This is a
pretty strong episode. Good plots all
around, and more importantly (for me,) it’s a great episode for Elijah. Probably one of my favorites for the season.
Hannah
has something major to discuss with her mom when Loreen comes to visit. It doesn’t go as well as she planned – Hannah’s
news doesn’t go over well, and the situation worsens when Loreen, high on
edibles, runs off. Marnie struggles to
be there for Ray during a difficult time.
Adam starts shooting his movie, which brings up uncomfortable feelings
for Jessa.
It’s kind
of wild to see Adam’s movie, which is based on his relationships with both Hannah
and Jessa. This episode shows him
shooting Hannah scenes, and it’s bizarre to see his view of what their
relationship was like, especially how he seems to soften the way he depicts
himself. I like seeing the skew of his
perspective, and it’s interesting to watch Jessa struggling to deal with it,
urging him to highlight the dysfunction over the sweetness.
Not as
much to say about the Ray/Marnie plot, which goes pretty much as expected. Once again, we see how Shoshanna is on a
better wavelength with Ray than Marnie is.
Some good
stuff with Hannah and her mom. Hannah’s
going through a lot right now, but she is trying to be thoughtful and mature
about it. When she talks it over with
her mom, it’s complicated by Loreen’s feelings about what’s been going on in
her own life, and the aforementioned edibles don’t help matters. Becky Ann Baker does a great job in all her
scenes, both the dramatic and the comic ones.
This is
where Elijah mainly comes in, into Hannah’s plot. When a high Loreen disappears on Hannah, she
enlists Elijah’s help to search for her.
As usual, these two are hilarious together. As Hannah frets about the likelihood of her
mom being “sex-trafficked,” Elijah drawls, “What is this – The Muppets Take Manhattan?”, and their adventure through the mean
streets of New York is filled with terrific banter. But as with Loreen, there’s some strong
dramatic material, too, with a great Hannah-Elijah reckoning scene toward the
end of the episode.
We also
get a little more of the ongoing understated thread of Elijah’s reaction to the
events of last season. There’s a great
scene early on of a very wired Elijah unspooling over an old acquaintance he
was Facebook-“researching” while on Adderol (“his nieces are hideous!”), along with an amusing shot of
him lying in bed sulking while he listens to a cappella music (it makes sense
in context.)
Rannells
just kills it with both the drama and the comedy, switching effortlessly back
and forth between the two – sometimes within the same shot. He makes it look so easy.
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