One episode from the third season finale, and things are falling apart for some and going back to normal for others. What comes next?

Previously on: Marnie interviews for an assistant job with obnoxious Soojin and writes music with Desi, Shoshana prompts a fight between Jasper and his daughter Dot, Adam and Hannah do the weird roleplay, Adam moves out, Jessa admits she's a junkie. Moving on.

Adam and Hannah continue to have uncomfortable-looking sex like nothing happened. Then Hannah gets pissy when Adam walks out without cuddling or something. He tells her he needs to sacrifice some things to focus on rehearsals, and it's temporary. Hannah says she accepts this, but continues to prod. I can't blame her for being insecure, but Jesus. Also, serious Lena Dunham boobage. Opening title, and is that the Brokeback Mountain theme playing over it?

Adam practices voice exercises with Ray. His accent is rather uneven, to say the least. There's a knock on the door. It's Hannah, come to "drop in" because of her insomnia. Neither Ray nor Adam is happy with this. When Ray leaves the room, Adam gives her a very sarcastic bitch-out. She babbles on about bananas. He tells her to relax. She begs him to let her stay for the night, just to be near him, but he insists he needs to concentrate. He winds up bringing her home in the taxi, and gives her one last reassurance as he lets her in the building. It's not much of one.

Marnie has indeed accepted a job with Soojin, which involves her doing most of the work for none of the credit. There's a visiting artist, Bede (played by Louise Lasser - ex-wife of Woody Allen, star of several of his films and a longstanding TV legend), who is in a wheelchair and asks Marnie to roll her over for a closer look at a particular work. Turns out Marnie was a huge fan of hers back in school. They discuss art and getting old. Lasser is just devastating when she says "It hurts to be a shell." Maybe the best guest star in a season of great guests.

Elijah, fresh from nannying Joe and Gloria's kid, doesn't want to go to Marnie's open mic night, but Hannah insists they have to support her. Wait, so they're friends again? Okay. Elijah thinks that Marnie has no talent and someone should break it to her, while Hannah is a touch more tactful. We also get a beautiful Marnie impersonation from Elijah. However, Hannah needs to go back to Patti LuPone, because since they pre-empted their interview last time for a discussion of Hannah's love life. Elijah begs to come along (but because she's Porky's mom, not the original Evita or anything), and Hannah eventually relents, on the caveat that he can't touch any of her Tonys.

Marnie and Desi continue their musical collaboration. I'm pretty sure Desi's high, trying to get into her pants, or both. They bring up Marnie's shameful YouTube video again, which indeed must never be forgotten. He thinks she's getting nervous about the upcoming performance and urges her to relax and let herself loose.

Speaking of which, Jessa is dancing to old music and tearing up Shoshana's apartment. Hell, she's still a better roommate than my current one. She's having some trouble getting off the drugs, and it doesn't help that her dumbass college cousin is constantly yammering about her hard day. Jessa winds up falling to the floor, crying.

Patti LuPone is cool with Elijah, especially when he starts sucking up to her. She's a bit tipsy and goes on about her inspirational life, talking about everything but Hannah's ad. Patti's husband, Peter (in real life her husband is Matthew?) joins them, and an amusing dinner begins.

Adam takes a bath while Ray shaves, because they're comfortable like that, and they bitch about women. Ray declares he'll never settle. Over at Patti's, the fun continues. They chat with Patti and her fake husband, who is a professor and - hey! - wannabe writer. He admit that he gave up his dreams to be with Patti, but it works for them (though you can read a definite level of resentment there). Hannah is soon troubled.

The next day at work, Hannah tunes out while her coworkers throw pitches around. In the middle of the meeting, she delivers a big speech about selling out, which is pretty shallow and filled with insults about her coworkers, all of whom have been pretty nice to her this whole time. Her boss abruptly calls a halt to the meeting. Jesus Fucking Christ, Hannah, you are twenty-five and every day cannot be exciting. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that life is usually pretty terrible and we spend the majority of our energy convincing ourselves otherwise. She's fired on the spot, or quits, whatever.

Over at the museum, Bede has some problems with the placement of her work and asks Marnie for advice. Marnie insists she's not qualified. Bede calls her out for being too self-deprecating. Jessa shows up, bored out of her tree. She proceeds to criticize Bede's name and her work, but miraculously, Bede likes her honesty. Despite the fact that she knows jack shit about art, she hires Jessa to do some archival work, and Marnie is steaming. As she walks out, Jessa still gets Bede's name wrong.

It's open mic night. Elijah, Hannah and Shoshana are there, faithful friends to the end. Desi and Marnie chat backstage about nerves. Marnie thinks she has chemistry with Desi, who unequivocally tells her he has a girlfriend. They go out on stage, Elijah whispers terrible things about Marnie while openly shouting that she's awesome. Also, being a supportive friend does not mean being a rude noisy jackass. If anything, it makes most people automatically hate the performers. The performance is actually damned good, reducing almost everyone to tears. Shoshana says something belittling to Hannah about how Marnie and Adam are on their way up, while she's "just" working in advertising. This is pretty rich coming from some trust-fund brat who has never stepped out of academia. Seriously, I have been on the verge of using the c-word so many times this episode.

Desi and Marnie hang out with the group and soak up all the praise, but when Desi's girlfriend shows up, Marnie is pushed aside in both the physical and metaphorical senses. He's quite clearly only into her, and my earlier into-her-pants assessment appears to have been totally off the mark. Marnie takes this as a cue to show up at Ray's for some sexytimes.

Hannah winds up joining a cast party with Desi, and of course Adam is there. In the middle of drinks, Hannah announces that she got fired on purpose. With unemployment coming in, she can devote herself to writing. She gets a deer-in-headlights from the whole table. Apparently having an unemployed girlfriend is really hot, because Adam brings Hannah back to Ray's place for a hookup. They hear Ray and a lady enjoying themselves in the next room. Adam totally does not care, but Hannah is an endless busybody and goes to investigate. Breaking all boundaries of decent behaviour, she bursts in on Ray and Marnie. Everyone who is not Hannah is horrified by Hannah's behaviour, of course, but she's more concerned with her friend's "betrayal" of daring to have a sex life. "He made me," Marnie says, which sounds like some sort of half-assed attempt to make a false rape accusation, which immediately puts her in the coveted position of Most Disgusting Person On This Show. Hannah declares that no one will ever judge her again, and slams the door shut. Closing credits.

And so we continue in the endless whirling of our intrepid cast of characters. Was anyone surprised at all by Hannah quitting, or the douchey way she did it? And how dumb is it that Jessa has had no proper storylines this season? With the finale coming next week, who knows what's in store for the girls and the people who float in and out of their world?

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