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But what Hannah doesn't know how to do, unfortunately, is care about her friends in any sort of way that is real. Well, Hannah cares about them, but only in so far as she cares about whether or not they care about her. Which I think makes Hannah a terrible friend, but also it makes her a somewhat sympathetic character. Because Hannah really, really needs to be liked. And maybe her insecurities don't manifest themselves in body image issues but they obviously manifest in other ways and the vulnerability is palpable. I mean, I can't imagine wanting to remain friends with her, but I can imagine that she exists. Which is saying something after last week's episode where I couldn't really believe anything that happened. So here's what Hannah did. She invited Shoshanna and Ray and Marnie to her dinner party. But also, she invited Charlie and his girlfriend, Audrey. When Charlie and Audrey—the headband-wearing, condiment queen—get upset that Hannah invited Marnie, Hannah tells them, "I just invited her as a gesture. It's frankly psychotic of her to come." Oh, Hannah. No, it's not psychotic of her to come. It was psychotic of you to invite her in some lame attempt to prove that you are the good friend and she is the bad friend. You are both bad friends. You are both basically bad people, but maybe you will change. Because you are still young and clearly have just about nothing figured out.

Marnie, specifically, has nothing really figured out and after being pointedly insulted by both Audrey and Hannah at dinner—Audrey: ""What was [Charlie] supposed to do, turn away a crying mess? He probably thought you'd slit your wrists." Hannah: ""Marnie's too self-involved to commit suicide." Me: "Yikes."—Marnie flees to the rooftop. Charlie heads up to console her. And Marnie, who is very unexpectedly growing on me, tells Charlie about how lost she feels right now. She says, "I'm a hostess, I don't know what the next year of my life is going to be like at all. Sometimes I just wish someone would tell me ... this is how the rest of your life should look." Don't we all, Marnie, don't we all. Charlie misreads this moment of honesty as a sign that Marnie is interested in him again and, after calling her "smart and beautiful and incredibly clean," he kisses her. Marnie breaks it to him that she is dating Booth Jonathan and just like that I start hating Marnie again. Charlie is stunned, saying, "That little Ewok in fucking capri pants?" And while Marnie's reply, "He's a brilliant artist and of average height," is wrong because Booth Jonathan is a little Ewok in fucking Capri pants, she is also totally right not to hook up with Charlie when his girlfriend is right the fuck downstairs. Marnie was pretty great this episode. And Hannah is pretty awesome in her ultimate defense of Marnie to Charlie. When Charlie calls Marne a "cunt" to Hannah, she immediately steps up and calls Charlie a jerk for being insensitive to what Marnie is going through. Finally, Hannah actually is the good friend for once, even though she acknowledges that she thinks Marnie is a jerk too.

Also at the dinner party are Shoshanna and Ray, who arrive late because they were having sex. We know that this is why they were late because, even though Shoshanna comes up with some stupid cab-related cover story, Ray insists on telling everyone that they were late due to the having of sex. Is it just me or is it really creepy that Ray—who is 33—insists that Shoshanna—who is 21—tell their friends that the reason they are moderately late to dinner is because they had sex before coming over? I know that I'm supposed to find this couple sweet and there are plenty of things about them that are appealing, but sometimes the glaring age difference and sort of energy/enthusiasm difference seems really difficult for me to reconcile. I used to wonder why exactly Ray liked Shoshanna and now I kind of wonder the opposite, but they do seem to have real feelings for each other, so good for them, I guess. Feelings are terrific, until you kill them.

Anyway, though, Shoshanna is kind of a light in the darkness of this dinner party, admiring Hannah's apartment and telling her, "Seriously, though? I like really think the best years of your life are totally going to happen here." To which Hannah replies, "Happening." Ha.

During the actual eating of dinner though, there is a big reveal, which is that Ray is virtually homeless and has been living with Shoshanna on the nights that he is not sleeping in his car. Shoshanna, who while sweet might be a bit slow, realizes this and says, "Oh my god, do you live with me?" She's clearly pissed about more than just the fact that her boyfriend who is 50% older than her is homeless. She feels used. And unprepared. And you suddenly remember that this is the girl that totally freaked out for accidentally wearing white to a wedding last season. She tells Ray, "I would have liked to be informed so that I could have bought some new sheets or called my aunt to ask for advice on living with a man for the first time." All of which is actually totally reasonable. So, later, Ray and Shoshanna are waiting for the L and they're talking. And here's where it gets a little heartbreaking and you can't help but want these two crazy kids, or this one crazy kid and one homeless man, work it out. After Ray confides to Shosh that he feels like a "loser" whose "one valuable possession in this world is a signed photograph of Andy Kauffman," she tells him that she's falling in love with him. The trains go by and they sit there and Ray tells her that she shouldn't say that so soon. Shoshanna looks like she knows she rushed things, like she knows she screwed up. But instead Ray tells her, "I love you so fucking much." And we all just get super happy. Because maybe one couple will find their own weirdly mismatched bliss after all, you know?