One thing can be said about Girls that is pretty much undebatable and that's that it's completely unafraid to "go there." It's almost like a car wreck. A wonderfully written, nicely shot, and superbly acted car wreck. No matter how bad it gets on screen, you're only the more intrigued and somehow, it's liberating. Because Lena Dunham doesn't shy away from writing about what's real (plenty of shows claim to do this, but until now, I've realized they've floundered), you can watch Girls and respond with, "This has happened to me," or "My friend told me a story that was just like this." We can now breathe a sigh of relief, knowing we aren't the only freaks out there.
"Hard Being Easy" has two A storylines and one B- storyline. So let's start with the one that came first. The aftermath of Charlie reading Hannah's diary during a gig was extremely appreciated on my end. Christopher Abbott's Charlie is one of my favorite characters, believe it or not. His rant at the start of the episode was hilarious ("I deserve honesty and respect, because I am an important part of this community." -- "What community?" -- "The f---in' community of this apartment!"), and Hannah's response to it all was a subtle treat ("That's the kind of thing you do right before you hit us! Don't hit us!") And the fact that Hannah and Marnie bounced back so quickly after Marnie threw her drink on Hannah at the end of the previous episode just goes to show that their friendship is probably the strongest relationship that the show is likely to see.
When Marnie goes over to Charlie's apartment (after a lovely and crude dialogue between her and Ray), we witness the rekindling of the flame that sparked five years ago ("Scissor Sisters!") at the Galactic Safe Sex Ball, which sounds extravagant, but was really just your average college basement party. Returning to the present, Charlie's break-up speech was pretty heartbreaking, especially when he said, "I don't know what there is left to say. You're not in love with me anymore." I always find myself rooting for them, but I know that they're not good for each other. And then Marnie begging him to take her back was so incredibly painful. Seeing her grovel and try to compromise ("Do you... do you want blow jobs?") was so sad and Allison Williams did a tremendous job with the roller coaster ride that is Marnie's emotions. And then when Charlie takes her back and they start getting it on, she firmly exclaims "I wanna break up." Especially in such an intimate moment, that hit pretty hard.
Hannah, meanwhile, quits her job after starting her own sex scandal. She decides that she's just going to have sex with her boss because it'll make a great story and she can write an essay about it later. Her coming onto her boss was, wow, uncomfortable to say the least. I just kept repeating out loud, "What are you doing? What are you doing? Oh God, what are you doing?" Hannah starts off with, "I know you want to f--- me," transitions into "...Because I am gross, and so are you," and ends with, "I could sue you, you know?!" And then her boss still wants her to stay. Besides the fact he's incessantly handsy, he is a damn great boss. So once she leaves the office, Hannah heads over to Adam's place. After thinking they were now officially together, she is quickly disillusioned when he tells her that he just had sex with her because she looked sad. Hannah goes into the bathroom and nearly cries as she realizes that the people who she thought wanted her never did. And then the masturbation scene happened.
I don't know what was with this scene, but it was oddly... moving. It was just that I had never seen such an exchange of words between two people as one of them was going at it. And I don't know if it was the pathetic-ness of it on Adam's behalf or the almost infuriating fact that Hannah was still trying to "help" him. At least she got cab money out of it ("$20... $30, because I also want pizza and gum.") Even though Adam is incredibly disgusting and repulsive most of the time, I still find myself wanting them to be happy. But I know that won't happen because Adam is a stubborn and Hannah will do anything that anyone tells her to. And happiness can never arise from that.
And the B- plot revolved around Jessa, as it usually does. Her ex-boyfriend comes to visit her, and after he says that he's moving in with his girlfriend, he still has sex with Jessa. I don't think viewers need to be shown that Jessa is utterly irresistible. We already know this. But having Shoshanna viewing the act from behind the curtain was kind of brilliant. And even though she didn't have any lines this episode, her sounds and face of shock were enough for me.
All I can hope for after viewing this episode is that Charlie still manages to stick around one way or another. Lena Dunham has done wonders in only five episodes in terms of character and plot development. No matter what, I'm excited for where she's going to take it next and how she's going to expand on the already multi-dimensional cast.