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"Girls" Recap: Leave Me Alone

Katie Lemon |
June 11, 2012 | 12:54 a.m. PDT

Staff Reporter

If you’ve ever wondered how young women fight, watch the last five minutes of latest episode of "Girls." 

The girls attend a book release party of a former classmate, Tally Schifrin, whose memoir entitled “Leave Me Alone,” chronicles the true, tragic love story that ended in her suicidal boyfriend crashing his car while on Percocet. Also at the party, Hannah runs into her writing professor from Oberlin, who ultimately invites her to read the old essay about her college crush, Phil, (who she found out was a hoarder of Chinese food boxes) in front of his colleagues.

Ray, fed up with Hannah’s post collegiate white girl problems, tells Hannah to write about something real- suggesting cultural criticism, acid rain, and death, among other topics. Deciding she hasn’t taken enough risks, Hannah attends the reading, but is late, which doesn’t surprise her former professor because being tardy is a very Hannah thing to do.  She decides not to read about Phil the Hoarder, but instead shares a piece written on the subway en route to the event. Not wanting to sound lazy, she assures her silent audience of her intense writing efforts during the subway’s extended stop at Canal Street.

Shoshanna signs up for on an online dating site and is hooked up on a day date with Brice (who we never meet in the episode, but who apparently works in product development and is Jewish. Oh, and also likes movies and food.)

Jessa’s former babysitting boss asks her to come back after a major falling out with her husband, with whom Jessa had a borderline inappropriate almost-relationship.

Distressed about the reading, Hannah comes home to vent to Marnie who is clearly not in the mood. After all, she’s been putting up with the loud, profane Adam and Hannah’s late rent payments. Marnie calls Hannah selfish. Hannah accuses Marnie of being obsessed with success. In the argument’s brutal climax, the girls repeatedly call each other a “wound.” It’s a brutally honest, sad, funny fight that, if you’re a girl, may remind you of things you’ve yelled before.

Tune into next week’s season finale to see if Marnie actually moves out.

For those of you who have been following "Girls" since the beginning, you’re probably wondering what and who is behind this truthful, rebellious and revolutionary show.

Alex Karpovsky, who plays Ray, believed in the script from the very beginning.

“I like the fact that Girls is funny – it’s a comedy but there’s so much drama. There’s the ability to nurture depth and resonance because it is brutally and painfully honest. The show allows comedic things to reach you at a relatable level,” said Karpovsky.

Honesty – brutal honesty – is what really sets apart Girls from any other show on television. The characters and dialogue are so real and relatable that you may wonder if it is improvised. But Karpovsky attributes the natural quality of the show to Lena Dunham’s writing.

“We, as a cast, believe in the writing. Lena wears so many hats – as director, writer and actor – so it’s in large part her show. She has the ability to give the show her sensibility and her worldview, which is expressed in such an uncompromised way.”

Let’s hope we see more of Ray in future episodes – especially after his awkward but sweet interaction with Shoshanna in the episode “Welcome to Bushwick aka the Crackcident.” His cynical, sharp comments are definitely a nice contrast to the problems of girl world. And it’s good thing, because Karpovsky has fun playing the jerk.

“It’s just a lot more fun to play a jerk because there are so many ways to play it. Anger is more multifaceted than optimism or joy. It affords versatility. I like that visceral energy of getting fired up and angry. It animates me and brings me alive.”

Watch out for Karpovsky’s next move on future episodes of "Girls."

Reach Staff Reporter Katie here.



 

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