BWW Recap: Liza Joins the Inner Circle, Maggie Feels Neglected on YOUNGER

While last week was dude-crazy what with the sex-capades of Josh and Liza and the developing romance between Kelsey and Bjonberg, this week, the boys were benched, and focus is shifted to the women. Specifically, the two with whom Liza has the closest relationships: bosom buddy Maggie, who she's known for years, and new gal-pal Kelsey, whose blossoming friendship is just as meaningful, though they've only known each other a few weeks. Here's what goes down:

After helping the latter with a particularly embarrassing "lady problem" (just watch the episode for the details - it's not for a guy to say!), Liza's invited into Kelsey's "Inner Circle," which allows her to form a closer bond with her younger friend, much to Maggie's chagrin. To apologize for neglecting Maggie and to decrease the distance that has developed between them, Liza agrees to spend a night alone with her friend, at an art show premiere for a new artist at Maggie's gallery. However, things turn awry when Kelsey and her crew crash the party and compete for Liza's attention. And yep. You can totally guess what happens next. Liza leaves Maggie in the dust uh-gain when she goes off for drinks with the ladies of the Inner Circle.

Side note: Watch for a fantastic "acting moment" from Debi Mazar when Liza leaves. Look at her face; you can totally tell that she's absolutely crushed to be losing her best friend to the younger crew. It's heartbreaking, and Mazar nails it! Well done!

Out with the girls (and keep an ear out for three awesome "Liza-attempts-to-be-cool-and-use-slang"-isms at the bar), Liza puts her phone away, and doesn't answer it for the rest of the night. The catch? She therefore has no idea she's missing all of Maggie's calls.

Things go from bad to worse when Liza gets home and an irate Maggie reveals the reason she was calling: in an attempt to schmooze with the gallery owner and get him to talk up her forthcoming show, Maggie's dropped from the gallery. And her friend wasn't there to have her back. 'Cause she was out partying with her crew. Ruh roh.

It's interesting that the writers, executives, etc. put these last two episodes back to back, as they deal with similar issues and themes. My theory on the episode parallelism is that it shows how Liza's shifting into becoming more of a 26-year-old.

Last week, Liza was reserved and sober, protecting Kelsey from the dangers of being drunk; this week, she's one of the girls, diving right in and getting trashed herself. In other words, Kelsey last week = Liza this week. With each episode, Liza allows herself to become more and more of a 26-year-old (which can only mean all hell breaks loose in the season finale!) I think that for the writers to show Liza embrace her younger persona in this way is such a fabulous plot device and adds an entertaining twist to Liza's character development (or un-development) each week.

However, while doing it this way makes for a crazy good storyline, it also, again, probably means the repercussions of her shenanigans increase each week, as she becomes more and more her other persona and the situations she's involved with become bigger and bigger with every episode. Case in point: For this week, though Liza totally doesn't mean to hurt Maggie, Maggie's pretty upset.

And yes - of course - it gets worse. When Liza goes to apologize, Maggie goes off on Liza's "crew... [and her] Tiger Beat cover of a boyfriend" and expresses that she's really not happy with her friend ignoring her. Funny, 'cause last week it was Maggie that said, "Why don't you just enjoy yourself for a while? What's so hard about that?"

Considering passing as younger was Maggie's idea, as Liza reminds her, it's kind of tough for me to pick a side. I mean, for one, I'm totally with Maggie on this one - friends before... you know - but she did tell Liza to jump in and enjoy 26; she actually specifically said, "You're not hurting him [by enjoying yourself." Hmm... irony? Guess Maggie didn't see that one coming back to bite her in the butt.

On the flip side, however, it's, again, great for the storyline. Maggie's jealousy and overall involvement in Liza's "younger" life adds another layer to Liza's secret keeping, as she now must shield the fact that she's really friends with Maggie from Kelsey and the girls, lest they find out her true age. And she does once this episode, but listen carefully to Liza's response. It's not so much hilarious, like her use of slang, as it is genuine. I mean, really. You can see she really cares about her relationship with Maggie.

Speaking of how much Liza and Maggie care about each other, I thought it was great, too, given the focus of the episode, that we were given a little more background into the origins of their friendship: pre-Maggie, Liza was a bookish housewife who attended book club meetings "and drank Tequila Mockingbirds" before she was rescued by Maggie, her "coolest friend" who "lived in Williamsburg before it was all rich kids on unicycles." In an episode - and a series, no less - that deals with how "younger" life changes Liza, it's nice that we're exposed to the person Liza was before the series began, and are given further specific details behind why the Maggie/Liza friendship is so meaningful. Not that we need them, but it adds terrifically to our idea of each of them as characters.

And now for the B-plot. Remember how I talked last week about Diana beginning to lose her power? Well, this week, we see that beginning to materialize a bit more... and it ain't pretty.

Trout Pout's got a thing for Empirical's new publisher, Charles, who's set to re-issue and re-package a Chinua Achebe classic (a real book) for a film release (a fake film). Rumor has it "his marriage is on the rocks," so Diana plans to swoop in and sweep him off his feet. As she enlisted Liza to help her with her online dating profile in Episode 3, Diana here enlists Liza to handle all her business duties during the meetings, 'cause she's busy focusing her attention on him.

Turns out Charles is less than interested in getting to know Diana than he is in discussing the reissue; and it actually seems like he's more into Liza, who's read Achebe (and Trout Pout has not) and impresses Diana's crush with her extensive knowledge and opinions on the author. Needless to say, the boss - bursting with jealousy - is pissed.

She's knocked down a peg and thrown off by Liza's quick response; though Liza didn't intentionally mean to step in and steal Diana's thunder, it's clear Diana's high standing is in jeopardy. The really interesting thing, too, that became clearer more in this episode than the last, is that Diana now recognizes she's losing her standing to Liza. She's aware of it, she's upset by it, and it's all extremely threatening to her. Especially Liza's "upper hand" with Charles. And Liza's not even trying! Oooh... this could get really good!

As I said in the earlier recap, it'll be interesting to see how this shift of power plays out when and if Diana ever finds out Liza's secret. It adds a whole 'nother layer (I know I used that word earlier) to the fact that Diana feels threatened by Liza. Why? 'Cause she'll find out she's not really threatened by someone younger... She's threatened by someone who's her age! Someone who's been more "with it" and pulled together - and less catty and spiteful - than she is! That'll really put Trout Pout in her place! But something tells me that with seven episodes left, it's not gonna be an easy road. There's definitely gonna be hurdles, and certain promos have hinted at the bullets Liza will have to dodge throughout the rest of the season. But... the flame's been lit! So, we'll have fun watching it burn.

But anyway, back to Maggie. To end the episode, she accepts Liza's apology, which, while it may seem hokey, is also pretty awesome (Just watch it for details - words can't do it justice). And I'm glad Liza's learned her lesson: "It's hard to make new friends, but it's harder to lose old ones." Couldn't have said it better myself.

Liza also comes to terms with Kelsey and the crew about Maggie genuinely being her friend, and with their help, they present Maggie with a new pop-up gallery to show her work. It's a pretty sweet gesture. And by the look of appreciation on Maggie's face (and the fact that the episode ends with a four-person group hug), it looks like Maggie may be befriending Kelsey and Lauren. Well, after all... Girl Code. Duh. Did we learn nothing from this episode?!

But seriously, if that turns out to be true, and Kelsey and Maggie start hanging out more, or at the very least, appearing in more scenes together, then what could that mean for the sake of Liza's secret? Will certain details about Liza be accidentally revealed and/or found out? Will something happen to arouse Kelsey's suspicion? Will it affect Diana's relationship with Liza? Or Liza's relationship with Josh? And what will happen with Diana and Charles? And what IS Broadway's Jane Krakowski doing to Josh in that clip from the promo for next week's episode? Sorry... I'm getting ahead of myself.

Guess we'll find out next week.

Until then.... stay YOUNGER.

P. S. You can all stay YOUNGER a little bit longer! It was just announced today that the show's been picked up for Season 2!!

Photo Credit: TV Land