Younger airs on Wednesdays at 10/9 C on TV Land
It's a big night on Younger as one couple breaks up, another takes a step forward, and Liza confesses her age to yet another character. Continuing with the pattern of streamlining the storytelling, this episode focuses mostly on Liza and Kelsey's life choices and how they affect others around them. It all starts with a bidding war on a therapist's new book. Played by Camryn Manheim, the therapist specializes in getting millennials to stop being stuck in their life track and forge a path ahead to best fulfill their goals. Upon meeting the therapist, Kelsey takes a long look at her life and realizes that while her career path is going very well, her personal life is stuck. Things come to a head when Thad acts like his normal douchey self during a work function. From here, Kelsey must decide if it's worth staying with Thad or if she needs to cut the cord and find a new partner. Meanwhile Josh is being honored by the New York Times in a features column dedicated to creative young artists. It's a big deal but Liza is afraid that the Times will root out her secret so she plays least in sight. Josh, still uncomfortable with lying, finds it hard to talk about his life and avoid mentioning Liza. Even Maggie, who cameos in one scene, thinks Liza is far too laissez faire about Josh's big break and its possible fallout.
In many ways I agree with the therapist that the relationships in this series often feel like they are stuck in a holding pattern so this propels things forward. Whether there will be serious fall out or not remains to be seen though. Still it is great to see each couple face head-on the most dysfunctional parts of their relationships because it may be the catalyst that each needs to help the characters grow. There's still far too little Maggie but her scene highlights much of Liza's naiveté about who Josh is as a person and what he needs from their relationship. Mostly though I was impressed by Kelsey, whose attitude of self-reflection leads to not only the best scene of the night but possibly also a greater maturity for the character in the future. She's really taking her future to heart and showing a self-confidence that has been missing in a key area of her life.
Other Tidbits -
Diana, Maggie, and Laurel each have one scene
Kelsey and Laurel gang up on a character, which triggers fallout
No love triangles are in sight in this episode although ménage trois gets a mention
Diana proves again that she's all bark and no bite when it comes to Liza
Martha Plimpton returns as Cheryl Sussman, the rival publisher who also wants the therapist's book and is not above shady means to get it
Quotes -
"Actually it's kind of weird. The more I talk ***, the more I realize how big a part of my story you actually are."
"Are you worried about the book or your timeline because there is no perfect plan to getting your life right? There's always compromises."
"He wishes his abs still looked liked that."
"Hey, what do creative directors do exactly?" "Other people's coke mostly."
"It was a long day in the 20-something minefield."
"No, I'm not mad. I'm just seeing everything a lot more clearly."
"This is the first day of my new timeline and I'm not wasting it whining about the past."
Check out Younger on Wednesdays at 10/9 C on TV Land
Screencaps by
TV Fanatic,
YouTube, and
Glamour.
About the Author - Dahne
One part teacher librarian - one part avid TV fan, Dahne is a contributing writer for
SpoilerTV, where she recaps, reviews, and/or creates polls for Teen Wolf, The 100, Grimm, How to Get Away with Murder, The Librarians, and others. She also runs the annual Character Cup. She's addicted to
Twitter, live tweets a multitude of shows each week, and co-hosts
The 100 "Red-Shirted" and
Teen Wolf "Welcome to Beacon Hills" podcasts for Southgate Media Group. Currently she writes a
Last Week in TV column for
her blog and SpoilerTV.
~ "I speak TV."
