Apple TV+ series finally identifies the corpse—and serves up drug binges, flaming checks, and friendship on the edge.
Episode 5 of Jonathan Tropper’s suburban satire arrives with the wry title “This Tourist Has Balls,” and by the final frame viewers know exactly why.
The much-teased Your Friends & Neighbors twist—the identity of the body Andrew “Coop” Cooper literally wakes up beside in the series premiere—is revealed at last, and the payoff is both logical and sinister.
Yet the dead man is only one domino in an hour that yanks every main character deeper into moral free-fall. If you thought the gated-community dream couldn’t decay further, think again.
The corpse is… Paul Levitt—perfectly expendable, perfectly damning
For four episodes Tropper dangled the question: Who dies? The answer lands with grim inevitability. The victim is Paul Levitt, spiteful ex-husband of Coop’s not-quite-girlfriend Sam.
Choosing Paul for the big Your Friends & Neighbors twist accomplishes three feats at once:
- Zero sympathy factor. Paul’s earlier cameos painted him as selfish and verbally cruel, so audiences feel grim satisfaction rather than grief.
- Narrative freedom. Killing a tertiary player avoids axing a marquee star—no storyline scaffolding collapses, yet stakes skyrocket.
- Immediate culpability cloud. Nearly everyone has motive. Sam hates him; Coop hates what he represents; even neighborhood frenemies might benefit from erasing the jerk on the cul-de-sac.
It’s an elegantly nasty choice: minimally disruptive to casting, maximally disruptive to character psyches.
Cocaine, fake Monets, and moral blowback
The episode doesn’t linger long on the body because it’s too busy illustrating how Coop keeps courting disaster.
He and new accomplice Elena swipe a Liechtenstein painting, replace it with a forged copy, then meet eccentric art broker Christian at a neon-lit nightclub. Drinks flow. Lines of coke appear. Christian gropes Elena. Coop intervenes. In seconds their payday evaporates, and Elena rages that Coop’s cushy life blinds him to people who actually need the money.
Here the Your Friends & Neighbors twist widens: the real danger isn’t the corpse at Sam’s house; it’s Coop’s addiction to adrenaline. “Higher risk, higher yield,” he narrates, half-joking. The line is pure Tropper—funny until the moral gut-punch lands.
Hunter’s Adderall blues—the weak link
While dad snorts risk like oxygen, son Hunter spirals into cliché teen-trouble territory. He supplies classmates with prescription pills and nearly gets expelled.
The sequence feels boilerplate—a slight misstep in an episode otherwise brimming with originality. The show also overindulges in moody slow-motion shots, adding 30 seconds of atmosphere where 10 would suffice.
Barney steals the spotlight with a flaming check
The most resonant subplot belongs to Coop’s pal Barney (Hoon Lee). With house-renovation costs ballooning, Barney faces judgmental in-laws speaking Korean insults he can’t fully translate but definitely understands. When his mother-in-law hands him a pity check, Your Friends & Neighbors twist #2 ignites: Barney torches the money on the unfinished kitchen floor. Flames spread; he panics and stomps them out—symbol and slapstick in one beat.
Barney’s meltdown encapsulates the series’ thesis: suburban perfection costs more than cash; it demands self-immolation. Lee’s performance—half clown, half tragic hero—makes the episode’s thematic point clearer than any cocaine fiasco.
Why the twist matters going forward
Revealing Paul’s death doesn’t close the mystery; it detonates fresh uncertainties.
- Legal peril. Sam is the immediate suspect. Coop’s fingerprints might be everywhere.
- Elena’s leverage. She now knows Coop crosses legal lines for thrills; expect blackmail.
- Nick’s exposure. The ex-best friend firing smart-toilet infomercials could be next in the crosshairs if gossip links him to Paul’s demise.
- Viewer perception. The Your Friends & Neighbors twist reframes early scenes: Paul’s nastiness wasn’t throwaway color—it was motive preparation.
Verdict: dark comedy firing on all cylinders
Episode 5 satisfies its longest-running tease without stealing oxygen from the show’s real mission: skewering wealth worship and self-deception.
Even Hunter’s recycled teen-drug arc serves as mirror to dad’s risk addiction. And Barney’s burning check may be 2025’s most tragicomic image so far.
If Apple TV+ green-lights a second season, the series now has ample fuel: a corpse everyone wanted gone, a protagonist with cocaine-laced guilt, and a neighborhood where secrets multiply faster than luxury renovations.
One thing is clear: every time the show seems to settle, another Your Friends & Neighbors twist lurks—ready to prove suburbia’s veneer is flimsier than one might think.
Your Friends & Neighbors streams Fridays on Apple TV+.
