Hannah Horvath will never have her shit together. Yes, she now lives in a house that is so big that takes over four minutes to show it to Marnie over Skype as opposed to her New York apartment, which would have taken her forty seconds. Yes, she’s cycling everywhere and she doesn’t even need to lock her bike up. Yes, she’s eating grapes as a snack. However, we (and Hannah) soon realise that it doesn’t matter where she is, she will still be the same old neurotic, self-centred Hannah Horvath.
Hannah has always been my least favourite character on Girls. There are odd moments when her selfishness subsides (coming to Jessa’s aid post-divorce being one of them), but for the most part her actions are entirely self-serving. She can’t handle any sort of criticism. She’s a pretty crappy friend most of the time. Last week’s episode saw her making a selfish decision, but for a change it was the right one. Her neuroses seemed under control. She was attempting to support and see her friends. She was packing in advance. She seemed to have her shit together.
Hannah is now in Iowa at graduate school, and she has a beautiful house, lives in a beautiful area, and rides her bike through the beautiful school campus. Everything is going swimmingly for Ms Horvath. Next thing you know there’s a bat in her house, and instead of working out a way to get it back outside, she runs out of her house, has to climb back in through a window and sleeps in the bathroom instead of dealing with the problem at hand. This causes her to run late to her first workshop, and she turns up looking rather dishevelled in her pyjamas. Everyone in the workshop listens to Hannah’s story, and in the discussion phase, when people are criticising her work, Hannah can’t let a single comment go by without trying to defend her work. To top it off, her bike is stolen after she doesn’t lock it up before class. It’s all classic Hannah Horvath.
She tries to call people for help. Shoshanna and Jessa are too busy watching Scandal to work out how a collect call works. Hannah’s parents are in the middle of a Scrabble game and only hear (or only choose to hear) the positive aspects of her course. Marnie is too busy knitting Desi a scarf to think about Hannah’s problems. It’s dear old Elijah that comes to the rescue, by turning up at Hannah’s new house after her SOS text message. Is it extremely convenient that Elijah is now in Iowa? Absolutely, but the minute he turns up the episode becomes incredibly entertaining. Hannah and Elijah head to an undergraduate house party, and revel in being the coolest kids at the party. Elijah spends his time hooking up with straight guys, while Hannah is wrestling with another girl in a puddle of blue goo while the party cheers her on. They stumble home in the morning, walking together over the campus as the sun rises. Hannah said earlier in the episode that people always think she’s younger, and Elijah is the same: they seem to fit in more with the undergraduates than they do with people their own age.
Even though Hannah regressed a lot during this episode, something tells me that her arc this season will be one of immense personal growth. I can see her returning to New York and being more mature than Marnie, Jessa and Shosh. As Jessa pointed out, Hannah may be running from dealing with responsibility and making a life for herself in New York, but this time away from NYC may be what Hannah needs to thrive. Time away from Adam may be better for her. The two have officially broken up now, as we find out from Marnie, and that’s probably for the best. Adam isn’t the most stable, patient or selfless person, and with all her idiosyncrasies, that is the opposite of what Hannah needs.
REVIEW SCORE: THREE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Season 4 of Girls is screening weekly on Showcase, 7.30pm Mondays (Express from the US)
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