Your Friends and Neighbors Episode 3 Recap: Theoretical Herpes

Apple TV+’s ‘Your Friends and Neighbors’ follows Jon Hamm as Andrew Cooper, who falls on hard times after he is fired from the job he gave his life to. With most of his money going to alimony and the safety of his job’s cover gone, he turns to a life of petty crime to make ends meet, or in other words, to keep up the facade of his rich lifestyle. He takes a Robin Hood-style strategy where he steals expensive items from the rich and sells them to a pawn shop owner, who is more dangerous than she might look at first glance. In more real terms, he is just stealing from what he knows best, and while that may make his task easier for a while, it doesn’t mean trouble will not catch up with him again. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Cooper Meets with a High-End Lawyer for His Lost Cause Case

When Cooper is fired, his boss uses the excuse that he slept with a junior employee of the company. Even though they are not directly related to each other’s department, and she is not the one who files a complaint against it, somehow, the news reaches the higher-ups, and Cooper is ousted just like that. Barney immediately advises him to find a lawyer, as his former employers will not want to get entangled in the storm of a legal issue and risk losing their clients. He believes they will try to settle the case by giving Cooper the money that went to the company. However, Cooper doesn’t believe that is possible. Still, Barney doesn’t want his friend to lose so easily, so he talks with Rick Massiello, one of the, if not the, most successful lawyers in the city.

He is perhaps the only one who can help Cooper win. As for his fees, he will take half of whatever is given to Cooper by his former employers, but Barney believes that at least Cooper will have something rather than nothing. When they meet Massiello, he is straightforward with them and tells them that the case will be lost. It will not be a good look for the company to lose it, and with all the resources at its disposal, it has a better chance at winning. Cooper, on the other hand, is already losing. However, that doesn’t mean that they can’t still salvage the situation. But that will take a year or two to settle, so he advises Cooper to prepare for the long haul. As for the further action plan, he asks for a retainer first, which means Cooper has to get more money.

Around the same time, Mel discovers that there is an infestation of bugs in her house. She notices it first in her closet after her sweater comes apart in one go. When a swarm of them flies out, she immediately calls for help and is told that the bugs have spread inside the walls. If allowed to spread, they will destroy the whole structure. To keep them from doing so, a lot of work needs to be done, and some parts need to be knocked down. That will take a good few grands. Later, Mel informs Cooper that she has decided to get a professional tennis coach for their daughter. Cooper does not approve of this decision, but at the end of the day, he accepts that their daughter’s career requires them to back off from this part of her life.

A Neighborhood Night Out Gives Cooper the Opportunity to Steal Again

After the meeting with the lawyer, when Cooper gets home, he finds an unexpected guest waiting for him: Lu. The last time he saw her, she refused to move his stolen watch because she suspected him of being an undercover cop. But after looking into him, she knows that he is just a penniless hedge fund manager stealing from his neighbors, so she agrees to keep doing business with him. However, she also reveals that she knows all about where his loved ones live, so if he talks about her to the cops, no matter what the circumstances, she will make sure he never sees his family and friends again. Cooper is a little rattled by this, but he has no other option. In fact, he goes on another hunt the same night. From Barney, he discovers that Rick is throwing a party at his house and he has invited all the men in the neighborhood, while all the women are going to a self-defense session.

This means that both sides will be occupied for the entire evening, so Cooper picks a house of his choosing and starts looking around. The hitch arrives in the form of the woman of the house with her young lover, while her husband is at Rick’s party. Due to the interruption, Cooper has to make do with stealing a very expensive wine bottle, which he brings to the party on the insistence of a heavily drunk Barney. The mood starts to shift as the men get more and more drunk. When Cooper is asked about leaving Bailey and Russell, he says he did it to go independent and is currently working a deal with a client in Dubai. Meanwhile, the fun self-defense class turns into something cathartic for the women, as Mel opens up to Sam about the reason she cheated on and left Cooper. Her words make Sam wonder about her affair with him.

Cooper’s Next Target is Closer to Home

When Cooper arrives at Rick’s home for the party, he notices all sorts of stuff in the house, which the host shows off proudly but doesn’t allow others to touch. Moreover, Cooper still holds resentment about the affair, and considering that Rick is a part of the neighborhood, it makes sense to steal from him next. The party takes unexpected turns. First, an argument breaks out between Cooper and another man, who talks about how the former is still friendly with the man who slept with his wife. Rick tries to distract them from the fight by taking them to his basketball court, where he offers money to anyone who will score on him. One of the guests turns out to have played a bit of professional basketball, but the fun competition turns into a disaster when he breaks his leg.

Meanwhile, Cooper’s son, Hunter, has a trip of his own when he takes mushrooms during a party where his band is supposed to perform. When his trip starts to feel bad, he calls Ali for help, who sits and talks with him, which isn’t something he necessarily gets from his parents. She assures him that things will be better the next day, and sure enough, the kids at his school are friendlier to him the next day. The same night, when all the guests have slipped away and all the chaos of the night is gone, Cooper sneaks into the house to get Rick’s championship ring, which is worth a lot. Before he can slip out with it, he has someone point a gun at his back. While the person’s face is not shown, there is a good chance that it is the housekeeper who greeted Cooper at the door when he came to the party. How she factors into the whole situation now remains to be seen.