During the first two episodes of this season of Girls, barely got to know much about Shoshanna’s new life in Japan. During the opener installment, however, we learned that the cookies of the foursome was ecstatic about her new home. Episode 3, “Japan” finally loops us in as to what Shosh has been up to. And it’s all very colorful. Until it’s not.
“Japan” follows a typical day in Shosh’s live. From her morning ritual in her out-of-Candy-Crush-like apartment, to her “Japan-cassual” wardrobe, to her relationship with her coworkers, one thing is clear, she fits in. The same traits that made Shoshanna a neurotic Brooklyn girl, actually cast her in a better light in Tokyo. In fact, as it appears, she is now a people-person. It’s a very welcome change, and once again, as the season moves on, it does look like all the girls are starting to find their own footing.
In spite of having been able to maintain a long-distance relationship with Scott, a tidbit we learned during “Wedding”, in “Japan” we see that Shosh has a massive crush on a coworker, Yoshi, who reciprocates the feelings but seems utterly confused regarding her relationship status. For the first half of the episode, the possibility of a breakup or an affair, appears as the only source of potential drama. That is until the worst happens. Shosh is fired via Skype. It’s sayonara Tokyo.
Naturally, Shoshanna has a hard time accepting the fact that she needs to pack and leave. Her new friends, who, unlike Jessa, Marnie and Hannah, treat her like an equal, attempt to make her see the upside of things by pointing out that her return to the US also means she will be able to be with Scott. Shosh tries to convince herself that her friends might be right and calls her boyfriend, who, as the good guy he is, tells her he’s sorry she’s lost her job but that he’s selfishly happy to have her back. He also encourages her to take the next flight to NYC.
Back in New York, Hannah has found pictures of naked girls in Fran’s phone, which of course causes a stir. Fran is very candid about the situation and admits that he uses those pictures, who belong to his exes, as a visual stimuli. Hannah, still seeing red, pleads her case: he should use porn, like everyone else. This prompts her boyfriend to rant about all the reasons why pornography is wrong. This is an argument where it’s hard to pick a side. To begin with, Fran’s argument agains an exploitative industry sort of makes me want to kiss him. A man who arguments, with such conviction, why a willingly sent image of real woman’s body is sexy to him, while manufactured product is not, is what most woman in the world dream their partners would think. At the same time, Hannah is upset because the woman in those pictures are not anonymous to her boyfriend, while random actress would be. It’s history vs. fantasy. It is also understandable why she’d be bothered.
Hannah resorts to Marnie, who is spending her honeymoon in Ecuador, to tackle the situation, but Marn doesn’t say what Hannah wants to hear, so she goes to Ray, who ultimately decides to help. They recruit Elijah for an impromptu photoshoot at the coffee shop. The whole thing was hilarious, yet Elijah takes the cake when he coaches Hannah as to how to smile “not the Katie Holmes” is one of the best lines of the episode.
In parallel “Jessam” seem to still be trying to be just friends, which is going to backfire very soon, I bet. The twosome and Ray are very cozy, watching Adam’s latest tv gig on the couch. Jessa cannot stop praising her, er, friend. She keeps repeating how impressed she is, and again, it’s hard not to get the feeling that we are seeing two people in the process of falling in love.
Once Ray goes to sleep, Jessa and Adam are left alone and the later wastes no time in getting closer to the girl. With the pretense of having written a haiku on the ceiling, he nears her and steals a kiss. Jessa, once again, repeats that why are just friends and leaves. The situation will have to get a resolution fast.
Speaking about resolutions, Shosh has decided to have one last wild night in Japan and meets with a group of friends (Yoshi included) at a club. Then part of the group head to a BDSM salon, where craziness ensues. Long story short, Shosh and Yoshi leave the place, with her wearing a sexy nurse costume, and the two kiss.
The following day, a sad looking Shosh packs her bags. Then she listens to a voice message from her boyfriend. The kind of message that would make most girls melt struck something, as a result, Shoshanna starts unpacking, while Scott waits in vain at the airport, for the girl who didn’t bother to let him know she was not going to show up.
Back to Hannah and the naked pics drama, she sneakily grabs Fran’s phone and deletes every image that does not belong to her, while she presets her own image as the screensaver. It’s infantile at best, but deep down, hard to question too.
All in all “Japan” works. It was nice to be privy to Shoshanna’s new life, however, the episode was slightly disjointed ad started to show a slight devolvement from the previous growing up that the girls had been exhibiting.
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