Welcome again to the world of Younger! After the bomb that exploded in the previous episode, “Millennial’s Next Top Model” has shown the consequences of this for Millennial, and has also introduced another stone in Charliza’s shoe, just in case there weren’t enough. All with the intention of preparing the events for the final stretch.
Let’s talk about everything! Here we go:
At first, all the doors have been closed for Liza and Millennial, with the feeling of guilt that has meant for Liza. However, once she has made it clear that age is just a damn number, being a millennial really has to do with an attitude, not a number, the doors have opened again. I felt like giving Liza a standing ovation. I’m 26 years old, I’m a millennial, as defined by the term and I wanted to shake that woman who was treating Liza so badly. She was belittling her. And, as Kelsey has said, that kind of thinking (thinking that a +40-year-old woman won’t buy their books) is the reason why Liza was forced to lie in the first place.
The show is fiction, but that age discrimination, unfortunately, is not. It exists and it should not. Work performance is what you should look at when hiring someone, not age. That is why Liza deserves all the applause for what she said: age is an attitude, not a fucking number and if someone is not able to see it, let them go to hell. Well done, girl!
That attitude opens Liza and Millennial new doors. Everything is exploited in business, why not use Liza’s story to claim age as an attitude? With that idea, the gears move and Liza is in a photo shoot, posing with a scooter. Never better, posing. It’s an artificial photo, maybe it was a good idea to show Liza on a scooter, as if she were flying … but in practice it is a horrible idea. It’s not natural, it’s too forced, it’s … totally artificial. And the campaign is about naturalness, about showing an attitude towards life.
The photo shoot is not going well … but Charles is next to Liza. He supports her and tries to cheer her up. The photographer captures those moments in an attempt to show that attitude and naturalness he seeks, that magic … but he doesn’t find it, there is something that doesn’t fit.
Then Josh suddenly appears, just as he came to Liza’s life, she smiles and laughs, her face, without realizing it, lights up. He begins to remember his first encounter with Liza, why he approached her, why she became such an important person in his life … Liza can’t stop smiling, she even looks down, embarrassed by the way Josh simply opens his heart to her, and only her. Liza’s gaze shines and she looks at him … as if there is nothing or nobody else in the world. There are journalists, photographers … but he is opening his heart to her, only her. When they are together, they both connect in such a way that they create a bubble in which the outside world disappears and only they exist. That is the naturalness that the photographer was looking for, he has finally found something real. That attitude, that sincere laugh, that glow in Liza’s eyes and face, that feeling that she can’t hide even if she wants to … that’s just what he was looking for, so he photographs them and that is the photo which he presents to the campaign.
The campaign and that photo come to say that no matter how old you are, only the attitude matters and love is possible between two people regardless of the number that qualifies their age. That is what the photographer saw, and that is what they are showing us in the show. Again, the producers’ clues are there, in the background, but clear as water. As in the previous episode, Josh didn’t have to appear, but he does and precisely for this, to make his connection with Liza even more clear, and that means something, it’s no accident.
Within the show, I’m sure that poster will bring problems between Liza and Charles. Charles’s insecurities regarding Josh will come to light again, he knows that what Liza had with Josh was immensely important and seeing them like that, so … together, it’s not going to be easy. In turn, that situation is going to make Liza have to face what she really feels for Josh. All that will explode, along with the problems that Charliza already had and were hiding. All this one step away from the season finale … I don’t predict a good ending for this couple, at least, this season. And you?
In another order of things, if Quinn appears … surely there are problems. This has been fulfilled. Everything was too easy for Liza after her secret was discovered, and Quinn has been the presence that has threatened all that. As always, she has arrived wanting to help, while taking advantage, but as soon as she has had the opportunity, she has turned everything in her favor and left Liza unprotected, so much so that she has demanded Liza’s dismissal.
I loved Kelsey’s defense at this point. She has refused not only to fire her friend, but also for Quinn to run the company. One thing is that, being a capitalist partner, Quinn wants to have a voice and vote and a very different one is to blackmail Kelsey and, with it, the company, whenever she wants. That situation is unsustainable.
The truth is that the easiest solution was to have listened to Quinn and fired Liza, but Kelsey has not thought about it once, not even at the beginning, when things have become really difficult. Our actions define us more than our words. Kelsey has not chosen the easy way. Liza is her best friend and Kelsey has shown that, she has stayed by her side. Besides, Kelsey couldn’t let Quinn handle everything as she pleased, whatever the consequences. Charles agrees, they may need Quinn, but they can’t be blackmailed or driven by her.
But weed never dies, and once Kelsey refuses to follow Quinn’s whims, she withdraws her financing and leaves the company in shambles. What will they do now? It will not be easy to get out of that hole. They need a capitalist partner yesterday. Liza’s position in Millennial can be a poison and an antidote at the same time. A poison because of the position in which she stayed when it was all discovered, and an antidote because she has been able to turn it around. Although Liza is going to feel inevitably guilty no matter what happens, and it will be more pressure to add to her life. Everything has become immensely complicated.
With all this mess, we have had some joy, Kelsey and Zane have finally stopped fooling around! The two have sincere about what they feel, they love each other, but they have also confessed why it has taken them so long to get to that point. They have been sincere with each other, without games, without half-truths, with nothing more than their truths. Bringing out that vulnerability, giving the other the power to destroy … or not. That, deep down, was what scared them so much. But not anymore. Both are aware that they are not going to destroy each other and that they needed that real conversation like breathing. Now everything is clear and they can start a path together.
However, to get there they had to go through a lot. Zane looked at the situation about Liza from the cold perspective that business gives him. Liza has never been an excessively important person in his life; she was preventing the company from taking off, so he wanted to fire her. But, as Zane has told her, it was nothing personal. It was just something practical, pragmatic and objective. It was not an attempt at revenge or punishment for breaking his trust, it was not the result of pain. It was only the result of an objective fact.
Although, everything must be said, quite insensitive. Zane was not taking Liza’s personal circumstances into account, he was not even considering other possibilities. The coldness of business is not a good advisor regarding people. Millennial is a company, yes, but they are also a family, and the family deserves consideration, at least, it deserves to have all members protect each other no matter what. Zane, however, didn’t feel the need to do so … perhaps because he doesn’t feel like he is part of a family, and I hope that changes over time. His colleagues are more than coworkers.
All that objective coldness changes when he discovers that Kelsey has known Liza’s secret for a long time, and said nothing. That really hurts. For him, others are nothing more than co-workers or partners but she … she is important. She is all. Zane has never allowed himself to care about anyone, let them reach his heart, because he fears the vulnerability that comes with it, but Kelsey entered his heart, settled under his skin without realizing it. He accepted that fact, he trusted Kelsey … and knowing that she hid everything she knew, that she betrayed that trust is like a cruel reminder of why he should never have let her in.
Now everything hurts, and anger is mixed with rage and disappointment. That is why he disappears. Liza was just business … Kelsey is personal. It’s Diana who brings Kelsey’s attention to this (get a Diana in your life). Kelsey then understands. She has been in his position. When she learned the truth, that rage, that pain, that disappointment, that feeling of betrayal … she lived it all, because Liza was also (and is) important. Kelsey understands what Zane is feeling, and knows that she should talk to him. What he feels is not something that goes away over time, he needs an explanation, a conversation, so that Zane feels again that he can fully trust her. So that he understands that she feels the same about him, that he has also gotten under her skin, even though she insisted that this doesn’t happen, that she is also vulnerable to him … but also immensely strong.
It is then that they have that heart-to-heart conversation that they had needed for eons. It was time for this couple to finally be honest with each other. Both have a very strong will, and also work together. It will not be easy to combine so many aspects, but I’m sure they will.
One aspect that I would have liked them to show is Lauren’s reaction to Liza’s secret. Before or after, we have seen everyone’s reaction, but Lauren. She has been part of the gang since the beginning. It is true that she has not had as much of a relationship with Liza lately, but she is there and I think her reaction is important and they should have shown it.
Something I don’t want to leave without saying is BRAVO MAGGIE! That’s all. Nothing more needs to be said about her, that sums it up.
Agree? Disagree? Don’t hesitate to share your opinion with us in the comments below! We’ll be back next week with 6×10.
Younger airs on Wednesday, at 10 / 9c on TV Land.
