Welcome to Younger reviews! It’s pleasure to share my feelings with all of you. I love this show. It is light, fresh, fun and full of characters so emotionally complex that it is impossible not to love them. From now on, every week we will analyze together everything that the sixth season will bring us. My friend left the bar very high. I hope to be up to the challenge. After this introduction, let’s talk about 6×02!
This episode of Younger has told us about fairy tales, about that dream of perfect love with the perfect man … and what happens when those dreams are broken and you realize that nothing is so perfect and what you thought was perfect for you … is not. Here we go!
BROKEN FAIRY TALE
Until this moment, Liza and Charles’ relationship has been like a fairy tale. He seemed the right man for her. She noticed him from the first moment. He did too. There have been confused feelings, fights, recriminations, obstacles … even the real possibility that Liza would chose another life, with another man.
But in the end, the perfect love of Liza and Charles triumphed. He is very sweet when he talks about her, it almost melts you. It shows that he loves her and, let’s face it, that “it’s the first time we appear as a couple” or “she makes me happy” from the previous episode has us all lost in love. Everything seems perfect and wonderful. Only it’s not so perfect. It is not perfect at all.
At the end of season 5, Charles had to choose between Liza and his company, which until now had been his life and his greatest professional achievement. He chose Liza, but such a choice … in the long run it’s impossible. That decision and the fact that Charles has sacrificed his professional life for Liza is there, dormant, but it will end up exploding among them. It always does. Charles will blame Liza for that decision, and she will throw in his face other things that she will surely have to give up along the way or the difficult balance that she has to deal with between Charles and Kelsey (something that has already been clear in this episode).
A solid relationship is not like that … it’s not about giving up a part of your life, a part of yourself for the other person, among other things, because that only provokes resentment between the couple. It is the opposite. It’s about sharing all the parts of your life with another person and creating a balance. Right now it looks and feels like the weight of Charles’s decision (and Liza’s guilt about it, even though she’s not guilty of anything) flies over the couple like a distant mosquito. They try to frighten it in all possible ways, but it doesn’t leave them alone … until it ends up biting them.
Another fact to keep in mind about the ghosts that overfly this relationship is that mysterious relationship between Charles and Zane. Liza began to suspect that something was up from the first time she saw them together in the previous episode, and now the suspicions have only increased after their greeting at the party. Charles has not explained anything to Liza … and I’m afraid this, when it explodes, will also bring them many problems.
And finally, Charles’s words about Kelsey further shatter that facade of perfect love. It’s kind of cruel to think that Kelsey only got the job because of her age. Cruel, uncertain and condescending. Here I have become very angry with Charles. His way of underestimating Kelsey is repulsive. Yes, Kelsey is young and doesn’t have as much experience as he does, but she has amply demonstrated that she has earned that position and that she is as capable as Charles himself or even more. Besides, you don’t talk to your girlfriend like that about her best friend, ever, Charles. It’s like an essential, unwritten rule.
Class 101 on how to be a good boyfriend: don’t mess with your girlfriend’s friends.
I think Liza’s face says it all. It is a mixture of confusion, anger and disappointment. She can’t believe that Charles thinks so; she thought he valued Kelsey for her work and intelligence. Of course, Liza comes out in defense of her friend (I’m really proud of her for that), and talks to Charles about Kelsey’s decisions, just to show her that she’s as smart and clever as he is.
The problem is that Liza, for defending her friend, betrays her trust, since Kelsey doesn’t want her former boss to be aware of everything that happened and the decisions she made – as is normal – because it makes her feel that she has that pass a “quality filter” (and that Liza has not said anything of what Charles really thinks about her) and that causes her to get upset with Liza when she finds out. Here is the problem of balancing the two aspects of Liza’s life because they simply … don’t fit.
Returning to the scene and to what Charles said, Liza doesn’t have to justify her friend, Kelsey has proven to be worthy of her position – after all, remember that if it were not for Millennial and Kelsey & Liza’s work, Charles’s company would be closed – and frankly, if Charles thinks differently, it’s his problem. But when Liza defends her, he has a mocking smile on his face and basically says with “I would have done it in another way,” that his way is better and it is not like that.
Kelsey devised a very clever and intelligent plan. Charles would have done it differently, so what? It doesn’t mean that Charles’s way is better, it’s just different. In addition, Kelsey has to learn from her own mistakes, otherwise she will never be all she can and wants to become. But we must not underestimate her intelligence, her plans, or even her mistakes, since they make her learn, and Charles himself was not born knowing everything – although he seems to believe that is the case.
HAPPY EVER AFTER?
A big disappointment this moment from Charles. All the points he had won before with those sweet comments … he has lost them all at once. Kelsey’s last great and courageous dialogue in that difficult challenge, her restraint and her firmness have been the best slap that Charles could have taken. Bravo for her!
The same disappointment that I felt, Liza has also felt. Not just because of the current meaning of that sentence but because, what did he think of her when she thought she was the same age as Kelsey? Did he really value her ever? Liza always felt valued by Charles, both in her work and outside of it, intellectually speaking. It is normal that after listening to Charles despise and be so condescending with Kelsey, it has created doubts about whether he felt the same about her when he thought it was another millennial.
Liza has realized that Charles is not as perfect as she initially thought and that everything that glitters is not gold. That shining facade, that facade on which both have lived on the other has become cracked. Neither of them faces their real problems, they just hide them. In this case, they hide behind a pact not to talk about their day to day. That is such a terrible idea. They have agreed not to share with their partner an important part of their lives and of themselves. It’s crystal clear that that’s not going anywhere.
That decision is like covering the sun with a finger. The pact is just a screen to avoid facing the problems they have as a couple. That Liza talks about her day doesn’t mean she tells Charles about Kelsey’s decisions. Like the fact that Charles talks to her about his thoughts and his upcoming plans is not something that will hurt them. On the contrary, it is sharing a life together. It’s being a couple.
Right now, both are hiding from their problems. Liza uses that pact as an excuse not to face Charles’s unsettling thoughts about Kelsey and what it could mean to them as a couple, not to face the fact that the facade of perfection has broken down irretrievably. Charles, for his part, uses the pact to keep his feelings about the decision he had to make confined and also to not tell Liza anything about what he is plotting together with Zane.
But what the hiding places have is that they are temporary. Neither of them can hide forever from the problems and when everything comes out … it will be even worse.
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
As a reflection of what we have said, the story of Diana and Enzo appears in the episode, which, in turn, is a mirror of what happens in Liza’s life regarding her relationship with Charles and Josh.
Diana had always made crazy attempts – and very funny – to approach and end up conquering Charles because she saw him as her ideal man, as she recognizes in this episode. She saw him as that perfect man, with the man she wanted to be. Liza sees it in the same way (and, in her case, it is something reciprocal).
She sees Charles as her perfect man, her ideal, with whom she has more in common, even as far as age is concerned, but beyond that, she is much more compatible with him than with Josh. She sees in Charles someone who could understand her completely, unlike Josh who, because of his youth, sees things differently. Liza feels that she would fit more with Charles because he is perfect for her.
Diana, contrary to what she expected, ends up in love and completely happy with a man very different from Charles and her ideal. Because the ideal is just that, a utopia … but reality is different. The reality is that Diana fits and is happy with a man very different from her and away from what she herself had expected or planned. Simply because love, like life, can’t be planned or controlled. Diana takes the step in a beautiful scene to declare to Enzo the unconditional love she has and to confess that it is the best thing that has happened to her in life. That’s why she didn’t get mad at Liza for have a relationship with Charles, but because, being friends, Liza didn’t tell her to be more than boss and employee.
She didn’t get angry because Liza was with Charles because she is totally happy with Enzo, and she knows that Charles was never for her and that she would not have been really happy with someone like him.
It is significant that Diana’s words of love intermingle with images of Liza and Josh and of her and Charles. A brilliant way to silently scream what is happening.
Liza also saw and felt in Charles that he was her ideal man, her perfect man and her fairy tale. A fairy tale that cracks at times but decides not to face it and, on the outskirts of that story, is Josh. Both are in contact, they are friends … but there are many feelings on the part of both, not said but very present. Josh loves Liza, wants a future with her, wants to raise her daughter with her. That is clear to him. But respect that she is with someone else and wants to be happy with Charles.
Liza … she thought she had everything clear about Josh. Their relationship was strong and very important, it was her anchor and the only one that her heart wobbled beyond Charles. But it was impossible. He wanted to have children and she was not willing to have them. Liza did well to break up with him, because Josh deserved to live a full life without giving up anything. But now it is not so impossible anymore.
Josh is already a father (of a super adorable little girl who has won my heart as soon as I see her) and it is … just watching him move something in Liza. There is something between them that is more present than ever. What they have has not died, is still very much alive. Liza looks at him with a mixture of happiness and sadness for what could be … and it was not. She wants so much to be there, to be something more than the person who looks through the glass … she wants to be right by his side, as something romantic and permanent.
Now Josh would not have to give up anything if they had a relationship (unlike Charles). But she’s with another person … her perfect person, right? Liza doesn’t understand how, if she is already with Charles and everything is wonderful and perfect and she should be jumping with happiness … nothing is so wonderful nor so perfect nor is she as happy as she should be. Liza doesn’t understand why something doesn’t quite fit … and doesn’t understand why Josh is still hovering over her head and heart.
She is bewildered … she knows that something doesn’t fit but she still resists accepting that maybe her ideal, what she thought was perfect for her … is not. Liza is reluctant to believe that maybe the perfect thing for her is that younger man than her, crazy, gentle, with a heart of gold … and very different from her. She still resists contemplating that the ideal person for her is the unplanned, the unexpected, the one who has broken all the schemes and the one who has always been there, at her side … Liza still refuses to think that the love of her life is actually Josh and not Charles.
Of course, one might think that the scene in which Diana’s words saying “sometimes life gives you what you want but in a different way than you expected” along with Liza’s confession that she is happy for Josh is refers to a kind of definitive closure of the relationship between Liza and Josh. As a farewell to Liza of what could be and was not … she is still in Josh’s life and she sees him happy, just as she wanted … but not like at the beginning she expected.
And I could agree if we had not seen that last look from Liza. She knows that something doesn’t fit into a world that she hoped was perfect. She’s happy but not completely. Liza’s still too confused. So she tries by all means to fit in. She tries to forget that little inner voice that repeats that something is not right and simply tries to convince herself that she has to adapt to her life with Charles. That was expected and she is happy. It’s okay. Everything will be fine. Liza doesn’t stop repeating those words like a mantra. Because she is simply not ready to open her eyes and accept the truth … yet.
I think Diana has traveled the path that Liza is going through now. She has lived an ideal and tried to get it … and then she met her true love, she accepted him and now she is happy with him and she has made it clear in this episode. Liza, on the other hand, got her ideal but she still has to accept that her true love was not the one she thinks… and embrace the happiness that Josh offers her. I think that’s what they’re heading for this season and now they’re planting those little cues … so that everything comes together at the end.
In this sense, I think Maggie would agree with me. She has already met Charles and threatened him, as any good friend would do. But I also think that she has made it clear that she is, like me, #TeamJosh and that she thinks he is the one for Liza. Also, she has made it clear that she doesn’t trust Claire and, frankly, neither do I. And I think that will bring tail. Put a Maggie in your life!
In another vein, Kelsey and Zane are back! I love this couple and that tug of war that characterizes them. Although I think that secret between Charles and Zane will also bring problems to them …
Grab yourself and enjoy the trip, friends! It will be painful, fun, surprising and beautiful.
Agree? Disagree? Don’t hesitate to share your opinion with us in the comments below! We’ll be back next week with 6×03 “The Unusual Suspect”.
Younger airs on Wednesday, at 10/9c on TV Land.