In episode 9 of Your Friends & Neighbors Season 2, the kidnappers let go of Coop after demanding that he leave the money in the Excelsior account untouched. Mel was about to confess to Brienne and Clay that she was the one who had killed Arlo, but since Coop arrived to drop off Hunter and Tori, she belayed that decision. While these 3 were safe, Coop had no idea where Ali was. So, he asked Sam to pull some strings in the real estate market and unearth her location; Sam agreed to help him out. Barney underwent a vasectomy to avoid any more accidental pregnancies. At the baby shower of Barney and Grace’s child, Coop confronted Ashe about the kidnapping, because he was certain that Ashe was behind it. Ashe confirmed that he had nothing to do with the kidnapping, and since Coop suspected DeMille of wrongdoing, Ashe assured Coop that he’d question DeMille about it. Ashe and Sam got into a tiff, because he kept doing grand gestures of love (to make up for the FBI raid) while all Sam wanted was some space. Elsewhere in the baby shower, Coop and Mel got frisky and ran into Gordy and Diane having an extramarital affair in the bathroom. Since Mel’s carnal affair with Coop was left incomplete, she went home and satiated her desires by getting it on with Miguel after his job to complete the wall between Mel and Brienne’s houses was canceled. Meanwhile, Coop went to Lu to get the money for the vintage baseball card he had stolen from Gordy, but Lu said that that was gonna take some time, which meant that Elena would have to wait for payday. In addition to that, Lu advised Coop to take a stand against Ashe if he really thought he was a threat to him; which he did by informing Jack about the dubiousness of Ashe’s money. Jack agreed to return Ashe’s money and he fired Liv for not letting him know about the OFAC thing. Later that night, Coop, Barney, and Nick attended a “boys only” party at Ashe’s house. 2 revelations happened: Ashe told Nick that Barney and Coop were using his accounts to launder money and Coop told Ashe that Jack was gonna return him his money. Ashe threatened to hurt Coop and his family, which led to a physical altercation between the four men. Ashe began brandishing a gun and started chasing after Nick, Coop, and Barney. That’s when he slipped and hit his head so hard on the floor that his skull cracked, and he supposedly died. What happened next? Let’s find out.

Spoiler Alert

Sam Walks Into A “Murder” Cover-up

Episode 10 of Season 2 opens with Nick, Barney, and Coop arguing what they should do to properly deal with the situation they have found themselves in because of Ashe’s stupidity. After a lot of back and forth, they decide to wipe clean the house (including the stuff that’s been captured on the CCTV cameras) and dump Ashe’s body in the river. But when they are shifting Ashe’s body to his car (because nobody wants to put a dead body in their car), Sam shows up out of nowhere and bolts out of there. Coop goes after her to explain the situation, but Sam just wants to get away as far away as possible from the crime scene to avoid getting implicated in another death. Once Sam calms down a little, Coop manages to give her a brief recap of the events that led to Ashe’s death. Sam says that she was there to break up with him. Technically, the food and the party that Ashe had arranged was for Sam. Since Ashe thought she wouldn’t come because of their tiff, he invited the boys over. Ashe never told Sam not to come, which is why she thought he’d be free that evening to be broken up with. With Ashe dead, Sam won’t have to worry about dealing with his reaction to being kicked to the curb, but she has to deal with yet another round of questioning for dating a guy who perished under sticky circumstances. Coop thinks that that’s avoidable, because if Ashe is never found, no one will point any fingers at Sam. That said, Sam is of the opinion that if Ashe’s body is dumped in the river, one day or the other, he’ll be found. It’s better to dump him in the pool of the house that Suzanne and Maggie have bought, because once it gets filled in with concrete, nobody’s gonna find that corpse. Coop agrees that that’s a good idea, and while he and the guys start moving the body into Ashe’s car, Sam leaves, hoping never to talk about this topic ever again.

Ashe Dies A Second Time

As Coop, Barney, and Nick are driving to the aforementioned location in Ashe’s car, Ashe suddenly wakes up and starts attacking the three of them. If you are wondering why Ashe came back from the dead, it’s because he was probably just knocked out by the head injury. Barney doesn’t know how to check for a pulse, so he claimed that Ashe had died. Hence, Ashe waking up comes as a surprise to the 3 musketeers. I know the second thing you are wondering: why didn’t Nick just stop the car when Ashe started attacking? I don’t know. It seemed like Nick had a lot of time to hit the brakes, but he just kept driving. Maybe he panicked? Maybe the writers had to find a way to get the car into the river? Anyway, since Nick doesn’t know how to stop the car, he spots a deer standing in the middle of the road at the last moment. Ashe killed a deer in the Hamptons, Grace almost ran over a deer in the Hamptons (but brought the car to a halt), and Nick goes off-road and plunges the car into a lake. Nick, Coop, and Barney make it out alive, while Ashe dies. They think that this is for the best because, whenever he’s found, the authorities are gonna assume that he accidentally killed himself because he was too high. However, since Ashe is in the backseat, the guys dive into the lake to put the corpse in the driver’s seat. Once that’s done, they walk all the way to Ashe’s house and drive home. Coop, in his narration, states that when 3 people have to keep a secret, 2 of them have to die. Is this foreshadowing for Barney and Nick’s deaths? Only time will tell.

Sam Is Moving Out Of Westmont

The episode moves forward by 2 weeks, and we see the men of Westmont Village in the sauna discussing the circumstances of Ashe’s odd disappearance, his lifestyle, and that FBI raid. While Coop and Barney deal with the situation as normally as possible, Nick wigs out and leaves the sauna. Hari assumes that Nick is upset because Ashe was supposed to invest in his gym, and with him gone, he’s probably worried about his financial situation. Barney goes along with it so that nobody starts suspecting that Nick (or Barney and Coop) is involved in Ashe’s death or disappearance. Coop meets up with Delilah to seemingly help her process her feelings. Delilah was very apathetic towards Ashe, but now that he is gone, and there’s so much mystery around his disappearance, she thinks she misses him. Before they chat more about complicated parent-child dynamics, Delilah’s ride arrives and, after bidding the Coopers farewell, she jets off to live with her aunt. Coop takes off to meet Sam, and he is lowkey shocked to learn that she is selling her house and moving. Coop assumes it’s because of Ashe’s death, but we know that she was already planning to move after the FBI raid and Ashe essentially breaking into her house to get his chefs to cook a meal for her and her family. Coop urges Sam to stay because, in his opinion, the worst is behind her. But Sam thinks that she has had enough of Westmont and it’s time to move on. Coop realizes that she can’t be talked out of this move. So, once Sam gives him Ali’s (possible) address, Coop leaves. 

Nick Has Started To Spiral Out

Coop goes home and transfers Ashe’s $600 million back to his estate. He says that he’s gonna transfer the initial $400 million too, as soon as Jack has gotten someone to put $400 million into the Excelsior account. Coop assumes that all this is gonna redeem him in some way, but we all know that that’s not how redemption works in real life, especially when someone can make money off of your criminal escapades. Yeah, Mel goes to meet her publisher, who isn’t all that impressed by her musings about menopause, and she wants Mel to talk about everything that happened at Westmont in Season 1. Mel is understandably taken aback by this suggestion, because that means she’ll be jeopardizing her relationship with Coop, Sam, and everyone else around her. The publisher isn’t wrong about true crime dramas (or fictional crime dramas that are allegedly based on true stories) being all the hype, but is the success that’s gonna come with jumping on the bandwagon worth it for Mel? We’ll learn in a bit. Going back to Coop, he and Barney are seen at Nick’s house talking to him about his accounts, urging him to give them access to them, because they desperately need the money which is stored there. Nick refuses to do so, because he believes that either Ashe’s people or the authorities are closely monitoring his money, and if he moves it, they are gonna connect Ashe’s disappearance to him and send him to jail. I feel like Nick is merely using that excuse to keep that money for himself because, with Ashe gone, he needs the financial backing. Sure, that money belongs to Coop, Barney, and Elena, but it’s not like it’s got their names written on it. It’s clean money, and if he decides to keep it, Coop, Barney, or Elena can do nothing about it. How the 3 of them will react if they sense Nick is betraying them is something that remains to be seen. Anyway, Nick takes off to have a shower and refuses to have dinner with Coop and Barney. While they are processing the fact that Nick is possibly turning against them, Elena shows up asking for her money. She sounds desperate, but Coop and Barney’s hands are tied; so, Elena walks away from them in a huff.

Coop Reunites With Ali

Coop is suffering from insomnia, because he keeps imagining Ashe emerging from that lake like Jason from Friday the 13th. So, he goes to meet Ali in her new home. Ali isn’t stoked about the fact that Coop has managed to discover her address, but since he’s there, she welcomes him in. Ali assumes that Coop wants to talk about her departure from his house, Ron’s death, or whatever’s happened in the last few weeks. Coop initially refuses to talk, but then he gives in and starts yapping about how he has managed to mess up his life every time he has achieved some form of stability. Ali says something about how it’s time for Coop to “face the strange,” which basically means that Coop has lived a conventional life for a long time, and now the pendulum is gonna swing the other way, thereby forcing him into unconventional situations. This process probably started after his divorce with Mel, and it’s gonna take a long time before the pendulum swings back to the “conventional” side. In the meantime, no matter how many times Coop tries to keep things normal, it’s not gonna work. All he can do is learn to be a better person. Once Ali’s speech is over, Coop asks if he can crash at her place for the night, and Ali says that he can.

Nick Officially Has A Falling Out With Coop And Barney

When the sun shines on a new day, Coop goes off to the club to celebrate Father’s Day with the rest of Westmont. Gordy corners him there, and it seems like he’s gonna talk to him about the stolen vintage baseball card theft, but it turns out he just wants to confess about his affair with Diane. Coop advises Gordy to divorce Lisa if he’s so unhappy in that marriage, but suggests that he not indulge anymore in that extramarital affair with Diane, because it’s going to snowball into something that he is not ready to handle. Gordy doesn’t like this advice, however, since he asked for it, he has no choice but to listen to Coop’s warnings. Coop spots Barney and goes to meet him while Gordy has an existential crisis. What does Barney want? Well, he worried about Nick, who seems to be drinking himself to death. Coop tells Barney to talk to him and assuage any and all fears he has. Barney hesitates, but he goes to strike a conversation with Nick anyway. In a matter of seconds, Nick absolutely spirals out of control and he fires Barney. Coop is busy talking to Tori, who feels like she has been exiled because of the DUI case against her, so it takes him a bit of time to register that Barney and Nick’s “conversation” has turned into a scuffle. Coop tries to stop them from making a scene, but Nick slams him and Barney into a table and walks away. After regaining their bearings, Barney prepares to go home, but that’s when he is confronted by Grace. She feels that he has been lying to him all this while, and she doesn’t want him to stay with her and their kids anymore. And on that note, Grace drives off, stranding Barney at the club. Back at Nick’s house, Felix and his men arrive to rob the place. He whacks Elena across the face to make it look like she didn’t play a part in it. Even though that punch looks painful, Elena is now more than even with Felix (because he has stolen more than she owed him), and she won’t need to worry about being pestered by him anymore. 

DeMille Insinuates Cricket Was Behind Coop’s Abduction

Coop takes his family to the bowling alley where Ron used to go, so they can calm their nerves after the Nick fiasco. All of them seem to be enjoying this trip more than the Father’s Day party, that’s for sure. While the kids are bowling, Coop and Mel have a conversation about downsizing because he thinks that if they have less things, their problems will be smaller (I think this was something he said in the first season as well). Mel says that she doesn’t have any regrets about everything they’ve faced. They’ve swung for the fences and borne the consequences of being ambitious. That said, Mel says that she is willing to “scale back” on every avenue if Coop starts telling her the truth. Since Coop can’t do that, the conversation about reducing their assets comes to an end. At the same time, Coop gets a text from DeMille, who is waiting outside the bowling alley to give him the pen drive with the video of him performing theft at Ashe’s house. DeMille hasn’t heard anything about Ashe yet, but he seems to be aware that he isn’t “coming back.” DeMille says that he’s gonna wire back some of the money that Coop has transferred to Ashe’s account, because it’s not all Ashe’s money. Coop knows that if he takes that money, he’s gonna become DeMile’s slave. So, he refuses to take it. In addition to that, he brings up the abduction, which Coop is sure was done by DeMille. But DeMille insinuates that Cricket was the one responsible, which makes sense, because that money being in the Excelsior account is important to her.

A Fisherman Finds Ashe’s Body 

As Coop contemplates Cricket’s involvement in his abduction, DeMille walks away, saying that, eventually, Coop is gonna realize that DeMille is his only friend in this situation. Mel watches this interaction from afar, grows worried, and then starts writing a new book, supposedly chronicling the events of Season 1, because she feels that Coop won’t be able to support her and her children in the foreseeable future; hence, she needs to secure that bag. After that, we see snippets of Coop welcoming Barney into his house, Sam still thinking about moving out of Westmont, Elena talking to the police about the robbery, and Jack seeing that his stolen Francis Bacon painting has returned (that’s probably Coop’s work, as compensation for taking a hit because of his bad decisions). In the ending of Season 2, we get a scene where a random fisherman goes fishing and struggles to pull out whatever he has caught with his fishing rod, which means that he’s gonna be the reason why the authorities are gonna find Ashe’s body. The third season of Your Friends & Neighbors has already been greenlit, and it’s possible that that season is gonna focus on a manhunt for Ashe’s “killer.” How long will Coop and Barney manage to keep Nick from blabbering about their involvement in his death is something that remains to be seen.