10 Greatest Moments in Lena Dunham’s ‘Girls’

It was a sad day when Lena Dunham's 'Girls' aired it's final episode, so if you need a Girls fix take a look back at the 10 best moments from the show!

When Lena Dunham’s 6 season hit Girls aired its final episode in 2017, I’m not gonna lie, I was devastated. Since 2012 the TV programme had been guiding me through my adolescence and teaching me, in sum, that nothing and nobody is ever perfect. There were so many quintessential moments in the lives of the four main characters – Hannah, Marnie, Jessa and Shoshanna – which expressed the trials and tribulations of friendship, family, love, sexuality, and finding a career. Lena Dunham successfully voiced the struggles of many young women trying to be grown-ups in the real world, with her sometimes risqué considered content magnifying the brutal reality of the struggle to be happy. It was hard to narrow Lena Dunham’s ‘Girls’ to 10 greatest moments, but I gave it a go, so here you are!

1.Jessa’s Surprise Wedding (S1 E10)

One of the first greatest moments in Lena Dunham’s Girls has to be the season 1 finale, which was so shocking yet also so predictable – of course Jessa would pull a stunt like inviting all her friends to a surprise wedding to a man she initially despised but then miraculously fell in love with! Jessa: the character you admire with awe but know you could never pull off acting like.

2.Hannah And Elijah’s Cocaine Spree (S2 E3)

Who could forget that notorious picture of Hannah wearing a mesh tank top in an extravagant night club while high on cocaine with her gay best-friend/ex-boyfriend, Elijah? Oh, and she then finds out that he recently slept with her best friend, Marnie, in spite of being a self-confessed homosexual. You’ve got to feel sorry for Hannah sometimes… This is was definitely one of the more wild moments in Lena Dunham’s ‘Girls’.

3.Marnie’s Visit To Booth Johnathan’s Apartment (S2 E3)

I never really got Marnie’s infatuation with Booth Johnathan, – he was rude, sexist, and arrogant – and this only got worse after she visited his apartment for the first time. His idea of foreplay was to lock her in a chamber of old televisions screening disturbing images (his art), after which he had sex with her while a creepy doll sat on a chair and watched. I always questioned your taste Marnie…

4.When Adam Saves Hannah (S2 E10)

One of the greatest and most heart-touching moments in Girls has to be during Hannah’s spiraling battle with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), which wasn’t easy-viewing, and you couldn’t help but hope someone would swoop in and give her the help she so badly needed – *queue first great love Adam*. Can we have a man who is willing to run across New York topless to come to our rescue? “You’re here”…”I was always here”…truly one of the greatest moments in Girls ever.

5.The Dance Routine (S3 E7)

The whole focus of the Beach House episode is essentially fall-outs amongst the dysfunctional group of friends, especially after they run into Elijah and his gay friends and Hannah invites them to join in. In spite of all the conflicts of interest which occur, the 4 girls along with Elijah and his friends conduct a dance routine which – temporarily – manages to bring everyone together at last! Hannah was wearing a bikini, of course.

6.Shoshanna’s Burst Of Honesty (S3 E7)

Continuing with the same episode, post-dance-routine, Shoshanna has a sudden burst of honest frustration at the 3 other girls. Considering Shosh began in Season 1 as an almost naïvely nice character, it was refreshing, but still brutal, to see her completely annihilate her former best friends, branding them “a bunch of whiny fucking nothings.” And so began the beginning of Shosh’s dark side…

7.Mimi Rose Howard (S4 E5)

After moving to Iowa on undisclosed terms with Adam, Hannah returns to her apartment to find that she has been replaced – by Mimi Rose Howard, aka a perfectly rounded, new and improved version of Hannah. She then proceeds to reclaim her bedroom in protest to having come home to find her whole world crashing down. Oh Hannah. This was definitely one of the best moments in Lena Dunham’s ‘Girls’.

8.Hannah’s Dad Comes Out The Closet (S4 E8)

When Hannah’s dad, Tad, reveals in couple’s therapy that he is in fact gay, Elijah’s season 1 suspicions become a crushing reality for Hannah. Hannah’s mother breaks the news over the phone with a straight to the point, “Your father is gay!” changing the spotlight in the family over to someone else rather than Hannah for a change…

9.Shoshanna Moves To Japan (S5 E3)

Probably one of my favourite moments in Girls was seeing Shosh with a brand new look, so happy and at one with herself in Japan, in spite of simultaneously feeling lost and confused having had ran away from her problems in New York – this was probably relatable for anyone who’s ever lived in a foreign country before. She even has a Japanese crush, and her life in Japan looked so promising until she was unexpectedly fired – it still disappoints me to this day.

10.Hannah Has A Baby (S6 E10)

In the Girls finale, we see the biggest turning point ever in the series and the first promising signs of Hannah growing into adulthood, as she gives birth to baby Grover. Determined to raise her baby alone, Hannah is soon persuaded by Marnie that they should do it together, ultimately growing into the Odd Couple. Deciding to have a baby is the first decision Hannah makes that she can’t take back – a fitting ending to the series given that she struggled to fully commit to anything previously throughout the full history of Girls. Definitely one of the most memorable things in Lena Dunham’s ‘Girls’.