The Venn diagram of how much I enjoyed watching a Roaring ‘20s themed anniversary party play out, and my thoughts on Kelsey’s non-storyline is just a big, uncaring circle. We’ve reached the middle of the final season of Younger, and it’s finally starting to look up. Now, look, is it fun seeing Quinn (admittedly!) use Charles for her future campaign? Of course not. Will the Liza/Charles pining once he figures out Liza was telling the truth be worth it? We can only assume yes.
Let’s go back a bit, though. Liza and her old friend Vince (Neal Bledsoe - The Man in the High Castle) reconnect at the anniversary party she was supposed to attend with Charles. Yeesh. After Liza makes it very, very clear that she’s not looking for a partner, they go out to dinner, and he still tries to call it a date.
Men’s audacity knows no bounds.
This date is shown back to back with a date featuring Quinn and Charles, because why not. If I haven’t made it clear, I despise this couple. Not only because now we know Quinn is in it for terrible reasons, but it’s wildly out of character for Charles to apparently get over Liza that quickly.
Liza losing it in the restaurant was a long time coming, and it’s good to know she’s still in love with Charles (!), but my goodness, why is this such a debate? Liza doesn’t want to be just a man’s wife and have her life revolve around him. When has that ever been the case for Charles and Liza?
What Liza is saying is completely valid and I would agree under almost any other circumstance. But Charles isn’t, and has never, tried to control her into becoming just his girlfriend, fiancée, wife. He’s made it clear multiple times that he likes that she’s an independent woman. Why now is this something they’ve seemingly never discussed before?
Also, why can’t she just talk to him about it? Why can’t she say this to him? “Charles, I want to be with you long term, but I don’t want to just be your wife.” This is a sentiment that’s made a lot not only on television but even in real life! It’s completely okay to think like that, but for Liza to then place the blame on Charles in saying that he’s just upset that he didn’t get what he wanted is…wrong.
We’ll get back to the Charles/Liza nonsense in a bit. Now, let’s talk about Maggie. She and Josh are at a gallery event together when she meets Kamila (Kelli Barrett - Fosse/Verdon), and boy, was that a mistake she didn’t see coming. Later we find out that Kamila is actually married to Cass (Janeane Garofalo - Ratatouille), Maggie’s new boss and friend. Yikes!
What makes matters worse is when Cass invites Maggie and her, uh, fake girlfriend, over for dinner. She enlists Lauren to help, because duh, and the night ends with Maggie receiving more than just a few nudes from Kamila as Maggie is sitting at Cass and Kamila’s dinner table. Gross?
If I didn’t already dislike Kamila for sleeping with Maggie when she was a married woman, this would’ve done it for me. Not only are these unsolicited pictures that Maggie is receiving, but Maggie hasn’t made any more advances towards Kamila since she found out she and Cass were married.
Maggie is visibly uncomfortable around the both of them together, completely understandably, and it’s not fair for Kamila to keep making advances towards her. Especially when Maggie has shown up to dinner with her (albeit fake) girlfriend!
I’m so glad Maggie is getting a storyline, but if she doesn’t get the lesbian happily ever after she deserves I’m going to be so upset. While we’re on the topic of women-loving-women, when are we going to give Lauren a girlfriend? She’s basically begging for it by being Maggie’s fake girlfriend and making out with Clare at brunch.
Josh and KT’s situation is… odd. KT (Ana Villafañe - New Amsterdam) makes it very clear that she doesn’t want or like kids, and Josh dates her anyway. Bud. I can’t keep defending you. She breaks up with him when she finds out, but not before she finds a baby bag in Josh’s room and her only rational thought is that he has a baby kink.
I heavily debated using the term “adult baby syndrome,” or something of the like, but the show knew what they were doing. This is exactly what they wanted.
Anyway… as drastic as that was, it seems like maybe it was the push Josh needed to realize that what he’s looking for is something real. Something good. Something that will last and be beneficial to both him and his child.
Definitely not Liza, then. As she doesn’t want more children.
Alright, back to Charles/Liza. It’s not obvious that I have a lot of thoughts on this, right? Look, I don’t want to be biased, but I literally am, because Liza has made it clear that she does not want Josh in a romantic capacity anymore. People have been saying that Liza going back to Charles is regressing her character, but I think it would be if she went back to Josh that she’d actually be regressing.
She started off the show with Josh, and Josh showed her exactly what she didn’t want in a relationship. Then she grew from that and applied it to Charles. Josh and Liza were never going to work because the only place they ever had chemistry was in bed. That’s not suitable for a long-lasting relationship like Liza wants.
They put this love triangle to bed because Liza and Josh both made up their minds about what they want. Liza wants Charles. Josh wants kids and a family. Liza doesn’t want any more kids. It’s literally as simple as that.
Quinn, though… who knows what she wants other than literally just attention. Quinn made it seem like Liza telling Charles about him possibly being used was Liza trying to get back with Charles, but it’s clear that here, Liza hasn’t even admitted to herself that she still wants Charles. Liza wants Charles to be happy, and she wants to protect his kids, so she did what she thought was right.
She did that knowing Charles might not believe her, knowing that Quinn would hate her, and knowing she could be wrong. For Charles.
Speaking of Charles, a lot of people have expressed dislike for him this season, which is totally fine, but if Liza had been the one to propose and he’d said no, he’d still be the villain. To hold Charles’ wants and needs against him isn’t completely fair. Younger doesn’t hold Liza accountable often, if they did, she’d ultimately be an unlikeable character, but this feels like they’re doing anything to not blame Liza.
Charles set his boundaries. He let us know exactly how he feels and Liza clearly didn’t match those feelings, and now she’s upset about her actions. Her and Kelsey insinuating that he has to grovel to get her back isn’t okay. Why would he have to go back on what he said when he said it very clearly? It’s completely fine for them to have not been on the same page, but the allocation of blame regarding how their break-up has been playing out cannot be placed solely or even primarily on Charles.
All in all, the season seems like it’s finally tipping in a direction that leads us to the end. Maybe not with people like Lauren and Kelsey, but definitely for Josh, Liza, and Charles.
- Some other fun things about these episodes: Kelsey calling Liza “Lies” as Quinn did was just straight-up unnecessary. Girl, come on. Stop it.
- Putting this into the universe: Liza Miller starting her own publishing company or imprint. Liza Miller starting her own publishing company or imprint. Liza Miller starting her own publishing company or imprint.
- Liza, if Maggie offers you something that will make fact-checking Quinn’s book just a little more fun and bearable, why wouldn’t you take it?!
