Diksha Sundriyal
FX’s ‘Adults’ Season 2 follows the five friends and housemates in Queens, New York, as they embark on another messy and exciting chapter of their lives. The first season focused on establishing the complex equations between them, showing the audience who they are and what they want with their lives. The second season turns up the chaos and messiness, especially as hidden feelings surface and hard decisions have to be made. At the end of the day, the adults remain steadfast in their deep love and friendship for one another, which drives most of their actions. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Adults Season 2 Recap
Samir, Billie, Issa, Anton, and Paul Baker are back in Queens, and there are new adventures and challenges for them. The season begins with the revelation that Paul Baker has a second friend group he keeps a secret from his flatmates. As his two friend groups merge, he prepares for the fallout. Meanwhile, Billie’s quest to scrub an offensive picture on social media leads her down an unexpected path. The next episode features another unhinged journey for Billie as she tries to connect with the person who currently has the fake ID she had in school and passed down to her juniors. Samir decides to do the same, but his journey goes down a very different path.
The third episode brings Anton’s sister, Talia, into the picture and focuses on his desire to become the father of his sister and her partner’s child. At the halfway mark, the group decides to drop acid together, but before the drug takes effect, they have to get a raccoon out of their house. In between this, Issa and Paul Baker decide to talk to each other about the rut they seem to have hit in their relationship. Thanks to Samir and Billie’s unnecessary intervention, the couple ends up breaking up. This leads to the events of the next episode, in which a room swap occurs. Issa and Billie are bunched together, while Samir and Paul Baker share a room, leaving Anton with a room of his own.
Initially, Issa, Billie, Samir, and Paul Baker are excited about the idea of having new roommates, but it soon turns out that they’d jumped to conclusions a bit too quickly. Things also take a turn for Samir and Carly’s relationship. For the most part, Samir seems to be settling into the role of being a good boyfriend. But then, Carly has a change of heart, and she decides that this is the time for her to drop her pursuit of being a dentist and follow her dream of being a pop star. This seems to be a result of Anton’s unmitigated and unrealistic encouragement of everyone’s dreams, which border on delusion. When the group comes out of this pickle, Anton stands to lose a job after he drops the c-word at his workplace. However, the real shakeup happens in the final episode.
Does Paul Baker Lose the Election? How?
The final episode focuses on the local elections, with Paul Baker not only standing up as a viable candidate but also seemingly having a strong chance of winning. His joining the homeowners’ association is mentioned briefly in a previous episode, and this, too, is thanks to Anton, unbeknownst to him, encouraging him to do so. Now, Paul Baker stands a chance of becoming the president of the association, but to do so, he has to beat the longtime president, Mr. Adler. He is an old man who doesn’t seem too aggressive in his campaign, unlike Paul Baker and his friends. Eventually, the tide seems to be turning towards Paul Baker’s favor, and for once, it looks like he will win, even if by a close margin.
It seems that Mr. Adler’s daughter, Nina, has clocked this too, which is why she makes it clear to Billie that Paul Baker needs to lose. Or she will report them for breaking the rules and for having five people living together in a house that should have at most three people. If that happens, not only will they be forced to leave the house, but the entire building will be torn down. As great as it would be to have Paul Baker win the election, Billie and the others know that having the house intact is more important. So, just as aggressively as they pursued a win, they go after losing. One by one, they convince the voters who were on Paul Baker’s side to turn. Eventually, it comes down to a single vote: Mr. Lee’s. Paul Baker is on great terms with the old man, which means his vote is all but confirmed.
Still, they try to convince him otherwise, only to discover that the reason Mr. Lee will vote for Paul Baker is not that he likes the guy, but because he hates Mr. Adler. It turns out Lee and Adler were best friends until Adler slept with Lee’s wife. With this revelation, Paul Baker seems primed for the win. However, the tide turns when Anton and Issa have a conversation they think is happening in secret, only for it to be broadcast to every screen in the neighborhood. As they discuss their dynamic with Paul Baker, Mr. Lee realizes that his friendship with Mr. Adler is more important than the betrayal. So, he changes his mind in the last minute and casts the winning vote for his long-time friend. With that, Mr. Adler once again becomes the president, while Paul Baker happily loses.
Do Paul Baker and Anton Get Together?
Mr. Lee changes his mind about the vote because of the conversation between Anton and Issa. In the Season 1 finale, Anton marries Paul Baker so that the latter can obtain a green card and remain in the US. The group treats it as a joke, and when they ask the newly married couple to kiss, it turns out to be much more passionate than expected. Issa realizes that her boyfriend and best friend have feelings for each other. But instead of addressing it immediately, she decides to ignore it, thinking that it might pass. But that doesn’t happen. Their fake marriage brings Paul Baker and Anton together in different ways, and every small interaction between them confirms that their feelings are not going to go away so easily.
Still, this does not mean that Paul Baker doesn’t love Issa. If anything, their relationship reaches a point where they start to feel like an old married couple. Eventually, however, they both are forced to accept that the passion they once shared is now gone. Their breakup doesn’t prompt Anton to be immediately honest about his feelings. In fact, it isn’t until Issa confronts him that he accepts what he feels for Paul Baker. During the election, they go to the library to turn the votes against their friend, only to end up, unbeknownst to them, next to the microphone, where they talk about the connection between Anton and Paul Baker. Anton had been hesitant to reveal his feelings because he didn’t want Issa to feel betrayed by him.
However, she tells him that their friendship is above any love triangle drama. She, too, confesses that she had had her doubts about them ever since they got married, but she remained in denial for a long time. In any case, her and Paul Baker’s relationship came to its natural conclusion, and it only makes sense that Anton should confess his feelings to his legal husband now. Excited by her approval, Anton rushes back to the house to tell Paul Baker he loves him. He and Issa have no idea that the entire neighborhood, including Paul Baker, has heard their entire conversation. So, by the time Anton comes back home, Paul Baker is also giddy with excitement about confessing his feelings. In the end, they kiss, confirming their status as a romantic couple.
Do Billie and Samir Get Together?
While Issa, Paul Baker, and Anton’s love triangle takes center stage in the second season of ‘Adults,’ they are not the only ones in the friend group who harbor secret feelings for one another. Samir and Billie have also been skirting the edges of their platonic dynamic for a while now. In Season 1, they are introduced as best friends who have known each other since childhood. This makes them privy to each other’s darkest secrets and weirdest personalities. They also deeply care about each other, and there is a hint of jealousy even as each pursues a relationship with someone else. Still, their interactions remain limited to light flirtations that go nowhere. In the second season, Samir is fully committed to Carly, while Billie has her own sexual adventures.
However, it is when Samir decides to move out of New York that things get a bit more complicated. At this point, Carly has gotten into a college in Seattle, and she and Samir are preparing for a long-distance relationship. However, motivated by the excitement surrounding the elections, Samir decides he is not ready to give up on what he has with Carly and declares he will move to Seattle to be with her. This comes as a shock to everyone, including Carly, with whom Samir never discussed this idea. Eventually, she leads him to accept that his life is in New York and that it wouldn’t be wise to leave everything behind and bet it all on their relationship. Thus, the only reasonable course of action is for them to break up.
Meanwhile, Billie is in a spiral of her own as she contemplates the possibility of a life without Samir in it. They have been around each other for such a long time now that his sudden decision to leave forces her to confront the feelings she has harbored for him all this time. Of course, it isn’t until later that she discovers that Samir and Carly are broken up. While the attention turns towards Anton and Paul Baker, Samir and Billie come to a realization of their own. In the last scene, as Issa and her new friend quietly pass through Samir and Paul Baker’s shared room, they hear sex noises. Issa thinks it’s Anton and Paul Baker, but when she leaves, Samir opens the door with Billie behind him. Relieved at not getting caught, they kiss each other and close the door.
This confirms that Billie and Samir have finally given in to their feelings for one another. However, it also looks like they will most likely keep their relationship a secret, at least for now. While they may have hooked up, it doesn’t mean they will immediately jump into a relationship. If anything, it will likely make things a bit awkward between them, at least until they figure out what they actually feel for one another. The next season will pick up on this complicated situation, which will either lead Samir and Billie to officially become a couple. Or it will lead them to the conclusion that they are perhaps better off as platonic friends.
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