Well, secrets, smells, and squirting is basically what goes down in this week’s episode of Younger! Before we jump into it, the fabulous Miriam Shor, who plays Diana Trout, directed this episode and did an incredible job! This is the second episode, and second anything ever, that she has directed with 5.05 Big Little Liza being her first. Now, on to the recap!
Last week on Younger, the episode saw Liza and Kelsey trying to get a true crime book by alleged murderess Audrey Colbert, however, somehow Zane ends up stealing the title from them. It also sees Liza and Charles indulge in a little roleplay while listening to the true crime podcast, but it seems Charles is hiding things after taking out a mortgage on his house. Josh and Clare decide to get divorced but raise Gemma together, while Maggie needs some help in recovering after seeing Clare give birth and winds up sleeping with the support group’s leader, Beth. Kelsey also plays dirty since Quinn bulk bought her books and announces early that Quinn is running for Senate.
Time For A Little Erotica
Liza (Sutton Foster) walks into the kitchen to find Beth (Nicole Ari Parker) and Maggie (Debi Mazar) kissing, which leads to them being introduced. After Beth leaves, Maggie suggests a double date when Liza expresses her concerns about Charles and a potential new company.
At Millennial, Liza, Diana (Miriam Shor), and Kelsey (Hilary Duff) are having a meeting as Kelsey is looking to promote different titles after losing the Audrey Colbert book. A suggested title from Liza is ‘The Seasoned Slut’, which is apparently “erotica for babyboomers” with an older female chef as the main character. Diana suggests they do what they can because the author, Bronwyn, does well for the publishing company. After Diana leaves, Kelsey shows Liza an article about Zane getting the Audrey Colbert book and mentions that Mercury has offices in the financial district.
Kelsey goes to see Zane (Charles Michael Davis) at his new office and finds him in a community workspace, but according to Zane, it’s the way to do it to save money and then spend some on nice meetings instead. Their confrontation ends with Kelsey upset with Zane for not being open about what he was doing. After she leaves, Kelsey has lunch with Lauren (Molly Bernard) and she needs something to help her unwind. With Zane out of the picture, she turns to dating apps, but Kelsey has been without any bites as she has publisher for Millennial Print in her profile. As per Lauren’s wisdom, that’s something you include if you’re looking for women as it’s too much for men to handle her “big-dick energy” and she’s essentially wielding a “giant psychic schlong”. After changing her title to creative director, she gets some matches!
Shedding and Squirting
Clare (Phoebe Dynevor) brings Gemma to Josh’s (Nico Tortorella) as she needs to do a project at work for the new few days, but before she leaves, it seems Gemma is hungry and she goes to breastfeed her. However, it seems Clare has a clogged duct and ends up accidentally spraying Josh in the face with her milk!
At Millennial, Diana works her marketing magic by proposing they put erotica on MetroCycle kiosks and she asks Liza to call to see if that will help get the author to renew her contract. Meanwhile, Kelsey goes to get hair done and according to her hairdresser, it seems Kelsey has a bit of a bald patch going from some hair loss. The next morning, it seems Lauren has been up with Gemma all night for some reason while Kelsey dons a hat as she’s losing more hair.
It appears Bronwyn (played by Becky Ann Baker) won’t sign her contract so they’ve set a meeting and Diana suggests Kelsey loses the hat. She informs them that she has alopecia while Diana begins to rattle off all the issues she’s had including alopecia not on her head and shingles every April. During the meeting, they pitch the MetroCycle kiosks where people can “get on and get off“, which Bronwyn doesn’t like it as it’s not her demographic. Brownyn believes Millennial will change her voice and books and doesn’t like the lack of valuing experience within the Millennial staff.
A Whiff of Garlic
Kelsey later runs into Maggie at a pharmacy as Kelsey needs something for her balding, while Maggie has a little burning and itching going on from too much hot yoga. Maggie then invites Kelsey over for a drink, which is also their double date night. At their apartment, Beth suggests Maggie uses something more natural and grabs a clove of garlic from the kitchen bench and well, puts it in the area it needs to be. Later on, Kelsey and Charles swear they can smell garlic bread or something!
Kelsey brings up Bronwyn during the dinner along with Zane’s new publishing house and Charles tries to change the subject. He later says that what’s going on between Zane and Kelsey is just business and not personal, but Kelsey disagrees. Maggie then brings up the garlic and everyone bursts into laughter.
Liza walks Charles out and she confronts him as she can tell he’s lying. He confesses that he never wanted to give up publishing, but he also wanted to be with Liza. She’s clearly hurt and says he can’t be on the board of Millennial and run a competing publishing house, but he says he needs time and asks for it to stay between just them.
The Truth Comes Out
At Inkburg, Claire comes to see Josh who has Gemma strapped to his chest and he says he’s learned so much including that Gemma loves being read to. His book of choice? Bronwyn’s erotica novel, The Hung Juror. Josh says he wants to be in Gemma’s life as much as he can be and Claire agrees.
The next morning, it seems Bronwyn has tweeted about a meeting and Kelsey knows it’s Zane and asks Liza to meet her to intercept them. She gets to Bronwyn in time with Liza arriving shortly after, but then Zane and Charles both turn up much to the surprise of Kelsey. She’s fuming about Charles working against Millennial and her, and it seems her anger is being filmed by people in the restaurant. Kelsey storms out while Charles tells Liza that Bronwyn reached out to him and with that, Liza tells Bronwyn that Charles refers to her books as ‘matron lit’.
Kelsey’s outburst has started to go viral and now Bronwyn is staying with Millennial, however, it seems agents are now looking to move their authors from Millennial to Mercury. Diana and Liza also inform Kelsey that Charles has resigned from the board and Mercury is officially their competition…
Overall Thoughts?
This season is really fun with Liza barely hiding from anyone and other people now keeping the secrets! I love the character of Charles, but I don’t like him with Liza and this secret and betrayal will definitely affect their relationship, especially with Kelsey involved in the ordeal because she will become very anti-Charles. It could also cause issues between Kelsey and Liza if Kelsey doesn’t trust her with information about Millennial as Charles might find out. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes and what is going to happen by the end of the season…will there still be a Millennial? Will they take a massive tumble and be forced to fire people and restructure? Regardless, we always know there’s plenty of drama waiting for us!
The introduction of Beth is fun because she’s into very different things in comparison to Maggie, but in a way, Malkie also was a bit of an opposite. The garlic scene made for a great time, and it was great to see them being somewhat normal and forgetting all of their troubles for a second!
I’m personally still on the fence about Clare, I don’t know if she’s trustworthy and if she might leave Gemma with Josh or take her away? It’s something about the way she was in the scene where Josh said he wanted to be involved as much as he can since her response was a little off.
Until next time Younger fans!
Where are the rest of your reviews for this season? 😔