Younger Review: Merger, She Wrote (Season 6 Episode 6)
On Younger Season 6 Episode 6, “Merger, She Wrote,” Maggie has the best ideas, Liza’s romantic worlds collide anew, Diana gets Princess Pam Pam’d, and Kelsey and Charles finally reach a satisfying business proposition.
Before Liza leaves for the retreat, Maggie comes up with the best solution to relieve Liza of the constant agony of feeling torn between her best friend and her boyfriend: merge the companies. Unfortunately, Charles isn’t too keen on the idea, at least at first.
Charles has no real understanding of how friendships really work, asking Liza to leave Millennial and come work with him at Mercury is the latest evidence of that. To Charles, it’s all business and Kelsey should understand why Liza would make that choice, but the thing is Liza shouldn’t have to make that choice, and it’s frustrating that he thinks it’s okay to keep putting her in this position.
Liza stands her ground and I am consistently proud of her for doing so.
Josh and Charles have met before but the microdosing retreat causes Liza’s love triangle to clash in a way we haven’t seen before. Before when these three have come together, Liza was either involved with Josh or on bad terms with him and secretly involved with Charles. Now, Liza is with Charles but they aren’t on good terms , while she and Josh are and he is continuing to grow in maturity.
Liza allows herself to fully experience the microdosing retreat and it opens her mind to the realization that she still isn’t sure which of her love interests is actually who she is supposed to be with.
Maureen: They bring out different things in you. Why not just have both?
Liza: But it doesn’t work that way Maureen, I can’t do that.
Younger makes use of Sutton Fosters expansive broadway talents by using this drug trip as an opportunity to give fans a delightful dance sequence to represent Liza’s mental back and forth over Josh and Charles. As someone who also still can’t decide which man I’d like to see Liza end up with, I am definitely enjoying seeing her thrown back into this place of questioning.
I am beginning to wonder however if Younger has written themselves into a corner. It will be interesting to see if they can ever make either of these relationships work in the endgame for Liza.
Because they have made both so appealing, the audience will always be split on which relationship they want to see happen. Some viewers will always be Team Josh and others will always be Team Charles, while some will continue to want to see Liza in whichever relationship she technically can’t have.
We don’t really see any of what Charles and Josh experience during the retreat but their conversation encorages Charles to adjust his priorites when it comes to both Liza and his business. Charles takes Liza up on her initial proposition of the merger and comes to Kelsey with a genuine offer between friends.
Charles: I think we’ll be stronger together.
Kelsey: Welcome home, Charles.
In doing so he doesn’t question Kelsey’s power in any way and he humbly accepts a lower position than the one he had before. I’m so relieved to see the gang all back together and having them reunite with these new power dynamics is going to be really fun to watch.
OTHER THOUGHTS
- I like that Maggie comes up with the merger, but I hate everything else about her plot on this episode.
- Diana gets co-opted into being the audio voice for The Seasoned Slut in a very similar way to how Liza was made Princess Pam Pam. It’s fun to get to see her do something like this and explore that side of her.
- I love the back and forth between Zane and Kelsey, I’m excited to see how their dynamic plays out at Millennial post-merger with her essentially being his boss now.
- My Liza/Josh needs have been so fed with with that kiss even if it was a dream, boy I missed them.
- Are you Team Josh or Team Charles? Let me know in the comments who you want Liza to be with or if you want something different for her!
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.