Welcome one more week to Younger’s world! After a small hiatus, we’re back to seeing what happens in Liza’s life. This episode has treated the secrets from a new perspective, since this time it was not Liza who had to juggle to keep them. This time it was Charles and Zane who had to do it, especially Charles. But it doesn’t matter what he has tried to do to avoid it, the secret has exploded and, the game board as well. How did we get here? Let’s analyze everything!
Here we go!
SECRETS, SECRETS … AND MORE SECRETS
Let’s deal with the elephant in the room once. Of course, I mean Charles and Liza. She already knows that there is something strange about Charles’s behavior and everything screams that he has been lying to her and that he behind the purchase of the book that Millenial had planned. I’m rather surprised that Liza doesn’t tell Maggie the most important “proof” of her suspicions: the mortgage for her house, precisely the amount of the purchase of the book. I’m sure that if Liza had told her, Maggie would have caught it on the fly and would have made Liza accept what she, deep down, already knew. But then we would not have had an episode, since everything is channeled to find out who is helping Zane.
Throughout the episode, Liza is ambivalent, with many suspicions … and afraid to accept what she already knows; Fear because that would mean accepting a painful betrayal from Charles and that it all wasn’t quite as she thought. It would mean accepting that they have problems they are not dealing with.
In the midst of that environment, it’s not surprising that Charles defends Zane before everyone, saying that it’s “just business.” Sorry, but no. It’s not “just business,” it stopped being business when Zane got involved again with Kelsey, just as it stopped being business at the time when Charles began to hide things and lie to Liza. Charles can’t pretend to put a wall between what he considers to be business and his relationship with Liza, everything is the same, because he doesn’t lie to a co-worker, he lies to his girlfriend, who is the best friend of the one most affected by his “business”.
To say that it’s “only business” is to try to cover the sun with a finger. It is deliberately putting a blindfold on his own actions and his own mistakes … it is an attempt to not accept that his actions can make him lose Liza, because that possibility hurts a lot … but it is real.
Liza gives Charles the opportunity to tell her everything. She already knows, she just needs him to tell her, to hear the truth come out of his mouth, to believe that he trusts her. But, still, Charles doesn’t say anything to her and he lies again, crossing another red line. If he had lied to her by omission before, now he does it consciously … and Liza knows it. She has had to lie many times, she recognizes the weight of the lie, of the secret. And she feels disappointment, a disappointment that consumes everything. Charles has not trusted her, he has not told her the truth. At the end of the day, Charles chose to lie to her again … he decides not to trust her.
But Liza is tired of pretending she doesn’t know what she knows, tired of fighting against the obvious so she confronts him. The position of Charles is understandable in the sense that he wants to do something more, build a company from scratch. But it is not understandable that he hid everything from Liza, that he lied to her, just as it is not understandable that he uses the information entrusted to him as a supposed ally and tries to destroy Kelsey, Millenial and Liza along with it. Just as it is not understandable that he asks Liza not to say anything, that her tries to her choose between her friend and her boyfriend. It is not a choice that anybody should be forced to make.
Charles is not being fair to Liza and has not behaved well, as much as he wants to decorate and justify the truth: is what it is. It’s understandable that he wants something more with his life than not being relegated to second place, but this is something, his aspirations for life, which he should have told Liza, his companion on this journey. But Charles did the opposite, hid it and lied to her … and the worst thing is that he doesn’t see that he has done something wrong. When it comes to the truth, Charles doesn’t share his life with Liza, not really, not when he hides his desires, aspirations and plans, not when he makes her choose between two of the most important people in her life and not when he puts her a precarious position to betray Kelsey, Millenial and Liza herself.
Later, Charles continues to cross red lines when he meets the author who is about to leave Millenial. Until then, he might not know that Millenial was interested in the book he bought (although you know I don’t believe it, but hey, it could happen) but now he uses the fact that Kelsey doesn’t know anything about his betrayal and trusts in him as what he has always been: one more of the gang. Charles knows everything about the author thanks to Kelsey’s trust, just as he knows what position it would leave her if the author ends up leaving Millenial, but Charles doesn’t care.
Charles only thinks about his own emotions and selfish goals, no matter how much damage his actions can cause Kelsey, what’s more, the damage they can cause to Liza, not only professionally, but personally, given that Kelsey she is her friend and he is her boyfriend (although he doesn’t behave as such). Honestly, were not there more authors to get? And the grace is that surely he will continue thinking that “it’s just business.” It’s not just businesses because there are situations intermingled in between. It’s not just businesses because this can hurt Liza and that possibility must have made Charles thinks better. Charles deserves a good lesson. What he is doing can only lead him to stay with only his “business,” but without all the people he loves around him. I hope he rectifies … and that it’s not too late when he does it.
FRIENDS FOREVER
Liza’s attitude and choices have surprised. The truth is that I don’t understand how Liza has been so understanding as to continue with Charles. I was disappointed in that regard. I think the least is that she would have made Charles understand that he can’t lie to her like that. It is true that Liza kept the secret of her true age, but she and Charles were nothing at the time, now they are and Charles has lied to her and acted with intent to hurt her her friend (and, by extension, to her) and, nevertheless, Liza continues as if nothing. Honestly, if it was me, I would have kicked him in the ass.
And with much more reason after he aska her to hide everything from Kelsey and choose them. Putting her in that situation is something unfair and cruel because it is like splitting her in two. But Liza, far from giving Charles the kick in the ass he deserves, reluctantly, agrees to keep the secret. This has disappointed me greatly, even more than the previous thing.
I think Liza should have told Kelsey about her suspicions from the beginning but I understand why she has not. She was not ready to accept it, and was convincing herself that they were just suspicions and she wasn’t about to cause a problem for no reason. But once Charles has confirmed it, as Kelsey’s friend, she should have told her everything. Charles has put her in an impossible situation … and I think she has not chosen well. Friends before lovers, Liza, first lesson in the world of friendship.
It is true that when Kelsey discovers the cake, Liza says that she was going to tell her everything but … is it true? It seemed to me that she agreed to Charles’s request and that when she goes to that restaurant it’s more to prevent Kelsey from finding out than to tell her everything. But the fact is that she didn’t tell her immediately and chose Charles, rather than her friend.
I think Liza has not asserted herself before Charles and she has not asserted her friendship with Kelsey … and I was disappointed in her attitude.
The truth is that I was wrong, I thought that the bomb of the secret and the lies of Charles would be the turning point for everything to explode and perhaps the relationship between them would break. However, this bomb has only been one more stumbling block, one more step on the way to an unknown place. It has been a big obstacle that I think has opened Liza’s eyes a bit … but that doesn’t end here. We will have to see the consequences of Charles being her competitor now and what that entails. It is clear that they will not be able to keep those two parts of them separate and in the end, it will be when everything explodes and all the problems that are now hidden … come to light.
It is … interesting, the decision to extend this (moreover, I’m convinced that this is the reason for Liza’s attitude) because I think that when everything explodes that will lead them to break, if not definitely, for a while. If that happens in the first episodes of the season, there is more chance that in the end it will be fixed … but if they delay it longer, it is possible that it is to give a twist to the plot of the love life of the protagonist. I think they’re on their way to this second option … we’ll see what happens at the end of the season. What do you think?
PRIORITIES …
Continuing the tone of the previous episode, Josh and Claire reaffirm their commitment to their young daughter. Josh knows perfectly well that even if Claire and he have affection for each other and maintain a good relationship, divorce will inevitably change things with respect to the little one. He knows that he can enjoy her less, that it will be a million times more complicated … that he may miss some important moments.
Josh is clear that he doesn’t want anything romantic with Claire, but doesn’t want to miss anything of his daughter’s life, so he and Claire reaffirm their commitment to raise her together and do everything possible so that neither of them misses out. Nothing important of her life, in short, to be there, for that little one.
This decision is beautiful, full of love and really mature. Again, I think it shows the evolution of both characters. Both not only have not been led down the easy road but their priorities have changed once their daughter was born. Because when you have children your priorities change, and they come first. Josh is a natural father and Claire is also a natural mother. Their little one was something unexpected for both, but she is now the priority. The truth is that it is impossible not to smile at the sight of one of the two with the child.
Everything that has happened, builds on what we saw in the previous episode. The romantic story of Josh and Claire is totally closed, now they are only united by a mutual affection and their little one, along with the commitment to raise her together. But their lives, romantically speaking, are totally separate. A closed chapter for Josh … that might take him a step closer to Liza. Josh has been a father, one of his greatest wishes and, if at some point Liza and he come back together, there will be no doubt about Claire’s role in Josh’s life.
BETRAYALS
Kelsey is going through one of the most difficult moments in her career and also in her personal life. Zane has betrayed her again, and they are already at … 244361729 times. As I mentioned in the previous review, this game of secrets, betrayals and stabs in the back has been part of the relationship between them since they started but … until when? When does it stop being a game and becomes something more serious? From the moment that the feelings for each other escalated to something more than a physical attraction? One thing is the tug-of-war that is essential and what gives a spark to the relationship, what makes them be just them … and another thing is Zane’s betrayal. He doesn’t know when to stop.
It is like there is something that brings them together, something inevitable that unites them again and again and there is always that hope that this time it goes well … but the opposite always happens. This time the hurt one has been Kelsey. Zane not only didn’t tell her what he was planning but, once she finds out, he continues with his betrayal trying to steal another author, an author that is vital to the survival of Millenial. Zane doesn’t know when to stop the game … or measure the consequences of it.
Starting over with Zane was a step toward the cliff for Kelsey. It was playing with fire, she knew she could be burned again, but Zane was a flame, a fire from which she could not look away. Even if she doesn’t even accept herself, Kelsey feels something serious about Zane, she’s in love with him … that’s why she jumped into the abyss knowing what she was risking but waiting … just waiting, hoping that Zane would not will fail her again. But he failed her and Kelsey fell into the void. And now she hates Zane for what he has done again, hates him for what she feels and hates herself for having hoped that this time everything would be different, for waiting, deep in her heart, for him to be different, for trusting him again. And she hates him because she loves him, she hates him because her heart hurts because of him.
This time Zane will have to do more than be charming and wait for Kelsey to forgive him. This time he runs the risk of having lost her forever and that … that will destroy him because he is also in love with her, that’s why he always comes back to her. But he must realize his mistakes and the consequences of them. I’m convinced that there is still hope for this couple, but it will not be easy.
Agree? Disagree? Don’t hesitate to share your opinion with us in the comments below! We’ll be back next week with 6×05 “Stiff Competition”.
Younger airs on Wednesday, at 10/9c on TV Land.
