Apple TV+ ‘Your Friends & Neighbors’ Episode 6 Review - A Tidy Mess of Secrets and Regrets

By episode six, “Your Friends & Neighbours” has comfortably shed the idea that any of its characters are in control of their own lives. “The Things You Lost Along the Way” takes that theme and runs with it, wrapping it in a brisk 30-something minutes of chaotic negotiation, uncomfortable silences, and one art deal gone very, very wrong. It’s a solid episode in the series, but not the kind you rewatch for pleasure — more like the kind that gives you a mild headache but in a good way.

Coop, played with perfectly unpolished smugness by Jon Hamm, is having the kind of week that makes you want to drop your phone into a lake and start fresh in a country with no extradition treaties. After discovering his ex-wife Mel has sold their house — without looping him in — and that his son Hunter has been suspended from school for recording a teacher having a nervous breakdown, Coop does what any barely-held-together father would do: he doubles down on a crime he doesn’t quite know how to commit.

The heart of the episode beats inside an upscale art gallery where Coop and Elena (Aimee Carrero, holding her own with a mix of street smarts and subtle unease) try to fence a stolen Roy Lichtenstein painting. The buyer, Christian, is predictably slimy in that charmingly insufferable way TV art dealers always are. What starts as a tense negotiation quickly veers into dangerous territory when Christian makes an aggressive pass at Elena. Coop, for all his selfish instincts, doesn’t hesitate to step in. The fallout is messy, loud, and mostly unresolved — which is kind of the show's thing.

The writing here, as in earlier episodes, is sharp but doesn’t draw too much attention to itself. There are no grand monologues or over-stylized moments, just uncomfortable truths passed like hot potatoes between people who used to be emotionally fluent and now barely speak the same language. There’s a constant undertow of anxiety, but it’s the kind that comes with too much money and too little meaning — it lingers rather than explodes.

One of the episode’s stronger choices is how it lets the characters simmer rather than scream. Elena, in particular, doesn’t fall into any predictable post-trauma spiral. She’s visibly shaken, but she’s also calculating, aware of what this means for their future, and not about to let Coop pretend this was just a bump in their grand heist plan. Her quiet anger contrasts with Coop’s usual blend of panic and smugness. The two actors bounce well off each other, never slipping into cliché, even when the story teeters close to it.

That said, the episode does spread itself a bit thin. The subplot about Hunter’s suspension and the mystery around what exactly the kid is going through feels more like a set-up for a future episode than a meaningful beat in this one. Similarly, Mel’s decision to sell their house — supposedly a huge emotional blow for Coop — is introduced with such little fanfare that it ends up feeling like background noise. These plot points are interesting, but they don’t land with the weight they deserve. It’s as if the writers know where they’re going, but haven’t quite found the best route to get there.

Visually, the episode is still doing that Apple TV+ thing where everything looks a little too clean. Even the backroom of the art gallery looks like it was curated by a Scandinavian minimalist. There’s a missed opportunity here — for a show about emotional and moral messes, it could do with a bit more actual mess. The cinematography is elegant but distant, which sometimes undercuts the emotional stakes.

But to be fair, the episode knows how to keep you watching. The pacing is tight, the stakes feel real even when the situations are a little surreal, and the humor (dark, dry, just enough to be unsettling) cuts through the heaviness like a well-timed eye roll. There’s confidence in the show now like it knows its characters are deeply flawed and isn’t rushing to redeem them. That’s refreshing.

In all, “The Things You Lost Along the Way” is 60% satisfying and 40% frustrating — and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It fits the show’s whole vibe: lives in limbo, plans half-baked, emotions on mute. It may not be the flashiest episode, but it keeps the engine running and adds a few new cracks in the foundation. If nothing else, it gives us more reason to believe this ship is sinking, and we’re weirdly enjoying watching it go down.

Final Score- [6/10]