With Hannah Horvath, it often feels like she goes two steps forward only to go three steps back. But, in the final season of Girls, Hannah appears to be moving toward a future where she actually makes responsible decisions. She's holding down jobs, writing for places like the New York Times and Esquire, and hitting her deadlines. She's focused on taking ownership of her past mistakes, offering some helpful advice and support to a struggling Marnie. Hannah's even showing that she may just be ready for motherhood by considering what she needs to do to be a good mother. That's why the latest episode, "Full Disclosure," felt like a hiccup in Hannah's road to adulthood by hinting that Hannah and Adam could actually get back together.
Now, we've been here before. Like, a lot. But, this time, it felt like a rehashing of a past that is long gone, a desperate attempt to make something happen that just shouldn't. Adam and Hannah shouldn't be Girls' endgame because they don't push one another forward; they force each other to go backwards. They don't allow one another to be the people they are now, but instead narrow each other into who the other needed them to be at the time when they were together.
It's now easy for the two to idealize the past they shared, especially when Adam's making a movie that cherry-picks the moments that make for a good narrative. What fans know from watching five seasons of the show, though, is that Adam and Hannah had a relationship that was volatile, futile, and unsustainable. When they're together, neither wants to admit that they're not the same people that they were before.
After Adam finishes his movie about his relationship with Hannah, he goes to her apartment looking for confirmation that he got it right. It's not an easy ask, but Adam's hoping to convince Hannah that watching this 45 minute movie about their antagonistic love affair will give them both closure. "Closure" feels like a funny word here, since these two haven't been together in years. The reason they're in the position they're in now, with Adam chasing her down the street begging her to watch his movie, doesn't have so much to do with dealing with the aftermath of their own relationship. It has to do with the one Adam started with Jessa. Hannah is upset that her best friend started dating her ex-boyfriend, and the closure she needs is with her, not him.
I understand how this potential reunion between Adam and Hannah might seem desirable. The two people who managed to keep Hannah together when she thought she couldn't do it on her own won't be a part of the biggest challenge she'll ever face: motherhood. The realization of that is written all over Adam's face; once again, he's ready to be her knight in shining armor. After making a movie where he stepped back into that role for fictional purposes, he's convinced that he could again do it for real. And, after watching his movie, Hannah is also thrown back into the passion of their relationship, the fairytale that he's put on screen. No matter that it's more Grimm Brothers than Disney, it's familiar. At a time when so much is changing, Hannah's willing to take that journey back in time to when things felt a whole lot simpler.
But it shouldn't go ignored that Hannah has this blast from the past after telling Jessa she's not interested in making up. She's not interested in Jessa being a part of her life or her baby's. It's not Adam that has her wanting to go back; it's Jessa looking to reconcile that has her thinking of the better times — times that, in actuality, weren't all that great.
That's why I hope this hint at an Adam and Hannah reunion is just a red herring, since putting them back together would delay their journeys. What Adam really needs is a movie consultant, since his producer, Jessa, can't be impartial to the retelling of his love story with Hannah. What Hannah needs is closure with Jessa. To reunite those two girls in would be the only happy Girls ending I would root for. It's also one the show foreshadowed in the Season 4 episode "Sit-In," when Hannah comes home from Iowa to find Adam with Mimi-Rose — a woman who so perfectly reflected her own insecurities. While locked in the bathroom worrying about what to do next, Marnie tells Hannah she needs to stop thinking Adam is her great love and start focusing on her friendships. “So I guess we’re not like some great artistic love story,” Hannah says about her breakup with Adam, only to have Marnie say, “Maybe we are.”
In the end, this show has always been about its girls. And, with only four episodes to go, there's no better time than now to put the focus back on their relationships.
