Girls, Season 2 Episode 6 "Boys"

What happens
Hannah gets ebook deal, has trouble starting
Jessa is depressed
Marine hosts a party for Booth and realizes she's not his GF.
Adam and Ray bond and then break up.
Ray cries with Dog.

Girls is about life not working out so well, and this episode is about relationships following that trend.  In each case, a relationship is broken by a partner's uncompromising nature.  Yet it's not all bad, Hannah begins to focus on her own writing, and not on convulsively reacting with people, while the problems in Ray and Shoshanna's relationship are left for a future episode.  Instead, Ray spends all his time with Adam delivering a dog Adam stole, back to its owner in Stanton Island.

Adam and his stolen dog's mini relationship demonstrates the episode's broader theme.  After it licks his face, Adam decided to steal "dog" from the owner who left it outside a coffeeshop.  The relationship soon falls apart as Dog's untamed behavior forces Adam to lock it in his bathroom.  A bad relationship feels like having a wild animal locked in some closet.  It's just a matter of time before someone gets hurt.  When Ray comes to Adam's apartment looking for a book, his insistance that the situation can't continue, leads him to accompany Adam while he returns of the dog.

Ray points out that he and Adam are kindred spirits as they talk on the ferry ride over to Stanton Island.  It's clear that Ray feels that he's found someone who understands him as the two talk about their past relationships with older and younger women.  The bromance ends, as Adam reacts to unkind words Ray has about Hannah.  Again, a relationship falls apart as one person's actions overwhelm the instigator of an argument.

The episode's more serious moments center around Marnie and Booth.  Their interaction with Su-Jin, Booth's assistant was awkward to an extreme, not only did Booth breakup with his assistant over ice creme, but Marnie seemed vulnerable, covered only by sheets.  Booth immediately has Marnie fill Su-Jin's role as a hostest at his party, and Marnie is only to happy to slip deeper into his world.  I hate to use the word relationship to describe what's going on, but Marnie gloats like a victorious girlfriend.  This last throughout the party until Booth tells Marnie that she is not his girlfriend.  He begins to smash wine bottles, exclaiming that he hates all his friends and that no-one knows him, while Marnie cries and admits that she was in love with the idea of him.

Seeing characters hurt and abandoned by a friend, lover, or dog allows us to witness how people dealing with their toughest moments.  Some like Ray, breakdown and cry, while others like Marnie can't outwardly admit what's going on.  This episode shows how a breakup forces a person to refocus on themselves.  It is relevant to what Hannah is going through following her brief love affair with Josh(ua) last episode, and it is encouraging to think that she may reflect on that experience in her book.