Younger Pauses The Age-Lying Intrigue To Let Diana Show Off Her Sanctum

the season finaleIn its Season 3 premiere, Younger has to address a lot of ends left loose in the season finale. Josh is still around -- being cute, bringing donuts -- but Liza's not sure she wants to commit to a relationship with him. Kelsey still has dead Thad's laptop, and Liza's still on alert to Kelsey's attempts to break into it and change Thad's Facebook profile pic, since Liza knows Thad has a whole folder of incriminating information about her actual biography; while Liza doesn't want Kelsey to be blindsided, and would prefer Kelsey find out from Liza herself, she's also not that eager to volunteer the true story if she doesn't really have to. Caitlin's still around, but fortunately, she gets packed off to college well before the episode's halfway mark BYE GURL. And both Charles and Liza are curious to find out what potential there might actually be between them as a couple -- surely a significant part of Liza's thinking as she keeps Josh at a safe remove. They even make a date for drinks. What could go wrong?

Well, Charles runs into friends of his -- brand-new empty nesters who've just sent their daughter off to college.

And who just met their daughter's friend's mom at the bus that very morning.

At the office the next day, Liza tries to apologize, but Charles tells her, "Liza, I think you're fantastic. You don't have to explain a thing....It was just a kiss, Liza. Let it go." Liza's inevitable exposure is postponed for another day, but so is her chance to find out whether Charles is the romantic prospect she should actually be pursuing.

But all of that is just typical Younger: for me, the most compelling moment doesn't involve our protagonist's tangled love life; it barely involves our protagonist at all. It starts back at the office, where Diana finds Kelsey alone, working late. Diana orders Kelsey to come out with her, and they end up at Marie's Crisis: "You can't be sad or lonely surrounded by a drunken mob of gay men singing show tunes." So yes, the first important moment of the Season 3 premiere is that FINALLY we get to hear Miriam Shor in her element: belting out "Let's Go Fly A Kite."

But things only get better when Diana over-indulges, and Kelsey calls Liza in to help her shepherd a past-tipsy Diana to her apartment.

Which, of course, is large, impeccably appointed, and fabulous. "Work hard enough for the next ten years and maybe you'll have a beautiful apartment like this," she shrugs to her astonished visitors. "Actually, probably never. Not at today's prices."

But there's so much more to be seen than just the stylish living room. "This is my sanctum," says Diana dramatically. And even before we see it, Kelsey and Liza's reaction...

...tells us we're about to get a look at something spectacular: DIANA'S CLOSET.

Anyone who's seen even a single one of Diana's statement necklaces should have expected that Diana would have created a space this stunning for her extraordinary wardrobe. We don't get to see much more of Diana's apartment, but if her decision was to forego a home office or guest room in order to design the perfect home for all her precious pieces. This is the closet of a woman who's constructed the right life for herself: no kid, no man, plenty of Ferragamo.

Almost immediately, Diana yanks out her tragic '80s wedding gown, and this viewer got pre-emptively irritated that she was going to get maudlin about her lost love (not that they're likely to reunite, given that, as she had told Kelsey earlier, he moved on from her and got remarried "to Eduardo") or bemoan the absence of new suitors in her immediate future. Instead, she does as Empirical's new not-Marie Kondo author recommends: "I am going to kiss this thing, then let it go."

It's early yet to tell whether one of Season 3's stories will fulfill my and Adam Grosswirth's hopes (as stated in our above-linked post on the Season 2 finale) that Diana and Liza's mentor/protégée relationship will develop into a real friendship. But for now, Diana's symbolic gesture of literally throwing her old wedding gown into the wind makes me optimistic that this will be the season she'll get to be something more than a lovelorn old spinster whose romantic prospects are dying off as fast as her eggs.

And this guy probably wore it better anyway.