Girls – Season 1 Episode 8 – Recap and Review – Weirdos Need Girlfriends Too

Building off of the revelations that unfolded during last week’s hilarious “Welcome to Bushwick a.k.a The Crackcident,” this week’s episode, “Weirdos Need Girlfriends Too.” focused on the development of relationships. If Girls needed anything at this point, it was an episode that exposed a little more heart, and the more subdued episode 8 delivered the goods without sacrificing the laughs. Thank Jessa (Jemima Kirke) for that!

The episode opens with Hannah (Lena Dunham) and Adam (Adam Sackler) lying in bed, watching Adam’s old home movies project across the ceiling. It takes me a minute, but I realize they are in Hannah’s apartment for the first time. They’re taking the leap from sort-of-friends with benefits to an actual couple.

Hannah: “Could you fly?”

Adam: “Could you fly?”

Hannah: “No, I couldn’t fly, but I didn’t have ears that big.”

It’s not as funny as some of Hannah’s one liners, but a relationship isn’t as comical as casual sex on this show, either. Through the thin wall, we cut to Marnie (Allison Williams) looking more disheveled than we’ve ever seen her. She’s listening to “Skyscraper” by Demi Lovato, and flipping through her ex’s Facebook album featuring a trip to Rome with his new girlfriend. Marnie hears Hannah and Adam fooling around in their typical bizzare fashion through the wall. Apparently, a relationship label doesn’t nix their kinkiness. Marnie is miserable.

Flash to Hannah and Adam going for a run. Adam is pushing her to love running, but she loathes it. She wants to quit, but he pushes her to keep going. Upon their arrival home, Hannah gets ice cream from the truck conveniently parked in front of her apartment. Adam doesn’t like ice cream because it gives him too much mucus. I wonder if this is a covert reference to the “ice cream makes me cough” line in “Sh!t Girls Say.”

Back at the apartment, Marnie walks into the kitchen to find Adam and Hannah fawning over one another. Adam is completely nude, and Marnie is basically used to it at this point. He ends up giving Marnie a pep talk. He says that when he broke up with his college girlfriend, he took a leap, and changed majors to do what he loved. He suggests Marnie does the same. She claims her love is reading, and she knows it’s a lame answer. Adam laughs at her. Hannah is excited to go to Adam’s play rehearsal for the first time.

Jessa arrives after Hannah leaves, looking for Hannah not Marnie, and ends up sticking around anyway. Jessa was looking forward to Hannah consoling her after she was fired from her babysitting job. The two share a few laughs at Hannah’s expense. They hate how she gets all dolled up for a night out, but always has a shiny forehead.

Jessa: “It’s like, you’ve come this far, wash your forehead!”

Marnie: “I just feel bad for her. Like, she’s never had a normal boyfriend that ‘s not gay, you know?”

Marnie still looks a wreck, but Jessa thinks she looks better natural.

Marnie: “I’ve never been this miserable in my life.”

Jessa: “It’s totally working.”

It’s nice to see these two interact again. The pilot set the tension between them as total opposites, and pretty much neglected to work off of it until now. They have great chemistry.

Next, we see Adam’s monologue. Hannah sits alone in the studio, seemingly fascinated. She’s seeing him expose himself for the first time during this episode. The self-penned monologue is very strange, so it’s very Adam. He goes from being a twelve year old with a crush, to a teenager having sex with his crush, to canoeing with his buddy. They have an argument over the lines and comedy of the script. Adam decides to quit the play on the spot. Hannah is taken back by his decision, and they exit. Upon crossing the street, Adam neglects to look, and is almost hit by a car. He explodes in a fit of rage, and once again, Hannah is somewhat dumbfounded.

Back at the girl’s apartment, Jessa is still consoling Marnie. Marnie doesn’t buy it. She doesn’t believe they’re truly friends.

Marnie: “We’ve known each other for six years. You’ve known my name for three.”

Jessa: “I care for you. I do, I really do, and if you don’t see that, then that’s failing on my part because I really admire your work ethic, your commitment to hygiene… I think you are smart, and kind, and…”

Marnie: “Uptight.”

Marnie hates being the uptight girl, and Jessa suggests she get out of her own head for a while.

Meanwhile, Hannah is taking a shower in Adam’s apartment. In one of the funnier scenes in the episode, Adam appears behind her in the shower, looking like a serial killer, and Hannah screams bloody murder. He puts conditioner in her hair to fix her split ends, and then… he pees on her. Hannah is pissed off.

Jessa and Marnie have hit up a bar. As it turns out, Marnie lost her virginity at fourteen to her old boyfriend. Jessa was seventeen, and Marnie is surprised because of how free spirited Jessa is today.

Jessa: “Sex without breasts is creepy.”

Two cocktails get sent over from a guy in a grey suit down the bar. Jessa is disappointed to find out they’re not from the really old guy, just the kind-of-older guy (Guest star Chris O’Dowd of Bridesmaids fame). Marnie is interested because “he looks like a boss.”

Sporting matching onesies, Hannah and Adam hash out the pee incident quickly. Hannah is really more concerned with Adam quitting the play. He refuses to even let his friend use the script he wrote.

Hannah: “Do you know how unusual it is to see someone doing something like that? Like what you were doing, that’s so open, and honest, and weird, and you’re not making fun of them in your mind?”

Adam is convinced to let his friend keep the play going as long as he uses a pseudonym for Adam’s credit. Adam really does care about his craft.

Back at the bar, Marnie is falling for this guy. Jessa is completely uninterested. She’s just glad he’s paying the check. He invites them back to his new apartment. Jessa would rather do something cool, but she’s excited to find that Marnie actually likes spending time with her.

Back at this guy John’s apartment, we find that his hobby is making awful song mashups. He’s subjected Jessa to a mashup of “Steal My Sunshine” and sounds of children playing in a field. They’ve had some wine, and Jessa and Marnie casually lay down on his carpet. John tries to lay on the moves, but he has no game, and Jessa, once again, isn’t having it. Marnie’s over it now, too. Jessa goes to say “goodbye,” when Marnie goes in for a kiss… with Jessa! Jessa kisses back hard. Dorky John tries to get in on the action, and in an attempt to snap away from him, Marnie knocks over some wine on his new rug. He flips. She apologizes, but he says if she was sorry she’d make it a “special night.”

John: “No more excluding me Mary Poppins! It’s not fair! I want to be part of the group.”

Jessa: “That will never happen.”

Marnie was very funny here.

Marnie: “I’m not gay, I was just trying to be… free.”

John really lays into them about what it’s like to live a real life, and work a real job. He’s kind of right, of course. Another example of a real grown-up laying into these young twenty-something girls. They’re not having it, though, and we love them for it. He’s mad they laughed about spilling on his expensive rug.

Jessa: “We’re not laughing at your rug.”

Marnie: “We’re not laughing. Please don’t hurt us.”

Jessa: “We’re laughing at your mashins!”

John: “It’s mashups!”

Adam wakes up Hannah in the middle of the night to apologize for yelling at the car.

Hannah: “This is like when my parents woke me up during a tornado!”

Because he doesn’t know the driver, he has plastered the entire wall beside the street with posters that say sorry. He decides to act in the play. He lifts Hannah on his shoulders to plaster them up higher. He runs away with her still on his shoulders.

I’m glad the show is making more and more strides with regards to the girls learning and growing up. What did you all think of this episode? Were you as pleased with the Jessa/ Marnie interaction as I was? Do you actually like Adam more as the season progresses, or do you think we’re just supposed to like him more? Were you looking forward to seeing some possible developments between the absent Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) and Ray (Alex Karpovsky)? Do you think the lack of Shoshanna screen time this season is hurting our connection with the character?

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