'Girls' Review: Gaby Hoffmann Steals The Show As Adam's Sister Caroline In "She Said OK"

by Matt CastelloJanuary 20, 2014, 3:53 pmTV >

4/5

by Matt CastelloJanuary 20, 2014, 3:53 pmTV >

Happy birthday, Hannah!

It feels like our little girl is growing up, doesn’t it? The Girls crew celebrated Hannah’s 25th birthday in style at a bar in “She Said OK.”

A new character stole the show Sunday. Adam’s sister, Caroline, played by Gaby Hoffmann, was the star of the episode and turned in an extremely memorable performance based on the script penned by Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner.

To be more specific, Caroline’s pubic hair provided the episode with its most memorable moment. In the episode’s penultimate scene, Hannah (Dunham) and Adam (Adam Driver) return from the bar where Hannah’s birthday party was held and start warming up for some birthday sex. Alas, Hannah has to pee and when she opens the bathroom door, she discovers Caroline standing in the doorway completely naked.

Well, she’s not completely naked. She has a t-shirt on, but her pubic hair is out in the open and there is a lot of it. She could probably knit a small child a hat with all that pubic hair.

(It’s strange, but I find myself wondering how long she spent in makeup getting her pubic hair prepared for the scene. 20 minutes? An hour? Two?)

Anyway, Caroline then breaks a glass in her hand, proving Adam correct that she is bat-s–t crazy. Caroline is certainly a promising character and I would be surprised if she was not in the next episode or two.

Marnie (Allison Williams) is a damn mess. She helps plan Hannah’s birthday party to help avoid thinking about Charlie and the music video he uploaded online that she’s trying to take down.

“I know what I know if you know what I mean. Philosophy is the talk on a cereal box. Religion is a smile on a dog.”

Never change, Marnie. Never change.

Meanwhile, Adam convinces Hannah that his sister is bad news and that she should not stay in the spare bedroom in their apartment.

(How can Adam and Hannah afford an apartment with a spare room? This makes no sense but we’ll just chalk it up to TV magic, the same way the characters on Friends had beautiful apartments when all they did was talk and drink coffee all day.)

However, Caroline pulls her pants down and reveals a bunch of bruises that she says her ex gave her.

“He f–king hit you. Where is he now?” Adam asks, trying to look only half interested. You can tell, though, that he’s angry and that he would beat the s–t out of the guy that hit his sister if he got the chance.

Silver lining! Hannah, probably feeling guilty that she’s kicking Caroline out, invites Caroline to come to her birthday party.

Mr. and Mrs. Horvath show up at their daughter’s party at a bar because they’re paying for it! (As Mrs. Horvath mentions twice) Yay parents!

After her dad tells Hannah she looks wonderful, Marnie chimes in.

“Doesn’t she? I keep telling her she could look like this every day if she wanted.”

What an unnecessary thing to say. Is Marnie becoming more of a b—h or is it just me?

Later, Marnie gets nostalgic and brings up Hannah’s 21st birthday, back when life was much more simple (at least for her).

Back then, Marnie and Hannah sang the duet “Take Me or Leave Me” from Rent and Marnie says, “it was like the happiest we’ve ever been.”

“We should do it again. There’s a stage right there,” Marnie tells Hannah.

“Marnie, I cherish you on an interpersonal level, I love this party, the last thing I want to do is sing anything from Rent.”

Not quite the response Marnie was hoping for, but she says, “OK.”

OK generally means that you’ve accepted whatever someone told you, but Marnie’s OK was more of a placeholder for, “Boo you, you whore.”

The funniest interaction of the episode featured Caroline and Ray (Alex Karpovsky).

Ray is standing, drinking a beer, and soaking in some music, when a stranger starts dancing around him. It’s Caroline, Adam’s sister.

“You’re not dancing,” she says.

“No, I’m not,” he responds.

“You’re not f–king dancing.”

“I’m not f–king dancing.”

“Dance with me.”

“I’m gonna pass.”

Ray is fine standing alone. Caroline then tells him some pertinent information. She leaves her body during sex. It’s called disassociation. It’s an anxiety symptom, she says.

Then, she bites him on the arm. Naturally.

“What the f–k is wrong with you?” Ray says, taken aback.

She laughs and offers a meek sorry with a shoulder shrug.

It’s more of a sorry I’m not sorry type apology.

Ray’s night gets worse when he meets some guy named Kobe at the bar. Turns out that Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) invited Kobe.

Ray spots his ex-girlfriend and goes outside to talk to Shosh. They proceed to have one of the most awkward conversations in TV history, a testament to the writing. Ray basically tells Shoshanna that he doesn’t want to be friends with her, that he can’t be friends with her.

Kudos to Dunham and Konner for constructing and writing the scene with Ray and Shoshanna outside the bar the way they did. On an awkward scale of 1-10, their conversation was a 12.

Hannah’s eBook editor, David, played by John Cameron Mitchell, shows up to the bar. He’s hammered and is angry that “someone b—hed out [him] again. Some little baby fucking b—h.”

Later in the episode, he gets into a fight with Ray because he asked the DJ to turn off Ray’s song and switch to LMFAO’s, “Sexy and I Know It.”

An angry Ray confronts David about this change and ends up getting thrown onto a table after he calls David, “Dicknose,” an insult I have never before heard on television.

Nothing says “Happy birthday” like giving a necklace with your (or your sister’s) tooth to your girlfriend. Well played, Adam. Well played.

I guess it’s ironic that Hannah didn’t have sex on her birthday. Sorry, Hannah. No birthday sex for you.

While the episode didn’t have as many laugh-out-loud moments as the previous one, it was still a strong episode and it sets up a lot of potential storylines for the rest of the third season. It will be interesting to see how long Caroline’s arc is on the show.

To Lena Dunham I say: MORE Alex Karpovsky. You can’t give Alex Karpovsky too much screen time. It is impossible. Ray remains the best character on the show.

Best line of the episode:

Ray To Shoshanna

““I just don’t. I don’t want to be polite with you, I don’t want to have small talk with you. I just don’t think um…Anyway, enjoy your evening. Enjoy your life. Cool cigarette.”

Get Uinterview's FREE iPhone App For Daily News Updates here.

Get the FREE Uinterview iPad app here and watch our videos anywhere.