Lena Dunham does it again this week on Girls when she created an episode focusing on Jessa and her relationship with her distant and separated father Salvatore Johansson (played by Ben Mendelsohn) who has not seen in what seems to be years. Hannah goes with Jessa on this journey to New York Countryside in Manitou.

Photo: Jessica Miglio/HBO found on The Huffington Post
The opening scene has the girls waiting at the train station for Jessa’s dad. Hannah as always is complaining, this time, it’s because she needs to use a bathroom and this train station unfortunately did not even have a port-o-potty. Jessa suggests that she pee in the open (while a few people are lining up on the train platform (you have to love Jessa’s sick and twisted sense of humor!)

Photo: Jessica Miglio/HBO found on The Huffington Post
Jessa’s father comes after hours of the girls waiting for him to come pick them up. His beat up station wagon looked like an episode of Hoarders which tons of crap in his car including older Apple computers. He explained that he can’t get rid of the computers because he doesn’t want people to steal his ideas.
He has a history of moving around a lot and substance abuse. It pained me to watch this uniquely damaged father-daughter relationship that looked as though this 24 year old had to act like a child to get her father’s attention because he couldn’t handle fatherhood. Jessa decision to visit her father after receiving a number of messages from him.

Photo: Jessica Miglio/HBO found on The Huffington Post
The Bohemian lifestyle that he lives includes his former girlfriend, Petula (played by Rosanna Arquette), who was also his masseuse at his last drug rehab center. She lives a very spiritual and religious life. She knows that Jessa hates her and prayed that a “cushion” would arrive with her to help in the communication (thus Petula’s instant love for Hannah). They spend a lot of their free time going to various lectures on anger management and the danger of nuclear chemicals in our food. (Seriously we all know people like Petula!) Petula’s analogy on Hannah being the “cushion” was hilarious!
Petula’s 19-year-old son, Frank is a mysterious and shy man-child who looks like he’s trapped in the 1990s. Hannah immediately is attracted to his trendy turtleneck that she thought was stylish. He looks so 1990s emo with a haircut that looked slightly asymmetrical (think Jane Lane from “Daria”). During their introductions Hannah get to see Petula mini-Bunny farm where she feeds and raises them.

Photo: Jessica Miglio/HBO found on The Huffington Post
Later during dinner with the family, Hannah was thoroughly discussed that she was eating the rabbit for dinner that she was petting just hours before. Petula’s motto on life is “a rabbit a day keep the doctor away.” Such a sad cycle of the lives of Bohemian Bunnies. Jessa yells at Hannah for her complaining and tells her to just eat the rabbit, it’s fabulous. Frank’s friend Tyler who looked like blonde Abercrombie & Fitch model who plays lacrosse and also is a locally published writer. Hannah (of course thinking about herself) also mentions to the family about her e-book.
We all know how very sensitive Hannah is to drugs and other related activities so I wasn’t surprised to view her freak with when Frank, Jessa, and Tyler are enjoying huffing fumes from a whipped cream can. Somehow she can snort cocaine and drink opium tea but when it come to huffing she’s all of sudden anti-drug. She freaks out in the car as Jessa covers Tyler eyes while they speed down the Countryside roads onto nowhere. Tyler stops the car and Hannah jumps out and Frank (like a puppy dog) runs after her into a dark cemetery (where it really did look like Hocus Pocus).
Frank and Hannah engage in sex for a whopping 8 seconds! He later feels that Hannah used him for sex. But again this was only his second time experiencing intercourse. His first time was with a girl in town named, Rihanna (yeah, and I am sure, she’s looks like the pop singer, Rihanna!) Jessa is thoroughly disgusted by Hannah’s sexual escapades with Frank, because “he’s a child!”
Later we learn that everyone in town thinks that he loves Tyler but in fact in Frank’s world, Tyler’s in love with him. And who wouldn’t love an accomplished author, lacrosse player and recreational huffier.
Later that evening as Hannah and Jessa are lying in bed, they are fighting over the covers (like two children). Jessa reveals are true feelings that she was not in the right frame of mind to see her father (and who is really?) Hannah tries to understand Jessa but saying something supportive but Jessa said that Hannah has parents who truly care about her (seriously get your tissues out kids!)

Photo: Jessica Miglio/HBO found on The Huffington Post
The next morning Jessa come full circle awaiting for her father on a swing set to have “the talk”. But her father turns it back on himself explaining how he’s now board with New York Country even though he’s only been there for two years. Jessa’s been waiting for her father to be a parents. He never stood up for her and wouldn’t contact her for months on end when moved around. He didn’t defend Jessa when her mother shut her out, as a result she had to raise herself. Her father asked her if he could rely on his daughter. Than Jessa cried out, “I’m the child! I’m the child!”

Photo: Jessica Miglio/HBO found on The Huffington Post
After her tears her father wants Hannah and her to stay longer. Petula and him drop them off at the local country store and to Hannah’s excitement she’s getting to buy her own food because she’s been starving! All Jessa wants is whiskey (and who wouldn’t want some after the morning she had with her dad!) Jessa explains that her father wasn’t coming back for them and so they walk back to her father’s house for what seems to be miles. As Hannah gets ready to go back to the train station she see a note from Jessa that says. “See You Around My Love” signed X.
It’s heartbreaking to think that Jessa has to runway because in so much pain. I mean think about she return from France in the Pilot she thinks that she is pregnant and needed the support of her friends. She at the end of this journey of heartbreak and lust is left all alone and without a family support. Who knows if Jessa will return or where she might be headed. Since she’s been all over the world. Perhaps she will go back to shucking Black Pearls (what Petula calls Jessa).

Photo: Jessica Miglio/HBO found on The Huffington Post
Hannah calls her parents while at the train station and attempting to pee in public. While her UTI is affecting her physically she is emotionally in need to talk to her parents Tad and Loreen. But as always Tad is trying way too hard to be hip and Loreen is trying read into her daughter’s bullshit. Her parents can’t understand that while she says such a beautiful monologue about how much she loves them, Loreen gets pissed off.
Oh until next week when the Horvath Parents arrive back in New York City. I wonder what adventures these crazy parents will get into while in the city. Let’s just hope it doesn’t involve nudity and opium tea. (But I think it involves Hannah getting her head examined!)
Until next time!
Gavo Capote
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