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“Younger” recap (2.1 & 2.2): Namaste

Last season on TV Land’s new hit show, Younger, Liza (Sutton Foster) began moonlighting as a 26-year-old to get the job she wanted at a publishing firm. Now, she’s BFF with Kelsey Peters (Hilary Duff), and she’s hot and cold with her sort-of boyfriend, Josh (Nico Tortorella). She still lives with Craigslist Maggie (Debi Mazar), who provides her wing-woman support, coffee, wine and killer advice. Liza’s still 40, and her daughter Caitlin (Tessa Albertson) is en route as we speak from her sabbatical in India without knowledge of her mom’s new millennial ways. All Liza has to do is continue covering up her lies to the right people-and thankfully one of those people she doesn’t have to lie to anymore is Josh. Last season when Josh discovered the truth about Liza’s age, it seemed the couple was doomed, but Josh is more than stoked to be dating someone who remembers the ’90s so well.

After Liza and Maggie pick up Caitlin at the airport (where Maggie is donning a pair of sunglasses and a bright red lip like she’s a goddess damn queen), Caitlin high-tails it out to the bars with her friends and Liza meets up with Josh for a bar date. Only, when Liza gets to the bar, she ends up waiting and waiting-only to be accosted by nearby patrons who don’t seem to respect her space at her table. One guy offers he only wants to sit at the chair while she waits for her boyfriend, uncurbed by the fact that she is, as she said waiting for her boyfriend. Still, the guy begins his diatribe on Liza-that she’s “shy” and doesn’t have to be, and that she probably gets told she’s a snob, right? Raise your hand if a man’s ever approached you in a bar with a similar observational report as if he knows your experiences as the woman you are. Yeah.

Then a pack of girls approaches the table, and one sits down at Josh’s future chair. When Liza attempts to let the girl know the seat is taken, the girl calls Liza a bitch and carries on. Liza shoots the, “Where are you?” text to Josh but he quickly responds: “Sorry. Can’t make it work.” Time to leave.

The next morning, Liza walks in on Caitlin showing Maggie her new tattoo. Apparently she was inked last night when she went out with her girlfriends. Uh oh. It’s Sanskrit for “Namaste.” She says some hot tattoo guy gave her the new piece, at that place just down the street. Oh, namas-ay it ain’t so.

Liza makes a beeline for the door. She marches right down to Josh’s tattoo parlor to give him a piece of her mind, and also clearly to ask why he stood her up last night. He feels bad about Caitlin, and, in the end, they discover his so-called break-up text was a line of miscommunication. He left out the comma. “Can’t make it, work.” He had to give her daughter a late-night tattoo, duh. Phew. So, this means they can make out again, right? Sure, if they’re okay with Caitlin playing Harriet the Spy and peeping in through the tattoo shop window because she followed her mom there! Ew.

Back at the apartment, Caitlin is awaiting her dad. She’s apparently so thrown by seeing her mom with a younger man-the man who just gave her an under-boob tatt-she’s fleeing for New Jersey. Ouch. “She’ll be back,” says oracular Maggie. Anyway, now Liza can frolic through the city with Josh, and they’re going to a Trivia Night that cards heavily, so there will be zero run-ins. During the game, Liza gets every single answer right in the ’90s portion. She’s seriously on fire, answering questions about Lisa “Left Eye” Lopez, OJ Simpson and Nancy Kerrigan. Everyone there is all: “How’d she do that?” And Josh shouts: “She’s 40!” Double ouch.

Liza rolls with that punch, but back at Josh’s apartment, it seems there’s trouble below deck. They’re trying to get it on, but Josh explains finally that he has “whiskey dick.” Liza’s face looks like the emoji with the flat line for a mouth and the flat line for eyes. Josh, clearly wasted, stammers out, “My 40-year-old girlfriend got my dick drunk.” Triple ouch?

At work, Kelsey might have an offer on the table from a competing publishing firm that wants her. Liza tries to convince Kelsey that her worth is with Empirical, who treats her like family, but Kelsey’s eye is on the prize (and she’s being swayed by her boyfriend/”financial advisor” Tad.) Liza’s on her boss Diana Trout’s (Miriam Shor) radar today because she’s trying to get Laura Hillenbrand’s newest book. Liza geeks out over Hillenbrand’s previous writes, Seabiscuit and Unbroken, but she’s still reeling from the night before, telling Maggie that Josh is totally age-focused now. Maggie’s just as frustrated as Kelsey over what seems like an on-and-off slip ‘n slide with Josh, but only Liza must deal with her lies, her younger boyfriend and his Limp Biscuit.

Maggie and Liza drag Josh to a Cold War-era ping-pong art show because it’s funny to shout words like “Nixon” at an unassuming Josh, and it flashes the badassery of Maggie, who seems to be constantly in the know about events like such. The last time we saw Lauren (Molly Bernard), she was getting her Hot Mitzvah on with Maggie after they all took a bunch of Molly. She’s here tonight with her gal pal Kelsey, and they’ve teamed up to ask Josh about his alleged breakup with Liza. It’s peppered with, “We’re so glad you’re back together” type compliments, but it’s the sort of thing that would send anyone running for the hills. This isn’t TMZ, and Josh doesn’t want to give the girls what they want, so he bails.

Liza and Maggie are playing ping-pong over yonder, but Liza sees his escape and manages to catch him before he leaves. But then they’re standing out there on the curb and she gets a text, looks down for a second, and by the time her eyes are up and facing Josh again, he’s disappeared. He may never be found. Just kidding, we all know he just sulked his way home, and his kind-of shitty roommate is waiting there with a bag of family size Doritos and a marathon of video games to cure his bleeding heart.

Still, this is fucked. Liza probably feels exactly like that damn ping-pong ball. Back and forth, back and forth. At her apartment, she probably expects to find Maggie pouring a glass of wine in her robe-and she does. But then Lauren emerges from the next room, totally naked. Yep, it seems Lauren and Maggie are far from done. They’ve got a lot of nakedness to catch up on.

“Your roommate tore it in half like a phone book,” Lauren brags to Liza about her romp with Mag. She overhears Liza commiserating about her texts with Josh. She says she saw the break coming, given Josh is probably just “bored.” Her honesty typically rubs people the wrong way (even though it’s rubbing Maggie the right way-yeah, said it) but in this case, Liza will hear anyone’s opinion. In this case, it comes in the form of Lauren’s 25 Shades of Go Aggro On Him. She offers a fishnet and finger-up-the-butt ensemble to get Josh back in Liza’s good graces. Pour that Pinot, Maggie.

In the end, Kelsey receives a counter-offer from Charles with Empirical and decides to stay on. She’ll receive an imprint-her very own millennial department, and she wants Liza to be on board with her. Funny, because Liza was just about to fess up to Kelsey (finally) about her real age. This literally happens all the time with these two. Would Kelsey understand Liza’s lies? For now, she’ll have to find that Trivia Night that pays its winners in cash instead of booze, she should probably have a necessary chat with Josh about his ageism (even if its whiskey ageism) and if Lauren and Maggie are going to continue to do their thang, Liza definitely needs a night hobby.

Tune in Wednesday nights on TV Land for new episodes of Younger, and follow me on Twitter @the_hoff!

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