For an episode titled “Boys,” it’s unsurprising that the strongest section of the episode focuses on the men of Girls, and the episode gets a lot of value about exploring the thoroughly weird dynamic between a couple of manchildren: Ray and Adam. Their pathetic little adventure to Staten Island, spurred by a search for Little Women, manages to be equal parts funny (lots of great lines – “I put baking soda on it!” “I’m Greek Orthodox!”) and sad (Adam’s inability to get over Hannah despite his claims to the contrary, Ray’s growing dissatisfaction with his [admittedly pretty shitty] life).

Marnie’s subplot should have worked. I did love the scene where Shoshanna and Marnie chat, neither paying any attention to what the other is saying, each constructing their own personal narrative. But Marnie’s fantasy-shattering confrontation with the detestable Jonathan Booth was both predictable and poorly executed; Alison William’s ‘crying’ was straight out a student production.

The phone call between Hannah and Marnie that followed, a conversation where each constructs a fiction around themselves that closes the other out, eroding an already damaged friendship, should have been the highlight of the episode. But that one false note left me disengaged from the storyline.