Younger

By starrymag | January 15, 2016

Recap By: Taylor Gates

 

 

2×01 “Tattoo You”

 

After seven long months, Younger is back and better than ever with a special one-hour Season 2 premiere!

 

Its return starts off with Liza’s daughter, Caitlin, coming home from India. She reveals that she’s been dreaming of pizza so Maggie hits up Seamless while Liza (Sutton Foster) asks her to sit down so they can talk about something. She’s about to tell her about her double life, but Caitlin (Tessa Albertson) jumps to conclusions, assuming that Liza is considering a sex transition. Liza quickly reassures her that’s not the case, but Caitlin says it’d be totally fine with her if it was. Liza makes up a lie about loving Brooklyn instead of telling her the truth, but figures if she’s this chill with a sex change, maybe telling her about the age lie won’t be such a big deal after all.

 

I’m so excited it looks like Caitlin is going to be utilized more this season. Although it was necessary to have her be in the background last season in order to set up Liza’s double life, Caitlin has the potential to be a really rich and complex character. I can’t wait to see how her presence shakes everything up.

 

Back at Empirical, Kelsey (Hilary Duff) pitches a book called 100 Things Women Think About While Giving A Blowjob. Diana (Miriam Shor) is less than impressed, calling it “pornographic internet nonsense,” but Charles (Peter Hermann) doesn’t completely hate it. He and Diana banter about it in the hallway a bit before Charles asks her to come with him to Bobby Flay’s restaurant that night to discuss publishing the chef’s new cookbook. Diana is thrilled, bragging about it to Liza before demanding she make some arrangements in order for the night to be perfect. Although it’s just a business dinner, she’s determined to show Charles what a perfect power couple they can be. Once again, Miriam Shor is nailing the mixture of Diana’s abrasiveness and vulnerability.

 

Charles pops in to Kelsey’s office, telling her that her blow job book is a no-go, but that she should keep looking.

 

Back at the apartment, Maggie (Debi Mazar) is hosting a wine tasting for Caitlin and two of her friends. “Are you in the wine business?” one of them asks. “No, I just drink a lot,” Maggie replies. Liza walks in, clearly uncomfortable because all of them are underage, but Maggie reassures her it’s no big deal before Caitlin announces they’re going out with some friends from NYU.

 

Maggie tells Liza she needs to talk to Josh (Nico Tortorella) before he finds somebody else. Liza says that she’s worried she’s not the woman Josh fell in love with, but Maggie pushes her to stop doubting herself and text him. It’s so nice that this show has developed Maggie as more than the funny lesbian sidekick. Although she is all of those things, she’s so much more too: she’s a fully fleshed out character with a life of her own, not to mention friendship goals.

 

What’s not friendship goals is Josh’s roommate. He tells Josh not to hang out with Liza because she already broke his heart once. He says that if she does it again, Josh shouldn’t expect him to be around to pick up the pieces. Harsh. Josh replies to Liza anyway, and they agree to meet up at a bar.

 

At the bar, Liza gets hit on by a young guy. He pesters her until she reveals that she’s 40 years old and her daughter just came home, which causes him to bolt. She looks at her phone, noticing that Josh is over an hour late.

 

Charles and Diana’s dinner is going about as well as to be expected. They start talking about cooking and Diana drops the super subtle line, “Show me a nice piece of meat and I can’t keep my hands off of it.” Charles acts polite and clearly uncomfortable, which seems to be a trend when he’s around Diana. To make matters worse, Diana chips her tooth on a piece of peppercorn shrimp, but doesn’t notice until after she’s started talking to Bobby Flay. Bobby tells her that he knows a dentist close by that works nights and goes off to call her, leaving Diana humiliated.

 

At the bar, Liza texts Josh, asking if everything is okay. Josh replies sorry, but he can’t make it work. Liza has officially been stood up and dumped.

 

Being the gentleman he is, Charles accompanies Diana to the dentist. The dentist accidentally refers to the two as husband and wife, which Diana loves. After Charles corrects her and reveals that he is single; however, he and the dentist start flirting, much to Diana’s dismay.

 

Irritated, Liza tells Maggie what happened with Josh. Although she’s disappointed, she couldn’t continue to lie to him. She gloomily tells herself that it’s time to move on before slumping on the couch to wait up for Caitlin.

 

The next morning at work, Liza asks Diana how dinner was. “About as enjoyable as a root canal,” Diana replies. The dentist from last night then calls her to remind her to eat soft foods for the next few days, although Diana can clearly tell that isn’t the real reason she called. The dentist confirms this when she asks Diana to transfer her call to Charles. Furious, Diana yells for Liza to transfer the call to Time Warner Cable customer service instead.

 

Charles walks into Diana’s office, telling her that Bobby ended up signing with them after all. “Good job, tooth,” he tells her teasingly. Diana overeagerly and awkwardly accepts the praise.

 

Hearing a groan of frustration coming from Kelsey’s office, Liza goes in to check on her. Kelsey says that her blow job book was sold to another publisher. Liza compliments her for having good instincts, but Kelsey sulks anyway saying that she hates losing. Liza says she knows the feeling, telling her what happened with Josh. Kelsey gives her a hug, promising everything will get better in their 30’s. There are a lot of age jokes packed into this show, but they’re slipped in so nicely that it never feels overkill—a testament to the writing. Caitlin texts Liza, saying there’s something she can’t wait to show her.

 

Back at the apartment, Caitlin excitedly lifts her shirt to reveal a “Namaste” tattoo she got to commemorate her time in India. Liza is not nearly as thrilled, especially when Caitlin tells her where she got it done – none other than Josh’s place.

 

Liza storms off to Josh’s place, angry at him for her giving her daughter a tattoo, “Right on the side boob. In Sanskrit. Marked for life.” Josh is shocked, promising he didn’t know that was her daughter. She continues to rant, saying that even though she probably deserved it, breaking up with her over text still made her feel like crap. He says that he didn’t break up with her, but she pulls out her phone as proof. “Sorry can’t make it work,” she reads verbatim. Josh clarifies that he meant he’s sorry he couldn’t make it because he had to work. “Haven’t you ever heard of punctuation?” Liza asks, before revealing she’s relieved they’re still together.

 

Josh apologizes for the confusion and asks if he can try and make it up to her. Liza agrees and they start making out. The only problem is that Caitlin spies them kissing from outside the window…

 

 

___

 

2×02, The Mao Function

 

The next episode picks up right where the last one left off. Caitlin confronts Liza, saying she saw her and Josh making out. “The Pakistani guy at the bodega gave me the wrong change, are you going to go give him a handy?” she snips. Liza tells her not to speak to her like that, but Caitlin says she just doesn’t understand what’s going on here. Liza says that since she and her dad are split up, she’s going to be seeing other people. Caitlin, in typical teenage fashion, says Liza and Josh being a couple is the grossest thing she’s ever heard and is convinced her mom is having a midlife crisis.

 

The next morning, Liza tells Maggie about her fight with Caitlin and wonders if she can talk to her about work since chatting about Josh is out of the question. Maggie nixes that idea, saying that she’ll accidentally blab to everyone and blow her cover.

 

The doorbell rings and it’s Liza’s ex-husband. Caitlin says that her dad is giving her a job this summer and so she is going to stay with him for a couple weeks since it feels too awkward living with Liza and Maggie right now. Liza reluctantly lets her go, but Maggie tells her not to worry because she’ll come back soon.

 

At the office, Diana and Kelsey are on the phone with a “sick lit” (which Diana reveals is lingo for books about terminally ill teens, like The Fault in Our Stars) writer who has decided to go to a different publishing house. Kelsey is disappointed because she spent so many hours with him and even came up with his last bestseller’s title, #ImDying. Just for the record, if that was a real book, I would totally read it.

 

Josh and Liza meet up for a bar’s trivia night where you get a free shot for every correct answer. Naturally, Liza kills the 90’s category.

 

Afterwards, a quite intoxicated Josh starts making observations about he and Liza’s age difference as they are lying in bed together, which makes Liza extremely uncomfortable.

However, nothing is worse than when he notices that she’s closer to his mom’s age than his own. He then says that he has “whiskey dick,” (too much alcohol to keep an erection) which makes him unable to perform.

 

The next morning, Liza and Diana share an elevator. Liza bids her good morning, but Diana says that still remains to be seen. Honestly, Diana Trout is my spirit animal on so many levels – one of them being morning moods. Diana tells Liza that she needs to be attached to her phone for the next 48 hours since a popular author, Hillenbrand, has a new book coming out soon and she wants it for Empirical. Liza says that she loved Seabiscuit and Unbroken by him and Diana tells her she needs to stop sharing her unsolicited opinion and accuses her of having “literary Tourette’s.”

 

Liza meets Kelsey in the bathroom and Kelsey tells her that she’s been reading so many sick lit books she’s convinced she now have five kinds of cancer. Liza asks her if Thad (Dan Amboyer) ever has trouble performing and she says that he does, just in a different way than Josh. She invites Liza and Josh to a party before getting a text from Rob Olive, the original sick lit author, asking her to meet for lunch.

 

Rob asks Kelsey for help with his new book and thinks Kelsey’s advice is genius. He tells her that he doesn’t want to come back to Empirical, but rather wants her to come with him to his new publishing house. He says that they’re drafting an offer for her that pays much more than Empirical. Kelsey is flattered and says she looks forward to hearing from him.

 

Liza, Maggie and Josh all go the party Kelsey invited him to and the theme turns out to be a ping pong Nixon-era type deal. Josh makes a few jokes about the year Liza was born before getting a drink. Liza is worried he’s obsessed with her age now, but Maggie tells her to relax.

 

The offer from the new publishing place comes in and Kelsey shows it to Thad. He says it’s a great offer and that she can probably get even more with Rob Olive’s book sales. Kelsey hesitates, saying that she doesn’t want to leave Empirical because they’re like family. “A poor family,” Thad snarks before telling her to copy him on all the emails she gets and that he’ll be her financial manager. Kelsey thanks him for looking out for her. Ugh, I wish Kelsey would see that Thad is the worst.

 

Kelsey tells Liza about the offer. Liza is happy for her, but thinks she needs to give Charles a chance to match it. She agrees that she owes Charles because he gave her a big break, but worries he’ll never take her seriously and will always just see her as a former assistant.

 

Kelsey’s nosy friend Lauren (Molly Bernard) tracks down Josh to get the dirt on why he and Liza broke up. Josh makes up a morbidly hilarious lie about how Liza was allergic to his cat and that they’re back together because the cat died by eating bleach. Josh starts feeling uncomfortable and says he’s going to go outside for awhile.

 

Maggie sees Josh leave and informs Liza, who follows him. She asks him what’s wrong, but gets the text from Diana that Hillenbrand’s manuscript is now available. By the time Liza looks up from her phone, Josh is already gone.

 

Liza picks up the manuscript and runs it over to Charles’ house, telling him how envious she is that he gets to read it since she’s such a big fan of Hillenbrand’s work. Charles says he wishes she could invite her in to read it with him, but he signed a confidentiality agreement with Hillenbrand’s lawyers. Liza turns to leave, but Charles stops her, asking if she knows about another company trying to poach Kelsey. Liza, not wanting to break Kelsey’s trust, simply tells him that it would mean a lot to Kelsey if he let her know how valuable he found her to the company. Charles and Liza say goodnight again, their chemistry shining more brightly than the stars.

 

Liza begins to tell Maggie what happened with Josh, but Lauren interrupts them, standing in the doorway completely naked—typical for Topless Tuesday Lauren. Liza asks her if she wants a robe, but Lauren passes, informing her that Maggie ripped her dress in half while they were banging. She casually grabs a snack from the fridge before going back into the bedroom.

 

Liza tells Maggie that Lauren being here is dangerous because she could see a picture of something and blow Liza’s cover. Maggie reassures her that she’s too self-centered to notice anything like that.

 

Lauren returns to the kitchen, wearing a robe this time, and once again pries about Liza and Josh’s relationship. Liza reveals that it feels like their sex life has been cooling down lately and Lauren replies that he’s probably bored. She suggests some bedroom tips, none of which Liza seems too excited about.

 

Liza goes over to Josh’s place, telling him she’d understand if he would rather be with someone his own age. Josh says that’s not why he left the party, he just felt like he couldn’t keep lying to her friends. Liza says she doesn’t have a choice, that she has to lie at work or else she’ll get fired. Josh encourages her to tell Kelsey because, though she’d be shocked, she would understand and keep her secret since she loves her. He then tells her he loves her too and they begin to kiss, much to the disgust of Josh’s roommate (who, by the way, is still wearing Liza’s bathrobe).

 

Kelsey goes into Charles’ office and starts to thank him for everything he’s done for her. He cuts her off, telling her he knows about her other offer. He says, while he can’t match their money, he can offer her her own imprint, which is a big step up.

 

Kelsey eagerly takes the deal and goes off to tell Liza the good news. She tells Liza that she wants her to be a part of her team and that she doesn’t want to do this without her. “We are going to be 26-year-old bosses,” she says excitedly. Kelsey then asks Liza what she wanted to tell her. “Nothing,” Liza says, squealing and giving Kelsey a hug, both giddy at the opportunity and guilty that she once again chickened out on telling Kelsey the truth.