Younger – Forged in Fire

By starrymag | July 18, 2017

By: Taylor Gates

Maggie (Debi Mazar) dresses up and makes avocado toast for Montana (Meredith Hagner). She tells Liza (Sutton Foster) her new assistant is just there to go through her old paintings and see if they’re worth including in a show, but Liza isn’t convinced that Maggie’s not still trying to seduce her.

 

At a staff meeting, Charles (Peter Hermann) announces that, while Empirical did not get invited to a secretive retreat called Bonfire, Millennial did. Kelsey (Hilary Duff) is ecstatic that they’ve been chosen to be on the Future Leaders in Publishing panel but refuses to celebrate the good news with Liza.

 

Charles calls Diana (Miriam Shor) and Kelsey into his office, asking them what they think about giving Liza a promotion within Millennial Though Diana seems to be for it, Kelsey shares that she doesn’t think Liza is up to the task. Diana gets suspicious and drags Liza to lunch.

 

At the restaurant, Diana tells Liza that she knows Kelsey stole her boyfriend. When Liza shuts down this rumors, Diana gets confused—she figures one of them had to have done something wrong if Kelsey and Josh (Nico Tortorella) are rooming together. However, Diana quickly cuts to the chase, telling Liza she needs to fix her relationship with Kelsey. After all, Kelsey is now in a position to be making decisions and could hurt her promising career. Diana tells Liza she’s here if she wants to talk, but the two get sidetracked by the entrance of Richard’s (Mather Zickel) ex-wife Winnie (Kate Blumberg).

 

Diana feels as if she knows her since she Facebook stalks her so much. Against Liza’s urging, she goes over to introduce herself. When she announces that she’s Richard’s new girlfriend, therapist Winnie begins laughing hysterically.

 

Back at the office, Liza shares publishing statistics with Kelsey. Kelsey; however, continues icing her out, ordering her to book a rental car to drive to the venue. Back at Josh’s apartment, Kelsey packs and tells him all about the publishing retreat. She teases him about going on Tinder but assures him she supports his use of the hookup app. Josh longingly watches Kelsey get ready to shower through the cracked bathroom door.

 

Maggie offers to let Liza take some of her ex-girlfriend’s camping equipment to Bonfire, sparking a conversation about the stuff Josh left at Liza’s place. Liza feels that, since Josh’s things are so valuable, she should return them. Maggie offers to do the dirty work so Liza doesn’t have to see him.

 

While they’re checking into their cabin, a Bonfire staff member informs Liza and Kelsey that the retreat has no wifi access so people are forced to unplug and actually talk to one another. Liza and Kelsey are also in the same cabin and Liza worries that it could be a long, tense weekend.

 

At the booze-filled opening reception, a hologram welcomes everyone to the weekend. Kelsey quickly abandons Liza in favor of a group of younger people and doesn’t get home until early the next morning, having gotten drunk and had a one night stand. Feeling like Liza is judging her, she goes on the defensive, insisting that she’s not ashamed of her messy night and telling Liza she’s not afraid to be who she is. Liza finally informs her she was only giving her an odd look because Kelsey’s boob popped out of her shirt.

 

After their panel, Liza is approached by Jay Malick (Aasif Mandvi), a representative from Macmillan publishing. He tells Liza that they’re launching their own Gen Y imprint and offers her the chance to head it up. Liza is caught off guard, but agrees to have a drink and discuss the opportunity. While they’re playing a rousing game of sex, marry, kill with a group of classic female authors, Kelsey interrupts, dragging Liza away and demanding that she start networking with more influential people. She tells her to stick to the brand by being young and fun before downing a shot.

 

Soon Kelsey is drunkenly telling a group about how a large publishing house dropped the ball on Colin’s promising book. She goes to pour herself and Liza another drink, but Liza cuts herself off and throws up in a plant. Liza announces that she’s going to head home, which makes Kelsey angry. She pulls Liza away, lighting into her for not being able to keep up. Liza reaches her breaking point—she loves her job, but she realizes maybe this isn’t working. Kelsey agrees before storming away and Liza tells Jay she’s interested in the position at Macmillan.

 

Maggie and Josh meet at the coffee shop Montana works at. Maggie gives him his stuff back, apologizing for how everything went down with Liza. She assures him that Liza messed up by cheating, but things were doomed from the night the two met and Liza assumed nothing serious would ever happen between them. Josh flirts with Montana right before the cafe closes, which leads to the two having sex in Josh’s apartment.

 

Diana pays a visit to Winnie’s office, interrogating her as to why she laughed when she learned she was dating Richard. Winnie bluntly says she wasn’t quite what she was expecting—after Richard left her, he had said he wanted to recapture his youth by buying a truck and dating models.

 

That night, Diana examines herself for a long time in the bathroom mirror before joining Richard in the bedroom. She shares what Winnie said about him wanting to date models and Richard assures her he said a lot of ridiculous things before their divorce. Plus, he did meet someone beautiful inside and out.

 

Liza and Kelsey finally get cell phone service back as they drive out of the woods. Liza notices she has a lot of urgent missed calls and texts from her daughter (Tessa Albertson) as well as her roommates. Liza pulls over to read them and finds out Caitlin is in the hospital, having had surgery from a burst appendix. Liza leaves a frantic voicemail promising she’s on her way and rushes to the airport to take the first flight out.

 

Caitlin’s roommate calls Liza as she gets to the airport, saying that Caitlin is out of surgery and will call as soon as she wakes up. Liza tells Kelsey that Caitlin had been having pain for awhile, but was afraid to go to the doctor since she didn’t have enough money for the deductible. Liza feels guilty for getting drunk in the woods while her daughter was suffering from serious health problems alone, but Kelsey tells her there was nothing she could have done. She squeezes her hand, comforting her. Caitlin FaceTimes with Liza, assuring her that she is okay. Liza tells Caitlin that, when it comes to her health, money is never an issue.

 

Kelsey lies to Diana, saying that Liza went hard at Bonfire so she instructed her to take a day off. She says that Diana would have been proud of her, as she partied with all the right people. Kelsey also tells Charles that she changed her mind—she realizes now that Liza absolutely deserves the promotion. She even offers to take a pay cut in order to give Liza a bigger paycheck, but Charles promises that he’ll come up with the money somehow.

 

Caitlin and Liza FaceTime Maggie from the hospital bed. Maggie tells Liza she managed to return Josh’s stuff, catching on to what went down between him and Montana when she sees Montana sneaking into the loft looking giddy.