SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Your Friends & Neighbors Season 2, Episode 2.

Your Friends & Neighbors Season 2, Episode 2 is called “Lady Bits,” with good reason. The episode almost exclusively focuses on the troubles of the women of Westmont Village. It’s an interesting story pivot so early in the Apple TV show’s season, when fans are probably expecting more about Coop’s next great robbery idea. But never fear, the show has that base covered too.

People watching for the caper element will have to be patient, as that basically serves as bookends for this episode. The beginning is a doozy, though, as newly informed Barney argues with Coop and Elena about the financial management of their crimes. When they start discussing money laundering, it feels like a more sophisticated version of the classic scene from Office Space. Nobody breaks out a dictionary, but it’s clear nobody quite knows what they’re doing.

Most of “Lady Bits,” though, consists of different check-ins with the show’s female characters. Mel is Googling the symptoms of perimenopause and making absolutely no progress on her book. A large part of the episode follows her through what turns out to be a very bad day. It is a pleasant surprise to see Chicago PD star Arienne Mandi appear as Brienne, the neighbor whose dog romps through Mel’s yard. Then Mel and Coop try to throw a surprise party for Tori’s acceptance into Princeton University, only for Mel to be shocked that her daughter has already declined her admission. Actor Amanda Peet is asked to play Mel on a high wire through most of the episode and pulls it off wonderfully.

Elsewhere, the other stories have varying degrees of success. Olivia Munn has a fantastic moment when Samantha “Sam” Levitt has enough of her status as a neighborhood pariah, and confronts one of her now ex-friends for not inviting Sam’s son to her kid’s birthday party. All of her frustration comes pouring out, yet it’s also bittersweet because Sam has a point about punishing the child for the sins of the parent. This annoyance leads Sam to cave and accept a dinner invite from the very overeager Owen Ashe, which viewers already know won’t end well.

That’s because Episode 2 establishes that the party animal Ashe from the Your Friends & Neighbors season premiere was not a bit. He’s like this all the time. Kudos to James Marsden, who is the only person who could successfully play someone with no boundaries who seems to be hyped up on caffeine and his own ego. Ashe overdoes it with Sam, overshares with Coop (including that he once slept with his own therapist), and overplans for taking his daughter Delilah to a concert with Hunter. This man has never heard the word “moderation” in his life. In the hands of any other actor, the audience would want to backhand him with a frying pan. But it’s Marsden who gets the last laugh, as “Lady Bits” ends with Ashe confronting Coop with video of Coop robbing his new house.

This naturally escalates the stakes of Season 2 very quickly and makes up for the relative lack of scheming in the rest of the hour. Viewers have no clue how Coop is going to evade a clearly damning piece of evidence, and it’s clear from the expresssion on Jon Hamm’s face that Coop doesn’t either. But at the same time, these two are stuck with each other because of the whole Delilah and Cooper subplot developing, so this is going to be a mess. And Your Friends & Neighbors thrives in chaos. Andrew Cooper himself is a chaos agent in the immaculate Westmont Village neighborhood.

Mel briefly blames Coop for Tori’s situation, calling it a “trauma response” before walking the statement back. But is she entirely wrong? This episode showcases how much the female characters have been through, and it’s a nice choice to prioritize that early on rather than just having them come in as support to the men’s stories. Not only is Delilah properly introduced, but Ali’s story moves forward when she gets the teaching job at Mayfield, and Mel, Sam and Tori are all once again unsatisfied with where they are in life. What’s to stop one of them from going rogue like Coop—maybe not in the thieving way, but somehow? After all, Sam’s already framed someone for murder.

“Lady Bits” isn’t plot-heavy, but that doesn’t seem to be the point. It’s more of a series of opportunities for the women of Your Friends & Neighbors to have their say, both literally in some cases and in the sense of providing a clear idea where their stories are going. And for anyone who comes to the show for the sneaking around and the pithy valuations, the last few minutes of the episode more than provide enough plot (plus some education on the history of Edith Wharton). Your Friends & Neighbors may be taking a slightly less focused approach this season, but it still knows how to hit the spot.

Your Friends & Neighbors streams Fridays on Apple TV. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Apple TV.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.