Younger – The Gift of the Maggie

By: Taylor Gates

Liza (Sutton Foster), Charles (Peter Hermann) and Diana (Miriam Shor) attend a photoshoot for one of Belinda’s romance covers. Though she’s dead, Empirical can continue to publish her posthumously at their discretion. They just need to find another person who can deliver the happily ever afters.

Liza meets with Redmond (Michael Urie), telling him she wants to find the next E.L. James to write under Belinda’s name. Unfortunately, none of Remond’s clients will touch that brand, as they want uphold their squeaky-clean, high-literature reputations. He does some digging and calls her the next day, offering her professor Carol (Eva Kaminsky)—an award-winning short story writer. Though she specializes in second-person experimental fiction, there’s a lot more money in romance and she’s trying to put her third child through college.

Charles, Liza and Diana interview potential Belinda writers. They’re all disasters, pitching everything from vegan vampires to wolves with human genitals. Carol is the only one who doesn’t want to incorporate the odd supernatural, to which they are incredibly grateful. However, Carol warns them she can’t always deliver a happy ending—she wants to write about real love, not just the passion and happy parts. Liza tells Charles she likes Carol precisely because of her realistic approach.

Montana (Meredith Hagner) tells Josh (Nico Tortorella) that she quit working for Maggie (Debi Mazar) to focus on her own art. She invites him to come see her work that night and he readily agrees. She drives him out into the woods and it turns out her studio is attached to her rich parents’ house. Josh panics about meeting her mom and dad, but Montana tells him not to worry—it’s just a casual introduction. As he helps her carry her canvas upstairs, her mom (Margaret Colin) oversharing and smothering her all the way. When Montana goes to the bathroom, her mom drops two bombs: Montana’s real name is Amy and instead of painting her own art she just appropriates the work of other artists. Namely, she draws a white outline of the state of Montana on their paintings, including the work Maggie gifted her.

That night in bed Josh confronts Montana about secretly using Maggie’s art in her show. Montana argues that Ray Charles wasn’t mad when Kanye sampled his music—it’s their job as young people to build on the art the generation before them made. She doesn’t understand why he’s worrying about his ex and her roommate when he should be supporting her. He drops it, promising there are no hard feelings between them.

Josh tells Maggie about Montana stealing her art, which makes her enraged. Maggie calls Liza in a frenzy, dragging her along to Montana’s art show. Montana is selling her art for quadruple the price Maggie gets for it, not to mention taking credit for her work. Montana condescends Maggie, telling her she’s making her relevant again and that she would understand had she gone to art school. Maggie takes out a blade and slashes through the canvas, reclaiming her piece before stabbing an hors d’oeurve and walking out. Montana yells at Josh for telling Maggie on her, vowing that she’s going to be a big deal someday. Josh, now recognizing her crazy, wishes her luck and leaves.

Liza thanks Josh for giving Maggie the heads up. Josh sadly asks Liza why she had to kiss Charles, and she admits that part of her felt the need to blow things up. She still believes she never could have given him what he would have wanted someday in terms of a family. She tells Josh she still wants him to be in her life and to eventually play the fun aunt to his children. Josh agrees and wishes her goodnight.

Kelsey (Hilary Duff) fills Liza in on her dilemma. She has a date with Zane (Charles Michael Davis) that night, but she also might be poaching one of his biggest authors. Liza tells her that business is business and personal is personal. Kelsey is determined she can keep them separate. That night, Zane takes her to a cigar club and charms her with literary history. Kelsey opens up about where her love to books stems from, admitting that novels were an escape for her growing up since she was poor.

Kelsey is telling Liza about her latest grievance against Montana when Charles interrupts them, angry that they didn’t tell him about their possibility of signing Lachlan Flynn (Burke Moses). Flynn is currently in the conference room and wanting to speak to Kelsey, which blindsided Charles. Kelsey promises Flynn she can help guide and market him to a female audience—he just needs to write a girl protagonist as strong and interesting as his male characters and he’ll be set. After the meeting, Charles congratulates Kelsey on being a shark with Flynn. She celebrates, but her excitement is short-lived once she gets a text from Zane offering to her cook dinner. This whole separation of business and pleasure is proving to be harder than she thought.

Kelsey’s next date with Zane is going even better than anticipated. He’s a great cook and a gentleman, even stirring her drink. When she tells him the truth about signing Lachlan, things go surprisingly okay. Zane already knew the news and tells Kelsey they were about to cut him at his company anyway, cryptically saying he’s relieved that Lachlan is Empirical’s problem now.

Liza tells Maggie the good news about Josh before showing her an article they wrote about her destroying the piece at Montana’s show. Diana reads the same article, demanding that Liza introduce the two of them. She also tells Liza that she’s smart to surround herself with older female mentors.

Liza goes into Charles office, saying that, although the Columbia professor is smart, she thinks it’s a mistake not to hire someone who writes happy endings. Charles is glad to hear her say that, already having passed on the author. He didn’t want to be the one to deprive their readers of nice conclusions either.