Younger's series finale was full of twists, and even packed a few in to the final scenes, but still managed to give most of the main characters a kind of happy ending. Liza's own ending was the most notable (unsurprisingly, as she is the main character!), as her story comes full circle to the first night that she met Josh at the bar, but this time, entirely comfortable in her career, her age, and her new life with Empirical.
However, fans were frustrated by her ending, too. Her heavily-hinted-at reconciliation with Josh wasn't made explicit, and fans of the Liza/Charles pairing were left disappointed by their surprise breakup. She wasn't the only character to have a less-than-perfect ending, either.
Fitting: Quinn
Quinn may have deserved more screen time to fully appreciate the complexity of this not-quite-villain, but given the characterization she got, her ending makes sense. Her relationship with Charles, while very dramatic and interesting as a way to explore his growth and Liza's reactions to him moving on, wasn't entirely believable - especially as she spent so much time acting the villain. And in her final moments on the show, she snaps at Charles and puts him down, and then attempts to cause problems for Charles and Liza by sending along the Inkubator document. This cements her as someone who may not be a pure villain, but who probably does deserve to end up alone, if she can't stop treating people badly.
Deserved More: Maggie
Maggie quickly became a fan-favorite character, and her storyline as a professor was perfect for her. It allowed her a little more stability, and she clearly loved the work and was good at it. Seeing her lose this incredible job, and then get canceled, essentially because she unknowingly slept with the Dean's wife, was infuriating. And while Cass did, admittedly, then help Maggie get her career back on track, seeing Maggie end up with such a jealous, vindictive woman - and without her gallery show or the job she loved - felt like a huge disappointment.
Fitting: Kelsey
Kelsey didn't get exactly the happy ending that she may have wished for at the start - as she ends the series single, and without buying the apartment in Manhattan she thought she wanted. However, she does end in a much better place for herself, as the creator of a new app that is going to make her CEO of her own company, hugely rich, and giving her a chance to move to LA and work with Reese Witherspoon. It's an ending that suits her character, and her long-standing desire to break away from Empirical and make a name for herself solo. It's also no bad thing to see the series end without every main character needing to be coupled up to be happy.
Deserved More: Clare
Admittedly, Clare was never a main character, and she does end the series in a good place. She has friends in New York, a great job that she loves, and a wonderful co-parent for her daughter in Josh.
However, it was a shame that she never really managed to make it into the main character group, as she was a likable, interesting character and her parenting dynamic with Josh could have been more fully explored. She also didn't get any particularly noteworthy final scene, unlike most of the other characters who appeared in the final season.
Fitting: Lauren
Lauren is a character that wavers between being charming and abrasive, but over the course of the show, fans fell in love with her. In the end, she does find exactly where she should be, too. Her work in publicity for Empirical suits her perfectly (and she is good at it), even if she had an unusual career path to get there. It's her relationship in the end that really fits her, though. Lauren struggled for a lot of the series with wanting some of the more traditional relationship structure (like marrying a nice doctor who her parents loved), and wanting to have a relationship that didn't fit the social norm. In the end, she manages both, starting a relationship with her ex-boyfriend and his fiance, and the only disappointment in that is that it didn't begin earlier in the season and get more screen time!
Deserved More: Zane
Zane was a character that had great potential, and it would have been fantastic to see him really show up as competition for Kelsey and Liza in the final season, but unfortunately, Covid and filming issues meant that the character had to be written out of the show. As a result, Zane basically just ended his relationship with Kelsey and was never heard from again. Given all the back and forth they had, and how much of an influence he was becoming in the industry, it's a shame that his story couldn't be given a proper end.
Fitting: Charles
While some fans may feel that Charles's ending was a disappointment, as he finds himself alone and leaving Empirical (at least temporarily, but potentially for good), but he actually gets to move on to something new.
In the end, he is able to revisit his old dreams of being a writer - something that the series has been setting up for some time - and it's clear that he is ready to move on from doing the same things at Empirical. His relationship with Liza, while lovely, just wasn't right for him in the end.
Deserved More: Diana
Diana, like Zane, is a character who had to be written out of the show due to practical issues with filming during the pandemic. She did get a bit more of an ending to her story, with the explanation that she would be staying in Italy for several more months and simply enjoying her time with her new husband, but this is still far from a perfect end for her. After devoting so much of her life to Empirical, it was somewhat disappointing to see her give it all up after marriage - and while she could theoretically return to Empirical later on, it would have been far more fitting to have her take over for Charles, not Liza.
Fitting: Liza
Even though some were saddened that Liza didn't get an official happily ever after with either Josh or Charles, her ending was written to bring her full circle, and that's incredibly fitting. This time, though, she has found herself a new space in life - a job that she loves (and an incredibly quick rise in publishing), confidence and certainty in herself, a life filled with friends - this is a far cry from the Liza that first asked Josh if his tattoos wash off. And while it may have been a different kind of satisfying to see Liza end the show marrying Charles or kissing Josh, it was more refreshing to see that she was still at the start of a new story, and that even when she isn't pretending to be 'younger', she's still got adventures to come.
Deserved More: Josh
While Josh was still a main character in the final season, he definitely had a smaller part in it than he could have - and given his incredible importance to Liza and the series as a whole, he deserved a bigger role. His ending - buying the building in Brooklyn and becoming a landlord - felt a little tacked-on. Even the explanation for how he could afford to buy an entire building in New York was just that he is 'doing well for himself', which isn't particularly satisfying. In the end, he may have got his last moment with Liza, and the strong hint that the two will reconcile, but as one of the least problematic and most adorable characters on the entire show, he definitely deserves more.