With Lena Dunham's runaway hit Girls on HBO wrapping up its second season on Sunday, fans are already anticipating what these season's dark twists mean for the future of the show. With the first season of Girls debuting on HBO less than a year ago, a whole mess of changes have occurred between best friends Hannah, Jessa, Marnie, and Shosanna, leaving the plot in a dangerous place. Compared to the first season's stories of young people struggling with financial independence and awkward sex, Dunham bravely tackled more serious topics of mental illness, unemployment, and infidelity. In typical Girls style, the season 2 finale will likely leave the characters hanging in limbo, as Hannah struggles to write her book and stay sane, Marnie navigates unemployment and the gray area with her ex Charlie, Shosanna tackles her lackluster relationship with Ray, and Jessa deals with the demons of divorce and family. Take a look back at some of the highlights of this season and check out the short episode 10 video preview below.
I know that the darkness of the second season of Girls has garnered a lot of criticism for pushing the limits in its frankness, but personally I found it wonderfully realistic. Hannah has always been an anxious person. The stress of writing a book on such a short deadline would make anyone crack, never mind someone already possessing OCD tendencies. The portrayal of Hannah's mental break brought credibility to her character's quirks and unpredictability and looking forward to the season finale I think that we will see the stress of her insecurities come to a head.
Shoshanna's decision to cheat on Ray in the eighth episode of the season will likely be exposed in the season finale, and I'm sure that the other issues in their relationship, primarily Ray's lack of success and their large age difference will lead to a break up. Shoshanna's growth over this season from a comically naive girl to a young woman questioning everything she had believed about adulthood is a brilliant move on Dunham's part, and I am seriously looking forward to seeing Shoshanna grow even more as a person in the next season.
Marnie has always been the character that I personally identified with most, and her transition from the ambitious girl who did everything right in the first season to the young adult without a clue this season really spoke to me. I'm hoping that in the finale we will see Marnie take some ownership over her own life: instead of playing the victim for being unemployed and angry about her ex Charlie's success, she'll demonstrate some self-awareness to pull herself out of her own crisis.
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