The Girls Reluctantly Return In New 'Girls' Promo

The girls of Girls are back. With the ultimate season of Lena Dunham's groundbreaking dramedy months away, HBO has released another look at what's ahead. (Mostly disagreement, despair, and an uncomfortable, but necessary Adam and Hannah sit-down.) In the latest promo for Season 6 of Girls , Marnie (Allison Williams) holds a bathroom "group meeting," as she attempts to serve as mediator for her feuding friends. Yeah, you quickly learn that Marnie, Hannah (Dunham), Jessa (Jemima Kirke), and Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) are still not in a good place. And it's still not clear if they will ever find their way back to one.

By the time the final season of Girls premieres on HBO on Feb. 12, fans will have spent nearly five years with these four characters. Viewers will have witnessed the many (many) highs and lows of their relational dynamics. Take, for instance, Season 5. It opened with all four girls at Marnie's wedding, and then over the course of its remaining episodes, it casually, subtly, and then all at once, displaced them from each other. In the season finale, there were clear divides within the foursome, and each character was headed down a divergent path. Though the Season 6 promo reads, "They will always be there. No matter what," if Season 5 — and actually, all of its predecessors — are indicators, the future doesn't look so simple. This is Girls after all. As showrunner Jenni Konner told Bustle back in February, "It's not a straight arrow."

Girls Season 6 could potentially mirror the narrative of Girls Season 5. As in, Season 5 begins in a place of unity and ends in a place of conflict, whereas Season 6 begins in conflict and hopefully (if you're pulling for a happy ending) ends in unity. What better way to demonstrate this resolution trajectory than with Hannah, the center of both her universe and the show's? The final shot of Hannah in Season 5 was hopeful, and capped a real character arc. After her successful live-reading at The Moth, Miss Horvath ran confidently across the Williamsburg Bridge, and the season culminated in a final, victorious freeze shot.

Hannah's final statement in the promo feels like a self-aware gut punch to all those who both critique and praise her myopic viewpoints. It also feels like real maturation and an extension of Season 5's ending. "It can be pretty hard to have observations about other people when you’re only thinking about yourself," she tells a sobbing Marnie in the trailer. "I would know."

If Hannah Horvath is the voice of reason, either fans are in dire trouble or headed for a rewarding and reconciliatory season of Girls. (Personally, I'm pining for both.)

Image: HBO/YouTube