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| Youth Episode 4 Review. |
Youth Episode 4 pushes Alex further outside the carefully managed life she has built, sending her to the Frankfurt Book Fair where professional doubts, an unexpected period and a worrying revelation about her son Ruari all collide. The HBO romantic comedy uses the trip to expose just how little control Alex actually has, whether she is negotiating publishing deals, trying to revive her love life or attempting to understand what went wrong at her son’s college.
Created by Sharon Horgan, Youth has spent its opening episodes establishing Alex as a literary agent approaching 50 while juggling an unhappy home life, demanding parents, a troubled son and a romantic life that could generously be described as unfinished business. Episode 4, however, throws her into the chaos of the Frankfurt Book Fair, where business is supposed to be the priority. Naturally, Alex spends much of the trip dealing with problems that have absolutely nothing to do with books.
Alex travels to Germany with Sam, who sees Frankfurt as the biggest opportunity of the publishing calendar. For Alex, the trip becomes more complicated because Ruari is still not returning to college, while his father Larcon is doing his best to keep his distance. So Alex brings her son along, adding parental supervision to an already exhausting professional schedule.
The Frankfurt crowd also brings several awkward reunions. Alex encounters Karen, the publisher connected to Charlotte, who remains unaware that Charlotte has secretly been replaced. Then there is Lars, the German agent with whom Alex has a recurring fling whenever she visits Frankfurt. With Ruari now nearby, Alex has considerably less freedom to indulge in old habits, although that does not stop Lars from trying.
Even after arriving at the hotel, Alex cannot properly switch off. She finds herself staring at her phone and thinking about Patrick, whose relationship with her ended awkwardly. They have continued exchanging polite messages, but Alex clearly has not managed to put the whole thing behind her. It is a familiar problem for her: professionally she can negotiate almost anything, while emotionally she appears to have misplaced the instruction manual.
The first day of the book fair brings another unpleasant surprise. Alex arrives hoping to secure international interest in Wagon Burner, only to realise that the publishing mood has shifted dramatically. The once-desirable older writer is no longer attracting the attention she expected, while Malcolm’s Goblin Seed has become the book everyone suddenly wants to talk about. That would be uncomfortable enough, but Malcolm is the same author Alex previously dropped as a client.
The situation becomes even more awkward when Alex notices Charlotte’s niece talking to Cole from Nobel Harriet & Cole Publishing. With Charlotte’s family apparently exploring other representation, the possibility of losing another important connection puts additional pressure on The Laville Agency. Alex and Sam therefore have even more reason to fight for every deal they can get, even as Alex begins questioning whether her instincts are still as sharp as they once were.
Then comes an entirely different shock. Alex discovers that she is having her period, almost a year after her previous one. At 50, she had assumed she was already through menopause, so the unexpected development leaves her understandably rattled. Because apparently a stressful international book fair, a collapsing professional reputation and a complicated romantic life were not enough for one week.
By the second day, Goblin Seed is attracting even more attention. Alex ends up at an author event involving Malcolm, where he wastes little time reminding everyone about their previous falling-out. His public humiliation of Alex hits particularly hard because it attacks the very thing she has always trusted: her ability to know what readers will want before everyone else does.
With that confidence shaken, Alex decides to abandon the polished networking routine and head into the after-hours book fair parties. Lars becomes her unlikely entry ticket, although he appears to interpret their arrangement as something far more romantic than Alex intends. She manages to slip away from him and starts making useful connections, only to receive a flirtatious message from Patrick.
Before Alex can respond, Patrick deletes the message. That tiny act somehow manages to create an entire emotional crisis. Frustrated and annoyed, Alex ends up kissing Lars, although the moment feels less like a grand romantic development and more like a decision made after one too many complications.
Her night gets even more chaotic when she starts bleeding during sex and has to leave the party. Lars later turns up at her hotel room with menstrual pads, creating one of those strangely tender moments that Youth seems particularly good at finding in the middle of complete embarrassment. Just when things appear to be settling down, however, Alex receives a worrying message from Ruari.
Ruari has been spending his time in Frankfurt with a group of older hippie types rather than the college friends he told his mother about. After lying about his plans, he goes drinking with one of them and ends up wandering around old graveyards. He then sends Alex a disturbing message about being surrounded by death, which understandably convinces her that this is no longer something she can simply leave until morning.
Alex tracks him down and finally gets the conversation she has been avoiding. When she asks about the rumours surrounding his college life, including accusations that he behaved inappropriately towards fellow students, Ruari explains his version of events.
He says that during his first night at college, he and Bridget became extremely drunk and he woke up with his hand below her waist. According to Ruari, Bridget later treated the incident as unimportant, but the story apparently travelled around campus. He also says that after a later sexual encounter with another student did not go as planned, the girl involved became upset and he subsequently became the subject of a damaging rumour.
Alex chooses to believe her son and tells him that he does not have to return to college if he no longer feels able to cope there. It is one of the episode's more important moments because Alex stops trying to fix Ruari's situation from a distance and actually listens to him. Whether his account contains the whole story is another question, but Alex's response shows how quickly her professional instincts disappear when her son needs her.
Meanwhile, Malcolm delivers the final professional complication. He is interested in returning to The Laville Agency, despite everything that happened between him and Alex. She immediately understands that there is probably an element of revenge behind the offer. Unfortunately for Alex, that does not make it any less tempting. Malcolm is suddenly a problem she may have no choice but to turn into a business opportunity.
The episode works particularly well because Frankfurt becomes more than a glamorous publishing backdrop. Alex arrives expecting deals, contacts and perhaps a little escape from her domestic problems, only to find every part of her life waiting for her. Her career is wobbling, Patrick remains emotionally unfinished business, Lars is an unreliable distraction and Ruari needs her in a way she cannot simply solve with a clever conversation.
Episode 4 is where Youth really starts having fun with Alex's lack of control. Frankfurt should be the place where she proves she still knows exactly what she is doing, yet almost everything goes sideways instead. The Malcolm storyline is particularly entertaining because Alex is forced to confront the possibility that her professional judgement may not be quite as bulletproof as she thinks.
Her romantic detour with Lars is messier in a deliberately awkward way, while the unexpected period adds another reminder that Alex's body is refusing to follow the tidy timeline she had imagined for herself. Ruari's storyline gives the episode more weight, although his explanation naturally leaves room for questions rather than offering a neat answer. Overall, the episode balances comedy, embarrassment and family tension without making Alex too easy to sympathise with. What did you make of Ruari's explanation, and do you think Alex should take Malcolm back?