In the opening of Episode 2 of Your Friends & Neighbors season 2, Coop finds himself reflecting on the unexpected perks of being a thief. For the first time in his life, he is plagued with more empty hours than he knows what to do with. The quiet is a strange and unfamiliar state for him. Despite this, he still doesn't feel like he's in control of his life. However, with the arrival of Barney, a fresh blood in the act, things are about to take an intriguing turn.
Coop brings Barney up to speed on his operation with Elena, discussing how their merchandise is moved through his "fencer" and taking items that those who are robbed won't miss. Barney, however, believes they need to scale the operation, hit harder, and be more savvy about what they're doing. Coop explains that he has his money moved into a few small accounts at different banks. Given how fragile their "business" is, Barney knows they need to launder the money in a safer way due to the obvious paper trail he's leaving.
Barney suggests converting the cash to crypto, then tumbling it between wallets and generating fake invoices to create legit income. However, Elena is not happy and walks away. Barney knows that Coop is his biggest client, so he's going all-in on this as his "business consultant."
While this is going on, Mel suffers from symptoms of perimenopause and has a less than pleasant week when the neighbor's dog, Arlo, keeps defecating in her yard. Meanwhile, Owen Ashe shows up at Sam's place with a bouquet of flowers as a way of saying thank you. She doesn't want to date him, but given her brutal honesty and desire to say it how it is, that only makes him like her more.
It doesn't take long for Sam to cave in and accept Hunter's dinner invitation. While lounging by the pool, Hunter makes a new friend named Delilah, who, interestingly, is actually Owen Ashe's daughter. When Coop shows up for his big tennis session with Tori, she convinces him to hang out with her and sunbathe instead. And he does.
Things get interesting when Ashe and Coop meet again at breakfast. Ashe knows that Coop is a complicated man, and there's more to him than meets the eye. The two start talking about women, and Ashe even encourages Coop to hit the town with him sometime.
Later on, Barney introduces Coop to Brett Sutter properly. They talk in Sutter's apartment, where Sutter explains that Barney will serve as the courier and deposit the money to him. Sutter will use "mixers and bridges" to obscure the origin of the money. He'll be sending invoices from the LLC Coop has set up for consulting, followed by Sutter remitting taxable payments to his company.
Sutter's commission is a hard bargain at 25%, but just before they properly deal, Coop notices that Sutter is actually wearing an ankle monitor and clearly being watched by the cops. Barney realizes he may have made a mistake and decides to work on sorting something else out.
Daisy's birthday party goes ahead in the neighborhood, but there's drama when it turns out everyone has been invited... minus Henry, Sam's son. When Sam finds out, she's pissed off. Maggie follows her out and explains it's a "complicated situation," but Sam is more annoyed that her son is being forced to suffer here.
After school, Tori was livid when the family threw her a surprise celebration for getting into Princeton. She hadn't actually told anyone about her acceptance, but Mel decided to hack into her computer and found the email. She did all of this to surprise her... but Tori had already declined the offer. She's decided to do her own thing instead. Tori explains that she doesn't want to follow the same path as her parents, but she's unclear on the direction of her life. Mel eventually asks if Tori is pregnant, and then pulls her down the stairs. Unfortunately, everything becomes more awkward when Ali brings up that she's got the job at Mayfield to cut the tension. Everyone is happy for her, but Coop is concerned, given his initial issues with this before.
When Tori heads off to get some air, Mel turns to Coop, takes no responsibility for her actions and blames him for Tori's behavior. She thinks this is a trauma response to the "mess he got them into." To be fair, Mel does apologize and explains that she's spinning out of control. Given how much time Coop has had to think things over lately, he decides they should really give her some space to figure things out.
At this point, Hunter heads out for the night with Delilah, given that she earlier invited him to hang out and go to a concert. Ashe shows up in his limo to pick the kid up. With things a bit of a mess right now, Coop's dad offers some words of encouragement to Coop, explaining that as a parent, he can't protect his kids the way he may want to. Coop needs to learn how to keep his kids close while also letting them go, staying on the sidelines for when Tori needs her. It's actually really good advice, and something Mel decides not to listen to. She heads out into the yard to see Tori, where she ends up stepping in dog poo again.
That night, Coop steps up his game and decides to hit Ashe's pad. Ashe has no staff right now and he doesn't have a security system installed either, so it seems like the perfect time to steal something. Coop goes right for a high-profile book from Edith Wharton on the shelf, and seems to be in the clear. Now, Barney may have found a solution to their logistics problem too, and that comes from Nick's gym business. When Coop heads back to his office, he finds Ashe sitting in his seat. He's got video evidence of Coop taking the book off the shelf.
