Quick Answer: In “Hello Kitty,” Girls revisits the iconic 1964 murder story of Kitty Genovese. The play at the center of the episode, “38 Neighbors,” reflects the false apathy narrative that dominated the media in the 1960s, which led to Genovese becoming a symbol for a phenomenon that she doesn’t exactly represent: the “Bystander Effect.” But Girls is employing this narrative as a way to touch on some of the show’s larger themes: the characters’ inability to see beyond the theatrics of their personal lives and their tendency to be silent bystanders to each other’s problems.

Last week’s episode of Girls (2012– ) revived the iconic story of Kitty Genovese, a 28-year-old woman who was murdered outside of her apartment in Kew Gardens, Queens, in 1964. “Hello Kitty” (S5:E7) retells the murder story in the form of a play called “38 Neighbors,” which Hannah (Lena Dunham) attends to watch her ex-boyfriend Adam (Adam Driver) act in. Girls utilizes the cautionary tale as a backdrop for the characters’ comparatively mundane and self-indulgent drama, as a way to touch on some of the show’s larger themes: what it means to be an independent woman in New York City and what it means to be a “silent bystander” in situations that scream for intervention. Girls’ homage to Kitty Genovese resurfaced her story in the news — and in a strange real-life plot twist, her murderer, Winston Moseley, died in prison the day after “Hello Kitty” aired.

The play at the center of the episode, “38 Neighbors,” is a mild parody of New York experimental theater. It is set in an apartment complex, in which audience members are told to explore the units of the neighbors who ignored Genovese’s screams, one of whom is played by Adam. Before sending them off to become “silent bystanders,” the usher tells the audience: “Dozens of neighbors heard her cry for help and did nothing. You are about to become one of them.” The play’s focus on the neighbors as opposed to Genovese herself reflects and reinforces the apathy narrative that exploded in the media in the 1960s. This narrative transformed Genovese into the emblem that she is today and led psychologists Bibb Latané and John Darley to research the phenomenon that would later be known as the “Bystander Effect.”

As reported by Nicholas Lemann in his 2014 New Yorker article “A Call For Help,” the American obsession with Genovese began 10 days after her death with a New York Times headline: “37 Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police | Apathy at Stabbing of Queens Woman Shocks Inspector.” The sensationalist piece, which claimed that 38 neighbors witnessed the murder and only one took action, launched Genovese into the forefront of the news. It was a story about cruel inaction — an emotional narrative that would become accepted as truth, letting the facts of the murder fade into white noise. But the tale of 37 apathetic witnesses is a myth, and the famous New York Times article was inaccurate in many senses. Several journalists have revisited the Kitty Genovese story since the 1960s, revealing details about the neighbors who tried to help her along with the few who undoubtedly did ignore her screams. In “A Call For Help,” Lemann writes, “The Times’ version of the Genovese story represents a version of reality that was molded to conform to a theory.” Research has confirmed the validity of the “Bystander Effect,” but the original New York Times angle on the Kitty Genovese story remains a classic example of confirmation bias. The result: Genovese has been lionized into a symbol of a phenomenon that she doesn’t exactly represent.

In “Hello Kitty,” Marnie (Allison Williams) and Hannah, of course, have trouble fulfilling their role in the play as silent bystanders. They are meant to quietly occupy the apartments in which actors play Genovese’s neighbors, reenacting what they were doing as the events of the murder unfolded outside. Hannah muses on the play loudly to Ray (Alex Karpovsky) and compliments an actor’s dancing skills to The Chiffon’s “He’s so Fine,” telling her, “I know you can’t answer me, but I just decided you’re actually an amazing dancer.” Marnie pulls Ray in the hall to tell him that she’s getting a divorce. She asks him what he thinks, to which he responds, “I think it’s also important to go back in there and witness. Otherwise we repeat our mistakes.” Ray is the only character who seems to be taking the play seriously, but perhaps he is indulging in the theatrical apathy narrative as a way to distract himself from the object of his own self-interest: the newly single Marnie.

At the climax of the play, audience members look out the window to witness Genovese’s murder, which is rendered in the form of two papier-mâché looking statues accompanied by the recording of a woman’s screams. Hannah instead witnesses Adam and Jessa (Jemima Kirke) making eyes at each other from one fire escape to another — proof that they have been seeing each other behind her back. Hannah speaks vaguely to Ray about what she’s seen: “What if you’ve been a silent bystander all along but you don’t know it?” This is the most obvious thematic parallel between the Kitty Genovese story and this season of Girls. Hannah has been an oblivious bystander to Jessa and Adam’s relationship, and earlier this season she was a silent bystander to the train wreck that was Marnie’s decision to get married.

“Hello Kitty” is one of the most well-executed episodes of Girls yet. It explores the Kitty Genovese murder story by way of a parody of a play, and in doing so hilariously juxtaposes the characters’ self-interest and personal drama against the theatrical retelling of the murder’s events. “38 Neighbors” reinforces the Genovese apathy angle that saturated American media in the 1960s and led to the psychological development of the “Bystander Effect.” While none of the characters speak to the play’s appropriation of this popular emotional narrative, their ignorance of the facts of the murder reflects their collective inability to see beyond the theatrics of their own lives.

During the play, Hannah provides an interruptive footnote on Genovese that the media largely ignored. “I was doing some Wikipedia-ing last night, and I had completely forgotten the fact that Kitty was a lesbian,” she says. “Do you think that may have been a factor in what happened to her? Wouldn’t surprise me. Another woman deemed unacceptable by society and left to die for her sins.” Hannah raises an interesting point about Genovese, although, true to her character, it seems like she’s talking more about herself. It’s unclear whether Moseley or any of Genovese’s neighbors were aware of her sexual orientation, but it may have been a factor in her murder, keeping in mind this happened in 1964. Perhaps if the play focused on Genovese herself instead of the people surrounding her — an alternative narrative — we would have a better idea of what this story represents.

But that narrative would have served a different purpose, and Girls is interested in its characters’ tendencies to act as silent bystanders in each other’s lives.