Younger‘s sixth season has finally revealed the secret that’s been the premise of the show since the first episode: Liza is 42, and not 28.
The age difference explodes on a volcanic level in last week’s episode at a literary event where Liza (Sutton Foster)’s imprint, Millennial, becomes the talk of the town. This week, Millennial loses a partnership with retailer Infinite 21 because of Liza’s lie. But Liza proclaims in a monologue how everyone in the publishing industry is altering their appearances to look younger and “millennial” is an attitude and not an age.
While playing cards with her current boyfriend and colleague Charles (Peter Hermann) and his daughters at a dessert shop, Liza gets a call from Infinite 21. The company wants to “unfreeze” the partnership and sell Millennial books in its stores.
Millennial’s boss Kelsey (Hilary Duff) phones her ex and current colleague, Zane (Charles Michael Davis). She hasn’t heard from him since Liza’s lie became public. She shows up that night at Zane’s apartment and brings a meal kit as a peace offering. They end up making out.
On the set of the Infinite 21 ad campaign starring Liza, Millennial’s main investor shows up. Quinn (Laura Benanti), the California senatorial candidate who’s also a Millennial author, tells Liza to join her on an interview for a NY1 report on corporate ageism.
While Kelsey is dealing with Zane, Liza is at a bar with the Infinite 21 brand manager when her ex, Josh (Nico Tortorella), walks in. She explains to the brand manager how Josh was the first person to know she was lying about her age. This sparks the constant reminder of Liza’s romantic relationship with Josh, which ended seasons ago, but keeps getting a revival this season.
At the interview, Liza tells the reporter behind the scenes that Quinn knew about Liza’s true age before investing in Millennial. The reporter brings it up during the interview. Quinn shakes her head no about knowing Liza’s true age. She evens adds Liza may have been confused about the off-the-record question.
Quinn later calls Kelsey to a bar over Liza’s mishap of telling the truth. She says Kelsey should’ve fired Liza before the lie destroyed Millennial’s reputation in the industry.
The next morning, Kelsey is talking to Charles about Quinn’s demands. Before they can resolve the problem, they learn authors’ advances and employees’ direct deposits are bouncing. Quinn had pulled her investment.
Age, which defines the show in the title, has wreaked havoc on Liza’s personal life at a slow pace with her friends and colleagues finding out about her lie. But now everyone knows she lied about her age to enter the publishing industry after raising her daughter and getting a divorce, so this issue is now affecting her employer. Even the adult daughter and divorce part hasn’t been revealed on a larger scale, so that has to become an issue thread at least for next season.
Also on a bookish note, a sneak preview of the latest book-related film Where’d You Go, Bernadette? highlighted a commercial break. The movie, starring Cate Blanchett, opens in theaters this Friday.