by talking about the storylines without
spoiling the particulars of what comes out here.
Hannah
has a surprising encounter with someone whose life intertwined with hers
briefly back in season 2. When Adam
walks off a movie set in a fit of frustration, Jessa decides that they should
start working on a creative pursuit of their own based on their
experiences. And Ray begins reckoning
with big questions after one of his regulars at the coffee shop passes away
unexpectedly.
Let’s
start with Hannah. The course of the
episode finds her at the ER for a UTI, where she runs into Joshua, a
doctor/older man she once shared a lost weekend with. I think the meeting is handled well, with
both characters unsure of how to act around each other but trying their
best. I laughed at Hannah’s, “Just so
you know, I tried to sign up for Obamacare, but the website fucked me
over.” Joshua is played by Patrick
Wilson, and Hannah’s plotline features another guest star as well, as it opens
with her interviewing an author played by Tracey Ullman (Hannah’s writing on a
deadline and so puts off going to the ER as long as she can.)
Adam’s
starting point actually kind of impresses me here, discussing issues he’s
having with a scene with his director and trying to explain what he needs to
give his best performance, but let’s face it, it’s not exactly surprising that
it ends with him storming out. As he and
Jessa start feeding into each other and making plans for their own movie, they
both get fairly obnoxious, though I get a kick out of Adam pointing out that,
to make a movie, “You need things like funds, and sandwiches, and…” Side note – I haven’t mentioned it before,
but Adam Driver must’ve still had his Kylo Ren body while they were shooting
this season, because Adam looks so big
right now.
Ray’s
plot is fairly good. The whole “brush
with death makes a character get introspective” plotline is of course an old
chestnut, but I think it comes off pretty well.
It happens to come at a time when Ray is also feeling a little insecure
about his relationship with Marnie – he feels less like a boyfriend and more
like a sex buddy – and it features some good scenes between Ray and Hermie as
well as Ray and Shoshanna.
As I
said, not a whole lot of Elijah here.
He’s just in two scenes, both with Hannah. In the first, they’re chatting while he’s in
the shower and she’s in the bathroom, and he’s very quintessentially Elijah,
doing more dubious “networking” scheming that somehow involves Jada Pinkett
Smith starting a greeting-card line(?) and dramatically intoning the words “Law & Order: UTI!”
The second is a short one, but I still kind of love it, Elijah
distractedly comforting Hannah when she gets back from the ER. Gently stroking her hair as he remarks,
“Sorry I’m using my pizza hand,” is so funny and sweet to me – again, very
Elijah.
Andrew
Rannells has one more roundabout contribution to make to this episode. Season 6 might’ve been shot after Adam Driver
was doing The Last Jedi, but it was
also after Rannells was in Hamilton,
and he came back bearing Hamilton
hook-ups. This episode features a brief
appearance by Okieriete Onaodowan, Hercules Mulligan himself! He doesn’t have much to do, but it’s still
fun to see him.
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