Younger Returns: A Lesson in Texting

Younger is back! All you Josh and Liza fans can finally see what happens after the big 4-0 reveal. We start season 2 with a lesson in puncuation. Here’s a quick recap of episode 1 with a few highlights.

Episode 1 “Tattoo You”

Appropriately, our first glimpse of Liza is 40 year old Liza. She’s not wearing make-up and holding a “Welcome Home” sign for Caitlin (with Maggie in tow, looking hip…and kind of like John Cusack from Say Anything). Liza is nervous about Caitlin’s reaction to Liza’s new life in Brooklyn so she puts the kabash on the mention of Josh at all. Caitlin is staying with Liza at Maggie’s in Brooklyn and easily transitions back to life in the Western world by ordering pizza and hanging out with her NJ hometown friends. Meanwhile, Liza is worried that Josh is obsessing over her age (newsflash Liza: you’re the one obsessing!). She sets up a time to meet with him at East River Bar while Caitlin is out. Liza arrives to wait…and wait…and finally texts Josh two hours later (I would NOT have waited that long for anyone). Josh sends her a brief text “sorry” then “cant make it work”. Liza goes home sad, but not surprised that Josh would break up with her now that he knows she is 40 (side note: Liza is taking this much more calmly than any other woman I know. I personally would be devastated if hot Josh dumped me—being an agist is rude!).

In the meantime, Empirical has a lot going on. Kelsey is having strike-out after strike-out at work.  She pitches a tumblr-to-book project called, “100 Things a Woman Thinks While Giving a Blowjob”. Yeah, that sounded like a real winner (eye roll). Then, Diana and Charles are meeting with Bobby Flay to talk about a new cookbook they hope to land. Obviously, this requires a dinner at one of Flay’s restaurants. It’s the perfect place for Diana to subtly woo Charles. It backfires, though, when she cracks her front tooth in the middle of the dinner, prompting an emergency visit to Bobby’s dentist who is, surprise, an attractive, young blonde woman. While Diana has her mouth unattractuvaly jammed open, the dentist and Charles flirt. Poor Diana.

Back at Casa Maggie, Liza comes home to find out that Caitlin has gotten herself a tattoo. A rather large, Hindi tattoo on her side boob/upper ribcage. One guess who the tattoo artist was? You guessed it: Josh! Instead of mother raging out at her daughter we get Liza racing to rage out at Josh for tattooing her daughter. Josh greets her with an adorable “Hey you” and smile (which does not look like the smile you give someone you just broke up with). Liza tells him he tattooed her daughter, and Josh acts confused (you’re a little slow on the draw, buddy). When he finally realizes it, his “should I laugh or not” look is dead-on. Naturally, Liza railing against his tattooing of Caitlin leads to her railing about him breaking up with her via text (which, yes, is always the shitty way to do things). Then, to Liza’s surprise, Josh announces that is not what his text said. He readshis text back to her complete with hand punctuation, “Sorry. Can’t make it. Work”. Because obviously he couldn’t make it to the bar because he was busy tattooing Caitlin and co (although, for the record, Josh, hand punctuation does not translate to texting). So, all is well with Josh and Liza. Commence make-out in the shop scene…which zooms out to show Caitlin spying in the window. I guess the cat’s outta the bag!

Some highlights and one-liners from this episode:

• “Mom, don’t be so Western. This is how human beings smell.” I feel sorry for whomever sat next to Caitlin on that flight back from India.
• “I’d at least like to see some more positive thoughts [on women giving blowjobs].” Of course you would, Charles. You’re a dude.
• When Diana pretends she needs to check her calendar to go to the Bobby Flay dinner with Charles. Girl, that is the oldest trick in the book. Play hard to get!
• When we first see Josh: Whoa. Holy muscles, Josh! We left last season with a slightly baby-faced Josh, and we return to a muscley, perfectly coifed Josh. Still the same cute dimples, though.
• “She should be locked up in some sort of cougar prison.” Sorry I can’t remember your name, but Josh’s roomie…you’re pretty funny.
• The dreaded three dots. We’ve all been there. Waiting and waiting and waiting for someone to respond via text…and then the dots disappear, and you don’t get a response. The worst.
• “Show me a nice piece of meat, I can’t keep my hands off it.” Whoa, Diana. Your innuendo is spicy! Plus, the look on Charles’s face was brilliant.
• “I have weak teeth…My family’s from England…” God, Diana is amazing.
• “I was wondering where that ring was” Shameless flirting. I hate that dentist already. I hope she’s not a new love interest for Charles.

Photo Credit: TV Land