In episode 8 of Your Friends and Neighbors, Coop got bailed out by his dad; meanwhile, his lawyer, Kat, advised him to go for a plea deal and spend around 10 years in jail instead of trying to prove that he was innocent, as that’d land him in prison for the rest of his life. Coop knew that he hadn’t killed Paul, but he also knew that if he admitted that he was at the crime scene because he was there to steal Samantha’s stuff after his and Elena’s business deal with Christian had gone sideways, he would be tried for theft. So, he chose to put all these worries at bay, at least for the time being, and party the night away with Nick and Barney. Why were Nick and Coop friends again? While fighting Samantha on the topic of Coop’s innocence, Mel had blurted out that she had slept with Coop. Hence, Nick called it even and rekindled his bond with Coop. As for Barney, he was sick of Grace, and he wanted to get out of the house that had become a burden for him. That’s why he chose to bury the hatchet and reestablish his bond with Coop. In addition to all that, Mel was fired from her job for her physical altercation with Samantha, Ali realized Bruce was using her, Tori broke up with Jake, and Hunter and Morgan officially became a couple. Now, how were all these subplots wrapped up in the finale of Your Friends and Neighbors? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Coop Is Confronted By His Family
Episode 9 of Your Friends and Neighbors opens with a dream sequence where Coop finds himself back in his original house and sees he isn’t separated from his family anymore. But as soon as he dives into his pool and emerges from it, he finds himself at the crime scene, which is Samantha’s house, being arrested by the police for allegedly killing Paul. When he finally wakes up and goes golfing, he comes across people giving him very weird looks because of the murder charge against him. As expected, Luddy, the manager of the golf club, arrives and tells him that his membership is about to be suspended until he is officially acquitted. Coop points out that the club will be flouting its own rules of suspending a member by doing so, and that might push him to do something unsavory, especially since he’s an alleged murderer. Later that night, in order to calm himself down, Coop sits down for a quiet dinner with Ali, Hunter, and Tori. But since Ali wants Coop to talk about his future and whether or not he is going to jail, she breaks the ice by talking about her recent fling with Bruce. She makes things so uncomfortable that it seems preferable to talk about Coop’s case. However, Coop doesn’t about not discuss this issue. So, Ali chooses to leave for her gig, and since Tori and Hunter want to join her, Coop has no option but to tag along. While her act does begin with a pretty solid song, it quickly devolves into a rant about how bad Bruce is and how people should be more like Coop, as he has been with her through thick and thin.
Now, I won’t claim to know anything about what bipolar disorder does to one’s ability to recognize red flags and green flags. But am I really supposed to empathize with Ali for romancing a current cheater, who was her former lover, and then coming to the realization that he is a bad person? I mean, the people at the bar that Ali was performing at didn’t see the full picture and supported Ali’s anti-Bruce slogans. However, as someone who has seen the whole arc, it kind of rings hollow because of the way she stalked and seduced him. There’s no doubt that Bruce, and men like him, are the scum of the earth, but Ali is no saint either. Anyway, the night ends with Coop requesting that Ali take her meds so that she can be responsible enough to look after Hunter and Tori if Coop goes to jail. Next, Coop gives his prized Daytona watch to Hunter. Finally, he tries to strike up a conversation with Tori, who initially cold-shoulders him, but eventually, she snuggles up to him while he’s watching movies and cries her heart out, probably thinking about the possibility that she won’t get to do this for the next 6-10 years. The following day, Coop meets up with Kat and tells her to set the meeting to discuss the plea deal instead of fighting for his innocence, since he has apparently come to the realization that it’s seemingly impossible to disprove that he was involved in Paul’s death.
Mel Tells Coop To Fight For Himself
The scene shifts to Mel, who meets Barney at a restaurant, from whom she learns that Coop has signed his half of the house over to her. Mel thinks that Coop is doing this because he is sure he is going to jail. She starts worrying about the kids and their future. Barney assures her that everything she needs to support herself and the kids is in her hands now. So, regardless of what happens to Coop, the family is going to be alright. While they are having this conversation, Mel and Barney notice others in the restaurant probably gossiping about Mel’s much-publicized confrontation with Samantha and snickering. Therefore, she lunges at them, to make it seem like she is about to start another fight, which scares the hell out of them. On her way out, she crosses paths with Samantha too, and the women, who were great friends once, leave the scene without an apology or a “hello.” Before moving on, I want to point out a few things. Mel had only 50 percent ownership of the house, but Coop had to go live in a rental? In what world does this make sense? Does this happen in real life? Also, it’s so diabolical that Mel has all of Coop’s assets in her name, and yet she needs to keep chipping away at his bank account for the pettiest reasons. By the way, is Mel actually concerned for Coop, or is she worried that she won’t get a proper job in this lifetime, which is why she’ll need to spend all of Coop’s money on her kids instead of dividing it between her kids and her own lavish lifestyle? You tell me.
Anyway, the following day. Mel walks in on Hunter and Morgan having a chat at her home (we can call it her home now), and the way she talks so insensitively about Morgan kind of got my blood boiling. But that moment pales in comparison to the stuff that she says to Coop after noticing that he has given away his prized watch to Hunter, which indicates that he has accepted he’s going to jail. Mel wants Coop to fight for his innocence, which is fine, but the way she puts it is so annoying. She makes it look like it’s Coop’s fault that she cheated on him and caused “both” of their lives to spiral out of control. And the fact that Coop accepts that is really odd. Taking one’s “eye off the ball” doesn’t justify adultery! If someone is an absent parent or partner, that doesn’t justify adultery. Also, it’s one thing to realize that you’re the reason why your family has come undone and a whole other thing to display the audacity to talk about selfishness and fighting for said family. I mean, it’s great that Mel understands the real value of family and what Coop means to her kids, but the timing is odd. She has nothing to fall back on at this moment; nothing but her family. That’s why she is talking about its worth. Earlier, she was fine with throwing caution to the wind and cheating with Nick and jeopardizing the futures of Hunter and Tori. I understand that this arc is supposed to show that Mel is seeing the error of her ways, but at no point in this show has she truly accepted how villainous she is; it’s always been a case of one step forward and a thousand steps back.
Samantha Is Arrested
After listening to Mel’s impassioned plea for him to fight for himself, Coop tells Kat that he has decided to not go for the plea deal, which is great, because the guy is actually innocent of the crime he is being accused of. Now, while they are going back and forth about the case, how he is being painted as this jilted lover who killed Paul to have Samantha all to himself, and why Samantha isn’t being hassled as much as he is, Coop notices that the call records that Samantha has presented to the police don’t have his phone number in them. It becomes evident that the call records that Samantha gave to the police are from the phone that places her in Boston at the time of Paul’s death. There’s a second phone, from which Samantha used to text Coop, and she supposedly used it to text Coop when he found Paul’s body, and that phone is nowhere to be found. Kat and Coop convey this information to Detective Lin and Officer Hernandez, but they are oddly defensive about their investigation, and they are not interested in going the extra mile to check if Samantha lied to the authorities. Kat doesn’t say this in front of the cops, but when they are out of earshot, she tells Coop that it’s pointless to look for this “other phone,” because Samantha has probably discarded it, knowing that it can be traced back to her. And that brings Coop back to square one.
However, this time Coop is not willing to give up just because he has been told something is a dead end. He approaches Elena—who, BTW, admits that she did steal Coop’s money to pay off Felix—to help him break into Samantha’s house and look for that phone. Although she is hesitant at first because she doesn’t want to be associated with a murder suspect, she agrees to assist him with one last heist. The following day, Elena shows up to Samantha’s house, since no one is inclined to work at a place where somebody has died so brutally, and gets started with her chores until Samantha leaves. Once she is gone, Elena lets in Coop, and both of them turn the house upside down for the phone. They don’t find it. What they do find, though, is a suicide letter written by Paul. Elena leaves, and Coop stays back to confront Samantha. Left with no other option but to tell the truth, Samantha admits that Paul died by suicide because he was high and he was sad that she didn’t want to be his wife anymore. According to Paul’s life insurance policy, Samantha wouldn’t have seen a penny if he died by suicide. So, Samantha made it look like Paul had been murdered by Coop. That’s how she got the insurance money, and she didn’t really care if this ruse ruined Coop’s life or not. When Coop decides to present the suicide letter to the police, Samantha threatens to shoot him. But he knows that Samantha isn’t a killer; hence, he ignores the threat and gives the letter to Lin and Hernandez, who promptly arrest Samantha. The charges against Coop are apparently dropped and he is a free man again.
Coop Goes Back To Breaking And Stealing Stuff
At the end of Your Friends and Neighbors episode 9, the narrative moves forward by one week, and we see Coop being invited back by Russell and Bailey to work for them because, firstly, the murder charge against him has been dropped, and secondly, without him, the company is on the verge of going under. Coop negotiates until Russell and Bailey accept the deal, and Coop agrees to jet off to Switzerland that very night for his first assignment after getting his job back. Before boarding the plane, though, Coop goes to attend the Gutenberg Cancer Gala, which is conducted by Peter and Diane Miller, along with Ali, Mel, Hunter, Tori, and Morgan. The rest of Westmont Village is there too. Barney is surprised to learn that, despite being welcomed back by Russell and Bailey, Coop is still pontificating about accepting their offer. The scene then shifts to a conversation between Coop and Tori, where the latter is worried that Chelsea Sperling is going to qualify for Princeton’s version of the sports quota and she won’t. Coop deals with that by essentially threatening Julie Sperling to not send Chelsea to Princeton, or else he is going to leak the fact that she has been manipulating her daughter’s SAT scores to give her an advantage over everyone else in her class.
In addition to all that, Nick basically breaks up with Mel. Their relationship had a rocky foundation anyway, and it was pointless to continue this charade. Hunter and Morgan excuse themselves, probably to do something that their parents won’t approve of. Ali leaves the party early to tell Bruce’s wife what he has been up to, which is great. Hopefully now she’ll be able to move on to better things. And we learn that Samantha is not in jail because she has technically not killed anyone, and since she never claimed Paul’s life insurance, she hasn’t committed fraud either. Coop is apparently not all that miffed about that because he understands why Samantha did the things that she did. Mel is amazed by Coop’s forgiving nature, especially since he took such a long time to forgive her, and Coop cheesily says that it was easy for him to pardon Mel because he’s in love with her, not with Samantha. On that note, Coop leaves the gala, and it seems like he is going to join Bailey and Olivia on their flight to Switzerland. However, instead of doing so, he breaks into Bailey’s house to steal an expensive painting, with the aim of selling it somewhere.
