After last week's singular episode, we're plopped back into reality this week on Girls. Hannah discovers she's gotten an E-book deal, but only has one month to write it, and subsequently vomits in front of a gaggle of brunchers. Marnie is still dating Booth Jonathan, unbeknownst to him, and the scene where he offers her $500 to "host" his party is particularly gut-punchy.
But this episode shifts its focus to the relationship between Ray and recently freed jailbird Adam, spurred on by Ray searching for a copy of Little Women, and Adam looking for the owner of a lost dog on Staten Island. Ray sees this reunion mission as his way of being helpful -- something he is not doing in his relationship with Shoshanna -- but it works as a way to see behind the curtain of the male friendships on Girls, and how two men seemingly unmoored in the world connect to each other. Ray shows up at Adam's apartment, and remarks on how "masculine" it is; Adam confides in Ray about Hannah, and ends up losing his cool.
Ray's character has become one of the season's most interesting developments, establishing a redirection from Adam's Season One screaming id. With Ray we're given sight into the masculine void, with uncertainties of how and when to be a man. The scene where Ray asks the lost dog if he's pathetic is the most self-aware moment we've seen in a while, making Ray seem like the most mature character in the episode.
