The fifth episode of Girls Season Two, “One Man’s Trash”, is a departure from the regular formula that Girls follows. The episode focuses solely on Hannah and plays like a half-hour drama, instead of the single-camera half-hour comedy ensemble show it usually is. The episode is well-written and Hannah shares screen time with Patrick Wilson, who plays new character, Joshua. I didn’t necessarily miss the other three characters, because I was drawn into the strange trip that Hannah takes.
Joshua comes into Grumpy’s Coffee Shop and complains that the store has been using his private trash cans. After an argument with Ray, the coffee shop manager, the man leaves disgruntled but Hannah follows him to his private brownstone. She innocently knocks on his door and he invites her in. This is the only moment in this episode where I felt like I had to take a leap of blind faith. I didn’t understand what Wilson’s character’s motivation was to invite a strange girl into his apartment. On the other hand, Hannah blindly going into his brownstone, against her better judgment, is quite fitting with her character.
After a glass of lemonade, Hannah admits to Joshua that she is the one who has been dumping the coffee shop’s garbage into his trash cans. Her excuse is rather convoluted, but Joshua seems to accept her explanation. Hannah then makes a pass at Joshua and they end up in bed together. After sleeping with the handsome 42 year-old Joshua, Hannah attempts to make a sexit. Joshua asks her why she is leaving, and she responds that she wants to give him space. This response by Hannah is a window into her soul. She has become so accustomed to immature men treating her like garbage; she doesn’t feel comfortable over staying her welcome. But Joshua begs her to stay and she does.
The next morning, Hannah and Joshua act like any other yuppie middle-aged Brooklyn brownstone-dwelling couple, by reading the New York Times in his solarium over coffee and toast with jam. For most people, this is an ordinary moment, perhaps even a dull moment in the life of a stable couple. But for Hannah, this entire experience is surreal. She looks at Joshua as he reads the paper, and one can see a calmness wash over her face. Is Hannah finally at peace?
Joshua calls into work sick and Hannah agrees to stay for another day and evening. At one point she decides to take a shower, and she goes into Joshua’s beautifully remodeled bathroom, and stands inside it mystified by the multiple shower heads and steam settings. To her, this is a world she has never seen before. Perhaps she’s caught a glimpse of it in a television show or in a trendy magazine, but she’s never lived it. Her life involves living in a tiny apartment, rotating out insane roommates every other month, and working at a hipster coffee shop. She never would have imagined she’d be spending a lost weekend with a good-looking, wealthy doctor, who is kind and nurturing.
After Hannah passes out from too much steam in the shower, Joshua consoles her and she begins crying. When Joshua asks her what’s wrong, she delivers a monologue. In her speech, she explains that this life that he has, that she has pretended to have for the last two days, is something she thought she’d never have. She further details, that she has spent her entire life being an unhappy person that is against societal norms and tries to live outside the box. But being with Joshua, in his brownstone, has made her realize that she is just like everybody else. She too wants the beautiful home, great husband, and stable relationship. This very fact scares her to the core, because she now questions everything she thought she knew about herself. It is an epiphany moment for Hannah, and she may have matured in a way that previously would have been impossible.
Unfortunately for her, this bold, but honest speech makes Joshua’s eyes glaze over. Like most men, he liked Hannah when she was sweet and in awe of him. But as soon as she shows her vulnerable side and explains to him how she feels, he loses interest. Hannah sees it in his demeanor and, when he tells her he needs to get to bed because he has to get up early for work. Ultimately, Joshua may have disappointed Hannah, and their short-lived rendezvous may be over. But, he served as a spark for Hannah’s inner-emotional journey. It is one that she needed to take and that the viewer needed to take with her.
In an insider’s look into the episode, creator Lena Dunham explains that the idea for this episode started out as a dream that Hannah would have, but then Dunham decided to morph it into reality. It is interesting that she remarks on this, because the tone of the episode does have a dream like quality, and, although it really happened, the way in which the events unfold is quite allegorical. I highly respect Dunham for going in a different direction with this episode and really exploring her character. It has elements of HBO’s other half-hour comedy show, Enlightened. Perhaps Dunham is a fan and wanted to explore how her character, Hannah, becomes enlightened. Overall, it was a risk that paid off.
I love the series Girls for its ensemble cast and uncanny way of making the most ridiculous and disgusting things hysterically funny. I think the series works best when all four young women have screen time and there is humor involved. But, a strange departure now and then is what makes certain television series remind their viewers that the writers are full of novel ideas.
FILM AND TV MANIA 