The ending of Your Friends and Neighbors focused on 2 things: Samantha’s role in Paul’s death, and Coop’s decision to continue being a thief. To recap everything that had happened in the lives of these two characters prior to the finale, Coop and Samantha were in a secret relationship after Coop’s divorce from Mel and Samantha’s ongoing divorce from Paul. Coop lost his job, and started resorting to thievery to maintain his lavish lifestyle, which understandably changed him as a person. Meanwhile, Paul kept pestering Samantha about how she was using lawyers to ruin his life. So, in order to get away from both Coop and Paul, Samantha took her kids and went to stay with her parents in Boston. Coop used this opportunity to break into Samantha’s house, where he came across Paul’s dead body. Eventually, he was framed for murdering Paul, as the “murder weapon” was found in his car. That left Coop with 2 options: taking a plea deal and going to jail for 6-10 years, or losing the case while trying to prove he’s innocent and rotting away in jail for the next 25 years. Since it was obvious that Coop hadn’t killed Paul, he chose to fight for his freedom, and learned that it was actually Samantha who had made him the fall guy so that she could enjoy Paul’s insurance money. Why? I have a lot of thoughts on this. So, without any further ado, let’s get cracking.
Spoiler Alert
Samantha Was Guilty Of Being Stupid
Back in the day, Samantha used to work at Paul’s restaurant. By her own admission, she fornicated with Paul in order to “level up” from her job waiting tables. Paul went on to ask for Samantha’s hand in marriage, which she accepted, because it meant living in his posh house and chumming it up with the rich women of Westmont Village. Soon after that, she became pregnant with their first child and then with their second. That was when Paul cheated on Samantha with Misty, and that commenced the lengthy divorce process where, according to Samantha, Paul was trying to paint his wife as the reason for their marital debacle. Samantha “lawyered up” and managed to hold on to her kids, the house, and, I guess, a major chunk of Paul’s money so as to sustain her luxurious lifestyle. Maybe it was around this time that Paul realized the error of his ways and began begging Samantha to take him back again. Of course, Samantha didn’t want to let that cheater back into her life, and also, she was in a secret relationship with Coop already. When Paul’s badgering and Coop’s noncommittal nature became overwhelming, Samantha went back to her house in Boston with her kids to take a break. Paul visited her house, the one in Westmont Village, and when he saw that there was no one there, he FaceTimed Samantha, begging her yet again to put a stop to the divorce proceedings. Samantha obviously refused to listen to anything that was coming out of Paul’s mouth.
However, since Paul’s mind was clouded by medication and alcohol, he took a drastic step and shot himself in the head. Now, before doing so, Paul showed his suicide note to Samantha where he said how much he loved her and how living without her had become a nightmare for him. Samantha was understandably shocked by this turn of events, but the first thing that crossed her mind after she had calmed down was that she wouldn’t get any of Paul’s life insurance money if the authorities came to know that he had died by suicide. Hence, Samantha drove all the way from Boston to Westmont Village to make Paul’s death look like a murder. The episode didn’t exactly show us at what point Samantha decided to frame Coop or how she placed the “murder weapon” in Coop’s car. I’m guessing that she did it when the nanny cam footage of Coop in Samantha’s house surfaced, because it became easy for her to paint him as the jilted lover. Now, Coop broke into Samantha’s house a second time to look for the phone that she’d been using to chat with Coop ever since their relationship began and give it to the police so as to prove that she was withholding evidence and concealing her actual location on the night of Paul’s death. Coop didn’t find the phone, but he did find the suicide letter, which he presented to Detective Lin and Officer Hernandez, and that led to Samantha’s arrest.
Since Samantha hadn’t technically killed Paul—she shot him with his gun after he was already dead—and she hadn’t made the life insurance claim, she wasn’t exactly guilty of anything. Yeah, she tried to prove that Coop was a murderer, but since the suicide letter cleared his name, all that Samantha had to do was some community service to atone for her sins. That’s not the important part, though. What really vexed me was Samantha’s stance that she didn’t have a choice in all of this. Nobody forced her to marry Paul. Nobody forced her to have two kids. Nobody forced her into this complicated situation where she felt compelled to get into a legal battle with Paul. She put herself in that situation because she wanted a shortcut to a life of opulence, and when things went sideways, it was everyone else’s fault? That doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. She said that she “needed” that insurance money for her kids. That’s false. She needed that money for herself. She could’ve gotten another job, sent her kids to public school, and if they got good grades, they would’ve earned scholarships. If not, they would’ve gotten into community college. So, that wasn’t the issue. The issue was that Samantha had constructed this persona in Westmont Village that she needed to maintain by hook or by crook. She didn’t care that doing so would come at the cost of Coop’s life. I know that I have hated Mel throughout the show, but when she said that she framed Coop because he wasn’t “kinder” to her, it made me livid. That is the textbook definition of a “victim complex” on display. In the 21st century, if you are actively choosing to benefit off of “the patriarchy” instead of availing yourself of all the doors that feminism has opened for you, and then you are justifying your grotesque actions by saying it’s some hit job on “the patriarchy,” I’m sorry, but you are insanely stupid. If you can get away with it, maybe then I’ll consider you to be smart. But if you get caught, like Samantha did, it’s not the patriarchy’s fault; it’s your low IQ that’s to blame here.
Coop’s Reasoning For Becoming A Thief Again
After Samantha’s arrest and Coop’s reunion with his family, there was a time jump of one week. Coop was invited back to his old job by Russell and Bailey because, well, their company was sinking without him. Coop laid out his terms; Bailey refused to comply. Coop refused to budge; Bailey and Russell had no option but to comply. There was one condition, though: Coop had to fly to Switzerland with Bailey and Olivia within the next 12 hours to prove that he was worth the money that he was demanding. Coop didn’t give a straight answer, but it seemed like he was game. He went off to attend the Gutenberg Cancer Gala, held by Peter and Diane Miller. Everyone in Westmont Village, except for Samantha, was there too. I’ll give a brief overview of what went down there before getting to the crux of the matter of the finale, which is the ongoing downfall of Coop and how he is beyond redemption. Barney expressed surprise that Coop hadn’t accepted Bailey’s offer, knowing full well that it’d not only help Coop but Barney as well. Nick and Mel were officially over. Morgan and Hunter were going strong. Ali left the party very early to inform Bruce’s wife that he was cheating on her. Tori expressed some concern about her admission into Princeton because she thought that Chelsea would take up her spot since her mother, Julie, was so influential. Coop took care of that by essentially threatening Julie that he’d leak the fact about how she’d manipulated Chelsea’s SAT scores to give her a leg up if she didn’t stop her daughter from going to Princeton, thereby clearing the path for Tori. And it was confirmed that Coop had forgiven Mel for everything she had done because he was in love with her and vice versa. Great. Supremely idiotic, but alright, I’ll accept it.
What happened after Coop exited the gala was weird. Well, to be honest, I thought there was something off about this whole gala sequence because the show has a habit of blurring the line between fact and fiction. Hence I thought this entire “one week later” scene was a figment of Coop’s imagination, because every issue that had been propped up was resolved so easily. I was wrong. It was actually resolved that easily. Anyway, Coop exited the gala, and it seemed like he was about to join Bailey and Olivia on their flight to Switzerland. He didn’t do that. Instead, he broke into Bailey’s house to steal a painting and drove off into the night to sell it. This showed that Coop didn’t have any intention of working at an office anymore. He had become addicted to a life of crime. According to Coop, he had seen that, despite working hard and with utmost honesty, everything you hold dear can all be snatched away on a whim. However, he had also seen what happens when you get into a business arrangement with shady art dealers. So, why did he opt for the latter instead of the former?
In my opinion, he was done with managing hedge funds, and he wanted to do this new thing, which was burglary, because he had just learned that he was really good at it. He thought that if he went back to managing hedge funds, he’d be stuck in the same cycle that he was in before being fired by Bailey. That said, he is seemingly okay with repeating the cycle that got him beat up by Christian’s men? That’s just wild, and maybe, like Walter White, that’s his fatal flaw. He had the chance to leave that life of crime in the rearview mirror. Instead of taking that chance, he just drove towards said life of crime, thereby cementing his eventual undoing. He’ll probably earn a lot through this route. He’ll evade capture several times. But by taking this step, he has ensured that there’s no happy ending in his life, or that of those associated with him. Does that make Coop a bad person? Yeah, now it does. Earlier, I excused his acts of breaking and entering because he legitimately needed to make ends meet. He wasn’t getting hired. His savings were depleting faster than he could spell “capitalism.” If he didn’t sell all that stolen stuff, he, his family, and eventually Elena as well would’ve been in a world of trouble. But now that he has discarded the opportunity to support himself and his family through legitimate means because it’s cool to steal from the rich, I can’t say that he is the good guy. By the way, I suppose that’s the whole point of the show as well: people mess up because of their own choices, and then they blame luck, circumstances, and every other arbitrary factor they can conjure out of thin air to justify their decisions.
Season 2 Expectations
Yes, Season 2 of Your Friends and Neighbors is happening. That has been confirmed. And I am glad that I don’t have to do stuff like “allow me to speculate what’ll happen in the potential second season if it gets greenlit.” James Marsden has already been cast, which is awesome. Deadline has reported that he is going to be someone related to Samantha. So, my best guess is that he is going to be her lawyer. I think that Samantha is going to go after Coop for breaking and entering into her house, twice! I thought it was really weird that that was not addressed at all in this season. But I am guessing that that becomes a major plot point in the second season, because proving that Coop is the serial thief who has been breaking into houses all across Westmont Village. I suppose Bailey’s house isn’t located in Westmont Village, which means that Coop has graduated from doing theft in familiar territory to doing the same in other posh areas. He was on Detective Lin’s radar. Now, some other detective is probably going to have him in their crosshairs.
Other than that, Ali’s mental health will be explored, because she has turned a new page in her life. Mel’s employment situation will probably be one of the many subplots in the second season. Who knows? Maybe she’ll join hands with Coop to steal from the rich. Elena will undoubtedly join them too, because she was instrumental to Coop’s freedom, and hence, Coop owes her one. If Coop doesn’t keep giving Barney a cut of his profits, that man is going to go to some really dark places. Tori and Hunter’s arcs will certainly be furthered, specifically in terms of how Coop and Mel’s recent antics have rubbed off on them. Coop has already blackmailed Kat and Julie. Maybe that’ll backfire on the Coopers, and since Tori and Hunter are the most vulnerable members of the family, it’s possible that Coop’s new enemies will go after them. And then there’s Lu and Christian. I don’t think Christian is going to get away so easily after hurting Coop in front of his family and nearly killing Barney. Maybe Coop is going to try and become more influential than Christian and then show him who is boss. Lu has a soft spot for Coop. Maybe she is going to help Coop get his revenge. Anyway, those are my expectations for the second season. If you have anything to add to it, please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
