Love her or hate her, you have to admit Girls HBO is a phenomenal, and hilariously well-done television show about a group of privileged white girls living in NYC. Navigating relationships, career mishaps, growing sideways, and having too much entitlement; the girls on Girls portray a very tangible reality for upper-middle class white chicks who dream of living in the big apple. The show was very self-aware and satirical, and I would still consider it quite contemporary in 2024. That being said, it has one of my least favorite endings in television history, simply because it felt out of character, abrupt, and honestly cheap. So today we’re talking all things Girls, more specifically the ending that shouldn’t have happened.
Disclaimer: This post obviously contains spoilers so if you haven’t watched Girls leave. You must experience it on your own before you read this.
I have watched Girls in its entirety five times, and I am currently on my sixth rewatch. I just truly enjoy the dialogue and chaotic nature of each character. The show also provides beautiful background noise to any task I’m attempting to complete. That being said, the ending of the show is something I skip every time. Season 5 and 6 are not my favorite in general, I feel that Hannah’s horrible haircut was the catalyst to the show’s downfall. We spend 5 wonderful seasons watching these four eccentric women grow into themselves, struggling to find their place after graduating college. It is clear that these women used college as a place to explore and experience life, and after college they were shocked when life wasn’t as simple as it used to be. Today we will specifically be focusing on Hannah Horvath's character, played by Lena Dunham. The show begins with Hannah being cut off financially by her parents, this is a huge blow to her pockets and her ego. Hannah believes that she is different and talented simply because that is what she has been told her whole life, she’s the kind of girl who doesn’t know how to read a room properly and thinks her obnoxious behavior is endearing. Throughout season one we see Hannah navigate a “blossoming” relationship with a freakish man named Adam (Adam Driver), completely enamored by his mystique Hannah does what lots of girls do when a new man enters her life: abandons her friends… kind of. Throughout the show we witness the ebbs and flows of all Hannah's relationships, and how they mirror the reality of our own.
Hannah is balancing Adam, her new financial situation, finding a job, and her complex relationship with her best friends. Marnie Michaels (Alison Williams) is Hannah’s best friend and roommate, and the two could not be less alike. Hannah is very lax and selfish, while Marnie is extremely uptight and insufferable at times, but so is Hannah and somehow that works. I actually find every character on this show insufferable, except Elijah (Andrew Rannells), and I think that’s why I love it so much. It’s like a dumpster fire of drama, humor, nudity, and bad fashion. Jess Johnson (Jemima Kirke) and Soshanna Shapiro (Zoisa Mamet) play cousins who are both odd and colorful, wild, and again insufferable. I love having a familial relationship intertwined in this frien group because it adds so many layers. What’s so great about the dynamic between these four girls is the authenticity. I think modern television really struggles with relatability. I don’t think all teen dramas need to have characters that are relatable. I prefer complex, out-of-the-box characters who have their moments of candor and reality. Jessa for example is one of the strangest characters in the show, constantly showing up and then disappearing, she’s a woman of great wonder and yet she has so many tangible qualities I can see in my own peers. Making a character whose sole purpose is to resonate with the masses is tacky, it is far more interesting to have a messy character grow into themselves and become a relatable personality through their actions. The more specific the better, this is why Girls works and is a great tv show.
From season one to season five these four girls experience love, loss, success, failure, triumph, glory, embarrassment, bad sex, and bad hair. All these things and more combine to create an insanely entertaining and relatable show, for middle-class white chicks like myself. The show has been critiqued for its lack of diversity, and though people say it was only 2012 there was still plenty of room for diversity. I don't know what the year had to do with anything, especially when the setting is NYC. However, my biggest qualm with the show is Hannah’s ending. Here is a rapid fire recap of how season 5 ended so you can understand the shit storm that is season 6:
(Again if you’re reading this and haven’t seen the show, your confusion is not my fault).
Jessa and Adam (Hannah’s ex) are living & sleeping together
Hannah and Fran broke up
Marnie and Desi are continuing their music career but their marriage is shaky
Shosh is thriving in Japan but loses her job and has to return to the states
Elijah is pursing his passions in the entertainment industry
Hannah does a beautiful stand-up performance talking her insecurities and struggles
Ray is his usual strange self
Caroline and Laird have their baby Sample
Charlie is a heroine addict
Season five was what I would argue a beautiful culmination of the girls' growth and a beautiful reflection of season one. We get one of the best episodes in television history, “The Panic in Central Park,” and we get to see Hannah actually thrive with her writing. I would say that if Girls had ended with season 5 episode 10 I would be content, in retrospect I can see how audiences at the time would have disagreed. But the ending to season 6 is so bad and so out of character for Hannah, I just refuse to watch it. So for me, Girls ends with season 6 episode 9. “Goodbye Tour,” would have been the perfect ending to this show simply because it is so heartbreaking and raw, it is a pivotal episode that focuses on Hannah and her relationships as she prepares for a major life change. Do I think Hannah’s pregnancy was stupid, yes, Hannah is notorious for being selfish so the idea that she would have a baby with a one-night stand at the time her career is finally taking off seems out of character for her. Using this pregnancy as a way to mature and finally worry about someone other than herself makes way more sense for Marnie. No matter how many times I watch, her pregnancy has always felt rushed to me. I have a large hatred for using pregnancy as a metaphor for maturity, especially when it becomes the end of a woman’s youth. Having a child does not strip you of youth or beauty, having a child does not mean you can no longer experience life or find new paths. With Hannah’s pregnancy, it feels like she's settling for a life of comfort when she knows it’s not what she desired; that is something Marnie would do, I just can’t wrap my head around it. Hannah has been offered a job to teach at a college in upstate New York. This opportunity is a significant turning point for her, as she contemplates leaving New York City and starting a new chapter in her life. She decides to go on a "goodbye tour" to say farewell to her friends and gain clarity on her next steps. This involves visiting each of her friends to assess their support and her feelings about leaving. Marnie is supportive of Hannah’s decision to take the job. However, she also expresses her desire for Hannah to stay, reflecting their close bond. Marnie offers to move with Hannah, showing her dedication to their friendship. Hannah and Jessa have a strained relationship due to past conflicts, particularly involving Adam. Despite their issues, they share a moment of reconciliation. Jessa apologizes for her past behavior, acknowledging their history and complex friendship.n an unexpected twist, Hannah discovers that Shoshanna is engaged and didn't invite her to the engagement party. This realization highlights the distance that has grown between them. At the party, Shoshanna candidly expresses that she has moved on from the group and is seeking a different path for herself. This is a perfect ending to a show about girls, girls become friends and overtime they drift apart when their life changes course. Marriage, divorce, children, careers, all are factors that cause women to grow apart. However, women have the ability to still love one another even when they are no longer friends- this would have been a beautiful finale to the show.
In the finale of Girls, titled "Latching," Hannah has moved upstate and given birth to her baby boy, Grover. She struggles with the challenges of motherhood, feeling overwhelmed and uncertain as any woman in her situation would. But with support from her mother, Loreen, and Marnie she ultimately finds a sense of peace and acceptance in her new role. The episode ends with Hannah successfully breastfeeding Grover, symbolizing her growth and readiness to embrace the next chapter of her life. Though this episode serves to symbolize Hannah’s next chapter, it feels cheap. Why do we as an audience need to be spoon fed her grievances and struggles with motherhood, it was clear as day in episode 9 when she went on her goodbye tour. It feels like the show was meant to end in Soshana’s bathroom as the four girls fought with a pregnant Hannah. Like how the first episode depicts the four girls coming together again to support a pregnant Jessa, seeking an abortion. These parallels truly captured the complexity and actuality of female friendships overtime, and episode 10 felt like they were giving us an epilogue in case some viewers weren’t satisfied. The finale to Girls is one that many people have talked about over the years and will most likely continue to, for obvious reasons. With modern television we are lucky if we get a season two, let alone six seasons with an actual finale. However that doesn’t free me of the torment that is season six of Girls. I wish pregnancy could be used as a symbol for bravery, maternity, beauty, health, gratitude, and positive things. Instead the finale uses pregnancy to symbolize forced maturity and a loss of independence and creativity, as if Hannah couldn’t have had a baby and continued to be a crazy, aspiring writer in NYC. She was forced to go upstate and settle down, leaving behind her previous life of privilege and chaos for a front porch and a pension. And I hate it. I hate that Hannah wasn’t able to continue her life as a writer, becoming a teacher in season five felt like a positive redirection not a permanent position. All of this on top of having a baby just felt poorly thought out. Women can be a multitude of things, including a mother. Once you have a child you do not instantly lose your own identity but we can talk about that more another time.
If you have read this and haven’t seen Girls against my two disclaimers I admire your persistence, I’m going to continue my rewatch for the soul purpose of hearing Desi call Marnie “Bella” and to get back into my Hannah Horvath speech (where I talk fast and use lots of similes). I hope you enjoyed my long analysis and opinions on the finale of Girls, more specifically why I hate it. Till next time stay flirty, stay thirsty, and stay adventurous.
All Adventurous women do!
See you soon,
Paige B.
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