Girls Season 6 Episode 9 Review: Goodbye Tour

This Girls review contains spoilers.

Girls: Season 6, Episode 9

Being that it’s the episode right before the very last episode of Girls ever (EVER!), about half of “Goodbye Tour” is surprisingly small and meditative. It’s primarily focused on Hannah (and Elijah, but mostly just in relation to Hannah) and a chunk of it is without dialogue: just Hannah wandering NYC, trying to get in touch with her friends, riding the subway.

Girls is often at its best when it feels less like a TV show and more like a short film, so I quite like the vibe of this episode. It’s an interesting, but fitting choice for this series. Rather than ramping up the drama and tension, it slows it all down and gives our protagonist time to think.

There’s also a lot of great moments with Elijah, who has gradually emerged as Hannah’s most stalwart friend. Him softly singing Hannah to sleep with Demi Lovato’s “Cool for the Summer” is both simultaneously funny and touching. And I love the non-sequitur of him revealing he’s stolen a bunch of Chobani yogurts and Hannah excitedly replying, “I’m so proud of you!”

Things do get dramatic later as all the girls assemble in Shoshanna’s bathroom to hash out their dynamic. It’s sad how anticlimactic it is, but it makes perfect sense. These characters have, in a fairly naturalistic way, grown apart. It’s interesting to look back at this series and think about how much more time these people spent together early on, how much more they confided in one another, how much more their lives were conjoined. It’s a testament to how authentic this world feels that we can pinpoint specific moments and periods where these relationships deteriorated but, unlike a conventional sitcom, they never quite rebuilt. They simply remained semi-estranged.

In fact, the big, dramatic hashing-out we might’ve hoped for in this episode already happened way back in Season 3’s “Beach House.” The girls were already a fractured, dysfunctional group three years ago. At this point, there’s just not a lot left to say. However, I will note that, though it makes sense for Shoshanna’s character to move on (in “Beach House” she was already recognizing how much her friends pissed her off and dragged her down), I couldn’t help but feel a little mad at Shosh for finally being back in the show but devoting all her screen time to being extremely cold to everyone. Again, it makes sense, but it’s sad just how totally done with everyone Shoshanna is.

In contrast, Jessa and Hannah finally making up is very touching and feels right. They can’t ever go back to “normal” exactly, but their relationship is so messy — it’s tough to be clear on what precisely either of them should be mad about at this point — it seems silly to hold grudges (though, well, I guess I’d still say Jessa is more in the wrong than Hannah by some distance, but she’s the one who apologizes so that works for me). Hannah saying, “We were all just doing our best” is a sweet moment and a good summary of the realistic portrayal of growing up that Girls has presented throughout. If I were to take one dig at “Goodbye Tour,” however, the extended dancing montage at the end maybe went on a bit.

I should also mention that this is quite a funny episode. Aside from what I already mentioned, there’s more brilliant Elijah stuff like him opting out of the bathroom heart-to-heart (“Gross.”) and unnecessarily calling everyone “feckless whores.” And then there’s Jessa challenging Marnie with the question: “You’re telling me every shit you’ve ever taken has been on a toilet?” Finally, I can’t neglect the opening scene of Hannah interviewing for her new college job where she’s going to be teaching students “the guts and meat of the internet.” “I am 100% the right person to show them the internet,” says Hannah.

I am 100% the right person to review Girls episodes on the internet, so please come back next week for the final episode ever! EVER!!!

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