Girls Review: The Bounce (Season 6 Episode 7)

As we quickly approach the final episodes of Girls, storylines are being tied up, characters are showing growth, there are faces from the past, and there is an indication as to where our favorite characters will end up.

Girls Season 6 Episode 7, “The Bounce,” focuses heavily on Elijah, but there is a big moment for both Hannah and Marnie. Plot-wise, “The Bounce” is a little thin, but it is still a satisfying episode.

“The Bounce” starts off with Elijah and his co-worker, Paget, talking about a scandal Elijah’s ex, Dill, is involved in. Elijah asks her to cover his shift because he has an audition.

Paget: Why are you auditioning? You’re afraid to become too famous.

Elijah confides to Paget that his first audition for Papa John’s was humiliating and so he stopped going on them. But she says that’s just what actors have to go through. Seeing Elijah’s audition for White Men Can’t Jump, the musical, shows us just how horrible the casting process is.

Everything about the audition is entertaining, from the disinterested casting agents to Elijah’s serious pipes to his dancing disaster with a basketball. It’s also fun to see Andrew Rannells go through the motions of auditioning for a Broadway play when he is a huge Broadway star.

Elijah continues to have the best lines, but we also see him grow up a little. Ever since Hannah and Elijah’s fight, he has had to come to terms with the way his life is turning out. It’s obviously not how he thought his life would be.

To make things more complicated for Elijah, his ex, Dill shows up just as he is heading out for the audition.

Dill: You look adorable in your little gym outfit.

We all know that Dill and Elijah will have sex by the end of the episode, but even that happens in an unpredictable way.

At the audition, Elijah is about to leave before he even starts, because Dill is in his head. It’s an excuse really to just give up. Thankfully, he runs into Athena Dante, who needs her own show, like now.

Athena is played by Latisha Di Venuto who is the scene-stealer of “The Bounce.” She and Elijah have natural chemistry and when she is on screen, you just want to know more about her.

With Athena at his side, Elijah perseveres throughout his audition and actually does fairly well. The confidence he gains prepares him to confront Dill about being cast aside.

Elijah has the upper hand for once with Dill. If he hadn’t gone through with the audition, he would have probably ended up in bed with Dill too, but nothing would have changed between them.

Another sign of growth in Elijah is when Athena asks him to go to Starbucks with her after the audition. Old Elijah probably would have gone because he likes acting young and like he doesn’t have any responsibility.

But he doesn’t go.

Back at the apartment, Hannah is stuck babysitting Dill. Even he has an opinion on whether or not she should tell Paul-Louis about the baby. We’re treated to more screen time with Riz Ahmed and his reaction to the baby news is well, kind of what Hannah expects.

Paul-Louis isn’t a bad guy, but we know that he isn’t ready to be a father. The way things end on the phone with him, it’s not 100% certain that he won’t be a part of the baby’s life at some point. If he really didn’t care, would he have thrown out the name suggestion of Grover for a boy?

Hannah did drop a major bombshell on him, so maybe after he thinks about it for a while, maybe he’ll want to be involved.

Or not.

Hannah’s reaction is very realistic. She’s been saying for weeks that she wasn’t even sure she wanted Paul-Louis to know, but she isn’t quite prepared to hear him say that he doesn’t want to be a part of their child’s life.

Thank goodness Dill is there to comfort her before he collapses into his own puddle of tears.

“The Bounce” unfortunately does not have Ray or Shosh, but yet we’re subjected to more Marnie. Marnie is facing eviction now that Desi stopped paying rent for a place he doesn’t live in. So, Marnie decides to pawn off some family jewelry to pay for rent.

The pawn shop owner rolls his eyes at Marnie as she yells at him about her lying family. He also offers her some sage advice. However, it’s just hard to believe that Marnie would take what he says to heart and to actually start making a change.

It’s all too neat and certainly doesn’t ring true to Marnie’s awful personality. Then again, she is at rock bottom, so maybe she’s ready to make a change.

Overall, “The Bounce” is a good episode with some great moments and some of the funniest lines of the season.

From the previews for the next episode, it looks like Adam isn’t ready to give Hannah up just yet.

How do we feel about this?

Last Thoughts:

• The running joke about Dill wanting to buy a white baby on the black market is very funny.
• The fitness classes Marnie had to cancel sound ridiculous.
• I kind of want Marnie to embrace the Michaels Sisters. She deserves that fate.
• If Shoshanna is not in the next episode (which it doesn’t look like she is) I’m going to be furious.
• Who knew that when I was watching Season 2 of Girls, I would be so sad to see it end in Season 6.

What did you think of this episode of Girls? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Reviewer Rating:

User Rating:

Girls airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.

 

Follow us on Twitter @telltaleTV_

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!