There are eight perfect episodes ofGirls.
But not this series finale, no.
Put this last episode in a plastic bag, toss it in one mans trash.
Credit: Jojo Whilden/HBO; Mark Schafer/HBO
(Toss out season 4, too.
And any episode with Desi.)
Its the kind of ending J.R.R.
Mark Schafer/HBO
Girlssunsetted most of the cast before the finale.
The individual endings were sometimes bittersweet, mostly whimsical, uniformly relationship-y.
Jessa was maybe back with Adam, and, more importantly, was redeemed with Hannah.
Mark Schafer/HBO
Adams sister, Caroline, was back with Hannahs neighbor Laird.
A New Yorker for barely a minute, Tads already complaining about the drum circles in Washington Square Park.
(That drum circle was there before you, Tad!
Lena Dunham wants to revive ‘Girls’.Mark Seliger/Courtesy of HBO
Theyll still be drumming when youre gone!)
Hannah said goodbye to most of them in the shows penultimate episode.
Titled Goodbye Tour, it felt a bit too much like a beloved character checklist.
But it ended with a bang.
I have come to realize how exhausting and narcissistic and ultimately boring this whole dynamic is, said Shoshanna.
Girlsrebelled early against the construct.
It didnt believe in its own squad.
The point of the trip, per Marnie, was that they had all been so disconnected.
Girlswas secretly a bit weird and archaic with internet stuff.
ButGirlstrended inexorably into a very TV-ish version of young people hanging out.
But the show caught something essential about what social media had done to socializing.
And for the main characters, those motions grew repetitive and unconvincing.
Its not like the four of us have had any real fun together in, what, two years?
That entrapment went textual with Shoshannas Goodbye Tour speech.
And to anyone who ever felt skeptical aboutGirls, Goodbye Tour seems like the shows true ending.
It brings to mind the end ofHenry IV, the ascendant young King spurning his old friends.
Shoshannas rejection felt like a reconsideration of the wholeGirlsthesis statement.
You could always feel the safety net.
Hannahs parents cut her off, but they also flew out to New York for her 25th birthday.
Think of Hannah in the late-series episode What Will We Do This Time About Adam?
(The flute seemed perversely phallus in context, that context being Matthew Rhys Phallus.)
If you think about it, we were all just doing our best, she said.
Was she talking about herself, her friends?
Our best, Jessa said, wasawful.
What else can you do?
This finale, though.
Hannah woke up to find Marnie in her bed.
This was anobvious callbackto theGirlspilot: The second scene of the show was Hannah and Marnie, spooning.
Third times the charm!
This is a weirdly fruitful show topic for a generation raised more on TV than religion.
(The Grindersaw Trump coming.)
But that was the least fruitful idea forGirls.
And the whole setup of the finale was an unwieldy vehicle for any ideas, really.
As a performer, Allison Williams is, lets say, inexpressive.
But she could bring a terse quality to Marnie, like she was exhausted of being right.
Marnie came to represent everything worth parodying inGirls.
The show was in on the joke, eventually if not immediately.
Hannah yelled at Marnie.
And you suck at it!
If this was reality,Girlssucked at it.
You didnt say it was gonna be this hard!
That was Hannah, earlier in the series finale, complaining to her mom, Loreen.
Hannahs mom was there to lay some harsh truths on the younger women.
She told Marnie that sometimes you have to let your best friends go.
She tells Hannah that everyone is struggling on the inside.
(THESIS: In the end, you have to leave your college friends behind.
EVIDENCE: I married a gay man.
CONCLUSION: The best way to be a friend is to let your friends go.)
And she was great since the start, when the show kicked off with Hannahs parents cutting her off.
In season 6, both Marnie and Hannah blamed their poor decisions on their parents failed marriages.
But the show believed in parents, and believed in a very parent-approved notion of maturity.
But know, all along, adulthood is waiting for you, with jobs and nice purses and personalities.
Liberal arts colleges that will hire you.
Yes, Marnie, law school was your destiny all along.
You could criticize the shows socioeconomics, I guess; not everyone is lucky enough tobecut off.
And the first two are stunningly beautiful.
In the early morning, she walks away down the street.
See her wander, this nomad.
See the modern twentysomething, forever leaving homes she will never return to.
ButGirlsloved the subway, found something rather lovely in early morning walks of shame.
Everyone inevitably wound up alone, passed out on a subway and waking up in Coney Island.
On this show, when people had sex, you felt the city closing on.
She acts the way Rihanna sings, and Rihanna sings like she has exactly 957 better things to do.
Kirkes first appearance onGirlswas the third scene of the pilot.
The first two scenes ofGirlswere interiors, Hannah at dinner with her parents, Hannah spooning with Marnie.
Miss, says the taxi driver, We are here.
Jessa wakes up, too fast to be believable.
Except it doesnt sound like a question.
She sounds resigned, like she knows how this story will end, was hoping it would never start.
Across six seasons ofGirls, Jessa married, went to rehab.
She was, in short, a uniquely pointless character.
I miss her already.
Our best was awful, Jessa said at the end of her time on the show.
Thats way too harsh, but we live in harsh times.
That episode reflected the shows worst farce-y instincts Hannah hooks up with a yoga teacher!
Girlscould feel cynical about its characters, about relationships, about even the possibility of joy.
Aspects of it already feel nostalgic, like how the 90s looked prelapsarian by late 2001.
But theres some hope.
Meet young Grover Horvath, harbinger of Generation Whatever Comes After Z.
Call me optimistic, but I think his best will be better than ours.
I put all my faith in a boy raised by girls.
