In a stark contrast with last episode’s celebration of life, “Dead Inside,” which aired Sunday, Jan. 26, hit audiences with a dose of morbid reality.
Hannah finds that her editor has died, and not so shockingly cannot think of anything except, “What’s next for my ebook?” Adam, who has proven to be the more mature and now apparently morally superior of the two, is shocked by her lack of empathy.
Meanwhile, Jessa, fresh out of rehab, is hanging around Hannah and Adam’s place spouting pseudointellectual insights about the meaninglessness of the universe. She is agitating and pompous.
During a conversation between Jessa and Shoshanna, Jessa recalls a friend who had passed away from a drug overdose years ago. To pay her respects she seeks out her gravesite and surprisingly finds out the friend is in fact alive.
Jessa visits her not-dead friend who had apparently sent her an invitation to her pretend funeral knowing Jessa wouldn’t go – and she was right. Now Jessa must come to the harsh realization that she was (perhaps a little extremely) pushed out of someone’s life for being an enabler.
Still passing her lack of compassion off as numbness, Hannah continues down her path of insensitivity as she stalks “Gawker” to find more of the juicy details of her editors death.
Later, Hannah and Adam’s sister Caroline, who was introduced to us in the last episode as manic and mentally unstable, head to gallivant through a cemetery along with Hannah’s downstairs neighbor and his dead turtle.
Caroline tells an elaborate story to Hannah about Adam’s childhood. In the story, Adam takes his cousin who is dying from muscular dystrophy to his senior prom. It’s glorious and heartbreaking and Hannah doesn’t even flinch. Luckily, Caroline reveals the story isn’t true – she just (oddly) wanted to gauge her reaction.
What happens next is unfathomable. Now back from the cemetery, Hannah meets Adam on the stoop of the apartment. She seems to be overwrought with guilt for her blatant insensitivity. She begins to explain to Adam how it takes her time to process grief. Fans are relieved that Hannah is finally coming to her senses.
But then, rather than just leaving it at an apology and explanation, she decides to completely unnecessarily repeat the fake story Caroline told her in the park (changing pronouns when necessary).
The episode ends on that flabbergasting note, leaving fans wondering if our female protagonist is a sociopathic, emotionless void of a person. It’s also a cliffhanger. Does Adam buy it?
