Girls Just Want To Have Fun (Till It Ends)

By Shane Longoria

This review contains spoilers for the final season of “Girls.”

Over the course of its six-season run, Lena Dunham’s critically acclaimed HBO series, “Girls,” has generated think piece after think piece, challenging our conventional understanding of young adulthood—particularly that of young womanhood. For better or for worse, “Girls” has forced us to reevaluate our social circles, interactions and overall sense of worldview. And now that the show has ended, we are still left wondering and speculating what its overarching message is.

Picture provided by HBO.

In the show’s penultimate episode, there is a scene that finds all four of our main characters in a bathroom—the first time we’ve seen all of them interact with each other all season. The scene, helmed marvelously by Shoshanna, offers a sobering look into the reality that friendships in young adulthood are incredibly complicated, and sadly, aren’t always built to last. Shoshanna makes the point that there is a grave toxicity that fuels each of the girls’ relationships, and suggests it’s time their dysfunctional friendship come to an end. Each of the girls (or, technically, young women) slowly begins to realize that Shoshanna is right—that the level of self-involved narcissism has slowly driven them apart to the point that they no longer interact with each other. This bittersweet epiphany leads to one of the most authentic and compelling moments of the entire season, as we see each of the girls embrace the end and say goodbye, each finally finding peace with the rest.

Which is what makes the series’ finale such an anti-climactic affair. Rather than provide satisfying closure for each of our protagonists, the last episode focuses exclusively on Hannah’s first glimpse of motherhood. The episode revolves around her baby, Grover’s, unwillingness to breastfeed, causing Hannah to question her competency as a mother. Near the end of the episode, Hannah is walking down the street when she encounters a teenager running away from home. Initially believing the girl has been abused and offering to get her to safety, Hannah soon learns the girl is running away because her mother is making her do her homework. She proceeds to yell at the girl that doing her homework is “what’s f—ing good for you!” It’s almost as though Hannah has finally grown up and is talking to a younger self from her newfound pedestal of motherhood.

We also do get to see Marnie come to terms with herself in some sense, realizing she is overcorrecting for her rampant narcissism by taking a route of self-flagellation when she tells Hannah she wants to help her raise her baby—something Loreen notes will be the true destroyer of Hannah and Marnie’s friendship.

But what we don’t get is a fitting conclusion for the rest of our main characters. Perhaps the preceding episode was the satisfying conclusion we needed. Considering the show has been such a compelling and emotionally gripping rollercoaster, the finale seems to fall flat—an unsatisfying filler, truly unbecoming for an otherwise remarkable show.

But perhaps this is “Girls'” ultimate wisdom—that becoming a grown-up is a letdown. We keep expecting more until it finally hits us that adulthood is just so boring and incomplete.