As the characters of Girls struggled in their varying relationships during the March 13 episode "Old Loves," Elijah was actually succeeding in finding love. Watching Elijah's relationship with Dill Harcourt on Girls gives me some hope that the characters of the HBO show can become functional human beings at some point. And, in "Old Loves," Andrew Rannells was given the chance to show Elijah's ego, vulnerability, charm, and caring side on his date with Dill, culminating in a realistic gay sex scene, however awkward, that makes me believe Elijah could really be in a healthy relationship.
While Girls often highlights the sexual encounters of its leading ladies, the series has never shown a sex scene between two men like it did on "Old Loves." After Elijah feared that his famous news anchor beau wasn't going to introduce him to his fabulous friends (Dill texts with Amanda Knox!), Dill said that Elijah shouldn't accept the kind of relationship where he wouldn't get to meet his friends, and then Dill brought his famous ones right on over. Dill then upped the ante sufficiently by having Elijah jump into fan photos with him at Times Square and sharing a loving kiss in front of said fans.
The pair then went back to Dill's place where they had sex facing one another, a position not commonly seen between men on TV, though a notable exception is HBO’s canceled show Looking. The sex wasn't perfect by any means with Dill screaming orders to Elijah, but the scene was explicit, intimate, and progressive — and by far the best sex anyone was getting on Girls during that episode. And, though viewers have seen many of the characters very exposed during sexual encounters, this was a first for Elijah, whose most memorable sex scene on Girls before this was with Marnie.
Although I'm not confident saying that Elijah and Dill are definitely going to work out, it's a vast improvement for Elijah who previously dated older man George in Seasons 1 and 2 and mean guy Pal in Season 3. Yes, it's almost too perfect that a dreamy, famous, and gay journalist picked up the fame-seeking Elijah at a bar. However, I love that Elijah wasn't the one who pursued Dill and also how Elijah is being himself (albeit a toned down version of himself) with Dill. It's perhaps the healthiest romantic relationship that Girls has shown fans in a long while, if not ever. (Although hopefully the sex gets a little less demanding?)
As Hannah, Jessa, and Marnie are on the path to potential self-destruction (don't even get me started on the whole Jessa-Adam thing), Elijah may have found a good thing in Dill. As the second-to-last scene of the episode ended with Elijah admiring the view of New York City from Dill's swanky high-rise apartment, I just hope that Dill continues to be a man that Elijah is truly interested in — and that Elijah doesn't keep dating him if the relationship goes south just because of all the perks that go along with it. Now, Girls — give me an episode where Dill gets to meet Elijah's friends, please?
Images: Craig Blankenhorm, Mark Schafer/HBO; Giphy
