Girls Season 6 Episode 5 Review: Gummies
Caralynn Lippo
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Hannah Horvath is going to be a mom.
But her brief foray into playing mom (to her own mom, no less) on Girls Season 6 Episode 5 didn't go so swimmingly.
After the game-changing reveal that Hannah is pregnant on Girls Season 6 Episode 4, "Gummies" made clear that Hannah's first thought to keep the baby isn't something that she'll just be changing her mind about on a whim. No, the latest installment of Girls made it undeniably obvious that Hannah is diving into this mom thing, head on.
Whether she'll be any good at it... well, that's another thing entirely.
Hannah's portion of "Gummies" centered around her mother Loreen's visit. Loreen, you'll recall, isn't in a great place in her personal life (what with the divorce and her recently-out gay ex-husband and all). But Loreen made big strides throughout Girls Season 5 in what provided a lovely subplot for Hannah's mom.
Unfortunately, hearing that she was going to be a grandmother was a definite mixed-bag for Loreen. And by "mixed bag," I mean she said things like this:
Every time I look at your baby, I will see my own death.
Loreen [to Hannah]
On the flip side, when Hannah initially broke the news about her pregnancy (and her intention to keep the baby), Loreen was surprisingly supportive. Though, who knows – that might have just been the effect of her little baggie of pot gummies.
When the reality set in, during the very strong scene between Hannah and her mother in the laundromat, Loreen quickly became morose at the thought of being a solo grandparent (or, worse, competing with Hannah's father Tad and Tad's new partner).
Becky Ann Baker's appearances as Loreen Horvath are always a treat, and she played the complexity of Loreen's reaction to Hannah's life-changing news wonderfully.
Loreen's quickly darkening reaction to the baby news played a dual role in also getting Hannah into a quasi-mom role for a second. Loreen wandered off, and Hannah needed to track her down.
Hannah also enlisted the help of Elijah, in what wound up being a very funny Hannah-Elijah montage of their search through the city for Hannah's high as a kite, egg roll eating mother.
Hannah: Have you seen my mom?
Elijah: You lost Loreen?
Hannah: Elijah, she's high on pot gummies, okay? She left all my laundry on the stoop. Look, this is her dress! She could be being sex-trafficked for all I know!
Elijah: What is this, "The Muppets Take Manhattan"?
It's hard to ignore the great parallels between this Hannah-Elijah adventure and Girls Season 2 Episode 3's cocaine-fueled bender.
Obviously, tonight's circumstances were a wee bit different, and that's the beauty of it – four years ago, Hannah and Elijah were doing drugs and partying. Now, Hannah's pregnant, and they're attempting to track down her mom like she's a lost (albeit high) toddler.
Andrew Rannells is pretty much always fantastic as Elijah (have I said this before? Maybe once, or twice, or a few hundred times...). But he was particularly awe-inspiring in Elijah's Chinese restaurant kitchen confrontation with Hannah, after high Loreen let slip the truth about Hannah's baby.
Elijah: Well, I wasn't planning on sharing an apartment with some boring, 27-year-old single mom.
Hannah: Well, I don't have to be boring! I could be a cool single mom. Like, you know, Lorelai Gilmore!
Elijah said some truly vicious things to Hannah during their fight, and it made for a stunning scene between the two.
Of course Hannah had some "Object of My Affection"-type fantasy in mind, where she and Elijah would raise her baby together. Of course Elijah (who is far more interested in taking an excessive amount of Adderall and stalking their old Oberlin classmate on Facebook) would not be down for that at all.
The climax of their fight was Elijah passing harsh advance judgment on Hannah's mothering skills, clearly crushing her.
Elijah: You're not ready for this.
Hannah: No, you're not ready for this.
Elijah: I'm gonna say this to your face, 'cause no one else will have the guts to. You're gonna be a terrible mother.
Lena Dunham isn't one of the ensemble's strongest actors, but she has steadily improved throughout Girls' six seasons. So far in Girls Season 6, in particular, she's turned in some excellent, subtly strong performances.
The quiet devastation breaking across her face when Elijah told her that she'd be a terrible moment was really phenomenal.
Elsewhere, Ray was struggling with Hermie's recent and unexpected death. Shosh, as expected, was there for him, making him laugh with her very Shoshanna take on death.
Shoshanna: Yeah, I literally hate death.
Ray: Yeah, well, it's right there, right in front of us, just patiently waiting to take us all.
Shoshanna: No. Not me.
Ray: No?
Shoshanna: Yeah, no, it's super random, but I'm just not gonna die, like, ever.
Ray [laughs]: Good. Good, 'cause I don't think I could handle that.
The Ray-Shosh scene near the beginning was extremely brief but one of my favorite moments.
At first, I was sure that the series would just end on most (if not all) of our main characters single. Now, though – they're just leaving so many breadcrumbs to an inevitable Ray and Shosh reunion.
I'm fully convinced that they're headed that way, or at the very least that we'll end the show with the hint of a reunion on the horizon.
In a stunning (by which I mean, rage-inducing) contrast, Marnie was absolutely hideous to Ray in his hour of need. In true Marnie fashion, she couldn't get over her awkwardness, boredom, and uncomfortableness being in Hermie's old house long enough to be there for her supposed boyfriend.
As eyeroll-worthy as it was to listen to Marnie passive-aggressively feign excuses to leave, at the very least it seems to have led to an important breakthrough for Ray.
Ray: Or, alternatively, you could go, we could not meet up later, and instead, we could just break up.
Marnie: Wait, what?
Ray: I think we should break up.
Marnie: Ray, I think this might be the grief talking... and potentially also the asbestos.
I'd be lying if I said I didn't basically stand up and cheer at that moment. Here's hoping the breakup sticks.
I'm not sure what the turning point was where it became clear that Marnie doesn't truly care for Ray – he's merely a convenient boyfriend-filler.
I do think that, when they first got together seasons back, it was borne out of their friendship. Very quickly, though, it became clear that they're not right for one another.
Which isn't even to mention the fact that Marnie's character has become so unbearable this season that she's hardly sympathetic at all.
So much for that apparent quasi-breakthrough with Hannah in Poughkeepsie on Girls Season 6 Episode 2!
I'm not a bad person, by the way.
Marnie [to Ray]
Sure, Marnie. Whatever you say.
Meanwhile, over at Laird's apartment, yet another Girls relationship was nearing its death throes.
In a surprise to absolutely no one, Adam and Jessa's pretentious movie idea appears to have been ill-conceived. Not in the sense that it will be a bad movie.
Rather, it's drudging up some uncomfortable truths about Adam and Hannah's past relationship that Jessa was either in denial about or legitimately unaware of because of her deeply self-centered nature.
Adam: The scene is about the fact that these two people, while they have a very strong animalistic connection, they're ultimately only going to hurt each other. It's about the tragedy of realizing the relationship is too intense to survive.
Jessa: Adam, that's us. We're the intense ones. All you and Hannah ever did was sit around, watching those shows about when fat people do up their houses or whatever, or you ate Frito-Lays in bed. And then you met me, remember? And then you met me, and then we had a real connection, you had real feeling. And that's what this movie's about!
Throughout the two scenes we watched Adam and Genevieve (the actress playing "Mira," a carbon-copy of early-Girls Hannah), it was clear that Jessa was uncomfortable. She was also deeply confused about why Adam was playing the scenes with such dramatic intensity and emotion.
In Jessa's eyes, Adam and Hannah's relationship was superficial, unimportant, and in some way not "real." According to Jessa, only her and Adam's relationship was real for Adam.
Given that all us Girls viewers were privvy to the entirety of Adam-Hannah for the show's first several seasons, we all know that's not the case. At all. Adam did truly love Hannah at one point. But as he said, the relationship wasn't made to last.
It seems that Jessa is only now becoming aware of that fact. And it's unlikely to be a pretty realization. I doubt their relationship will last much longer beyond it.
However, I don't see Adam and Hannah reuniting.
I'd like to think that Hannah really has achieved some measure of self-awareness and would realize that it would be a bad, unhealthy life choice. Particularly with a baby in the picture. Unless one or both of them fundamentally change as people between now and the series finale...
Finally, "Gummies" ended on a poignant and fitting moment between Hannah and Genevieve, an obvious emblem of Hannah's younger self and how Adam saw her.
Their scene was brief, but Genevieve imparted some (maybe) useful wisdom.
Jesus, don't worry about it. Kids are super easy. It's being an adult that's hard.
Genevieve [to Hannah]
Yep, Hannah is totally going through with this pregnancy. For better or worse.
Stray thoughts:
- Laird met Genevieve and thought she might be his new soul mate. Because of course he did. He had a crush on Hannah for awhile, after all.
- Shosh needs more to do this season. I don't love the idea of her only popping up to support Ray. Doesn't she have a job?!
- Elijah mentioned that Hermie left everything to Ray. Will Ray actually go through with a socialist library? (Doubtful. Hopefully.)
- The Elijah-Hannah confrontation was so upsetting, but I'm hoping it will spur Elijah on to have some actual growth of his own as we head into the final half of the final season.
- Here's Hannah's Word document list of reasons why it's crazy to have a baby in all its glory, for posterity:
What did you think of "Gummies"? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below. Remember that you can watch Girls online here at TV Fanatic anytime to relive the show's final season.
Caralynn Lippo is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.
