Younger – Millennial’s Next Top Model

By: Ujjyani Banerjee

Within hours of Liza’s (Sutton Foster) revelation, Millennial has been bombarded with negative press. Kelsey (Hilary Duff) reveals that clothing chain Infinitely 21, who sell Millennial titles at their stores, wants to clarify final details of their deal. Zane (Charles Michael Davis) feels it’s best to lay Liza off before she poisons Millennial further. Just then Liza arrives. Zane asks her not to take it personally and attacks Charles (Peter Hermann) on how he should’ve informed HR or at least Kelsey when he first learned about it. Kelsey reveals she already knew. Infuriated, Charles leaves the room.

Kelsey and Liza meet Shelly (Annaleigh Ashford) from Infinitely 21. They want to pull the plug on this partnership as they don’t want Millennial’s recent hoaxy image and older generation-vibe to tarnish their young, fun and authentic persona. Liza expresses how much she despises the universal need to look younger that drives people to dye their hair, whiten their teeth and what not. She says Millennial is an attitude, not an age, and if Infinitely 21 can’t sell that then Millennial can go find other partners. Kelsey is awed by Liza’s epic comeback!

Maggie (Debi Mazar) is at an art exhibition. The artist, Rafa (Oded Fehr), takes an interest in her and soon they discuss about one particular art piece. He flirts and she responds. Maggie appreciates his artwork and in return he offers to critique her art, inviting himself to her place. That very evening Liza joins Charles and his two daughters at a cake shop to play cards. Charles thanks Liza for faking the normalcy, but she’s glad she got to smile at least once in the entire day. Shelly gives her a call and informs that Infinitely 21 appreciated her age revelation and they want her to be part of their Spring campaign. Thrilled, Liza says yes to it.

Back at Maggie’s place Rafa appreciates her artwork. He doesn’t care she’s gay and both scale up the sexual tension. They start to make out. The next morning Rafa searches for his wallet and Liza jumps upon seeing him. Maggie calms her down, hands him his wallet and walks him out the door. She clarifies to Liza that she’s still gay but she does visit the male experience once every few years. And, no, she’s not sleeping with him again.

Diana (Miriam Shor), who’s on her way to Liza’s photoshoot, finds Kelsey bummed because Zane isn’t returning her calls. Kelsey doesn’t get why he’s so affected with Liza’s secret given they barely interacted but Diana doesn’t feel Liza is the one upsetting him.

It’s photoshoot time. Lauren (Molly Bernard) shows up with a bowflex for Liza’s face, which can help her look younger, but she gets summoned to set. Diana secretly checks it out and gives it a go. Charles witnesses her face vigorously paddling vertically and stealthily escapes, looking disturbed. The photoshoot commences. Lauren, Shelly and Charles are at the monitors. During a break Charles comes to chat with Liza and the photographer (Stephen Cofield) snaps them candidly. Later, Quinn (Laura Benanti) gives Liza a visit explaining the need to amplify this revelation fiasco and suggests they both appear on New York One’s “Corporate Discrimination” series where they can go off on “corporate ageism.” Liza adds that it’d boost Quinn’s campaigning too and is excited.

In the evening Kelsey visits Zane to cook him a peace offering. She suggests that over the forty minutes that the meal kit is going to take he can ask her any questions he wants to and she’s got to answer them truthfully. Seeing Kelsey struggle with cooking at the very start he offers to do the chef’s job.

At a pub the photoshoot team prepares for it’s last leg. Shelly says she’ll get a Diet Coke and asks Liza if she wants one. Josh (Nico Tortorella), who’s come to give “the model” a visit, says she’d need something harder. Liza is elated to see him and introduces him to Shelly. Surprised, she wants to know how they got together. As Josh recollects that glorious phase of his past, he and Liza lock eyes and the photographer clicks them away.

Thirty-five minutes have passed by. Zane asks Kelsey how she felt when he confessed his love for her. She reminds him that he said he loved her, past tense. She regrets that if they’d have been tougher and more open about their feelings they wouldn’t have wasted all this time. The timer rings. Kelsey confesses that her feelings haven’t changed. Zane kisses her and they reconcile..

Liza is at the New York One’s studio. Pat Kiernan greets her and wants to know how she kept her secret for so long and if anyone knew. Liza shares that she wanted to keep it for as long as she could and, yes, some people knew but most she asked to keep mum. Quinn; however, encouraged her to disclose long before she became an investor. Based on her book, Pat is surprised that Quinn could empathize. Soon the interview begins after Quinn’s arrival. She supports Liza by justifying how she’d never have snagged the job conventionally. Quinn states that she runs both, her campaign and company with transparency. She next speaks about her immediate reaction after learning about the revelation last week in the news. This shocks Pat as well as Liza. He asks Quinn if she was aware about it prior to investing, as per Liza. She denies it outright saying Liza might’ve misspoke due to sudden media pressure. Liza fights back her tears as Quinn continues to fabricate lies.

Rafa invites Maggie for drinks. She insists that she’s super gay and wouldn’t want to change her preferences. Rafa claims to have successfully flipped people in the past and they’ve ought to give it a go. Maggie doesn’t want to, but he isn’t one to accept failure. Having had enough, she says she’s a flipper too. She flips the table in his face, storms out of the restaurant and leaves Rafa more embarrassed than ever.

Quinn meets Kelsey. Mad about Liza spilling truth on television and nearly destroying her campaign, she orders Kelsey to fire Liza. Kelsey won’t do it, especially not for her selfish gains. Kelsey leaves, saying she’s done. Quinn smirks, repeating Kelsey’s statement. Back at the office, one by one, delivery checks get bounced, direct deposits fail to go through and Kelsey realizes that Quinn has stopped funding Millennial. Homebound, Liza stops near an LED advert worrying about Millenial’s future. Charles reassures her that they’ll visit investors and rise up soon. He says that the best part about hitting rock bottom is that now there’s only one way to go and that’s up. They kiss and walk on, away from the advert which then displays Infinitely 21’s newest ad which has Liza and Josh laughing away at a pub, a candid moment capturing nothing but fearlessness and youth.