When Charlie left Girls in Season 2, it wasn’t a dramatic exit. However, upon his brief return in season 5, it was revealed that he had become a drug-trafficking heroin addict, a far cry from his original personality.
“Girls.”
Warner Bros. TV distribution
At the time, it was rumored in outlets such as Page Six that actor Christopher Abbott might have left the show in 2013 because he didn’t agree with creator Lena Dunham’s vision for the character. It wasn’t until a little later that the bizarre element of his departure became clear.
Charlie returned two years later in one of the show’s best episodes, “Panic in Central Park.” This episode is a standalone episode about Marnie, one of the show’s most maligned characters.
Marnie and Charlie got engaged and dated for five years until he unceremoniously dumped her before season 3 began.
Throughout the course of the episode, we learn that Charlie quit his job at an up-and-coming tech startup, that his father died by suicide, that he lives in an apartment with an awning trash bag, and that he became a drug dealer. It becomes clear that he is addicted to drugs. To heroin.
After this episode, he was never seen again. Oh, how the mighty have fallen!
In 2018, Dunham gave his thoughts on why Abbott left the show during an episode of “Watch What Happens Live.”
“The difference between us is that I was great at my job and he couldn’t handle it,” she told host Andy Cohen. “He didn’t want to do it anymore.”
She added, “But he’s a real artist and we’ve come to a great place.”
