Younger – Into the Woods and Out of the Woods

By starrymag | February 18, 2016

By: Taylor Gates

 

This week’s episode, titled “Into the Woods and Out of the Woods” (A shoutout to Sutton Foster’s Broadway roots and a Taylor Swift reference perhaps?), starts out with Josh (Nico Tortorella) flexing his musical muscles alongside his bluegrass band. As always, Liza (Sutton Foster) is there supporting him along with Maggie (Debi Mazar) and Lauren (Molly Bernard).

 

Josh announces that his band will be playing at a festival and Maggie comments that a music festival sounds like torture. Liza says that she’s excited to go and she owes it to Josh to show up since she’s put him through so much and he accompanies her to all of her work functions.

 

Lauren spots Iris, an ex-girlfriend, across the room. They dated for a full eleven weeks – “almost a full trimester,” Liza comments and she wants Maggie to meet her.

 

Josh finishes his set and goes over to greet Liza. He tries to get her to blow off work the next day in order to drive up the festival with him and the rest of the band. Liza says she can’t, but promises she’ll join them as soon as she gets off work the next day. Josh’s bandmate/roommate (Jon Gabrus) interrupts them. He is so excited for a few days with music, the outdoors and without hygiene.

 

At work, Liza gets a selfie from Josh in the forest with the funny caption, “Morning wood.” She enjoys the joke for approximately half a second before she gets another text from Diana, demanding her coffee. Liza scurries into Diana’s (Miriam Shor) office where she is having a conversation with Charles (Peter Hermann). Charles is appearing in the “By the Book” section of The New York Times. The column profiles someone about their favorite books, who they think is the most underrated author, etc. Diana encourages him to include one of their books on his list. She suggests their new release, The Male Feminist, as he wants to come off as intelligent, but not pretentious.

 

Charles says that books are such a big part of his work life that he almost forgets which ones are important to his personal life. Diana recommends he say one of the classics, but Charles throws out Infinite Jest. Liza tells him that wouldn’t be a good idea since someone has just recently answered that. She passionately spits out a few alternate titles, but quickly apologizes, saying she’s had a lot of time to think about what she would answer if anyone ever asked her. Diana snaps that nobody is asking her now and says that she has a meeting with Hugh Shirley coming up – not so subtly hinting that Liza should leave and get back to work.

 

Kelsey (Hilary Duff) walks in on Diana getting ready for her meeting with Hugh, inferring throughout their conversation that Diana might have more than just a business interest in this guy. She unzips Diana’s jacket a bit to give the outfit a sexier vibe, but once Kelsey leaves, Diana decides to nix the jacket altogether, leaving her in a stunning backless black dress.

 

Diana and Hugh (David Wain) meet up to discuss what places they should hit on the book tour. They list the obvious first—transgender academics in Midwestern college towns and anywhere within ten miles of a vegan market, naturally, before Hugh mentions wanting to reach the straight male audience as well. Perhaps they could do a few surprise drop-ins at a strip club here and there. Kelsey makes a few suggestive gestures outside the window before Diana closes the blinds on her. Hugh admits to Diana that he’s erotically objectifying her. Diana thanks him for letting her know and Hugh invites her to lunch tomorrow. He confirms it is, in fact, a date.

 

Liza has made her way to the bluegrass festival, but she is having trouble finding Josh. The signal on her phone is bad and it cuts out before she can figure out which tent he’s in. Moments later, her phone rings again and she answers by saying she’s near the bratwursts. Charles replies that he likes his with sauerkraut and onions, confusing Liza before she realizes who she’s talking to.

 

Charles apologizes for interrupting her weekend, saying he just needed a little help on a “By the Book” question. He’s having trouble with the question of which book was his favorite as a child. He was never much of a reader, but he usually tells people his baseball coach told him reading would ruin his eyesight. Not reading anything, but comic books was his way of torturing his publishing house owner father until he was twelve years old. Liza says, although she’s not encouraging him to lie, she would suggest To Kill a Mockingbird. Josh grabs Liza from behind, and Charles thanks her for her advice before hanging up.

 

Josh says that his band is playing at two o’clock the next day before leading Liza to the tent he pitched for them. He’s proud of his effort, but Liza is less than impressed—there’s just a few blankets haphazardly strewn across the floor, a cooler and some red solo cups. The air mattress has a hole in it so they can’t even blow that up. Josh says the ground is soft, but Liza points out that’s only because it’s wet. Josh tries to cheer her up, saying she’s such a trooper and he loves that about her.

 

Josh’s friend interrupts their make out session, barging into their tent, changing his tune from last night. He says he’s not meant for this life—some raccoons ate all his Cliff bars and he has a huge bite on his stomach. He begs them not to make him go back outside and they relent. Liza gives him some calamine lotion and he assures them they can still get freaky; he has headphones and won’t make it weird.

 

The next morning, Josh gives Liza some coffee flavored beer—not ideal, but the only thing he could find. He says they’re going to have so much fun going to the whittling tent and participating in a corn hole tournament. Liza reassures him, and herself, that she’s a trooper before going to the porta potties. While she’s in line, Charles sends her a text thanking her again for her help. Liza texts back that she’s changed her mind and thinks he should tell the magazine The Hulk comic books instead of To Kill a Mockingbird. The man finally comes out of the bathroom and promises Liza she’s going to want to go in the woods instead.

 

Charles calls Liza again, asking what he should write for the question of which book changed his life. He says he wants to put Freedom, but doesn’t want to have to explain why. It was the last book his wife read before she left him and it gave her the inspiration to go find her place in the world. Josh finds Liza, telling her they should hurry to the whittling tent and go smoke some pot. Still not completely digging the music festival, Liza tells Charles that relationships are complicated, referring to her and Josh as much as Charles and his ex.

 

Hugh and Diana are making out on the couch. Hugh pulls away from a kiss to ask if they can get his book into elementary schools. Diana says she’ll see what she can do, as it’s a book every third grader should read. Hugh says that Diana gives off a masculine energy that he finds extremely brave and sexy. Diana says that her grandmother always said she reminded her of an Indian chief. Although she was a violent racist, she always took it as a compliment. Hugh says that the racist was onto something before telling her he’d like to see her naked if he has her full permission.

 

Josh and Liza are at the whittling tent next to two bright-haired, topless girls who are carving bongs in the shape of penises. Josh and Liza head off to the clogging circle and the two girls tag along.

 

Diana and Hugh are in the bedroom, but Diana is getting annoyed that Hugh is asking her permission before every single time he touches her. He finally says that he feels like he’s dominating her and he would be more comfortable if she was on top. Diana eagerly switches him places and it’s all going fine until a part of his body cracks.

 

It’s Josh’s band’s turn to play and he runs up to the stage. The two bright-haired girls ask Liza to stray sunscreen on their completely naked front side.

 

Both Josh and Charles start texting Liza. Josh wants Liza to take her shirt off and Charles informs her that he’s rereading Freedom. Liza gets confused by the double conversation, accidentally sending Charles a message that says, “I’ll take my top off if you take your pants off.” She frantically tries to text him that was meant for someone else, but her phone dies before she gets the chance. Josh’s band starts to play, but Liza misses it, off trying to find a charger.

 

She forcibly steals a spot at the charging station and calls Charles right away, apologizing for the mistake. Charles says at least she’s having fun, but Liza admits that it’s not so great. Charles says there’s a bed and breakfast near where she’s staying and after seeing someone puke right next to her, Liza admits that sounds great. After hanging up with Charles, the girl she hip-checked and stole the charging spot from comes back with security. The security officer says they have a zero tolerance policy for violence and makes Liza leave the premises.

 

Diana and Hugh are at the hospital, arguing over what sound they heard when they were making love. Hugh is adamant that it sounded more like a crack than a pop. Everything was going fine until Diana arched her back like a Romanian gymnast. The nurse panics; she thinks Diana broke his manhood. Hugh gets rolled into a sonogram room where the doctor informs him he needs to be fully erect in order to get a sonogram. He can either get an injection or some privacy with Diana in order to make that happen. Hugh opts for the injection, yelling at Diana to get out.

 

Josh meets Liza outside the festival gates, apologizing and explaining what happened. She says she’s sorry, but she’s just too old for the festival thing. Josh admits that he is too and Liza mentions the bed and breakfast Charles told her about. She starts talking dirty to him by talking clean—mentioning all the nice towels and fluffy pillows this place will have.

 

They go to check in and pay, but the bed and breakfast worker says their room has already been paid for by Empirical. In the room, Charles has left Liza a note thanking her for her help and telling her that, soon enough, she’ll be the one answering the questions.

 

Josh tells Liza to put her robe on so they can take a selfie together and send it to Charles to thank him. They take the picture and Josh tells Liza to take all of her clothes off before meeting him in the bathroom. She promises she’ll be there in a second, deleting the email with the photo they were going to send to Charles.