Warning: This post contains spoilers from the Your Friends and Neighbors season 1 finale from this point forward and makes references to suicide.
After an impossibly entertaining first season, Apple TV+'s new hit series Your Friends and Neighbors sticks the landing with its season finale. Leading into the season 1 ender, Coop continued to face the reality of a potential prison sentence for a crime he didn't commit. In the opening of the finale, he has nightmares about going to jail, which he notes bring some odd comfort.
Still, Coop maintains his innocence and refuses to accept a plea deal. Even though Kat can snag him a deal that gets him an eight-year sentence, and he'd only serve six, he doesn't want to admit defeat. But he might not have much of a choice. The alternative is life in prison if the trial doesn't go his way. After giving Hunter his watch and holding a distraught Tori, he pursues the plea deal.
However, Mel barges into his house, the first time she's ever entered his home, and pushes him to keep fighting. They have an argument, both passionately sharing their concerns about the situation, but Mel doesn't want him to be "selfish" and leave the kids. Finally, he turns down the plea deal, and after seeing Sam's phone records in Kat's office, he's glad he didn't prematurely seal his fate.
The truth about Paul's death revealed
While looking at Sam's phone records, which exonerate her because cell towers place her in Boston at the time of death, Coop realizes he doesn't see his number anywhere. They had been communicating frequently, but his phone number is nowhere to be found in any of the records. He realizes Sam must have had a second phone, but Detective Lin is unmoved by Kat's presentation of the records. Kat assumes that if Sam had a second phone, she's long stashed it by now.
Not giving up, Coop calls on the help of his old partner in crime Elena to help him look for the phone. She offers to help clean up Sam's house since her housekeeper has been on leave after discovering Paul's body. Once Sam leaves to run errands for a couple hours, Elena sneaks Coop into the house and they begin tearing into every drawer and cabinet in search of a burner phone. All hope seems lost until Elena discovers a false bottom in a bathroom drawer. Bingo!
Inside, they find Paul's suicide note covered in blood. Coop's at the house waiting for Sam when she returns. He confronts her about the suicide note, and she confesses the truth. While she was in Boston with the kids, Paul broke into her house while drunk and called her on FaceTime. During the call, Paul shot himself in the head. Realizing that her ex-husband died by suicide and nullified his $20 million life insurance policy, Sam grabbed her burner phone and rushed home.
Once in her house, she put on gloves and grabbed the suicide note. She took Paul's gun and shot him two more times. (Detective Lin had previously learned that two of the three gunshots were postmortem.) Sam staged the break-in and put the gun in Coop's trunk, getting back at him. She needed a fall guy in order to secure that life insurance windfall for her and the kids. Finally, Coop's cleared of the charges and Sam gets arrested, though she's released since she didn't kill Paul.
Coop makes an unexpected decision
Now that he can put the possibility of going to jail behind him, Coop's first stop is to Mel's house, where he's greeted with excited hugs from Tori and Hunter and even Mel. He seems to be getting his life back one step at a time, and that includes taking a meeting with his old boss to negotiate a return to work. Bailey tries to stiff him out of a deal, but he's able to get what he wants, only if he hops on a plan with them overseas later that evening. Coop seems to be considering this offer.
The Cooper family reunites at a charity gala, which also marks Coop's triumphant return to society. He's basking in the glory of his "told you so" comeback tour. He dances with Tori and Mel. Rekindling sparks seem to be flying between him and Mel, especially since Nick doesn't appear to be in a rush to get back together with her. But Coop decides to leave the party early, not before threatening one of his neighbors with info about cheating her daughter's way into Princeton. He's a good dad.
We're left to believe that Coop's headed to the hangar to join his coworkers on a private jet, returning to his hedge fund work like Barney wants him to. But Coop's seen how the sausage is made and knows too much. He's been changed by his experiences. Instead of hopping on that plane, he heads to his former boss' empty house under the cover of night and robs him. He's back in the game, just not the game anyone expected. He's headed for more trouble in season 2!
Watch Your Friends and Neighbors only on Apple TV+.