Finally everyone on Younger knows Liza’s real age—and of course, there’s major backlash.
For the past six seasons, book editor Liza (Sutton Foster) has been lying that she’s in her mid-20s. She did so to get a job in publishing and eventually started working for an imprint called Millennial. But she’s actually in her early 40s. One by one, characters learned Liza’s secret over the years, but some like her former boss and current colleague Diana (Miriam Shor) still was in the dark.
The episode starts with Liza running into Pauline (Jennifer Westfeldt), the ex-wife of Liza’s boyfriend/another former boss and current colleague Charles (Peter Hermann), at Charles’ daughter’s elementary school while dropping off a book report. Liza had been the editor for Pauline’s best-selling novel, Marriage Vacation, but at the time she was hiding her affair with Charles. Now, Pauline and Charles are getting a divorce, and Charles just asked Liza to move into his townhouse.
During a work meeting, Millennial imprint heads, including Liza, Diana, and Charles, discuss which author they should choose for the Publishers Weekly debutante ball. The ball welcomes debut authors into literary society with their publishing mentors. Pauline’s name comes up as Millennial’s most successful author though the imprint lost her sophomore novel due to Charles divorcing her to be with Liza.
To cement the invitation, Liza meets with Pauline for lunch. Fresh from their awkward run-in at the school, Pauline says Liza was the best editor. She even adds she wished she had kept her second project with Millennial. Liza then asks Pauline to accompany her to the ball, and Pauline says yes.
After the lunch, Pauline returns to her daughter’s school, where she runs into the talkative secretary. The secretary overhears Pauline finishing up a call with Liza and commends Pauline for getting along with her ex’s girlfriend. Pauline makes a crack Charles running away with a millennial. The secretary laughs. She reveals that Liza is 42 since Liza had to leave a form of ID at the school.
“She’s been lying shamelessly about who she is for years,” Pauline announces on stage at the ball with Liza standing behind her.
Diana defends Liza in front of the audience as Liza admits she really is in her 40s, not in her 20s. In confusion, Diana stumbles outside in the middle of Times Square and suffers a panic attack. The group takes Diana to the hospital, where Charles gets a call from his lawyer that Pauline’s lawyer wants to revisit the custody battle over their two daughters.
The next day, Liza walks into the office and learns Diana is drafting Liza’s resignation letter. They have a heart-to-heart, and Liza stays in her job.
More secrets surrounding Liza’s age should come up in the next few weeks. Though fans felt this was the saddest outcome of Liza’s lie of a career, at least everyone stayed alive unlike when Kelsey (Hilary Duff)’s unlikeable fiance died seasons ago in that crane collapse where he confronted Liza about her age. And what happened to Liza’s college-age daughter? There are still other factors that can add weight to the longtime lie.