Liza knew that her lie — you know, the one where she said she was in her late 20s but was really in her early 40s — could blow up her whole life, so she instead chose to keep it as closely guarded as possible. Except now, the cat is out of the bag; at this point, the only person who doesn’t know about Liza’s secret life on Younger is Diana Trout, her boss. Upon learning about her lie, everyone reacted in a different way, but Charles’ reaction definitely hurts the most. He’s angry, and he’s taking it out not only on Liza but on her career, too. Are Liza and Charles over on Younger? After the big reveal, they both seem to be moving on.
The knowledge that Liza is actually in her 40s has been earth-shaking to Charles. It seems like his anger is not only because he feels stupid about not figuring it out, but also because he really cares for Liza. This knowledge that she’s not a millennial — and they could actually be together — is paralyzing to him. So, instead of being mature about this whole thing, Charles is lashing out at Liza, taking jabs at her not only during Diana’s scheduled game night (everyone is very confused) but also during a big-time pitch for a book by famed writer Don Ridley (Kelsey is very confused). Liza can deal with the social stuff, but when it comes to her job, it’s the last straw. So she walks right into Charles’ office and resigns. She won’t bring Kelsey’s imprint down because Charles had his fee-fees hurt.
Of course, Charles won’t let her walk away, because she’s actually good at her job. But he makes it very clear that she should forget about any semblance of romance they had and pretty much avoid each other. That’s fine with Liza, sort of, because she has a date with Don Ridley (who is played by Christian Borle, who is Sutton Foster’s ex-husband IRL), and dammit, she’s going to enjoy herself! And enjoy herself she does. Even though Charles apologizes for slamming Don’s book idea, it’s not a complete loss — Liza and Don seem into each other enough to want to take a stroll down “let’s get to know each other” road. It’s cute, and these two are really cute together. Don and Liza are good together because they’re both pretending to be someone they’re not — Liza is pretending to be 26 (or probably like, 28 now), and Don is still trying to ride on his laurels from when he was a big-time journalist for Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. The truth? He’s broke and writing clickbait. What a pair!
But what about Charles? He and Pauline are officially getting divorced, so, in the words of Sex and the City wedding planner Anthony Marantino, Charles is going to be all alone with no (wo)mans. Liza is wrong, and she was wrong to lie (though I totally understand why she did), but Charles isn’t upset that Liza is in her 40s. Or that she lied! He’s upset that this woman he cares for deeply is actually a real possibility for his romantic life. So, because he’s angry, he’s cutting off his nose to spite his face. There’s no doubt that Liza and Charles really do care for each other. The only thing stopping them is Charles being a baby.
And so, our favorite Younger pairing (#TeamCharles) is at a crossroads. In the show’s “will they or won’t they” world, it sure seems right now that Charles and Liza will not. For Liza and Charles, it’s always something, but this something — at least for the present — seems insurmountable. Still, Peter Hermann, who plays Charles, told Us Weekly that there could still be hope for Liza and Charles. “There’s confusion, there’s anger, there’s hurt, there’s betrayal, there is re-editing every interaction they’ve ever had,” he said. “It takes a long, long time and beat by eloquently constructed beat … we find our way to something.” Here’s to hoping that something comes around soon — before it’s too late to go back.
