Diksha Sundriyal
When Andrew Cooper started stealing from his neighbors in the affluent neighbourhood of Westmont in Apple TV+’s ‘Your Friends and Neighbors,’ he never anticipated just how worse things could get. What started with petty theft, turned into a full blown heist when he stole a million dollars’ worth of painting by replacing it with a fake. But that excitement was accompanied by the fallout with his new associate, Christian, and the discovery of Paul Levitt’s dead body in Sam’s house. In comparison, the sixth episode feels like a cakewalk, at least until the final few minutes. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Fallout of Paul’s Murder Leads to Problems for Coop
When Coop accidentally landed himself next to Paul’s dead body, he tried to erase all evidence of his presence on the scene. However, the next day, when the cops arrive, alerted by the maid who discovers the body in the morning, Coop becomes quite an interesting suspect pretty quickly. It doesn’t take much for Detective Rebecca Lin to notice that someone has tried to clean up after them. When she finds out about Paul and Sam’s bad divorce, which seemed to have been the talk of the town, she suspects Sam of being involved in her ex’s death, even though she has a pretty strong alibi. She had flown to Boston the same morning, so there is no way she could have killed Paul herself.
Moreover, he has a total of three bullets in his body, which suggests that the killer’s intention was execution, and it was not an accident. On receiving the news, Sam flies back home, but leaves her boys with her parents to shield them from the police investigation for as long as possible. When asked if she has been seeing someone, she doesn’t mention Coop, but is surprised to discover that Coop and Paul got into a fight during Nick’s party. When she asks Coop about it, she realises that he is more concerned about himself than her. She is also made aware of the fact that because the divorce wasn’t finalised, she will get all of her husband’s money, including his million-dollar worth of insurance, which appears to be motive enough to the detective.
The fight leads the detective to seek out Coop next, where he tries to play it as casually as he can. While everyone, including Nick, dismisses the fight by describing it as nothing but a scuffle between two drunk men, Rebecca cannot let go of how weirdly Coop factors into the case. For his alibi, he tells the detective that he went to a club but came back home alone and spent the rest of the night watching a movie with his sister before falling asleep. She doesn’t seem too convinced, which is why she seeks out Nick next, even though he doesn’t have much to go on. When Elena overhears the conversation, she tries to reach out to Coop, but he has other things on his mind.
Coop Gets a Day Off With His Family
It is the day of the family outing as Coop, Mel, and their children are to go to Princeton to help Tori get a feel of the place before she joins it. Things don’t start out well as Coop and Tori get into a fight about her boyfriend and Coop’s dislike of him. Still, the day is saved when they reach the college. Tori immediately finds her crowd and leaves with them. Coop takes Hunter to the music department, which immediately gets his attention. This leaves Mel and Coop to spend the whole day by themselves, so they go down memory lane. The more they get drunk, the more Nick’s fear comes true.
Earlier in the day, he asked Mel if it would be odd for her to be with Coop in Princeton again because that’s where they met and fell in love. She dismissed his concerns, but now that they are in each other’s company in the college where they did fall in love, the dynamics shift pretty quickly. Mel is surprised by Coop, as he seems more easygoing and more concerned about her well-being, supporting her when she is accused of shoplifting. It’s as if a whole different side of him is coming out, the side she never got to see in fifteen years of her marriage. The fun time together leads to sex, which isn’t really surprising, considering Mel’s breakdown at her birthday party, where she basically ran away from Nick’s public love confession.
While they sleep together, this doesn’t mean that they are getting back together, especially considering Coop’s dalliances with other women, especially Sam. However, it does mean that Mel and Nick’s relationship may have run its course. In between all this, Coop tells Sam about the real reason behind his leaving his previous job. Meanwhile, Tori makes out with a guy and realises that her father may have been right about her boyfriend, and she will dump him sooner or later. Hunter, too, finds his crowd and lights up when he gets a reply from the girl he has a crush on.
Coop’s Hopes of Return to Normalcy are Crushed
In between finding Paul’s dead body and spending the day with his family, Coop completely forgets about the fight he had with Christian the night before. It is pointed out to him when the detective asks him about the bruise on his hand, which he got when he punched Christian in the face. Still, he doesn’t pay much attention to it. After spending a great day with his ex-wife and kids, he is in a cheerful mood. When they return home, they have dinner with Barney and his family. When it starts to rain, Coop goes back to the car to get an umbrella, but he is attacked by two men who beat him mercilessly.
Barney notices this and runs out into the street to help his friend. However, he is hit by a car, which draws the attention that drives away the goons. To remove any doubts about who is behind this, Coop sees Christian drive by in his car. However, there is no time to think. It seems Barney has taken a pretty bad hit as he has fallen unconscious. Coop, himself, is not in good shape, but he is more concerned about his best friend, who seems to have walked into his mess and paid the price for it. More interestingly, this attack will only draw more attention towards Coop, as the cops are bound to wonder why he was attacked, and more importantly, if the attack has any connection to Paul’s death.
Read More: Who Killed Paul Levitt in Your Friends and Neighbors?
