Younger Season 6 Premiere: Big Day

Stefanie Stallings

5 years ago

Younger Season 6 Premiere

I’m so excited that TV Land’s Younger season 6 premiere is finally here! I love this show and have watched it religiously since the beginning. Now our season premiere is finally here and I’m so excited to jump right back into the drama.

On the finale of season 5, we see Charles stepping down as Publisher of Empirical and handing the job over to Kelsey. He does this because his relationship with Liza has been leaked to the press and now his relationship with Liza can go public without harming the company. We also have a major bomb drop as we see Claire shows up on Josh’s doorstep pregnant!! – Is he really ready to be a dad?!! Is anyone else wondering if he’s even the father?

Liza and Charles

With the season 6 premiere, we start with Charles and Liza waking up together in her apartment (FINALLY!). They dress for the day, which is weird because Liza is going to work and Charles won’t be. Then bomb drop – Liza lets a “love you” slip as she’s leaving for the day. I love how she later describes it to Kelsey as dropping a verbal grenade then running.

We don’t see much from Charles and Liza this episode but we do see Charles questioning what’s next for him. We see him later confessing his relationship with Liza to an associate. This guy is baffled as to why Charles would give up his company just to be with Liza. He warns Charles to figure out his next move soon because the young are eclipsing the old. We can see moments of concern on Charles’ face throughout the episode, and rightly so. I’m sure he’s hoping he doesn’t end up regretting taking such a huge risk for Liza.

I also want to address the first time we see Maggie meet Charles (hello abs!). How interesting that they meet for the first time without Liza there. Maggie discusses with Charles how sometimes two people who’ve been through so much can be perfect for each other. OR they can drag each other down “like anchors”. It seems like Maggie is not so much on Team Charles but only time will tell.

At the end of the episode, Maggie calls Liza. She tells her about the humongous, Charles-sized new bed he bought her and had delivered. When Liza goes to Charles’ home to thank him in person, she finds Charles meeting with Zane, “trying to figure out their next move”. Charles comments he missed being at work but it was worth it because he did it for the women he loves. She asks, “Did you just tell me you love me?” He states he’s had feelings for her for 16 years (She was 26 when they met). He says, “That’s long enough to know.”

Kelsey

The episode focused a lot on Kelsey. She’s just been appointed Publisher of Empirical. This is a huge opportunity for her. As Lauren states when the girls are walking to the office, Kelsey is the youngest publisher in New York City. She is “defining a cultural moment”, to use her words. Kelsey and Liza discuss how huge this is for Charles to trust her. Kelsey promises to honor him and make Empirical stronger than it was before.

Things then get juicy when Quinn brings Liza and Kelsey into a room to discuss the Page 6 article about Charles’ affair with a 28-year-old associate. If Liza comes forward with her real age now, people will assume Kelsey is having the affair with still-married Charles. People will also assume Kelsey slept her way to the top. Diana confirms this by reading the Page 6 article congratulating Kelsey on sleeping her way into her new job. In an effort to save Kelsey’s reputation, Liza confesses to Diana and the office that she’s the 28-year-old associate having the affair with the publisher. You can see on Diana’s face that she is secretly crushed. Maybe because she’s had a crush on Charles for ages or maybe because she feels betrayed by Liza. Or most likely BOTH.

We next find Kelsey in a budget meeting. She learns that the company is losing money every day. An investor group is making up the difference month by month but Kelsey needs to start making cuts. Kelsey meets with Zane later and discusses what he’s going to do next and how her first day went. Kelsey tries to flirt but Zane says they need to stay friends and as a friend, he lets her know that Diana is looking for a new job and warns her not to lose Diane.

Foreshadowing?

We later see Kelsey in a book pitch for a book called The Glass Cliff. The book tells about the trend of companies in crisis hiring women to run them. When those companies see a dip in revenue, they fire the women and blame them for the failure of the company. Companies in crisis appoint them as scapegoats, basically. Women make it to the top only to discover they’re standing on a glass cliff that can shatter at any moment.

I think with all these things combined with the fact Diana is looking to leave sends Kelsey into a bit of a tailspin. She tells Liza she feels like she’s being set up to fail thanks to this newfound worry. Kelsey tells Liza that Diana is looking to leave and not answering Kelsey’s phone calls so they set out to go find Diana.

Kelsey and Liza up finding her at Marie’s Crisis Café . . . singing show tunes. Diana, clearly upset with the girls, goes to leave. In a moment of panic, Liza requests Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 and begins to sing. This, of course, stops Diana in her tracks and Diana joins Kelsey and Liza in a battle type of sing along. This is so funny to me how the writers have worked a sing along into the show. Because hello you have Hillary Duff and Sutton Foster… So it’s basically a must-have. It seems this moment is exactly what Diana is looking for to make her feel like she’s valued at Empirical. Clearly, Dolly Parton is a very powerful lady.

Josh and Claire

Well in this episode we see Josh wrestling with the fact that he may be a father. He questions Liza and Maggie on what to do and they unanimously decide he should ask for a paternity test.

Liza and Kelsey walk home from their sing-along to find Josh freaking out about the paternity test. He is going to be a father. Liza promises to be there for him and Josh comments how they broke up because Liza didn’t want Josh to give up on having a kid. Now he’s having a kid and she’s with someone else. It’s all about that thing called timing.

My Thoughts

I think we’ve set the groundwork for some major drama. I am worried this sacrifice Charles has made for Liza will not go well. This new job is going to be a rough one for Kelsey, but she will rise to the challenge and it makes her stronger for sure.

I’m also a little underwhelmed with the first I love you’s exchanged between Charles and Liza. This relationship has had such a dramatic build up that I wanted more of a romantic exchange of the L word. However, that said, they have been through so much together that it also makes sense that the I love you just came so naturally to them.

Either way, I’m excited to finally see Charles and Liza together. . . Let’s see where we can go from here!