Every single week, I try to give Kelsey the benefit of the doubt in liking and appreciating her character, and every week, I am blown away by how mean and irresponsible she is.
For example, in "Fallout", when she just had to leave Maggie’s art show debut because she had a date with Clare’s ex! Or when Liza told her about getting into such a bad argument with her boss and ex that she took a 40 minute Uber home, and instead of asking Liza if she was okay, Kelsey was upset with her for creating a nonexistent roadblock for them.
Then in “Make No Mystique”, Kelsey, without consulting Liza, allows her boyfriend to send out their Inkubator pitch, and of course, it immediately backfires. And I’m sure Kelsey will blame it on Charles not offering them enough money because if Kelsey is good at anything, it’s never admitting when she’s in the wrong.
Kelsey is also just a very bland character. Poised to be a mirror for Liza, for all of the things she could’ve been had she gone after what she wanted when she actually was younger, Kelsey has had almost no growth in the seven seasons we’ve known her.
Since we met her in season one, she’s been sabotaging her career and almost every opportunity she’s offered because she won’t just suck it up and say, “I don’t know how to do this, please help!”
The Kelsey/Rob excitement feels overdone by now. They’re fitting together because they’re both quite boring, but anytime they’re on screen now I’m just waiting for the scene to end.
I suppose they’re trying the whole ‘love conquers all’ thing with Rob and Kelsey, but sheesh, just break up with him. This relationship is literally forcing you out of your apartment.
Lauren should get to be happy, and if she wants to be with her ex, so be it. Seeing Lauren’s parents again was fun as always, but seriously, there was so much wasted time with the heart attack storyline. Why couldn’t Lauren just run into Max at a bar, or at the party? A friend of a friend could’ve invited him.
Instead, they took us on an extremely long-winded journey just to tell us that Lauren would end up with a man when Maggie is right there. [crowd booing]
It’s fine, it’s fine, you can’t always get what you want. And speaking of which...
Using this phrase very lightly, Josh almost protecting his girls in “Make No Mystique” was incredibly sweet. His recognizing Pauline and letting Liza know she was there ahead of time was such a good scene. I wish we could see a fun, healthy friendship between Josh and Liza because I love Josh so much, but the writers either write him in a love triangle or not at all.
Josh speaking to Rob about Kelsey was so fitting for Josh because he’s a big teddy bear under the tough exterior he has.
Quinn. Annoying, obnoxious, definitely-now-the-villain Quinn has had infinitely more screentime and storylines than Josh has had all season, and he’s been there since day one.
It feels like the writers spent their entire time creating a new, angsty story for Charles and Liza, and then just threw a dart at a dartboard of tropes for everyone else.
Lauren? Old ex. Kelsey? Clare’s ex. Maggie? Sapphic sadness. Josh? Who even knows about Josh. Maybe his dart landed in the garbage bin.
This season’s writing wasn’t just whiplash for Josh — I honestly don’t understand Quinn. One second she’s telling Charles about how lucky she was to find him, the next second she behaves as she did at the airport in "Make No Mystique".
It seems like even the writers weren’t sure if they wanted Quinn to be the villain until the very second she said “once an assistant, always an assistant.”
Which, again, is super confusing. A friend of mine pointed out that the reason she was aggressive before Liza showed up tells us how her facade around Charles is starting to slip, but then she doesn’t reel it back in when Liza shows up. She makes it even worse.
Where her different reactions on another show could’ve been seen as her being multi-faceted, here she just looks like an unreliable jerk. She’s wishy-washy and rude. It’s almost like she doesn’t even know who she actually is herself.
Whatever Quinn decides to do with the Inkubator presentation (thank you, Kelsey) – if it’s anything other than telling Kelsey and Liza congratulations – she’s simply a hollow character. There’s nothing deeper because even the writers can’t extend that far without contradicting what they’ve written prior. So now, because duh, Quinn is upset with an unofficial pitch and detailing on Liza’s newest project in her inbox. Good luck to us all.
Though we’ll most likely never know, I wish we could’ve seen the conversation between Charles and Quinn at the airport. It would be interesting to see what Charles really said.
I tried to like Quinn. I really did. But when she’s self-described as the boss’ girlfriend and nothing more, there’s not much substance to dig my nails into.
Finally, finally, finally, Charles and Liza are back together. We kind of assumed this would happen given their dinner in “Fallout”, but man, was it worth it. At dinner in “Fallout”, it’s likely that Charles realized how simple and nice it is to be with Liza, while he’s trying every minute he’s with Quinn.
Liza thinking she doesn’t have a chance with Charles and going to tell him goodbye was a tad dramatic, but it was clearly the shove Charles needed to realize he wants her all, no matter what, on no specific conditions.
My favorite part of “Make No Mystique” by far was finding out that the ring Pauline thought was going to Quinn was actually bought for Liza. It’s a beautiful ring, and it shows that even though Charles proposed at the wedding, he had the ring before that.
Liza thought he didn’t think about the proposal in full, that he was drunk and impulsive in asking her to marry him, but now she’s seeing that he already planned to, he was just so in love with her at that moment, feeling so at home with her in his arms, that he told her what he wanted most. To be with her forever.
Charles saying that he didn’t even know if he liked Quinn also confirmed that he was literally just with Quinn because he needed someone to help him not think about Liza. This kind of sucks for Quinn, but absolutely fits for Charles. Some people were upset about this wording, but it shows us that Charles never had any real feelings in the race between Quinn and Liza, which is what we’ve been saying this whole time.
If I had one complaint about the Charles/Liza storyline this season, it’s that I would’ve broken up Charles and Quinn probably around episode eight or nine, because now there’s only one episode left to resolve all of their problems, and have everyone around them resolve their problems.
Regardless, the finale looks like it’s shaping up to be good, and at 45 minutes long, hopefully, there won’t be any wasted scenes.
What did you think of “Fallout” and “Make No Mystique”? Are you happy Charles and Liza are back together? Do you like Kelsey and Rob’s relationship? Let me know in the comments below!
