Younger Recap: A Kitten in a Barbie Car

Two episodes in and Younger is in full second season swing. Tonight’s episode, “Like A Boss,” picked up where last week left off. Kelsey has asked Liza to help her with the marketing for the soon-to-launch Millennial Print, which would be great if Josh hadn’t laid down the law and told Liza he wanted her to be honest with Kels about her age. (A forty-something managing the image of an imprint for twenty-somethings? Not a good look.)

The gang gathers to celebrate the girls’ professional success at a rooftop bar, but Liza, fearful of his reaction to her continued deception, does not invite Josh. Not to worry, Kelsey did! Josh shows up and the look on his face when Kels calls Liza her co-millennial is dour. (Do we think he assumed the crew had gathered to toast Liza’s real age?)

On the way home, he points out that Liza is not a millennial, to which she responds, “Dr. Dre is not a doctor.” Touche, Liza.

But Josh says he’s all about living an authentic life and perpetuating her lie isn’t working for him. He needs time to think. As he turns to walk away, Sutton Foster delivers the most perfectly passive aggressive-but-not line in the history of television, “Sorry I’m so complicated.” Spoken like a true, frustrated woman.

Back at work, Liza is juggling her duties as Diana’s assistant (like competing in a FitBit contest on her behalf) and marketing Millennial. She sends out a press release announcing Kelsey’s new position before being whisked away for a launch party wardrobe fitting by none other than Hector & Dorff! Finally we meet Lauren’s avant garde bosses (and the “creative visionaries behind everything you will, see, touch smell and taste here”). The heavily accented, eccentric designers are everything we could have imagined and then some, riding around on a hoverboard and refusing to pronounce Liza’s name properly because it tickles the tongue.

After a brief discussion of the bloggers and digerati who will be in attendance at the launch party (including the Fat Jewish and the Waifish Mormon), Kelsey points out that Josh opened the invite but never responded. Liza admits she and her boyfriend have not spoken in a week. Lauren tells Liza that Josh is ghosting her. “It’s when they disappear into thin air, but they still haunt all of your social media feeds.”

And while Josh is nowhere to be seen, haters are everywhere as word of Kelsey’s new gig gets out. When Gawker picks up the press release, the comments aren’t kind. “Kelsey Peters W-T-effing-F,” reads one, while another just displays a kitten in a Barbie car.

Lauren arrives with a Hector & Dorff original creation to lift her friend’s spirits, but the sandwich board-meets-clamshell-style dress only stresses Kelsey out more. “Oh my God, they hate me too!” she cries.

At the #MillennialLaunch party, the menu is “trash to table” (pockmarked potatoes and rescue tomatoes) and Josh is once again M.I.A. But Charles is there and doting over Liza. First he compliments her smile, then praises her good work when she feeds a panic-stricken Kelsey her speech via Bluetooth.

To make a little extra cash, Maggie is throwing a sex party in Brooklyn, complete with cover charge. (Though she tells Liza she’s running an Airbnb for the weekend.) When a man dressed like Freddie Mercury comes into Josh’s shop looking for the loft, Josh follows and discovers the debauchery. (This part of the episode is not exactly SFW. Which I learned while watching it at work.) Maggie takes the opportunity to tell Josh how great Liza is and that he needs to grow up and realize it, before kicking him out of her money-making venture. Seriously, is there a better BFF than Maggie?

At the party, just when it’s looking like Liza may be leaning toward a more age-appropriate man, Josh shows up to support his gal. (His jealousy is obvious when he meets Charles. “That’s your boss? Tall,” he says.)

After an apologetic embrace, Liza thanks Josh for keeping her secret.

“Some secrets are worth keeping,” he tells her, as the two kiss and The Weeknd plays us out.