Welcome to the season finale of Younger! After what happened last week, “Forever” prepared us for the long-awaited final climax of the season … but it has not been as we expected. Actually, the episode has left us disappointed because it has not really solved any of the main issues raised since the season premiere. Let’s comment everything!
Here we go!
Everything remains the same in the Josh-Liza-Charles triangle and that is tremendously frustrating and pisses me off. First, let’s talk about what has happened in the show and why it has not closed the door to any relationship.
Josh and her abrupt break with him are still in Liza’s mind, she even asks about him and acknowledges that she misses him … but she keeps trying to convince herself that she has done the right thing. In fact, she tells Kelsey about new horizons and reorienting her life; but, as always, everyone tells her what she so desperately denies: that’s just what those who have messed up say to try to feel better. If you have to say that to yourself, if you have to convince yourself … it’s because you are not convinced of anything. Liza is thinking about it because she knows that, deep down, Kelsey is right. That is, a repetition of the previous episode.
Later, the tattoo that Josh did to Liza in a much simpler time becomes the litmus test for this relationship and Josh knows it. Both Liza and Josh don’t want to end their relationship with their previous conversation. Liza needs to see him again, she has to do it (which it already tells us about what she really feels) and Josh needs to know if what he saw in her eyes was real, or just a reflection of his own desire for Liza to love him as much as he loves her.
The tattoo is key to that mission. Josh gives himself one last chance for Liza to choose. He knows that if Liza doesn’t care that this special tattoo for them becomes a design in his shop, it will be because she considers it past, a beautiful past, full of what could have been and was not, but a past already overcome. However, if Liza cares that this design ceases to be something for the two of them only … well, it would mean that Liza cannot and doesn’t want to let him go because he is very present in her heart.
Josh takes advantage of Lauren’s invitation to see Liza again. She is surprised when she sees him, and her face lights up equally. She needed to see him, have him there … and there he is. That’s when Josh talks to her about the tattoo and asks if she cares, this is the litmus test. On Liza’s answer hangs the entirety of his relationship with her. It is up to Liza’s answer if he definitely leaves … or stays in her life until she decides to take care of what she feels for him.
Liza’s answer of “I don’t care” is totally discouraging for Josh. His shimmering and shy smile freezes, he takes the blow with integrity … and turns around. Liza’s response has been clear and concise. What he saw in her eyes was only his own hope … Liza doesn’t want him anymore in her life. So Josh decides at that time to leave and try to forget her, decides to let her be happy with the life she has chosen and wants.
But when Liza sees him leave … she stops being politically correct. Until then, she had been. She had said she didn’t care when she really did, because she thought it was what she should say. Then, she remembered the moment when Josh gave her that tattoo, how important it was. But why does she have to care? If Josh is past, she shouldn’t care. But she does care. Why can’t she let her tattoo be worn by others? She has chosen not to be with him, and that’s what she wants, isn’t it? But she does care, and doesn’t want anyone else to have that special thing. She doesn’t want that moment, that important symbol diluted.
When Liza has seen Josh go, she has realized that there would be no other chance. Liza has realized that, with her response, Josh was going to leave her life forever, she wasn’t going to see him again as much as she needed him, and he was going to stop insisting on being in her life, he was going to stop insisting that she face her true feelings … and could not let him do it. She couldn’t let him leave her life forever and stop fighting for her, even when she didn’t dare fight for him.
So she stops him. And she tells the truth. For once, Liza says what she wants to say and not what she thinks she should say (for proof, when she asks Josh if that’s okay with him). For once, Liza does what she wants to do, and not what she has told herself to do. Liza takes off the mask she is wearing. That’s when she confesses to Josh that she does care if that tattoo is one more in the store. It is theirs, it is hers, it is a symbol of their love, of how important they were (and continue to be) to each other. It’s past, it’s present … and it’s future. It’s everything. And she won’t let it stay at nothing.
Josh smiles because he knows what that means. He knows that Liza has chosen … and has chosen to keep him in her life. At the end of the day, Liza always chooses to keep him in her life, even when she tells his face that she doesn’t want to do it. That makes Josh know that there is hope and that nothing is finished between them. That means Josh knows he shouldn’t leave … because Liza doesn’t want him to. What he saw in her eyes was real.
After this small but great victory, Josh retires and Liza follows him with huge longing in her eyes. I think she’s imagining what it would be like to go after him, and just kiss him … but suddenly Charles appears, asking if she’s remembering. Liza’s reaction says it all. She is surprised, and doesn’t know very well what to answer. She seems to be looking for an excuse to get out of the mess, that her boyfriend has surprised her longing for another life … and another man. Which already speaks for itself. So Liza puts on her mask again and thinks quickly, in the background, her song with Charles is playing, so she reacts quickly.
The dance is fundamental. Earlier in the episode, Charles had proposed a family vacation and Liza accepted excitedly. However, that encounter with Josh and her decision about the tattoo has changed everything. What she really wants is at her fingertips … and the mask she wears is increasingly shattered. Therefore, when Charles brings up the subject again, she rushes to reject those family vacations, hiding in something she thinks Charles is going to tell her. This only shows that she knows that a family vacation is an important step in the relationship … and she doesn’t want to take it. It is a very small step, since she does not want to take things further with Charles … but she also doesn’t face her feelings, which isn’t fair to everyone involved. Liza continues to act cowardly.
However, Charles surprises her with a beautiful statement and with a step well beyond a family trip: a wedding. And here I can’t help but being mad at Liza. She is not sure of her feelings for Charles and, despite that, she has not been fair to him (nor to any of those involved), and has let him think that she was on the same page as him, that Liza felt the same as him, when it’s not true. Liza has let Charles’s feelings go to more when hers … have gone to less. Liza’s indecision has resulted in either Charles ending with a broken heart or Josh ending with a broekn heart, or she marries a person who she’s not very sure of loving (new flash: if you are not sure of loving that person, you don’t love him/her).
And all this is not fair to any of the three. Josh deserves much more than waiting for Liza to stop being a coward. Charles doesn’t deserve to be in love with a person and give everything to Liza when she is not able to reciprocate. And Liza doesn’t deserve to leave her heart aside to do what she has imposed herself to do. But who is to blame for the situation? Well, just Liza for not being brave, facing what she feels and being clear to herself and everyone involved.
Liza’s reaction to Charles’s proposal is surprising … she doesn’t know what to say. She does not want to hurt Charles (although she has not wanted to realize that she is doing more damage by deceiving herself and, by extension, him, about her feelings) but that proposal makes her face if she would really be happy at his side. When Kelsey interrupts them and prevents her from answering, Liza breathes a little calmer because Kelsey gives her more time to know what to do (saved by the bell).
But now she has to do something. That is, there is no turning back. Liza has no choice but to face, sooner or later (I hope sooner, we have already waited too long) what she really wants for her life. Playing two bands, giving hope to one and the other is over. After this ordeal, either Liza says no to Charles, and I doubt they recover from that … or she says yes to later face what she feels, and cancel the wedding.
As you can see, I don’t see a scenario where Liza says “yes” and they end up getting married, since I think they’ve given us enough clues to see that Josh is her endgame, since they’ve given us many invisible clues this season, included in this season finale (which is the only thing that has satisfied me in this matter, that they continue to make it clear that Josh is there and that he is much more important to Liza than she recognizes). I’m convinced that Josh is the endame and, honestly, to do something else would seem like a scam to the audience, and the show itself. So #TeamJosh to power!
That said, as I mentioned at the beginning, this is frustrating. It is clear that this season they have played with the Josh-Liza-Charles triangle during the 12 episodes. When a show puts into play different patterns to develop in a season, it’s their duty to give us conclusion to all these issues. The main theme of the season has been the love triangle, and has not had an end this season.
I think that the only thing we agree on in this fandom, no matter who we ship, is that the plot of the love triangle has given everything it could give of itself, and that it was time to finish it. Let Liza choose one of them. Then the fans will give their opinion on that decision, but the love triangle is a stumbling block from which the series must be released. Why haven’t they done it?
For me, the answer is simple. The show has been renewed for a season 7. That is, there is confirmed, minimum, another year. Sorry to say, but if that season is not the last, I don’t think more than 8 arrive, and explain here why: This is a show based on two main things: Liza’s secret and the love triangle. The secret is already discovered and her choice … doesn’t give much more of itself. So I don’t think the show has more than two seasons left, which is good, because you don’t have to stretch the gum.
What does all this have to do with it? Well, if my predictions are correct, if they had solved the love triangle issue this season, it would have left them a scenario in which they would have to show a consolidated couple for a whole year or maybe two. As fans, we like to see a consolidated couple for a while but producers, as a rule, don’t usually like to show us a consolidated couple without major problems for a long time, for fear of us becoming bored (especially in a leading couple).
So, taking this into consideration, what have they done? Well, delay the plot a bit to match times that fit them more. Doing what they have done, leaves them the following season to discuss the end of the love triangle and a few episodes of a consolidated couple. If the show ends in season 7, they would only show a few episodes with the consolidated couple until its end, which would prevent that fear of the producers that the couple became boring. If the show ends in a season 8, they would only have to show a consolidated couple during a season, and they could look for fun situations if we see them preparing something like their wedding, for example. It is a win-win situation for them with what they have done.
In part, that’s why I totally distrust Charles’s proposition. Since, taking into account that they have not wanted to solve the love triangle in this episode when they could have done it, I doubt that in the end they end up marrying Charles and Liza, when there can still be fear that the couple will become boring, with so much of story ahead, this is, at least, before the end of season 7 (but I think for that they should have finished the love triangle here, so that season 7 was all about preparing the wedding and saying “I do” at the end and not what they’ve done … to give this story even more, maybe because Charles isn’t who Liza is going to marry). It would not be a logical move, since a wedding would mean the end of their last great trick ahead of time, at least, as I see it for now. As I mentioned, they had had the opportunity to make everything clear in this episode but they have not … and it is no accident.
But, as spectators, all these strategic movements of the producers give us, we don’t like them at all. We want a story developed with logic, with an end that makes sense and closes the plots raised throughout the season. However, this episode has left us halfway. It has been like another episode of the season. No more. We could have seen the episode at any time of the season and there would have been no difference. I feel scammed. It has been a bad decision for viewers to do what they have done.
This episode does not feel like an end of the season. It is a very bad end of the season that makes viewers feel cheated and look like idiots watching TV, thinking “is this all?”. Because, if we think about it coldly, they have not solved anything in the entire season. That is, nothing has happened. The positions are the same as in the season finale of season 5. They have circled on the same point, circled and in the end they have stayed in the same place. Season 5 has already ended with Kelsey as editor, little has changed about that in this episode. Season 5 has already ended with Liza and Charles in a weak place in their relationship … and that remains the same, in different circumstances, but the basis is the same.
So this season is basically summed up in a circle turn for all the characters, with some being shattered along the way. It is a very sad conclusion for a season, but it is what I feel. Complete and absolute disappointment. I hope that in season 7 we will recover our Liza and our show that entertained us and moved emotionally every year with all its characters.
The other main focus of the episode has been Kelsey. After the decision to leave, she should know what the next step is. She needs to be in charge, build it from scratch … so she asks Zane for help. Out of everything that has happened between them, they are friends and he can help her … but Kelsey is wrong. The only thing Zane does is throw her attitude with him in the face, and basically tell her that he is not fit for what she wants to do. Here I wanted to slap Zane, hard.
It is understandable that he is hurt because Kelsey has not been fair to him. But there comes a time when if that person really cares for you and you love her, it matters more what that person needs than your own pride and anger. Kelsey is shouting for help, for support, it’s what she needs at that moment. It is not the time or place for Zane’s pride to take control. Kelsey needs a friendly shoulder, not someone to bring her down. Zane could perfectly have made it clear to Kelsey that he wanted more than friendship with her, and also supported and helped her, which was what Kelsey was screaming for. However, he has not done so. All he has done is make her feel worse, incapable and unsuccessful.
Kelsey is neither incapable nor a failure. She can do it. He could, why didn’t she? Why not support this new challenge? Quite frankly, if Zane thinks that about Kelsey and isn’t going to help her when she needs it, if he is going to bring his male pride into his relationshpi with the woman she supposedly loves, he can go to hell because he doesn’t deserve Kelsey.
My shipper heart is glad Kelsey is going to give Zane another chance, and they are together. But all the rest of me is angry because she has given him that opportunity after Zane has underestimated her and treated her so badly, and she has apologized for her behavior but he has not even considered doing so. I hope Zane changes his face for next season.
As for Kelsey’s decision, it is understandable that she wants to feel like she, herself, has built something. I like that she had that initiative, but it was not smart to go ask Quinn for help. Maggie has not advised her that, she has only told her that she will have to deal with people who will not like her. But that is one thing, and another very different thing is to sell your soul to someone you know will make your life impossible and will always go against you. Kelsey already has experience with Quinn and it was not pleasant. That Kelsey decision has been a mistake.
However, Charles’s offer is perfect. I really applaud Charles for that offer and for his words. He is absolutely right, Millennial, all of them, are her family and one doesn’t abandon family, much less when Kelsey has sacrificed for them. Charles has learned that valuable lesson throughout the season and I’m glad that he has put it into practice. Millennial is not just a job, it is Kelsey’s home and there she will have the opportunity to grow as far as she wishes to reach.
I’m also very proud of Diana, Liza (let’s face it, some tears have escaped from seeing that scene) because … DIANA AND ENZO ARE MARRIED! A TOAST TO THE NEWLYWEDS!
For my part, thank you for letting me accompany you throughout this season. It has been a pleasure to discuss everything with you every week. Thanks for all the comments and for reading. See you in season 7!
Younger will return next year with its season 7, on TV Land.
