We return with another episode of Younger! “Friends with Benefits” is an episode where the emotional conflicts of the characters advance more than ever. While some couples move forward, others get stuck between denial and division of feelings. Where will this trip take us? Let’s comment everything! Here we go!
Millenial and Mercury are having trouble agreeing. None want to give in their land but I think the stubbornness of Zane and Charles is a mistake. Kelsey is right that they should empower the public to which each of the firms is aimed, basically what they were doing before and were successful. I don’t understand the refusal now, so there will be room for a wide spectrum of audiences. It’s a win-win situation. Those negatives cause clashes between Charles and Kelsey.
Charles was Kelsey’s mentor, saw her potential and polished that diamond in the rough. For a student, facing the teacher is never easy. Until now, the competition between them had filled everything but now they have to work together and Kelsey is no longer Charles’s subordinate, they are at the same level. That is difficult to balance when difficulties arise because it is always there, like a ghostly shadow, that old hierarchical relationship and that strange feeling that you have when you row in another direction that was your superior, almost as if you were turning his/her back … and that in the end restricts you to speak freely and to say not only what you want to say, but what you have to say.
It is completely normal this strange feeling … and more after the competition between them. Kelsey feels that Charles doesn’t respect her at all as his equal although he does treat her as such, but everything comes from that strange feeling that causes Kelsey to have to face Charles precisely like that, as an equal.
Liza, however, I think she shouldn’t have said anything to Charles about Kelsey’s feelings. Of course, she was trying to help, somehow mediating between them, letting Charles know what Kelsey felt so they could both solve it. But I think conversations between friends should stay that way … Kelsey is who should have told Charles what she felt. Liza can’t always be mediating between them.
In the same vein, Liza should have consulted Charles about the idea of proposing that book before telling Kelsey. It wasn’t just any book, Liza read the note and knew that Charles’s father was the author, which means she knew it was a personal matter for Charles. He deserved that Liza had raised the idea to know what his opinion was and if he agreed, not to find the cake already in the oven and half cooked. Liza has very good intentions but with good intentions the road to hell is made, and I think that sometimes she should step aside or think better what she is going to do.
Speaking of that book, it has had a vital weight in this episode. The book tells the story of love or, rather, a love affair, of two characters with a wide age difference. Does it sound to you? Yes, it is clear that they wanted to equate or reflect the story of Josh and Liza with the story of this book. To show, Liza’s attitude throughout the episode.
Well, I don’t like this premise at all that a story between two people with age differences must necessarily be a love affair and not a serious, real, stable and lasting love. True love. Applied that premise to the relationship of Liza and Josh, that argument is the one that their detractors usually use and it seems irresponsible to me that the series of wings to such a premise, basically because the fans of both couples deserve respect and that don’t fan a incendiary flame. And I explain myself.
It is clear that they are playing with both couples, with the fans and the plot, so there is something logical, because it is something that is done in all the series, play the edge of the line, in addition, Younger being a romantic comedy in form as standard, it is clear that they have to play with that. But that is one thing and another thing is to fuel a fire that burns strongly in the fandom.
That said, I think the goal of using or dealing with this premise about whether the relationship between Josh and Liza was just an adventure or something else is not to downplay that relationship or, much less, downplay its importance to close it (in fact, it is more open than ever); I think it’s the opposite and that everything has its origin in wanting to reflect Liza’s denial of what she really feels for Josh (as I told you last week).
That is, who is desperate to deny what she felt and still feels for Josh is Liza herself and that the show has only been in charge of showing it. It has been a risky movement and I think they have not been able to balance it well so that it was clear that was what they intended to show.
Proof that what I just mentioned is true is Liza’s attitude. As soon as her friend tells her that Josh was not appropriate and that he was just a wild adventure, Liza becomes angry that she takes away, as if nothing, importance to what happened between her and Josh. Liza knows it was serious and hurries to deny that Josh was a crazy adventure. She is angry and outraged that someone can think that. Josh … was something else. He was much more. He was everything.
However, this strong refusal is diluted with the passage of the episode. Liza begins to internalize that vision of things, especially when she is not at all happy with her life right now she begins to remember that being with Josh was as easy as breathing. Actually, that vision of things that Josh was just an adventure without responsibilities or difficulties is really the excuse that Liza hides and denies everything she still feels for Josh.
The logic for Liza is that, if Josh was an adventure, she doesn’t really feel anything serious about him and that maybe all she wants is a last adventure, a last motorcycle trip. The reality is quite the opposite. Liza, although she insists on denying it, continues to feel very strong things for Josh that are there and that, in reality, they are not letting her move forward with Charles, and what she had with him was so serious that she would have said “yes” to his proposal.
Of course, this attitude of denial of Liza and her determination to see Josh as someone more childish contrasts, again, with reality, since Josh is much more mature. Now he has a daughter (I drool every time he talks about her) and his priorities are different, he has redirected them. This makes it even harder for Liza to deny the obvious since one of the reasons they broke up is that they had different goals in life, but now they have both achieved them … and Josh has proven his maturity at every step. He is no longer a young man who dreams of the future he wishes to have, he already has that future and is an adult who is living it.
However, Liza is nothing if she is not stubborn and continues to hide behind the excuse of adventure. So much that he tells Josh and, although he laughs, he hurts that Liza discovers that way what they had. But he knows her, he knows her very well, and he knows that Liza is struggling internally … so he dares to ask if she knows the end of the story. It is a decisive movement. Josh knows that Liza can definitely close the door … or she can leave it open. And Liza leaves it open. She doesn’t know how the trip ends … and she’s not closed to find out. She can deny everything she wants, but Josh is still very present in her heart and that makes her unable to close the door to a relationship with him.
Liza is somehow struggling with what she has always wanted for herself (someone like Charles) and what she really wants in her heart (someone like Josh who slipped into her heart without waiting for him and without being invited, but is there). Almost like a debate between the head and the heart. Duty and what she really wants. She is divided.
In that last conversation with Charles, it seems that duty and head have more weight. Charles explains his vision of that story. Nor has he escaped the parallelism with the story of Liza and Josh and talking about the book but with the clear background of the relationship between Liza and Josh, he basically tells Liza that that never goes well and little more than that relationship was a reaction to an existential crisis when it needed to be reaffirmed.
This statement is condescending and lowers both Liza and Josh’s relationship and their own feelings. I was outraged to hear it, is that I wanted to get on the screen and make things clear to Charles. I was waiting for Liza to do it, just as she did at the beginning with her friend’s thought, but she doesn’t. She shows her disagreement through her face but she doesn’t dare raise her voice and make things clear to Charles. She doesn’t dare as lately she has not dared to tell him what he deserves. Once again, she stays silent.
I don’t understand where Liza’s character is, I don’t understand why she always stays silent and doesn’t tell what she really feels. The only explanation I see is that she wants to avoid the conflict (for sample, when instead of talking about it, she has changed the subject and literally ran in another direction), but a real couple has conflicts and tries to clarify them and find a common point to continue browsing together, it’s not about nodding to everything the other says … that in the end is worse and I think we’ll see that here.
That is why I say that here the duty and the head win the hand (not the game) and if the trip with Josh had helped dispel that excuse and denial that Liza had imposed herself … the last conversation with Charles has only reaffirmed those excuses. But the excuses and denials are temporary … Liza will have to face her feelings for Josh and the problems she has with Charles sooner rather than later. And it won’t be pretty.
Can anyone not love #Denzo? They are wonderful! It is clear that Enzo’s family doesn’t like Diana too much, but everything has its origin in that they don’t want to become fond of her when they believe that it is another adventure in Enzo’s life and that it will end a year, like all of them.
Diana has not liked anything to know that relations with Enzo have an expiration date and neither that kiss she has seen with that ex (me neither). And even less has she liked that Enzo’s whole family put her aside. But that has been until Enzo, finally, has raised his voice and given his place making it clear to both his family and Diana herself that their relationship has no expiration date, is forever.
And he has done it in the most romantic way possible: proposal. Enzo was clear where he wanted to go with her, it was clear that he wanted to marry Diana and have a life with her. Permanently. Why wait? They know each other, they love each other, they row in the same direction about what they want with their relationship, why wait any longer? Enzo shows everyone, including Diana herself, that he is so sure of their relationship that he is willing to marry her immediately. It doesn’t matter getting married now or in two years, because nothing will change what he feels for her, nothing will change what he wants to share with her.
Until that time, Enzo had had relationships that he had refused to commit because he had never seen himself sharing his life with that person, not really, not in the long term, not until Diana arrived. She broke all the schemes, they are so different that they fell in love like crazy and he knows it is forever because he has never felt anything like it for another person.
I’m very happy for them and it really is the mirror in which all couples in this series should look. Let’s get ready, we’re invited to a wedding!
Agree? Disagree? Don’t hesitate to share your opinion with us in the comments below! We’ll be back next week with 6×08.
Younger airs on Wednesday, at 10 / 9c on TV Land.
