'Girls' Season 2 Episode 5 Recap: 'One Man's Trash'

The audience receives a bizarre, whimsical, and troubling slice of Hannah's life this week on Girls. There is no sign of Shosh, Marnie, or Jessa this week and no story lines progress, but what we do get is a potential turning point in Hannah's way of thinking.

The episode begins at the coffee shop Grumpy's. While Ray and Hannah are in the middle of a debate involving UrbanDictionary.com, a disgruntled neighbor comes in with a complaint. He says that his personal trash can is being filled with garbage from Grumpy's and he would like Ray, as the manager, to put an end to it. Ray says there is no way he can help solve the problem, and both men finish the conversation disgruntled. Hannah tells Ray he handled the situation horribly, and quits her job on the spot.

She wanders to the neighbor's beautiful brownstone, knocks on his door, and tells him she has something to confess. They talk over lemonade and eventually Hannah admits she is the trash dumper. In a strange, though not entirely unexpected, turn of events, they end up having sex. The neighbor, Joshua (Patrick Wilson) tells Hannah he is 42 years old, recently separated, works as a doctor, and wants her to stay for a while.

Hannah and Joshua eat steak, play ping pong naked, and generally enjoy each other's company until Hannah takes a shower the next evening. She plays around with Joshua's fancy bathroom controls and ends up passing out. Joshua finds her in a heap on the shower floor, and as they lie in his bed Hannah begins to cry. She confesses that she thought she was different from everyone else and didn't care about being happy. She realizes that is all she has wanted all along, and is tired of trying to experience the world for everyone else.

With Hannah's confession, the carefree environment is broken. Hannah wakes up alone the next morning, and realizes that she has no choice but to leave the strange world she has existed in for the past few days. Even though she no longer has a job, Hannah might have a better understanding of what she wants out of her life from now on.