Dinner parties rarely go as planned. Dinner parties that involve meeting your in-laws aren't great, and neither are the ones that involve kissing your ex.
But after last week's semi-funny, semi-bad episode of GIRLS, tonight's, "It's a Shame About Ray," is much better. And a whole lot better than any dinner party. Dunham brings back the four Girls (mostly) as a unit for the fourth episode of the second season - which brings back the brutally honest, brutally self-absorbed tone that's all-but been missing since the end of the first season.
Elijah moves out after a heated back-and-forth; Hannah retains all of the stuff in this break-up redux. It's probably the last we'll see of him/Andrew Rannells. Which is fine for Hannah, because JazzHate is publishing her first piece, so with that $200, she calls Charlie and Audrey for dinner - and throws a Pad Thai pity invite Marnie's way, as well. Ray and Shoshanna show up, who have just come from engaging in cab-coital. And who now basically live together, because 33-year old Ray is bored and broke and considers himself a loser. But, come to find out, things are pretty serious for these two: they're pretty much in love.
The group spends the majority of their night discussing sex toys and methods and...stuff. Which leads to Audrey accusing Marnie of always being around, of being unable to get over Charlie, of Charlie pitying her because she might be a suicide risk.
"She's too self-involved to commit suicide," Hannah reassures.
And so Marnie walks out - where she meets Charlie on the rooftop. Where they also kiss. Oh, and remember last week's episode? The one where Booth-Jonathan locks Marnie in that video-art-box contraption and then makes her describe a Victorian doll while they have sex? That wasn't a one-time thing. They're together, now. I guess when life hands you tiny, rotten lemons?
"That little Ewok in f****** capri pants?" Charlie asks. A pretty spot-on description, though I'm not entirely sure how he even knows the little Ewok. He's obviously upset - and it doesn't help that Audrey's left, as well.
"Nothing Bundt trouble?" Hannah asks, fork and Bundt cake in hand, as Charlie shows his true jerk-like colors afterwards. This is about the best we see of Hannah - aside from the episode's closer, an honest, 'it gets better' scene between she and Jessa in a snot-rocket bathtub. More on that later.
Jessa! Jessa gets more than 45 seconds of airtime this week - about 15 minutes, as a matter of fact. The in-laws basically get the same. Yes, the newlyweds are prepping for Thomas-John's parents to come into town for the first time since the wedding. Dinner topics: Jessa dropping out of Oberlin, Jessa going to rehab for heroin, and Thomas-John's ex-girlfriend who works for Oprah. But they're...surprisingly okay with it? They're pretty progressive. Jessa may actually fit in. Ha. Just kidding. They think she's a gold-digger.
In their first fight since marriage, Thomas-John thinks his parents might be right. "No one liked you in high school," Jessa says. "And no one likes you now." Is this marriage?
No, but it's the end of one, apparently.
"This is the worst mistake I've ever made - you are my worst nightmare," he tells her. He really does think she's sleeping with him for his money. Really. This isn't some drunken tirade where hipster-slurs are hurled back and forth - no, this is most definitely the end of their runaway, wackadoo marriage.
Jessa hits him. Thomas-John offers to buy her off - and she accepts, with one more story to add to her collection.
Jessa shows up at Hannah's. Bleary-eyed and now $11,000 richer, she climbs into the tub with her only friend as alone as she is, bath-bonding over Oasis' "Wonderwall" and a snot-rocket.
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