A ‘Girls’ Season Three Refresher Guide

Excited for Season Four of Girls? Mildly intrigued? A notch or two above indifferent? Wherever you are on the excitability index, it’s been almost a year since we left the four adult babies in existential prisons of their own design. So it’s only natural that one might forget exactly where we left Hannah, Marnie, Jessa and poor, sweet Shoshanna when Season Three ended last March. Thankfully, here’s a handy refresher guide getting you up to date with each character.

Hannah

Season Three kicked off with Hannah and Adam living together in a sweet, but semi-codependent situation where they made a game out of making sure Hannah took her psych meds. That domestic bliss is short lived, however, when Adam’s shrill and psychotic sister Caroline (played with aplomb by Gaby Hoffman) comes to live with the couple after getting dumped by her boyfriend.

Professionally, Hannah is on her way to becoming the voice of her generation, or a generation, with her forthcoming e-book complete with the first chapter being teased out on Nerve.com. Unfortunately, her fate as the next great first-person oversharing it girl goes up in flames when Hannah’s editor abruptly dies, killing her publishing deal in the process. This forces her to get an actual job writing sponsored copy for GQ. Although, given the fact that Hannah is treated to sage advice from Patti Lupone and free nights in five-star hotel suites, it’s definitely not the worst professional disappointment she could have suffered. That is until she decides that cube life is stifling her talent, so she applies to the prestigious Iowa’s Writers Workshop and gets in. The season ends on a cliffhanger where Hannah is holding her acceptance letter post-break up with Adam. We’ve all seen the Season For trailer, though, so we all know she ends up going. Not much of a mystery there.

On the relationship front, things between Adam and Hannah start getting turbulent after she kicks his sister out of his house and he wins a role on a Broadway show. Hannah starts becoming insecure that Adam’s success will ultimately drive a rift between them, and it ends up becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy when he ends up moving out and in with Ray so that he can focus on getting ready for his stage debut. Hannah’s poor timing in telling him that she got into grad school in Iowa right before his performance prompts a break-up in the season finale.

Shoshanna

Poor, neurotic Shoshanna was far and away the most neglected and underutilized character of the third season, as far as development, screen time, and the writers’ glaring inability to figure out what to do with her. Season Three starts out with meticulously plotting out her fifteen-year life plan, fresh off of her breakup with Ray and right on the cusp of her graduation from NYU.Sadly, a massive wrench gets thrown into that life plan when she finds out that she failed a class and won’t get to walk. Unfortunately, despite the fact that Ray got his act together — in terms of getting himself a respectable job and presentable apartment, at least — per Shoshanna’s misgivings with him from Season Two, he doesn’t want anything to do with her post-breakup.

Shoshanna’s shining moment of the season was in the stand-alone beach house episode where she acted as audience surrogate in a cathartic meltdown where she broke down exactly why each of the other girls was a failure as a friend and a human being.

Sadly, Shosh’s storyline didn’t pick up until the end of the season when she freaks out on Marnie after finding out she slept with Ray behind her back. Then, she makes a sad plea to get back together with Ray, only to get shot down. Heartbreaking.

Marnie

Marnie starts off the season saddled with the wreckage Charlie left in her wake after abruptly breaking up with her because actor Christopher Abbott just as abruptly left the show. She also moves into her own apartment and is, in a sense, isolated from the rest of the group given that Shoshanna is living with Jessa and Hannah is cohabitating with Adam.

Charlie’s final fuck-you to Marnie consists of him uploading a video of Marnie warbling to an Edie Brickell song online for the entire Internet to ridicule. The fact that Ray and Hermie are making fun of the video at Grumpy causes Marnie to go completely nuclear and quit her cafe job. That doesn’t stop her from eventually sleeping with Ray a few times, despite the fact that Shoshanna is still hung up on him. Of course, just when Marnie assumes she has Ray locked into a casual and convenient secret fuck-buddy scenario, Ray puts the breaks on the situation by telling Marnie that he’s looking for a more substantial relationship — and not one with her. She then storms out of his apartment and into a flirtation with Desi, Adam’s hot, haggy theater buddy. The pair start collaborating musically, but they also start flirting, which is ill advised since Desi has a girlfriend who is well aware that Marnie has designs on her man. Still, Desi and Marnie end up kissing, which further complicates a situation that clearly won’t end well.

Jessa

In keeping with tradition, perpetual free spirit Jessa is far and away the most unhinged member of the group. She starts the season in rehab, unbeknownst to the other girls. That is, until her reckless behavior gets her booted from the facility, prompting Hannah, Adam, and Shoshanna to embark on a road trip to pick her up. In an effort to establish some stability in her life, Jessa takes a job manning the counter at a children’s clothing store, only to end up robbing her employers for coke money when Jasper, a creepy older rehab buddy, comes back into the fray and influences her into relapsing.

Jessa then happens into a new job when she charms an artist showing work at Marnie’s friend’s gallery into hiring her as an archivist. However, this new “job” is just a ruse for Bedelia to convince Jessa to help her end her own life. Once Bedelia wears down Jessa’s resistance and has her administer the pills that will ultimately kill her, the artist has a change of heart and decides that she wants to live. Naturally, Bedelia decides this after she ingested a lethal dose of pills and demands that Jessa call 911 leaving the rest of us to wonder if Bedelia will survive this botched suicide attempt or if Jessa will end up behind bars on a manslaughter charge. Ugh, Jessa.

Maggie Serota is a Staff Editor at Death and Taxes and a freelance writer who loves TV more than life itself.

 

Like what you see? Follow Decider on Facebook and Twitter to join the conversation, and sign up for our email newsletters to be the first to know about streaming movies and TV news!

Photos: HBO; Courtesy Everett Collection