Your Friends & Neighbors Season 2 Episode 7 Review: Out East

Critic’s Rating: 4 / 5.0

4

On the latest episode of Your Friends & Neighbors, a jaunt to the Hamptons becomes more meaningful as people begin to realize that not everyone is alright.

There are serious questions about whether spending time with Owen Ashe is worth the investment.

The speculation on that front is only just beginning.

While Your Friends & Neighbors Season 2 Episode 6 was quieter than we’ve become accustomed, it was also a pivotal point for Andrew Cooper. We can’t let that go unnoticed before we dive into “Out East.”

Coop’s still flirting with danger beyond the point that any rational human might be willing to do, but he’s also got the specter of his father peering over his shoulder like the Ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future.

Coop’s dad would have always been available to point his son in the right direction, but in the wake of his death, Coop discovered his path wasn’t what he thought at all.

So it makes perfect sense that he’s now willing to conceive that pops might have some wisdom to impart. 

Of course, we know it’s Coop’s subconscious doing the talking, but that makes it almost more interesting. 

Like everyone else around him, Coop is treading water, trying to stay afloat emotionally, financially, and every other ally you care to add.

At first, he’s just interested in getting away. What can possibly go wrong in the Hamptons, right? When a man like Ashe is the host, that’s probably the wrong question to ask.

Even Barney recognizes there may be more afoot. He’s now so paranoid about Ashe’s involvement in Nick’s Strong Ass Gym that he’s willing to believe that the weekend could be a setup. And that was before he got the bigger picture.

So what if Ashe knows they’re laundering money through Nick’s gym, though? Honestly, it seems like Ashe would embrace the idea. Is he doing anything different?

He’s under constant scrutiny. He can hardly cast stones. We already knew he was on the OFAC list, which is what makes Coop’s deal with him to invest his income so precarious.

But when you have a gathering of your closest new friends and business allies, only to be interrupted by the feds, you need to do some incredible tap dancing to assure them everything is OK.

What surprised me most about this development was that most of the guests didn’t think twice about it. Sure, a few wondered whether they should pack their bags and head home, but overall, they were more interested in how this would affect their financial arrangements with Ashe.

Nick has been dragged into this melee without his knowledge. 

Barney first used his friend to launder Coop and Elena’s money from their burglaries, so it didn’t surprise me that Barney’s guilt about that allowed him to place some blame on Ashe when Nick wondered if going through with Ashe’s $30 million investment might be problematic.

Yet Nick had no intention of backing out. He’s seeing his future playing out before his eyes. With his legacy as his focal point, even the FBI breathing down his neck doesn’t dissuade him.

And Ashe was in top form, offering the best of everything to his new “friends,” from $25k bottles of booze to showing his manliness by shooting deer dead on the beach.

That was difficult to take, and even if I hadn’t just lost my husband to gun violence, I would have been thrown by the callousness he used in taking down that deer.

Did Ashe even see Sam sitting so close? She was taking in the majesty of the beast when his life was taken in an instant. It’s hardly the romantic setting she was envisioning.

But it did make her wonder just how dangerous this guy is. As she’s said multiple times, her track record with men is abhorrent.

The one man who wasn’t a problem — Coop — was her best friend’s ex and found himself in varying degrees of hot water since his divorce. She even framed him for murder when her back was against the wall.

Still, I like that they care enough for each other to stay friends and for Coop to admit that, yes, she is probably making a mistake by dating Ashe. 

Hopefully, it’s not too late for her to back out. She needs to stop doing things like snooping through his desk. He’s dark enough for the federal government to have him on its radar. Who knows what else he is capable of?

Yet Coop, with what he does know about the man, still doesn’t push back as hard as you’d expect when Ashe offers him a five percent cut of the entire business to get inside of it. 

Yes, Ashe is blackmailing Coop, but Coop has a lot of knowledge up his sleeve, too. They are working well toward having a relationship that assures mutual destruction, not one man for himself.

But while Ashe has people in his employ who do his bidding, Coop has genuine friends. In the world of entertainment, particularly on a show like Your Friends & Neighbors, I think friends trump employees every time.

Coop also has his image of his dad living rent-free in his mind now, and I wouldn’t count him out, either. 

And even though nothing happened in the Hamptons to lend credence to Barney’s concern that the entire weekend could have been a setup, it wasn’t because that wasn’t the intention.

The women in Coop’s life are also spiraling out of control. 

Mel is breaking my heart. She’s alone, unemployed, estranged from her daughter, and suffering through perimenopause — the demented cherry on top of her melting sundae.

She’s reaching out to people around her, but she’s not being as honest about what’s going on as she should be. She’s a psychotherapist who needs a psychotherapist.

Ali is also in the midst of challenging times. She’s working hard to prove to her family that she can stand on her own two feet with respectable employment, but she has also just lost her dad.

As Coop told Hunter, it’s a lot bigger deal than you imagine it will be. We like to imagine we’ve got the fortitude to withstand what life throws at us, but it’s not that simple.

During Your Friends & Neighbors Season 1, Ali fell to pieces when an ex walked back into her life. What she’s experiencing now is more permanent.

So I’ll give her and Mel a break for getting wasted and dumping the porta-potty over in the neighbor’s lawn. Kids will be kids, right? Even adults can be kids sometimes.

But Mel already had an issue with the neighbors, and instead of holding her hand and guiding her through it, Ali pushed Mel into a terrible spot. A stinky, terrible spot. 

When Mel said they’d done enough, Ali pushed through. She was the real culprit; Mel just fell flat in the waste, leaving her to take the blame.

At the same time, Tori is on the cusp of adulthood, pushing back against expectations. 

I had a DUI in my youth, so I can’t cast stones. We do dumb things, and thank our lucky stars we survive it. No lives lost, and lessons learned, and all that. 

She literally WAS just moving her car. But she was also impaired enough that she crashed the car. I don’t know what her option was at that point, but it landed her in the cell right next to her mom. 

What a lovely moment that was. Two drunk Coopers, one smelling like excrement, while Coop was in the Hamptons.

So, if Ashe had anything planned, he didn’t have the time to act on it. Coop left the Hamptons with Grace, who had already read him the riot act for once again getting her husband into hot water.

I appreciated their near miss with a deer, proving that Ashe was right about the dangers of deer multiplying unfettered. They do cause accidents, and they do carry ticks that transport Lyme disease, among other things.

That full circle moment met the mark.

At least the Cooper women are not alone in their descent. Mel’s read on Coop was perfect. He’s no different than any of them, but his charm and sheer salesmanship give the impression he’s got it together.

For now, we have to wait for Your Friends & Neighbors Season 2 Episode 8 to see what else the cards hold. One thing is clear. Ron Cooper’s death was a turning point. But where the wheel takes us? The destination is unknown.

Other Neighborhood Rumblings:

• Does anyone else think a lot of the teen actors look too similar? When Tori was at the party, I thought she was talking to Hunter on the couch. But he was in the Hamptons.
• Is Elena’s story adding up to something? She continues to feel like a dangling thread. Will her need for money send her over the edge?

• As much as I love modern architecture, I hate what Ashe did to that lovely beach house.
• Is it just me, or would you panic if you were hiding deep, dark secrets and high AF? I get mouthy when I am inebriated. Have no idea how I’d react on MDMA, but I never want to find out — especially if I’m drugged without my consent!
• Is someone stalking Coop? Who almost ran him down in the street?

That’s all from me for now. I’ll have some interviews coming up with Mark Tallman and Lena Hall, so stick around!