Allison Williams in a scene playing Marnie in HBO's "Girls" Season 5 episode 6. (Photo : HBO)
"Girls" season 5 episode 6, titled "The Panic in Central Park," brought back a familiar face for Marnie (Allison Williams), as she traversed the streets of New York all the way to the path of self-awareness. The episode knocked it out of the park, delivering a poignant and solid episode.
The episode started with Marnie angrily calling out Desi (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) for playing "aggressive guitar" on her. The conversation immediately escalated to an argument where Desi ended up crying and Marnie going outside for a walk, wherein she gets cat-called and sees Charlie (Christopher Abbott).
Initially, Marnie decided to ignore him but Charlie follows her and invites her to a party. Obviously, Marnie is still pissed at Charlie for all the bad things that he said about her when he left without an explanation. He explained that he was going through something at the time with his father dying by committing suicide.
Charlie then took her to a store, bought her a dress before going off in a posh party where Charlie sold cocaine to some rich guy. Surprisingly, Marnie did not freak out as she played along when she got mistaken for a hooker. She scammed the guy for $600 as she and Charlie spent the money for dinner.
This version of Charlie is different, and Marnie recognized it as she says, "It's like you are not trying to please everyone anymore."
As the night went by, they decided to go to Central Park to ride a boat. Marnie tells Charlie that half of her album is actually about him, about how she coped in losing a "family" in Charlie. Once they were in the boat, they seize the moment to kiss as they both fell into the water.
The scene led to a beautiful shot of Marnie, momentarily suspended underwater, as she opened her eyes in what looked like some sort of awakening. The scene could serve as a visual summary for the episode.
On the way to Charlie's apartment, still soaking wet, the two of them get mugged and in the most Marnie-like fashion, she says, "I didn't know that people get robbed anymore."
Inside the apartment, Charlie talked about running away together and for a moment, Marnie did look like she was considering it as they slept together. Everything felt like a dream-like sequence because the episode didn't show the Marnie that the audience is used to seeing.
In the morning, her old self surfaced upon finding the needles used by Charlie for heroin. Normally, Marnie would've said some unsolicited and self-righteous advice to Charlie. However, the night before, she also said that she "does not feel the need to change anybody anymore." The seemingly overnight change in Marnie feels earned as she leaves Charlie's apartment wearing the dress that Charlie brought her as she walked barefooted.
On the staircase, she sees Desi who could have been waiting all night for her. The inevitable confrontation began with Marnie finally telling Desi that she did not really want to be married to him and that she married him just because she "didn't want to give up on another dream."
At first, it seemed like Desi was going to take it as an adult until he told her that she will get murdered saying that is how "little sense of the world" she has before he started crying.
Finally, she conceded that she still has not figured everything out for herself and that she has some serious fixing to do with her life. The scene was cathartic and Allison Williams sold it by making it look like the turning point that finally sets Marnie free.
As the episode went to its conclusion, we see Marnie back to where it all began as cuddled up with Hannah in their previously shared apartment.
"Girls" season 5 airs every Tuesday on HBO at 9:00 PM (eastern time).
Watch Lena Dunham's take on "The Panic in Central Park" here:
Disclaimer: Views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of Yibada.
