Should Younger have let Liza and her secret off the hook so easily?

A frenetic Younger sends the Millennial team into survival mode as Liza’s secret shocks the public. But should Liza have suffered some consequences?

The cat’s officially out of the bag, and for Liza, that’s not the end of the world. Younger finally put Liza’s secret to rest after Diana — and the entire publishing world — learned the truth about one of Millennial’s two supposed Millennials. However, aside from some negative press and an unfortunate shuffle of investors at the company, Liza wasn’t punished for her unethical behavior.

In a world fixated on justice, and if Zane had his way, Liza would have been fired from Millennial and taken the harsh light off of the company. But Liza’s close relationships, which have been burned by the sting of her lie, won’t allow one questionable decision to diminish her hard work or disband their team. Still, it begs the question: Should Younger have been harder on Liza?

Rather than have Liza take a leave of absence or publicly apologize for lying about her age, two things that would have been demeaning but would have saved Millennial face, Liza cleared the air with Quinn in a local news interview and stood up for herself enough to land a lucrative modeling campaign for the retail chain Infinitely 21. Sure, the Quinn interview caused more harm than good, but Liza remained mostly unscathed by the exposure and her team stuck behind her.

Maybe Liza shouldn’t have been seemingly rewarded for her lie, but Younger sends a positive message here about “cancel culture.” Without a doubt, #LizaMillerIsOverParty trended widely across Literary Twitter, and her reputation took a mighty hit. Look for Liza’s Instagram to go dark and feature nothing but chilling imagery of a prickly snake eating its own tail. They say Liza did something bad, but why does it feel so good? (That one’s for the Swifties.)

Considering Diana’s distraught reaction to discovering the truth about Liza’s age, you would have anticipated her pangs of panic to carry over into the PR maelstrom. But the strongest instinct to cut Liza loose comes from Zane, who’s none too pleased to find out Kelsey knew Liza lied about her age long before Charles, and they both covered up the lie. That’s the power of love, and Zane doesn’t care.

Liza’s support system practiced the fine art of forgiveness because they can understand and empathize with her motivation for bending the rules and have seen that that one little deception isn’t a reflection on her character. She simply needed to side-step the systemic misogyny and ageism running rampant in male-driven corporate America. She did what she needed to do to survive and to prove her worth. It’s unfortunate that she needed to be younger to do that.

On the one hand, Liza should have technically faced personal consequences larger than an angry Zane. We don’t want the lesson to be lying won’t land you in deep trouble. Regardless, she does carry the guilt and responsibility of Quinn pulling her funding from Millennial, leaving the company in dire financial straits. But on the other hand, it’s powerful to make a bold statement about loyalty and the fact that we’re far from an ideal environment of equality in all walks of life.

What do you think, Younger fans? Should Liza have been reprimanded or did she get enough of what she deserved? Will Millennial bounce back? Are you glad the secret is finally over? Sound off with your thoughts in the comments!

Younger airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on TV Land.