Season finales on "Girls" tend to be happy affairs. End of season one: Jessa's getting married! End of season two: Adam saves Hannah! End of season three: Hannah's going to Iowa! End of season four: Hannah has a new boyfriend!
The subsequent seasons undermine these apparent happy endings. Season two revealed Jessa's marriage to be a shitshow. Season three saw Hannah and Adam drifting apart. Season four proved that grad school is not a great place for Hannah. Season five saw the unraveling of Hannah's new relationship.
But the end of season five may finally prove to be a turning point for these girls. They're finally starting to try new behaviors, instead of just trying new things.
Hannah has a run-in with a friend from college named Tally, played by Jenny Slate. Slate's appearance is Exhibit A for why I wish this show had more guest stars. Her monologue on being a successful author is one of the standout moments of the series; in examining how she's become divorced from her own persona, Lena Dunham comes as close as she ever has to capturing the disorienting nature of fame.
Tally is invaluable for Hannah's character arc as well. As Hannah catches Tally up on all the crazy stuff she's been up to over the course of the series, we start to realize that she's been through a lot in just a couple years. And she's starting to wise up; she knows not to trust her instinct to try to make Adam and Jessa's lives hell. Instead, she lets it go, and turns her inner turmoil into a terrific monologue for a podcast. Maybe all those mistakes we've seen her make were just her way of learning how to be an adult.
Marnie has a breakthrough of her own in the wake of a truly weird sexual dream involving Ray. Marnie's a strange character, a type-A personality who's been consistently flailing since graduation. But she's now realizing her problem: she's been pursuing what she thinks will impress other people, rather than following her own muse. No one's going to be impressed by Ray. But he makes her happy.
Shoshanna's storyline may be my favorite. She comes up with a novel strategy to compete with Helvetica, the new coffee shop across the street from Ray's: court the anti-hipster demographic. "We need to sell coffee to people with jobs" is her hilarious pitch. And she does it with flair, courting media attention by putting up signs that say things like "Trust the Government." What I like most about this storyline is that it doesn't involve a boyfriend. No doubt she'll get a new beau as part of her happy ending next season. But it's nice to see the show remind us that these girls don't need men to be happy.
And, finally, we come to Jessa. I may never be totally at peace with the Jessa-Adam relationship. When it first developed, these were my objections:
1. Hannah was inevitably going to find out and throw yet another temper tantrum.
2. These characters never showed any chemistry before.
3. The whole premise that Jessa doesn't want to upset Hannah is undermined by the fact that Hannah and Jessa never seem to have any positive interactions.
4. Despite the fact that there are 8.4 million people in New York City, "Girls" sometimes seems determined to only pair off its main characters. Adam has now dated Hannah and Jessa. Ray has now dated Shoshanna and Marnie. It's a bit tiring to see them stay within this circle of friends who are "poor and mean," as Elijah memorably put it.
To the writers' credit, they solved the first problem by using the relationship as a springboard to a more mature Hannah. The other problems are probably unsolvable at this point. There's a bit of a "wobbling Jenga tower" feel to this show by now. But it can probably stay up for another season.
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