Ashley Canino looks back on Season 3, and looks ahead to what we can expect in Season 4.
by Ashley Canino
Without knowing the title of HBO’s much-buzzed-about series, Girls, it would still be difficult to miss its gendered story lines, especially as they were thrown into sharpest relief in Season 3. The title foursome, Lena Dunham’s Hannah and her friends Marnie (Allison Williams), Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet), and Jessa (Jemima Kirke), had dismal arcs in comparison to their male supporting-counterparts. While the young women continued to scramble through their myopic landscapes, Hannah’s boyfriend Adam (Adam Driver) lands a role on Broadway and dedicates himself to the part, while Ray (Alex Karpovsky) gets on his feet with his own apartment and climbs the ladder at work rather than sulking aimlessly over his fractured relationship with Shoshanna. The only male character who resembles the female leads in neediness is Elijah, Hannah’s gay ex-boyfriend, who rescinds a love confession when his boyfriend balks at the disclosure.
We know that season 4 is coming—the show was renewed before the third season premiered—but with stagnant ratings and ebb in critical attention and acclaim, is Dunham planning on giving us a reason to like her female characters before HBO calls it quits? Maybe even look up to them in their imperfect, exploratory womanhood? Here is where we left the girls and some ideas for how they can stay interesting, but do a little growing up in Season 4.
Hannah Horvath
Season 3
Hannah has overcome her resurged obsessive-compulsive disorder with therapy and medication, but neither has done anything for her intense detachment or egotism. When her book editor dies she spares no emotion for the shock and wonders only what will become of her work. She refuses to give her boyfriend, Adam, the space he needs to prepare for his Broadway debut, finally sharing the very sudden news of her admission to a prestigious writing program in Iowa just before he is to go before an audience for the first time. At the end of the season finale, when Hannah is clutching her acceptance letter and grinning alone in her apartment, it is nearly impossible to feel happy for her.
What’s next?
It’s a common trope, but Hannah’s redemption must come by way of a truly selfless act. But as the core of the program, she is also the hardest nut to crack, and her redemption will come in baby steps. She could offer to take on student debt or stick with any job she can get to defray the cost of her time in Iowa, despite her parents’ offer to, “make it work.” If Adam is still around at the opening of Season 4, Hannah could apologize for sabotaging his moment by making it her own, without demanding an apology for his anger after the show. Through small acknowledgements of other beings, her friendships could transform from fodder for her essays to genuine connections.
Marnie Michaels
Season 3
Marnie spends the season hung up on her ex, Charlie, and his abrupt exit (perhaps the writers projecting their shock at the also-abrupt exit of the actor who played him, Christopher Abbott?) and glomming onto unlikely male companions to fill the void, including Shoshanna’s ex, Ray. She pursues Desi (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), Adam’s castmate, despite his having a girlfriend, and we enjoy the satisfying verbal smackdown the girlfriend delivers in her final scene with Marnie.
What’s next?
Marnie clearly feels she is deserving of more than her lowly assistant role at a peer’s gallery, so next season let’s see her earn it. She could apply her skill for rationalization to problem solving at work. This might make her young boss see her worth and put her in a more prominent position. As a partner in the gallery, Marnie could begin to build self-confidence stronger than the façade of security she feels in her musical partnership with Desi.
Jessa Johansson
Season 3
Jessa, who originally came off as the least codependent of the group, moves on from an abrupt divorce following an abrupt marriage, finds herself in rehab (Did Jessa have a drug problem before rehab?), and immediately latches onto an older man who encourages a coke binge. She discovers that an old friend faked her own death in order to remove Jessa’s influence from her life, and worse yet, the plan was a success and the friend is married with a kid and living in a lovely brownstone.
What’s next?
Jessa has been told in more ways than one by now that she is going to have to put down some roots and grow them to begin to find real happiness. In her final scene of the season, calling an ambulance for the charismatic B.D., who has asked for aid in suicide then changed her mind at the last possible moment, Jessa witnesses that old age, for all of its tribulations, may be worth it after all. Jessa’s next job could be working in the assisted-living home where B.D. finds herself after complications from her attempted suicide. The home will teach Jessa that with advanced age may come fewer romps and flings, but also a more meaningful zest for life and an earned laissez-faire attitude to which Jessa aspires.
Shoshanna Shapiro
Season 3
Shoshanna has shown the most character development over the series, transforming from a privileged foil for her struggling friends, to a dramatic player with real effects on the people around her. In Season 3 she finds that she won’t be graduating from college because she failed a course. In addition, her plea to Ray to welcome her back into a relationship, despite his dalliance with Marnie, is rebuffed.
What’s next?
Having witnessed and remarked on her cohort’s post-graduate flailing—“It’s really amazing that the three of you have accomplished so little in the four years since college”—fast-talking Shosh has the best chance of rising above the fray long enough to find a little bit of herself. But outside of an impressive bandanna collection, we have yet to see what makes the youngest girl in the group tick. In her drunken, vicious way she pegs the worst qualities of the other girls while away in the North Fork. Her keen sense of others and her suddenly powerful voice could converge as she rises from the ashes of her relationship with Ray and three measly summer credits at N.Y.U. Having learned from her own mistakes, and those of the group, she could dive into finding what sort of career and activities make her the happiest. Maybe by the time Bandannas by Shoshanna (… Shosh-annas?) takes off the rest of the ladies in her crew will have caught up.
