GIRLS – S5xEp08 ‘Homeward Bound’

“Homeward Bound” opens with Shosh at the airport in New York. She’s still rocking Harajuku girl style, and it definitely seems as though her transition back into American culture is going to be a system shock.

Obviously things also haven’t been working between Hannah and Fran for a while now, not with their difference of opinions on pretty much everything. But for Hannah to pack up and go on a three-month road trip with Fran in a “house car” only to bail at the first rest stop is positively batty—not to mention selfish. Only Hannah could flee an R.V. in her pajamas and hide from the guy who is only trying to figure out what’s wrong with her.

Rather than being an adult about the whole situation she refused to let Fran take her home, demanding that her friends come and pick her up instead. Then in another sheer move of idiocy, she decided to repay Ray with some road head that he clearly didn’t want, resulting in damage to his $50,000 coffee truck. Naturally, she also left him at the side of the road when a better offer came along.

Adam’s been calling Caroline for a couple days and she hasn’t been picking up the phone — which, Adam discovers, is because she’s taken off. Laird just assumed that she was off doing her own thing for a bit, Caroline-style. But Adam unearths a note that she left, which wound up under the fridge. In it, she tells Laird that she loves him and their child, but that she’s afraid she might hurt the baby. The truth is, it sounds like she’s exhibiting some classic signs of postpartum depression. Laird is heartbroken but now very worried about Caroline, so he heads out the door to look for her, leaving Adam behind to watch the baby.

When it comes to Adam, he’s mostly internal and inscrutable and yes, Jessa is acting like a child, but is this the first time? Has he willfully been ignoring this as she pursues her noble therapist goals, or is Jessa so freaked out at the idea of Adam being a responsible grown up that she turns into a child instead? Empathy for him, revulsion for her…and then for him, for being with her. I never said I wasn’t judgy.

Hector, the passerby who gives Hannah a ride earlier in the episode, registers poignantly with his kind eyes, sad story, and joyful whoop at the sight of the New York City skyline. More importantly, though, he serves as a catalyst to bring out both the worst and the best in Hannah. First he surfaces her capacity for self-involved insensitivity when she laughs as he talks about having been abused by his girlfriend. Then, after she hears his story, his unguarded excitement at the sight of New York puts her back in touch with her own sense of adventure. “It’s a good place to start over,” he says. Eyes shining, she agrees, ready to do just that.

There are only two episodes left this season, and a lot is set to unravel, but I really hope this Caroline PPD storyline is addressed before the season wraps.