Younger Review: Flush With Love (Season 6 Episode 2)
Navigating the newest chapter of their lives isn’t going how Liza and Kelsey expected. On Younger Season 6 Episode 2, “Flush With Love,” we learn that Quinn isn’t exactly an ideal co-worker. Meanwhile, Liza has to figure out how to keep her life and work separate in new ways, and Josh becomes a dad.
During Younger Season 5, I took an immediate liking to Quinn. She’s refreshing, fierce, and she was ready to take Kelsey and Liza to the top of the game, but now it seems like she might be more trouble than she’s worth. Her book, Claw, is supposed to be an empowering book that teaches other women how to win in their career fields.
Unfortunately, Quinn refuses to take edits from Liza, and as the book stands it’s an absolute nightmare for Millenial and women in general. On “Flush With Love,” Quinn also announces that she’s running for Senate in California, so she may not be hanging around New York much longer no matter how her book performs once it’s published.
I am all for more women running for office, and I’m all for women owning their careers, but in a very brief time, it feels like Quinn has become a caricature of that, which makes me much less interested in her story.
Liza and Charles are still adjusting to what it means to be in this relationship with Charles no longer at work. Naturally, Liza talks to Charles about things at work because when you’re dating someone you want to tell them about your life. It’s complicated for these two though because of all of the overlapping layers in their personal and professional lives.
Kelsey misunderstands Liza sharing Charles’ advice as Liza going behind her back to undermine her authority by talking about their work problems with their former boss. Thankfully, Liza and Kelsey work out this conflict by the end of the episode, but the friction is enough to make Liza institute a new policy in her relationship that I can’t help but worry about.
Liza suggests to Charles that they place a “Chinese wall” between them when it comes to talking about work. Charles agrees and again says nothing to Liza about his own work plans. While this policy will probably benefit Liza’s relationship with Kelsey, I fear that it will cause problems for her and Charles.
Keeping things from each other isn’t healthy for any relationship, let alone one that began the way Charles and Liza’s did. I love these two together and I want to see them succeed together, but almost every scene they’ve shared since Charles left Empirical leaves me waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Whatever Charles is planning with Zane could end up threatening the legacy that Kelsey and Liza are trying to build. Which won’t be good for any of the relationships between those four characters. Additionally, even the softest of moments between Charles and Liza have this hint of discomfort and uncertainty.
When Liza returns to Charles’ place at the end of the episode they both claim to be happy, but when the camera lingers on Liza as they embrace, she has the same look on her face as she had at the end of Season 5.
She says one thing, but her face says another. Her expressions make it seem like she’s questioning everything that has led her to this point. Am I reading too much into this? Let me know how you feel about these Liza/Charles developments in the comments!
Diana: Life gives you more than you thought, but maybe not in the package you expected. It’s deeper than that, it’s what you need underneath the want. It gives you what you can’t breathe without.
Charles and Liza aren’t the only couple that has to overcome communication issues on this episode. Diana mistakenly puts her foot in her mouth regarding Enzo once again. This isn’t the first time that Diana has essentially insulted Enzo’s social and economic status by acting embarrassed of him or saying she never expected to end up with someone like that.
Diana manages to save her relationship by using a news story pitched by Lauren to prove that she does love Enzo. I hope that this is the last time these two go through something like this. It’s heartening to see Diana fight for the person she cares about and prove that she has moved past her hang-ups about their different backgrounds, but it’s becoming a little repetitive.
I want to see Diana and Enzo happy together and working through other kinds of relationship issues. Constantly, going back to the place where Diana thinks she’s too good for him is a disservice to her character development.
Josh gets his wish to become a father a lot faster than I anticipated. Clare arrived on his doorstep extremely pregnant, and she gives birth two weeks early on “Flush With Love.” Having Maggie accompany these two to the hospital is both brilliant and hilarious. She and Josh have developed one of the best friendships on the show, so I’m very glad she’s able to be there for him at this moment.
Clare: Maggie, you and I are the only two women on the planet who’ve been inside my mother! We’re bonded!
Liza stays true to her promise to help Josh through this, and the scene at the beginning of this episode is reminiscent of the early days of Younger as they laugh their way through baby shopping. The connection between these two is lasting and this new development is definitely bringing out those feelings in both of them.
I don’t know how Younger does it, but it seems I am almost always wanting Liza to be in the relationship that she can’t have at any given moment. Her choice to let Josh go because she didn’t want to have more kids or hold him back from having his own is still completely valid. But now that Josh has a child without her, I wonder if she’s re-thinking what she really wants.
OTHER THOUGHTS:
- Kelsey and Zane are back together! I love these two together, but I’m definitely nervous about whatever he has planned with Charles.
- Do you think Clare is going to abandon Josh now that she’s had their baby? Or is she actually invested in sticking around this time?
- Diana and Lauren is my new favorite Younger friendship. I hope they get up to so many shenanigans together this season.
What did you think of this episode of Younger? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Younger airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on TVLAND.
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Samantha Coley
Samantha (she/her) is a social media specialist by day and a sci-fi junkie by night. As a freelance writer and podcaster, she also enjoys live-tweeting, blogging, good music, and better television. Her current favorite television shows include Star Trek (yes, all of them), Riverdale, and Stranger Things and there will always be a place in her heart for Battlestar Galactica, Leverage, and The West Wing.