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

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

The Book of Rannells: Girls: Season 6, Episode 4 – “Painful Evacuation” (2017)


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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