One step forward, two steps back.

Just as Liza and Charles were making progress on their professional working relationship, something happened that brought the whole house of cards come crashing down on Younger Season 7 Episode 9.

It was expected but still unwelcome.

At this point, it's evident that Liza and Charles are endgame. 

If the show wanted to reignite the Liza/Josh/Charles love triangle or reconcile Liza and Josh, the writers would have done so by now.

Liza: Why are you so stubborn?
Charles: Excuse me?
Liza: You loved them. Joan was an idol of yours. Who cares if they want to publish under a penname? My god, it’s got to be your terms, or it just doesn’t work.
Charles: That is not true.
Liza: Are you kidding me? We’re not together because all of a sudden you needed to be married. We never even talked about marriage.
Charles: It wasn’t all of a sudden.
Liza: All of a sudden you asked me, and all of a sudden, we’re over.
Charles: I wanted to know that you really loved me. I wanted to have all of you.
Liza: You did have all of me. Oh my god, you don’t believe me.
Charles: Can you blame me?
Liza: I wish I didn’t love you.

• Permalink: I wish I didn’t love you.

And since they haven't, we're essentially killing time until Liza and Charles reunite in the final three episodes, making any more relationship drama that happens been the former lovers pointless because we know they're going to end up together.

It's lazy writing and drawn out for maximum effect, but we all know where the story is going at this point; it's just taking forever to get there.

While we wait, we did get some clarity on why marriage is so important to Charles.

Yes, he wants to marry Liza, but he wants to lock down what he has with her more than that.

Charles never believed he had Liza's whole heart, so he tried to solidify their relationship by proposing to her.

He took her rejection as a sign that she wasn't all in and ended things before she could break his heart.

Unfortunately, Charles feels this way, but it's not entirely out of the blue.

Liza loves Charles with all her heart, but there have been times when she's had one foot out the door, consciously or not.

Charles: It’s still not something we would publish.
Liza: Well, someone wanted to publish her.
Charles: And let people her work for free.
Liza: Well sometimes content is for free. That’s what Inkubator is all about.
Kelsey: And Dylan’s next book might be worth some money. We’re just helping her get there.
Charles: But I also need you get to work on books people will actually pay to read.

• Permalink: But I also need you get to work on books people will actually pay to read.

She spent most of the middle seasons flip-flopping back and forth between Josh and Charles and was even torn between the two men on Younger Season 6.

Liza and Josh have this unspeakable bond and connection that she's never been able to explain to Charles fully. Naturally, he's jealous of that relationship to the point where he asked her to cut off contact with Josh last season.

However, there are only so many times Liza's profession of love can fall on deaf ears before it's evident she needs to move on.

If Charles doesn't believe her the third or fourth time, why would the tenth, twentieth, or hundredth be any different?

At this point in their non-relationship, Liza has done all she can to try to convince Charles of her undying love.

The book publisher needs to be the one to make the next move. Otherwise, Liza is nothing more than a needy, wannabe housewife rather than the strong independent woman we know her to be.

Hear that, Charles Brooks. The ball is in your court now. What will be your next move?

Breaking up with Quinn would be a good start because while the she-devil has become more likable as of late, that doesn't mean we're rooting for her to end up with Charles.

Quinn: Look, I’m gonna be honest with you. My experience with relationships is not great. They tend to go sideways pretty early on.
Liza: You’re kidding me.
Quinn: But with Charles, things are actually going really well. I don’t want to do anything to mess it up or get messed up by it, so I need you to tell me, are there any red flags I’m missing? If you loved Charles and he proposed to you, why aren’t you married?
Liza: There is nothing wrong with Charles. You don’t have to worry. Marriage was just something I didn’t want to do again. That’s it.
Quinn: So you ended things?
Liza: No, he did. If there’s one red flag to report, it’s that Charles has rigid ideas about how things should be.
Quinn: He must have been so surprised when you said no. Marriage makes perfect sense for somebody like you. Someone wants to marry me, they have to sign a prenup as thick as a phonebook.
Liza: I thought marriage was something you felt like you missed out on.
Quinn: No, I don’t want to disclose my tax returns. A legal contract for business I understand, but in the bedroom, it’s such a turnoff. The minute I am legally bound to something, I want to get out of there.
Liza: Not Charles. Marriage is really important to him.
Quinn: A man in the business of books like tradition. I should have seen this coming.

• Permalink: A man in the business of books like tradition. I should have seen this coming.

She manages tries to convince us she's not evil but rather misunderstood, and we can still see those wheels turning.

Going to Liza for the details about her breakup with Charles was way over the line and almost insulting.

Episodes ago, Quinn was trying to take Liza down, and now she wants Liza to spill the tea on her ex like they're besties. Uh, no thanks.

Quinn is a master manipulator and spun what Liza told her to her advantage, alluding that she would have said yes if Charles had asked her to marry her when she was right with Liza only minutes before railing against marriage.

Quinn is in it for the long con, and what her campaign manager told Liza was probably the truth: Quinn needs an instant family if she wants to be elected to public office, and Charles Brooks and his children are her tickets to success.

It's a shame she has ulterior motives, but hopefully, when Charles finds out, he'll dump Quinn, leaving the road for him to reconcile with Liza wide open.

Elsewhere, Liza and Kelsey's endeavor to procure and publish new and diverse voices got a whole lot riskier when Kelsey fronted Dylan an advance.

It was a necessary move to keep Dylan, but Kelsey has a lot of faith if she thinks Empirical will reimburse her when Dylan's book becomes a hit.

Kelsey: Millennial was a big moneymaker. We took this company into the black and apparently we need to remind everybody of that.
Liza: Apparently we do.
Kelsey: Here’s what I’m thinking. We take Inkubator online and monetize it. We keep giving chapters to Vulture until the very end, and then if people want to finish the book, they have to pay to download the app that we create.
Liza: One question, how do we make an app?
Kelsey: I don’t know, but I’ve also never bound a book by hand.
Liza: I did once, but I get your point. We outsource.
Kelsey: Exactly, and Vulture has over 29.9 million monthly unique visitors and over half of their readership is female. I know those readers better than Charles. I know that they will follow Dylan to that app and buy the book.
Liza: OK, but all of this is going to cost money, and like Redmond said Dylan could take that book anywhere now. She’s going to want an advance.
Kelsey: I know. I’m going to use the money I have saved for a down payment on an apartment.
Liza: Kelsey, you can’t do that. Let’s just ask Charles for the money. Try a proof of concept for this app like a pilot program.
Kelsey: No, I am done asking. I was publisher here once. I know what I’m talking about. We keep shouting at Charles that Dylan is a good investment, and when we do, Empirical will pay me back. I believe in Dylan.
Liza: I believe in you.

• Permalink: I believe in you.

Yes, Vulture readers love Dylan's chapters, but Kelsey's plan hinges on a lot more than reader loyalty.

She's betting readers will shell out money to find out how the book ends on a yet-to-be-designed app.

This is a brilliant but off-the-cuff idea. Kelsey knows nothing about app design or even how to turn this idea into a viable business model.

Plus, it's easier than ever to find PDF versions of books online in the digital age, so who's to say a few people won't just buy the book and leak the final pages on the internet.

Charles has made his stance on only publishing bestselling books from name authors clear.

And if he wasn't willing to budge on two famous writers wanting to publish a surefire bestseller under a pen name, then there's no way he's going to back Liza and Kelsey's plan to launch their own app to release Dylan's final chapter.

Worse, this stunt could end up costing Liza and Kelsey their jobs when he finds out, and with Kelsey giving Dylan her savings, it doesn't look good for either of them but especially Millennial's former editor.

A new boyfriend should be the one bright spot in Kelsey's life, but that too is complicated as the beau in question is Rob, also known as Clare's ex.

It seems as though things weren't as amicable about their breakup as Rob led Kelsey to believe, as Rob broke up with Clare.

Lauren: Are you sneaking around with Zane?
Kelsey: No.
Lauren: Well, you’re sneaking around with someone.
Kelsey: I am not sneaking. I went out with a guy, and it’s nothing, and if it turns into something, I will let you know.
Lauren: Boundaries, OK, not quite sure why best friends need those but fine.

• Permalink: Boundaries, OK, not quite sure why best friends need those but fine.

Rob seems nice enough, but Kelsey sure is risking a lot for a guy she barely knows.

There are plenty of other handsome single men in New York City who aren't your roommate's baby mama's ex-boyfriend, and Kelsey should date one of them and call it a day.

Kelsey and Clare may not be best friends, but Kelsey dating Rob without first checking with Clare violates girl code on some level.

Even Lauren is on the same page as us, so you know Kelsey's playing with fire.

Unfortunately, this will wind up blowing up in Kelsey's face and could have consequences for her future living situation, or at the very least make things awkward and tense around the apartment.

It's not worth all the drama, but Kelsey seems determined to see this thing with Rob through for some reason, so we'll see how this plays out.

Some stray thoughts:

• Maggie is still canceled but making the most out of it. When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade that you serve in the backroom of a crappy bar because no galleries will show your work. It's not what she imagined, but good on her for persevering.

• Redmond is the worst. I don't understand why Liza and Kelsey keep agreeing to grab lunch with him. Haven't they learned by now that nothing good comes from that?

So what did you think, Younger Fanatics?

Are you tired of the pointless relationship drama?

Will Liza and Kelsey be fired?

Why is Kelsey with Rob?

Don't forget to hit the comments below to let me know your thoughts.

Jessica Lerner was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. She retired in October 2021.