Going into Girls’ penultimate episode, it was pretty clear things were about to change in a huge way for our heroine, Hannah Horvath (Lena Dunham). Season 6’s "Goodbye Tour" lived up to its name, following the pregnant young woman as she let go of New York City in favour of a perfect teaching opportunity upstate. She also had one last great, terrible, selfish hurrah with her fellow Girls girls, Marnie (Allison Williams), Jessa (Jemima Kirke), and Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet).
The moment left me sure the members of the Girls "group" do not have to be friends anymore — and that’s not a bad thing.
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Hannah and Shoshanna’s friendship is so fractured, the mum-to-be never told her so-called friend she’s pregnant. Shosh responds by not telling Hannah she’s engaged, and subsequently not inviting her to her big engagement party. It’s a huge slight, since even Hannah’s roommate Elijah (Andrew Rannells) scored an invite to the bash.
As the engagement party turmoil is about to boil over, Marnie recommends a group meeting in the bathroom. As these four women stare each other down in Shoshanna’s teeny-tiny powder room, it’s impossible to ignore the fact this quartet isn’t much of a "group" any more.
Shosh wants friends with "jobs and purses and nice personalities." The remaining girls don’t exactly fit that mould most of the time. Jessa and Marnie’s employment status is dubious at best, and throughout Hannah’s pre-party trek through NYC I was terrified she was going to lose her purse at any second. And we all know the personalities of these ladies tend to fall on the self-obsessed side of the spectrum.
Of course Shoshanna shouldn’t be friends with these women as she grows as a person and leaves her college-self behind.
The same reasoning can be applied to Oberlin grads Jessa and Marnie’s polar-opposites "friendship." Although contrasts sometimes make relationships stronger, Jessa and Marnie simply resent the other’s differences. Their final conversation in the bathroom illustrates why they need to go their separate ways for good.
"Of course people shit in the street. You’ve shit in the street, right?" Jessa asks Marnie. "No," the musician responds indignantly. "You’re telling me every shit you’ve ever taken has been on a toilet?" Jessa continues, rolling her eyes. Of course, Marnie is still saying, "Yes." This is not fun banter between two people who need to be friends for old time’s sake; it’s a conversation between virtual strangers.
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We leave "Goodbye Tour" realising Hannah and Jessa are the only two women here whose friendship is built on mutual understanding rather than proximity and college diplomas. While these two have had their Adam-related drama in the past, they finally put that behind each other as Hannah’s due date and exit from New York looms over them. Jessa gives Hannah a gift for her baby, and in return Hannah tells her longtime friend she’s having a baby boy, which is something no one else knows yet.
Their tearful apologies to each other is the most adult moment in the entire episode, as Hannah perfectly encapsulates their problems and resolution with one sentence. "I don’t know who’s really supposed to be sorry for what, so at this point we should really just call it," she says. It’s a scene every woman who’s fought with a dear friend can recognise.
With only one episode of Girls left, let's hope we see this pair of BFFs stronger than ever in the finale.
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