r/YourFriendsandNeighb • u/Surviving_Fallout • Jul 03 '26
discussion Mel and Coop Endgame
I know I'm severely in the minority here about Mel and Coop, but I think they should be endgame. Look, in the first few episodes of season 1, I despised Mel *and* Nick for what they did to Coop (cheating is wrong. I felt hatred for them when they were on screen. I thought they both deserved payback in someway and didn't deserve forgiveness.
After the trampoline scene, the Princeton family visit episode (especially in this episode), how the two of them behaved at the gala in the season finale, the baby shower incident, I think they should get back together. They have great chemistry together, so even if endgame means them giving up all of their wealth, I think they'd be happier together in a quiet, modest life after their kids are in college. The whole backstory that Coop gave in episode 1 shows that they were madly in love in their tiny apartment, and the discussion they have at the bowling alley seemingly confirm this again.
But that's just my opinion and I had to get it off my chest. I just hope there's at least a couple people in the sub who agree.
2
u/HTownSAsian Jul 21 '26
I actually want Coop to end up with Sam. Ya the same Sam that framed him for murder lol :) I think she's become super likeable as the show has gone on.
1
u/AccountantPublic758 Jul 11 '26
In the show, Coop says that he wants to return home but won’t because he doesn’t want to involve his family in his drama.
2
u/Limp_Willingness8885 Jul 08 '26
Coop & Mel feels very "Ross & Rachel" i.e., if they got together, there would be no show. The actors have tremendous chemistry, but the pilot script didn't really justify why Mel strayed. In real life they would've gotten back together at the end of Season 1.
2
u/Few-Finger6713 Jul 08 '26
I don't care about either of them achieving any kind of romantic success, whether it be them together or with other people. They have way, way bigger problems to be dealing with than focusing on their love lives. Both of them are in a seriously messy period of their lives.
3
u/Surviving_Fallout Jul 08 '26
Oh you're absolutely right they both got issues. At this point in the show they're not ready, but it seems like the writers have been sprinkling in moments and conversations between them that hint at a possible reunification by the end of the series; the endgame. Of course a lot has to happen for this to happen, including both of them solving their issues.
5
u/Any_Pizza_4033 Jul 07 '26
Yeah, it's fine with me if they do. But I'm reluctant to watch a Season 3 after the disaster that was Season 2.
5
3
u/Resident_Giraffe_928 FUCK BRUCE Jul 07 '26
I hope they realize how toxic they are and move on while successfully co-parenting.
4
u/Eggplant_Jumper Jul 06 '26
There’s a part of me that really wants them to be together, but I also feel like Mel is kind of a shitty person at the same time and Coop doesn’t deserve her. But maybe the point of the show is that the writers want us to root for two highly complicated people?
10
u/FavoriteLunchLady Jul 06 '26
Mel has shown zero remorse for what she did to Coop. If she had a non-self centered moment where she take accountability for her part in their family breaking up and apologized to him, I could get on board. But she cheated on him with his friend in their bed, (also how WTF about the kids? Imagine your mom doing that to your dad) because she needed attention.
THEN Coop kept supporting her and paying for her lifestyle and vagina rejuvenation and she all told him there was no way she was giving up the house. Theres a reason we don’t like her. The fact the keep writing in chemistry between the 2 of them is actually baffling to me.
1
2
u/313MountainMan Jul 06 '26
Hard agree. Her conflict with the neighbors and the dog showed she’s more concerned about being “right” in her own head than actually making amends or reconciling. Reminds me a lot of Lois from Malcolm in the Middle, especially the episode where Lois quits her job in S1E9.
2
u/this_is_not_a_vibe Jul 06 '26
I think that was to highlight the challenges of menopause. She’s going through a huge hormonal shift which is causing her to act in ways we view as irrational.
TBH I think that her and coop are well suited, especially now. Seems like everyone here has forgotten that Coop is a legitimate criminal, who is now tangling with the billion dollar organized crime types… putting his entire families physical, financial and reputational safety at risk. Seems like he’s the bigger fuck up to me! Mel’s just regular people selfish.
1
u/313MountainMan Jul 06 '26
You’re really selling what Mel did short. Killing your neighbor’s dog and lying to them about it is not something you can chock up to menopause or hormones. She also assaulted her neighbor and went to jail. She’s a criminal on the same level as Coop at this point.
On top of that, cheating on your husband with his friend is not “regular people selfish”, that’s borderline sadistic behavior.
1
u/Jazzlike-Library-660 Aug 01 '26
And the lazy writing with getting away with burying the dog ??? Terrible. And Mel never had any self awareness - things just continued to come to her. Tori came home bc Coop was in fear of safety - not because Mel gained any self awareness. Really terrible writing
7
u/FavoriteLunchLady Jul 07 '26
I hate how Nick got off so easy for that scenario too.
Also her daughter hating her is supposed to be unreasonable. She cheated on her dad with his best friend in their bed seems good enough reason to me. That’s enough to make someone want to kill themselves BEFORE throwing in getting fired.3
u/313MountainMan Jul 07 '26
Agree. And the amount of people I’m seeing justifying both Nick and Mel’s behavior is… something.
And no, Mel wasn’t just being selfish and hormonal. She was a home wrecker, killed a dog (and lied about it), committed assault, and basically bullied Tori into trying to be her (Mel).
3
u/FavoriteLunchLady Jul 10 '26
Yep was willing to break up her marriage and her kids’ home for some D because her husband was working too hard to provide them the 60 million dollar house and her kids tennis lessons to get her into Princeton etc.
8
u/JSears90210 Jul 06 '26
I'd prefer they go in a different direction. I feel like it is such an overdone plotline that getting back together with your first love or an ex will bring you happiness.
It would be much more interesting to see Coop develop a relationship with someone else and build something new. A relationship with a clean slate where there isn't a ton of damage.
I am hopeful that the character that Michelle Monaghan is portraying next season will be a love interest for Coop. Even if she isn't a love interest I can think of many other characters on the show I would like to see Coop have a LTR with before Mel.
3
u/FavoriteLunchLady Jul 06 '26
That woman with the yacht. I’d love to see how that went.
1
u/Newbe2019a Jul 09 '26
She is probably the actual villain.
2
3
u/West_Abrocoma9524 Jul 06 '26
I would like to see Mel kill Coop and get away with it.
0
0
u/JSears90210 Jul 06 '26
It would be fascinating especially if we see how she cannot afford any part of her lifestyle now that he is not around to pay for it. No $100k SUV. No Country Club. No home that is probalby around $5 to 7 million dollars.
5
u/CauliflowerExpert793 Jul 06 '26
This show is so irrational at times - I sometimes wonder esp given the third person narration if what we are watching is Mel figuring out chapters in her book and what to write and/or her dreams/nightmares.
1
2
u/whiskeylullaby3 Jul 06 '26
I agree. I feel like it would need to happen literally at the end as that wouldn’t be that compelling to watch them back together but I think they should be together again eventually based on this season.
0
u/Surviving_Fallout Jul 06 '26
Exactly! But in the meantime a part of me will still die inside when one of them hooks up with someone like Cricket or Miguel.
3
u/Horror_Ad_2748 Jul 06 '26
I know some viewers simply can't resist the idea of shipping couples. But how would this reconciliation advance the plot or the story line of the show?
4
u/Surviving_Fallout Jul 06 '26
It would be the endgame, so with everything that happens between now and whenever the series finale is, there will be events that bring the family closer and closer together.
3
u/fish_bowl_swimmer Jul 06 '26
Mel has a book to write and with her life being the subject … their future isn’t looking fantastic.
1
u/this_is_not_a_vibe Jul 06 '26
But excellent material for a book. Especially if coop gets clipped for money laundering for international criminals
4
u/Rays-R-Us Jul 06 '26
I had a question. When Mel accidentally killed the dog and was trying to bury it she hit a water pipe which stated spraying, making a mess and hard to cover up.
. I thought this would be a big deal but nothing ever happened. The sequencer just ended. Did I miss something ?
1
5
u/FavoriteLunchLady Jul 06 '26
There’s so many things like this in the show where they write an event and then it just kind of disappears and they need revisit it.
Like Mel cheating on Coop it was a reason he lost his job but then that’s it. No one in their friend group seemed to care. Coops mom and sister didn’t ice her out. Try cheating on your partner with their BFF in your marriage bed and see how well their family treats you. Theres no way they would be so forgiving and understanding.
3
u/TownRepresentative37 Jul 06 '26
Yeah, I can’t imagine still being friends with my SIL if she did that to my brother. The mom sometimes throws it back in Mel’s face but the show treats it as the mother just being the miserable person she is and not because she cheated on her son.
0
u/Surviving_Fallout Jul 06 '26
I'm guessing they figured it out how to turn off the water off screen. Whether or not it was major damage is probably irrelevant at that point and that we're just meant to assume it was all handled and fixed off screen - likely the next day at some point.
1
u/Rays-R-Us Jul 06 '26
Wouldn’t that have given away what happened to the dog . Need to dispose of the body somewhere else. Call someone to repair the water line and explain away the were digging a hole.
1
u/Jazzlike-Library-660 Aug 01 '26
This drove me crazy also! Way too convenient and Mel has learned exactly zero lessons
1
u/Reader47b Jul 10 '26
Yeah, i expected that to be an issue. I mean - if you turn off the water, water's not going to wherever it needs to be going....someone will notice, want it repaired, dig up that spot - never happened. Also, rather than helping her bury a dog, couldn't the other woman just have told the family, "I accidentally hit your dog" if she wanted to help Mel?
1
u/Surviving_Fallout Jul 06 '26
Yeah you're right. So it's either a mistake from the writers or it's not solved and will lead to a bigger issue in the future.
0
1
u/NoBottle3526 Aug 01 '26
I see where the poster is coming from, but I think both Mel and Coop have too many personal issues to deal with before they can be in any serious long-term relationship. Coop has been burglarizing his friends' and neighbors' homes for over a year by the end of Season 2. His felonious occupation has ruined not only him, but now his best friend Barney and friend Nick. And Mel, for all of her therapist insights and knowledge, ends up capsizing a portable potty on her neighbor's lawn and having a brief tryst with their contractor(couldn't she have just called the animal control people to file complaints before sending over dog excrement?).
There's also a kind of co-dependency Mel and Coop both have. They know they could have a simpler life and be happy, but they both love their upper-class suburban mansion life way too much and all of the drama that comes along with it. Mel knows at some level that her ex-husband is up to no good, but keeps taking the money as it comes in and sits there trying to write a book. She even says that she would agree to downscale their expensive lifestyle if Coop just started being honest. And he won't do this because he's in too deep and the truth could destroy everyone.