The episode opens on a shot of Jessa, Hannah, and Marnie on their way to a warehouse party in Bushwick. Jessa is almost carrying off a feathery get-up that's half dying swan, half Tina Turner in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. She gets a text from a random number, but instead of finding out who it's from Jessa just texts back the address of the party. Rebel!
Marnie is jittery -- she's been completely thrown off by her breakup with Charlie. Hannah reassures her that there's very little chance of running into him: "It's like Waterworld in there."
They arrive and find Shoshanna, who's been holding up a wall for two hours: "I am literally so happy to see you I could murder you."
In case you were wondering, Ray and Charlie's band, Questionable Goods, has improved a lot since their last gig. Marnie shuffles up to see Charlie after their set. Turns out having her out of his life has meant that he's got more time for music... and new girlfriends named Audrey! Marnie's reputation hasn't preceded her AT ALL -- "Are you one of those Real Housewives?"
Just when you thought Hannah might have nothing to do, Adam appears! Well, he emerges from the darkness, being crawled over by a bunch of girls in glow in the dark body paint. Ahem.
Ray and Jessa are chatting idly; suddenly Shoshanna is there, talking like the MicroMachines guy; what is WRONG with her? "It was a glass cigarette, and I am high." It becomes clear that Shoshanna has accidently smoked crack. Jessa volunteers to be her Crack Spirit Guide. That is, until Jeff (who she babysits for -- sender of the phantom text!) shows up. Jessa hands her title over to Ray -- he can handle it, right? Shoshanna runs off, yelling incoherently about kick boxing class.
Adam's friend Tako, reveals to Hannah that Adam has been a member of AA for years ("it's the main defining thing about him, right?") She doesn't quite know how to take the news.
Jessa and Jeff are on a fire escape when she almost kills a couple of guys by dropping a wine bottle on them. After following it up with some shit-talk, the guys threaten to kill them. Off to the dance floor!
Ray catches up with Shoshanna, who is either nude from the waist down or just wearing pantyhose (funny either way!) Still high, she kicks the shit out of Ray, who is impressed with her superhuman strength. But in all fairness, "It might have been the crack."
Marnie finds Elijah and tears him away from a make-out session to complain about Charlie. When Elijah calls her out for being selfish, she counters, "No; Hannah's the selfish one! Everybody knows that!" Um... sure.
Poor Jeff. Like many men before him, he gets beat up for his proximity to a mouthy girl, landing him the ER. When Jessa rejects his suggestion that they sleep together, he calls her a tease. Rude, but also... not completely off-base.
Adam invites Hannah to a scrap yard, which he's raiding for materials to build a boat. Soon she's riding high on his bicycle handlebars and everything's idyllic... until Adam stops the bike short and Hannah FLIES to the ground. She's pissed, and not just because of the bloody knees: Why has he never shared his AA status with her? He points out that she never asked. As in "never asked anything except does that feel OK and do you like my skirt"! Touché. The confrontation between them escalates; Adam finally yells, "Do you want me to be your boyfriend??" We're not privy to the answer, but Hannah's smile in the final shot, squeezed into the back of a cab between Marnie, Adam, and his bike, reveals all.
In this episode we got to see several key relationships (Hannah/Adam, Marnie/Charlie, and Jessa/Jeff) from opposite perspectives. The switch revealed how Hannah, Marnie, and Jessa create narratives that serve themselves alone: Hannah needs to see Adam as distant; Marnie needs to see Charlie as helpless, and Jessa needs to see Jeff paralyzed by lust. But in fact -- shocker! -- these men are 3-dimensional humans who are affected by their actions. The girls' failure to look beyond their own needs means that, until now, they've been deeply implicated in their own unhappiness. It remains to be seen whether they can take these lessons to heart, or whether we're in for more trial and error, which admittedly is a big part of Girls' appeal.
Alexandra Gray is a NYC-based writer/ performer; one-third of the all-girl sketch trio Booby Hatch, on Twitter @AceofSix.