Saturday, February 2, 2013

Girls Season 2 Episode 2 Recap: Hannah Horvath and Her Catastrophic Taste in Men


CAUTION: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: the character Hannah Horvath on Girls embodies the mistakes that every twenty-something makes but is fully unable to recognize.Especially when it comes to the male persuasion.
Sunday night's episode only solidified this idea. Hannah was faced with two, polar-opposite men, juxta-positioned throughout the episode.
There is Sandy, “the kind, sexy, responsible boyfriend,” Hannah has always wanted and needed. Carrying over from the first episode, the relationship seems to be blossoming quite swimmingly. Their sex life is great: Hannah feels comfortable enough to exist in the moment with him, rather than wishing she were somewhere else, or someone else.
But, that’s just it – despite Sandy seemingly being the more acceptable boyfriend archetype, there doesn’t seem to be much more of a connection beyond that. When it finally comes to evaluating the things that they have in common, Hannah is distracted by something so arbitrary – God forbid she, a liberal, could date a Republican!
This put the bigger issue in blaring, Motel 6 neon letters for us: twenty-something girls will often find any excuse to push away the “right” type of guy whether it is because there is no thrill (like with the “bad boy” type), or no challenge, or simply for no reason other than we have no idea what we are doing sometimes. 
Hannah’s relationship with Sandy can be described as the millennial woman's uncanny ability to screw up relationships — we focus on one good quality (like Hannah focuses on the healthy sexual relationship) until we find one negative one that we can’t stop fixating upon, often because our friends or family – read: Elijah – put some negative ideas in our heads (on this episode, that was Hannah’s sudden issue with Sandy’s Republican beliefs). To top it off, we act as if we did the world a favor by breaking up with them.
The character of Adam is the complete opposite of the spectrum. He is the toeing-the-line-between-murdering-disposition-and-overly-clingy-ex-boyfriend stalker. I mean, who writes and delivers a 10+ long album of whining and spiteful songs (“You destroyed my heart …Thanks.”) or shows up in the middle of the night while you are trying to cut your own bangs using the key we gave you only for emergencies! Maybe Hannah took it too far by hang-up-calling the “po-po,” as Adam so lovingly calls them. But, we all know she is prone to irrational thought at (frequent) times.
While Adam might be creepier and more persistent than any ex-boyfriend we may experience in our realities, you have to admire his gusto in wanting to prove to her that it wasn’t over, it still isn’t over (yes, I did just make a reference to The Notebook). Maybe the scene where the police come to take Adam down to the station is a symbol for Hannah’s arrested development with men.
Or maybe we should take her relationship with Adam as further proof that Hannah is full of mistakes and over thinking situations. Whatever it may be, part of me wishes she continues making them because they’re so cringe-worthy. And the rest of me screams that she gets her stuff together so the rest of us might feel like there is a light leading outside this twisty, turning tunnel of love.
The episode is titled, “I Get Ideas.” Well, from this episode I do get ideas! Ideas that make me worry that Hannah is doomed to make mistake after mistake with men during this decade of her life. Leaving no hope for the rest of us wandering, fickle, and reckless twenty-something women. I see many cats, an empty left ring finger, and multiple empty Nutella and Ben & Jerry’s containers. I mean, will we ever get it right? I guess we’ll have to wait until next episode to find out...
See original article on PolicyMic.

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