SOME SPOILERS AHEAD.
This episode to me was a strange way to end the series and it wasn’t the direction I thought the show would take. As I said in the last recap, I wasn’t sure where the series would go for its finale considering the finality of the penultimate episode. But once I thought of this episode in relation to the series premiere and especially with Hannah’s encounter with the teen girl who ran away from home, I found it to be an appropriate and meaningful end to the series.
I must say that I was rather proud of Marnie for stepping up and being there for Hannah and helping her with Grover. Although it seemed like it was out some kind of selfish desire to be the best at being Hannah’s friend. I was surprised that she was even there because at the end of the last episode, it seemed like Hannah wouldn’t see any of her New York friends again. I was also surprised by the fact that Marnie was quite good at helping Hannah and taking care of Grover. To the point that she probably read every pregnancy, maternity and parenting book ever published. She seemed better prepared than Hannah.
It was the most selfless thing Marnie had ever done over the course of this series. She really, genuinely just wanted to help Hannah. As much as Hannah wasn’t there for her direct-from-the-text tips and the like, I admired Marnie’s efforts nonetheless and her willingness to be there and contribute to the raising of Grover.
Given Hannah’s personality, it made sense that she was nervous as a new mother. It was simultaneously adorable and hilarious that she asked so many question of the pediatrician and didn’t trust him because he wasn’t her usual one. Hannah was having a really tough time of it and for a while I thought that perhaps Lena Dunham was incorporating a post-partum depression story line. But the point of it all was just that Hannah hadn’t fully matured yet.
It was a little disappointing to see her acting that way after all of the growth she’d demonstrated over the course of the season, but she was in a high stressed, highly emotional state and at her wits end with worry about Grover not latching, so it was somewhat understandable. She was quite a bit over dependent on Marnie as well, handing off Grover when she no longer knew what to do and getting upset because Marnie wanted to go out and leave her home alone with her own child. Yes, Marnie did volunteer for it, but that didn’t mean that Hannah was to take her for granted.
Marnie did the right thing by reaching out to Hannah’s mother and asking her for help; she’s a parent with experience and both of them were struggling, Hannah especially. Her little speech to Marnie about the reality of parenting versus what she thought it would be, was in no way about or directed at Marnie at all. That was all Hannah. And while her mother was a little harsh in her chastising of Hannah’s behaviour, right as she was, Hannah’s response (throwing her father’s sexuality in her mother’s face) was rude and uncalled for.
Running into that teenage girl was the best kind of reality check for Hannah. She was the perfect mirror for not only how much of an entitled brat Hannah had been for much of the series, but for the way she’d been acting all episode. She also served as a realisation for what her mother would have experienced and as a mother herself Hannah, could sympathise with what the girl’s own mother felt. She got an overall lesson in the realities of being a parent.
It was clear that Marnie wanted more than just taking care of Hannah and Grover. Again, her selflessness was surprising in that she was willing to sacrifice her happiness in order to be there for them. She had been so selfish and self-absorbed, even up to the last episode, that the degree to which she had changed was astounding. Hannah’s mother’s warning was correct; eventually she would have come to hate Hannah and resent her. But now that Hannah has started to make her peace with her motherhood and come to terms with it, Marnie pursuing her own life shouldn’t rip them apart.
Random thoughts:
- Marnie’s right; no one else is there.
- Oh wait, we didn’t see the birth.
- Admit it Hannah, you need the help.
- Hannah: “No one understands.” A woman who is a mother is right behind you Hannah.
- This little girl is an idiot.
- This policeman following Hannah is hilarious.
