Younger Season 6 Episode 6: Merger, She Wrote

Stefanie Stallings

5 years ago

Younger Season 6 Episode 6

I have to be honest with you… I didn’t love this episode like I usually do. I’ll be interested to hear what you think of it.

We begin this episode with Charles and Liza still struggling to handle this new corporate competition they’re waging. Maggie suggests they merge Mercury and Millennial, and Liza is not sure she could get Kelsey and Charles to agree to this plan.

MicroDosing

Liza and Kelsey meet with Travis Jason to discuss his new book, “Microdosing.” The practice of ingesting small amounts of an illicit substance to open your mind and better achieve self-actualization. Mostly this consists of LSD, but of course, he is not calling it LSD. Travis claims micro-dosing can silence fears, push aside ego, and expand our consciousness. Travis is hosting a medically supervised retreat upstate this weekend and invites Liza to come to see for herself. He wants whoever is editing his book to fully invest in the experience.

Sexy Voice

The ladies attend voice auditions to find a voiceover actor to record the ‘boomer erotica’ audiobook. The auditions are going terribly, and Diana does not understand what is so hard about reading the lines, and she reads them aloud perfectly. Liza, Kelsey, and the author unanimously agree Diana should record the audiobook.

Here’s an Idea

Liza and Charles meet for drinks, and Liza suggests they merge Millenial and Mercury saying, “We all work together and eliminate the competition.” Charles agrees this is a good idea in spirit but explains Mercury has no cash flow, and its evaluation is purely speculative. With this, the board would never agree to a merger. Charles then suggests Liza come work at Mercury.

Of course, Liza can’t leave Kelsey; they are very close friends. Charles responds that Kelsey will understand if she is truly a friend. Liza doesn’t think Kelsey would be very understanding if she left Kelsey for Charles. Charles reminds Liza that he left his company to be with her. “How can there be a choice?” Liza says, “You’re making it a choice.”

With that, Liza decides to go home early without Charles to pack for the weekend. It turns out; they will both be at the micro-dosing retreat over the weekend once again, competing for the same book.

The Retreat

As Liza and Charles arrive at the retreat separately, they run into Josh, who is there to find a venture capitalist to invest in franchising his tattoo parlor. The hostess hands them an amuse-bouche, which contains a nano dose, to test how their bodies will react to the microdose tomorrow. Liza decides to try it, and there’s a knock on her door. She opens it to see Josh all gorgeous and giving her “the look.” He says, “This thing that’s keeping us apart is killing me.” Liza pulls him into the room and kisses him. Now at this point, I bet all the #TeamJosh fans are ecstatic with this lapse in judgment. When Liza pushes Josh away to stop him, she realizes that she’s been with Charles all along. It turns out; her nano-dose causes her to hallucinate Charles as Josh. It doesn’t take a psychologist to take a stab at this one.

A Breakfast Dose

The next morning at breakfast, Liza, Charles, and Josh take their micro does, and as they talk, Liza starts to see Charles’s voice coming out of Josh’s body and vice-versa. Travis instructs the group to see one of their doctors or nurse Maureen in the lobby if they are having any issues. Liza says she’s feeling a little funny and excuses herself to find the nurse.

But Can You Do This?

Liza finds the “nurse” and starts telling her about her issues. Liza discusses the differences between Charles and Josh and confesses she feels guilty for kissing who she thought was Josh in her drug-induced hallucination. Nurse Maureen suggests Liza should have both her men and Liza replies I can’t do that. Nurse Maureen says, “But can you do this” and proceeds to demonstrate a broadway theater-type dance move. Liza tries the dance move and pulls it off, exclaiming “I’m amazing.”

Liza then dances down the hall and into a full-blown dance number on what appears to be a Broadway stage. Charles and Josh are there, and Liza dances back and forth between them as if she’s trying to choose. Back in real life, Charles and Josh go looking for Liza and find her dancing in the lobby with a palm tree, a.k.a Nurse Maureen. Did anyone notice that in this act, the nurse was wearing a palm leave shirt and didn’t answer LIza’s question, “Are you nurse Maureen?” Too funny, I love subtle hints like this.

I am not a fan of this scene. It feels like the writers wanted a reason to use Tony Award-Winning, Sutton Fosters amazing theater talents, but I don’t think Liza needed a drug-induced hallucination and a dance number for her to demonstrate deep down she’s still torn between Josh and Charles.

Did Josh and Charles Bond?

The next day, Liza and Charles are leaving together. Charles mentions he had a great conversation with Josh about how important family is. Charles says the weekend did expand his mind in ways he wasn’t expecting. Was it the drug dose or the conversation with Josh that expanding his thinking into finding a way he and Liza could work together? If it was the drugs, is this a wise way to make decisions?

Meanwhile

Diana and Kelsey are recording the audiobook when Zane walks in with Audrey Colbert (the alleged murderer writing the memoir). Kelsey sticks around to hear Audreys read the chapter. Her first take is icy and zoned out, calloused, like a guilty murderer. Zane coaches her to try it with more feeling. Her second take is full of tears, emotion, and drama. She cuts off the tears and says, “that’s how I did it for the jury.” Zane and Kelsey accidentally call her a guilty psychopath while the booth mic is on and Audrey storms out. Zane and Kelsey laugh and then go out for drinks. Zane tries to tell Kelsey that Charles offered Liza a job, which she already knew. Kelsey is confident Liza is not leaving. Zane thinks it will only be a matter of time before Liza and Charles are working together again. Zane and Kelsey have a hot and cold type of relationship. I think they would both like to pursue a relationship, but they are both so driven and competitive that they allow that to get in the way.

Charles Makes An Offer

Back in the office, the ladies are discussing the weekend retreat. Liza lets Kelsey and Diana know Charles would like to talk to them in the conference room. Charles begins to explain that Mercury’s success is hurting his family. He considers Millennial (Kelsey, Liza, and Diana) his family, and it’s time to let Mercury go. Charles wants Millenial to buy Mercury. He writes his price on a paper and slides it towards Kelsey; he wants $1 for Mercury. Charles explains he is tired of fighting with his family, and he wants to come “home”. Kelsey will remain publisher and Charles will work as an editor, next to Liza. The ladies all accept his terms.

How Does This Work?

Hmmm, my first thought is what about Zane? Is he out of the equation? I also struggled to follow how Liza and Charles’ experience at the retreat helped them reach this conclusion. Unless, as stated at the beginning of the episode by the author, this drug-induced experienced helped them open their minds and expand their consciousness. Still, I think we should have seen more of the change in heart for Charles. Overall, I’m struggling to understand why drug-use was incorporated into such important decisions being made by our characters. I don’t really think this is true to our characters.

To keep up with all things Younger, Follow @youngertv on Instagram and check out the Younger Uncovered podcast. The podcast interviews writers and producers from the show and always gives a very interesting insight into why the writers created certain scenarios for our characters. I can’t wait to hear what the thought process was behind this episode. See you next week!