Katy Keene season 1, episode 2 review: You Can’t Hurry Love

In Katy Keene’s second episode, Katy considers a future with K.O… or without him. Plus, Jorge gets the break he’s been waiting for, but there’s a catch.

Picking up immediately after last week’s big proposal cliffhanger, a hesitant Katy Keene leaves K.O. hanging for a moment. And then a robbery intervenes. The “Alphabet City bandit” snatches the ring, ironically giving Katy a temporary reprieve. But she knows K.O. is going to need an answer soon… and she doesn’t know to say.

Meanwhile, Jorge decides to go out for more Broadway shows thanks to encouragement from his mom Luisa (played by Rent‘s OG Mimi, Daphne Rubin-Vega), and he’s soon faced with a difficult decision.

Plus, Josie finds a new job, and Pepper tries to make her dreams come true. Here’s a look at Katy Keene’s second outing, “You Can’t Hurry Love.”

A counterproposal

Marriage is on Katy’s mind in more ways than one. Naturally, just the day after K.O.’s proposal, wedding fever takes over Lacy’s. On the day she’s supposed to start her new job with François, Gloria beckons Katy back to her department for a special assignment: helping Prince Errol pick out an engagement ring.

Errol even asks Katy to design the ring herself and is thrilled with the result. In light of such success, Gloria decides she doesn’t want to let Katy go and says she’ll work out an arrangement with François that would allow Katy to split her time between the departments. It’s more a statement of fact than an offer, but Katy doesn’t object.

She even opens to Gloria about her own marital dilemma: she doesn’t want to marry K.O., but she doesn’t want to hurt him or lose him. Gloria rightly says she needs to be honest with him, even if that means losing him and breaking his heart.

François has a slightly different take and encourages Katy to look for a middle ground. After all, why should her only options be “yes” or “no”?

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Adding to her inner turmoil, K.O.’s mom believes they’re engaged after reading about the proposal in Pepper’s gossip column. She wants to throw them a party, and K.O. doesn’t correct her assumption about their relationship status. At the party, his mother even offers Katy her own mother’s engagement ring, noting that Katy is already like a daughter to her. Katy is grateful but taken aback and says she can’t accept it.

Ironically, Katy is ultimately put on the spot again by the bandit. He’s captured, and K.O. gets the ring back. He’s ready to propose, but Katy has her own counterproposal ready. She thinks they’re too young and should take another step first: moving in together.

K.O. eagerly accepts and the future is looking bright for the happy couple, though as Katy notes in her voiceover, “life is never that simple.”

To tour or not to tour

Fearing he’s been blacklisted after auditioning for Cats and being rejected solely because he criticized the Mannequin director, Jorge’s agent gives him one last shot: an audition for a Broadway hip-hop historical musical, Jefferson.

The audition goes well — so well, in fact, that he gets an offer. But it’s not the one he was hoping for. He’s offered a spot on the tour, not Broadway.

Luisa, a former rockette, is thrilled, and Jorge is, of course, excited not to hear another “no.” But he’s hesitant to leave New York.

Everything comes to a head in his swan song (Lady Gaga’s “A Million Reasons) as Ginger at Molly’s Crisis. Knowing he’ll have to Ginger behind (given that he’s unlikely to find a receptive audience in the Midwest) and leave his friends and family behind, Jorge decides he’s not leaving after all.

He feels confident about his choice to settle for nothing less than a Broadway role, though he’s still relieved when Luisa supports his decision.

Meanwhile…

Josie gets a job at a record shop — just a few days before it’s set to close due to rising rent. Josie sets out to get it declared a historic landmark and realizes there’s only one person she can turn to: Alex Cabot.

Alex is more than happy to oblige, though he unintentionally ends up doing more harm than good. As VP of their father’s company, his sister Alexandra becomes the shop’s new owner, and she wants to sell it.

Elsewhere, Pepper’s dream of opening an art gallery/club comes to fruition… sort of. She’s able to get a space for a good deal by threatening to expose the owners’ messy divorce in her gossip column. But the investor she needed to help her get the gallery off the ground ends up getting arrested.

Plus, she has literally no money left for rent, so she forced to abandon her fancy suite at The Palace Hotel and crash on a mattress at her new property. Fortunately, her girlfriend Didi is very supportive and works at The Palace, so she’s able to sneak out some of Pepper’s belongings.

Katy Keene returns to The CW next Thursday, Feb. 20, at 8:00 p.m. Did you enjoy this week’s episode? Let us know in the comments below!