The girls are growing up and it is becoming more obvious than ever as season 4 continues on. Last nights episode brought a myriad of trials that the characters now have to face, problems that arose as they began to stand up for themselves and move closer towards the lives they want for themselves. For the first time in the shows run, Hannah, Shoshanna, Marnie and Jessa are becoming well-rounded, adult humans that face their problems rather than run away from them. They are growing up.
Hannah is the one who shows the most growth from season 1 to 4. She is pursuing her dreams, attending the grad school every writer can only hope to get into and struggling with her identity more than ever. This season is great for Hannah because even though she does have her relationship struggles (Adam's new girlfriend...WTF!?), they are not the forefront of her storyline. She worries that the identity the has chosen for herself as "writer" isn't what she wants to be anymore. Hannah is struggling with her identity, as all 20-somethings do, and as a viewer who is in a similar predicament, it is humbling. I love watching her flail about in graduate school, feeling displaced not because she isn't with her boyfriend anymore but because it isn't everything she always dreamed of.
Although Hannah's relationship with Adam isn't her biggest concern at this point in the season, it does draw a lot of interest and shows maturity in her. Last night, a bomb was dropped in Hannah's life: Adam has a new girlfriend. Watching, it was unclear who was answering his door while Hannah tried to use her keys in the lock. One starts to wonder if maybe Adam moved out and just never said anything, but as he moves into the scene, a look of sheer terror plastered upon his face, the viewer makes sense of it all. It truly broke my heart, my confusion about it all similar to Hannah's and leaving me feeling abandoned as the credits rolled immediately after.
This new challenge is big for Hannah because she seemed to be unsure that the two were even broken up, as were most viewers when this new girlfriend was introduced. There were never any tears, no harsh words, no mutual "It's over". The breakup was clean and quiet. So quiet that even Hannah didn't realize it had happened. It was impossible to watch as she leaned in for a kiss and got denied while Adam's new girlfriend looked on with pity. My heart shattered for her, but it also brought around a new world of excitement for me to watch her navigate this horrible realization. No matter how horrible this was, Hannah will have to pick herself up from this and I look forward to seeing how she does so as the season continues on.
Shoshanna is also making great strides in her life, growing up faster than some of the others which is should be surprising as she is the youngest of the group. Last night, we saw Shoshanna in an interview setting for a job she was told wasn't going to be the right fit. She immediately asks what's wrong with her and is met with an endless response pointing out her flaws. She sits, slack-jawed as this woman goes on about what's wrong with her, but Shoshanna doesn't quit. She seems frustrated, of course, but asking what it is you are doing wrong to find out and learn from it is growth because i do believe she will use this to help her growth. It may be some sort of karmic retribution for her earlier interview where she told the interviewer she was just there for "practice", but she is learning and I think that comes across so far in season 4.
Relationship-wise, Shoshanna seems the strongest. She and Ray spend the entirety of episode 4 shopping and hanging out together. At first, one thinks (and almost hopes) that something romantic will happen between the two, but Shoshanna opens up to Ray and tells him that she did at once love him and that she hopes to love someone the way she loved him but that "their ship has sailed". It was a beautiful moment between the two and Shoshanna putting it all out on the table for Ray was a huge step for her. She showed maturity while becoming Ray's friend and moved her character forward by spewing her emotions solely for the purpose of moving on. It was the strongest moment from this season and it made Shoshanna a character viewers will want to root for as we wander through the messiness of her 20s alongside her.
Marnie continues to make the mistakes she has always made, but her maturity is coming through slowly. Last night's episode didn't show much growth for her and the nation collectively groaned when Desi came over, admitting that Clementine broke up with him and he was ready to be with Marnie. Aside from this, it was refreshing in episode 3 when Marnie finally stood up for herself. She sat down with Desi and told him she could no longer be the other woman. She wanted him alone or not at all, which was a completely un-Marnie move and showed me as a viewer that she had some growth spurts coming in soon. I look forward to watching her and how she deals with Desi as the season goes on and I like to hope that she won't make the same mistakes everyone always expects her to make every single time.
Jessa's path is also a slow and steady one, but she has always been the character with the most difficult past that casts a dark shadow on all that she does. She continues to make poor decisions and say not-so-intelligent things, but episode 3 brought a new light to Jessa that cracked at her tough exterior. She gets arrested with Adam for peeing in a public place, a very Jessa move, and Adam says she is a bad influence. Adam hits the wall with her and as soon as she realizes this, she breaks down. She pleads with him because she needs a friend. This showed me as a viewer that Jessa feels loneliness and she is more afraid of facing it than anything else. Jessa became a human person before my eyes and I finally felt myself sympathize for her as she let her wall fall down for once.
This season is far and away the strongest because the characters are finally entering a place where they are able to face their emotions head on with a little courage and a lot of fear. The girls are becoming women and their growth forces me to cheer alongside my TV screen when they win, cry when they are disappointed and hope that they will make more great decisions (as well as bad ones) along the way.
Share This Article
