Girls ends its excellent third season with a confident bit of shaking up that leaves the future for most everyone with some interesting opportunities.

The episode is centered around Adam’s big Broadway debut and a couple of big life events that surround it. I was ecstatic that Lena Dunham and her team seemed to have heard the complaints about the perfect with a bow on it ending to season 2 and introduced some drama and limbo for characters at the end here. Hannah getting into Iowa was a huge surprise, especially because I don’t remember her applying, and it introduces some interesting paths for her and the show next season. The final shot heavily implies that she is going to go off the Grad school workshop, but how long does that mean she is going to leave New York? If the show decides to split its time between New York City and Iowa that could be a great dichotomy to the show for a season, but I think what is more likely might be a possible time jump and letting the characters move forward with their lives a little bit. The news was also used wonderfully for the character and how she slowly rolled out the news to everyone around her. You can see Hannah’s passion for being a writer again boiling over, but she also uses the news (to know one’s surprise) to be a little bit, subconsciously, selfish by telling Adam the news right before his big debut. Silly Hannah, hope to see you in Iowa next season.

Adam seemed to be doing just fine up on the stage, but his reaction to Hannah’s news and the night is one that certainly fits for the character. Hopefully Adam is just caught up in the drama of the moment, but Hannah moving away probably means bad things for the two of them as they seem to make each other stronger. I also wonder what the reveal of a pregnant Caroline living with Laird downstairs means for Adam as that is another really interesting situation for him to deal with, especially if Hannah moves away. Hopefully Adam comes out the other side of this OK and Hannah wasn’t just trying to get away before he did.

Shos getting denied the right to graduate for an F in her final semester is a bummer, but her overreaction totally fit the character. Plus, I loved the that the drama forced her to reassess her world view a bit and maybe finally realize what she has lost by being a little too self absorbed. And I’m not saying that as a negative, she hasn’t had any support from her so called friends this season, but she had a lot of growing up to and this “crisis” seems to be forcing her in the right direction. Poor Shos though, I laughed my head off when Marnie came walking in right after her blow up, but I felt so sad for her with everything surrounding Ray as a whole. I wanted Ray to yes, so bad, but she was only wanting to get back with him for some false sense of security. It was the right move for both of them, but damn it if part of me didn’t want to see them get together again.

Marnie has been a wild card all season, but it was nice to see her kind of getting what she wanted, even if it was at the expense of someone else’s relationship. Desi and Clementine are clearly on the outs at the end of the episode (Maybe now they can get Natalie Morales back on Parks & Rec to be with Tom already?), but it’s just nice to see Marnie so confident and alive, even if I loved to watch her sadly wallow through life over the course of the season. This new and improved Marnie is one of the most exciting developments of these last couple of episodes (sorry for no recap last week) and I applaud Dunham and her team for so effectively salvaging her storyline after Charlie bowed out before the season started.

I don’t know what is going on with Jessa, as her whole assisting suicide thing was a bit out of left field, but I hope this little debacle might help realign her worldview a bit away from being so flighty and drug assisted. I’m not saying she needs to become straight edge or anything, but she is so directionless, I would love to see her personality unleashed on the world with some determination on where she wants to be in life.

Also, Andrew Rannells, tell your agent to stop trying to put you in some new pilot every year and just commit to being a regular on Girls. We love you, we love Elijah, make it happen. The show is better with you and everyone knows it.

Overall, Season 3 was a huge success. Dunham and her team found an excellent balance of humor, drama and character development, and evenly doled it out over the course of the season. The show talked some engaging themes of growing up while never betraying the characters they had established over the course of the series. I can’t wait for Season 4 and I love all the possibilities they can take these guys next season. A much improved finale over last year’s disappointing wrap up.