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HBO

For the second episode of Girls’ final season, Hannah and Marnie take a road trip in upstate New York to Poughkeepsie with Desi, who Marnie’s been fucking for the last two weeks. (Altogether now: eewwwwww). The other two, Jessa and Shoshanna, are back in New York with Elijah attending a women’s networking party, called Women Entrepreneurs Meet-Up Now (WEMUN, for short—”Is the group open to trans women? We don’t know,” they say). The event is being held in honor of two of Shoshanna’s ex-friends from college who made it big with a jean company. Shosh is hoping to work her way back into their good graces. Tricia Romano and Jessica Fu (only one of whom is still in their 20s) watch and recap.

Tricia: It’s not an episode of Girls unless there’s an awkward sex scene. Has there ever been a hot sex scene on Girls? Desi looks like he’s bad in bed. I hate these two so much.

Jessica: Adam and Natalia? The first time they had sex, to be clear. I think that’s what was intentionally supposed to be “good sex”? Her being open about her birth control, what she wanted, what she doesn’t like, etc. But otherwise, no.

Tricia: I disagree. That was also an awkward sex scene. There’s not been a crazy hot sex scene that’s not hyper verbal and neurotic. Maybe the ones with the doctor? Or Marnie and Charlie when they got back together?

Jessica: That was such a romantic episode. Today, Marnie and Desi have reunited. The couple takes Hannah on a weekend trip to Poughkeepsie. Along the way, they make a pit stop at a small town. Hannah steps into an antique shop. Immediately, she’s drawn to its owner, played by Joy Bryant (of Parenthood fame! I knew I recognized her. She has so much more eyeliner now.)

Tricia: She’s super gorgeous, tells Hannah a bewitching story about how she came to be an owner of a quaint shop in upstate New York after Hannah asks her why she isn’t modeling in Dubai for $10 million a year. She tells a story about nearly dying on the third rail and being pulled up by Chris Noth (Mr. Big of Sex and the City fame) and then gives Hannah a free porcelain tea set because she’s psychic and can tell Hannah needs her help. So many shades of Magical Negro here, I have to hope it’s intentional. (For those of you born yesterday: Magical Negro: “A supporting stock character in American cinema who is portrayed as coming to the aid of a film's white protagonists.”)

Jessica: Maybe we shouldn’t be giving the Girls showrunners the benefit of the doubt, after all the criticism they’ve faced for being tone-deaf. If anyone’s going to be on alert for insensitivity, it should be them, right?

Tricia: One would hope. But they’ve had repeated problems with getting it right. There still haven’t been any significant characters of color—why wasn’t the Desi character cast as a person of color? They’ve had opportunities and haven’t really deal with race the way Broad City does.

Jessica: Maybe this is an intentional nod. Hannah actually comments: “This is all getting very teen-witch-y." But I’m not sure. I think there’s a difference between what Hannah does and what Lena Dunham does. Hannah is supposed to satirize cluelessness. Dunham chooses what to include in this show. So for Hannah to make her infamous “I’m the voice of a generation” comment is funny, it’s mocking. But choosing to tread on this trope isn’t the same kind of clever.

Tricia: I’m going to have to watch it again. Did anything happen with the tea set? I don’t remember. I got lost in the fight.

Jessica: It ended up breaking. All was going well until Marnie found something incriminating. Last season, her affair with Charlie unravelled over a needle. For Desi, it’s a stash of Oxy—in a glass jar. She locks him out of the cabin over the drugs. And while Desi is trying to punch his way back into the cabin, he knocks the set over.

Tricia: That was truly bizarre. This is one of of those choices that the writers made that makes no sense in real life. Like, who keeps their oxycontin in a glass mason jar? (A fucking hipster, probably). It’s convenient because when Marnie discovers that Desi has actually been on drugs the entire time they were together, she throws it at the wall and it smashes all over the floor into bits and then she conveniently crushes the pills with the glass so he can’t get high. Aliens landing outside would have been a more realistic plot point. But, I digress. Desi is a jerk and they lock him out of the house, but he tries to get inside by smashing a glass window. It’s very horror movie.

Jessica: Back in New York City, Shoshanna and Elijah are wearing matching jackets and they’re en route to a networking party. It’s hosted by Shosh’s high school friends, who have recently launched a successful company that does gym-friendly jeans, Jamba Jeans. The scene has all the foreshadowing of a bad night out. All the other attendees are mingling, Jessa comes, even though Shosh made it clear she didn’t want her there, and then Shoshanna’s ex-friends dis her again.

Tricia: The company name reminds me of Jamba Juice, which can’t be good. I loved Eli’s Shoshanna imitation beforehand. It was very accurate. I saw that Jessa was trying to build up Shosh and explain that Jamba Jeans is not cool and way beneath her and she shouldn’t be mad, but Shosh isn’t having it. She still blames Jessa for her missed opportunity with Jamba Jeans. She, Elijah, and Jessa have a bad, ugly cry fight on the street that goes far deeper than just Jamba Jeans.

Jessica: If you recall, Shoshanna begins the show as a young, NYU college student obsessed with Sex and the City. Six years later, she’s has no love interest, and she doesn’t really have friends either. Every season hands her a new disappointment, and I think her blow-up on tonight’s episode is a culmination of her frustrations.

Tricia: In the season premiere she compared herself to Carrie (but sometimes Samantha comes out), but in reality, she’s definitely a Charlotte. Charlotte was very similar to Shosh, in that she had these life markers that she was judging herself by—marriage, career, babies—and she kept not finding the right man, and then when she did (Trey), it was all a facade. Shosh is too smart to have something just for show, I hope. We both agree that our favorite Girl is Shoshanna. Shoshanna is the only one with a moral compass.

Jessica: She's also the youngest and I guess she's also the most sheltered. Maybe it’s not her turn to be as selfish yet? Desi has been locked out of the cabin, he’s breaking windows trying to get back in. “He looks like someone in the Pacific Northwest knit a man,” Hannah says of him. Do we agree?

Tricia: I hate to claim that P.O.S. as one of ours, but I am inclined to say yes, but only if we agree that he lives in Portland.

Jessica: There are people who will be injured by that statement, I am not one of them.

Tricia: Canadian.

Jessica: Insert Maple Leaf emoji here? The episode closes with Hannah and Marnie driving an injured Desi back. I hope I’m reading the symbolism right. Desi is behind the wheel, while Hannah is in the back of the car, the third wheel, on their way over. But now they’re heading back to the city, and Marnie’s in the driver’s seat, Hannah by her side, and Desi is covered in blood in the backseat.