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'Girls' Recap: Hannah's E-Book Editor Dies, Adam Criticizes Her Lack Of Emotion

Hannah, Jessa, Adam and Ray deal with the death of a friend in episode four of Girls season three, "Dead Inside."

In an earlier season of Girls, there’s a scene where Ray (Alex Karpovsky) tells Hannah (Lena Dunham) that she doesn’t write about anything important and she should write about the stuff that matters, like life and death.

After “Dead Inside,” Hannah can write about death as much as she wants because David, her e-book editor (John Cameron Mitchell), was killed off the show.

The episode begins with Hannah at her publishing office (e-publishing office?), where she learns that David was found dead.

Not surprisingly, Hannah is most concerned about the status of her e-book. David is dead? Meh. It barely registers on Hannah’s emotional Richter scale. Or if it does, it certainly takes a backseat to what David’s death means for her career.

Unlike in the last episode, “She Said OK,” Jessa has lines (and a small storyline) in this one.

Jessa (Jemima Kirke) says that she looks forward to the day she dies because, well, she’s Jessa. Later in the episode, Jessa discovers that a friend she thought was dead actually faked her own deat in order to avoid her and, specifically, drugs. (We’ll see if the show revisits this plotline in the future, but it doesn’t seem like there’s too much material to mine.)

Marnie (Allison Williams) is working out, juicing, running and trying to regain her mojo after her split with Charlie. She’s clearly still struggling and her music video continues to haunt her. When she sees Ray and Hermie (Colin Quinn) watching the video in the office, she flips out, tells Ray off and quits her job at Grumpy’s.

How will Marnie make money next week? No one’s sure, but a good guess says it will involve fancy people, aka the type of people that want Marnie around.

Really, the episode centers on Hannah and her lack of emotional awareness.

Adam (Adam Driver) can’t believe that Hannah barely registers David’s death and that she feels nothing. Their conversation turns and Adam questions why Hannah can’t “mourn quietly.”

Even Ray, whose lone interaction with David was getting slammed into a small table, was more emotional than Hannah after he learned of David’s death.

“Hannah, you don’t think it’s slightly odd that I feel worse than you do and the one time I might this dude, he hurled me across the room into a small table,” Ray asks his employee.

Caroline (Gaby Hoffmann), who made her debut as Adam’s sister last week, returns and goes on an adventure with Hannah and Laird (Jon Glaser), who brings his dead turtle along.

The trio ends up in a cemetery, where they run, dance and frolic, only putting a brief hiatus on their merriment when they pass a family who is mourning.

In the cemetery, Caroline tells Hannah a story about Adam and their young cousin, a girl who was born with Muscular Dystrophy. One week before she died, Adam took his little cousin, rather than his girlfriend, to a high school dance. They danced all night, Caroline said.

While Laird was bawling, Hannah didn’t respond emotionally to Caroline’s story, which was fitting because she made it up. Still, Caroline was incredulous that her story didn’t capture Hannah emotionally.

The episode’s final scene features Hannah walking toward Adam, who is sitting on the steps. She then repeats the tale Caroline told her about a younger cousin with Muscular Dystrophy.

This time, however, she frames it as her story, her tall tale. Hannah says it’s her cousin who had Muscular Dystrophy, who she sat with everyday and tried to share a few crumbs of happiness with before she died.

Girls airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on HBO. Due to the Super Bowl next Sunday, a new episode of Girls will air Saturday, Feb 1 at 10 p.m.

– Matt Castello

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