Every Suspect In Paul’s Murder In Your Friends & Neighbors Explained

Warning! This article contains spoilers for Your Friends and Neighbors.

Although Your Friends and Neighbors has not disclosed the identity of Paul’s murderer yet, some characters from the Apple TV+ series seem more suspicious than others. In Your Friends and Neighbors‘ opening sequence, Jon Hamm’s Andrew Cooper awakens next to a dead body in a home. Realizing that he could land in serious trouble for having his DNA at a crime scene, he panics and jumps into the swimming pool before looking back at all the events that led him to the present moment.

With what follows, the original Apple TV+ show walks viewers through Andrew Cooper’s timeline and how, after getting divorced and losing his job, he starts stealing expensive things from his affluent neighbors. The show makes it evident that even though Andrew Cooper eventually ended up at the crime scene of Paul’s murder, he did not commit the crime. He even gets arrested for the crime in the show’s second half but struggles to figure out who might have actually killed the character. This raises many questions about the killer’s true identity and motives.

5

Nick

Nick Might Have Done It Set Up Cooper

Nick may seem a little too laid back to commit the crime, but he might have one solid reason to do it. The show has established that Nick has been wanting to take his relationship with Mel more seriously. However, Mel always shows hesitance towards taking their relationship to the next level because she still has feelings for Cooper. To get Cooper out of his way, Nick might have killed Paul and tried to set him up. After Cooper had a fight with Paul, Nick might have seen it as the perfect opportunity to kill him and direct the blame towards Cooper.

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Your Friends & Neighbors Cast & Character Guide

Apart from walking through the double life of its main character, Andrew Cooper, Your Friends & Neighbors also features many memorable performances.

At some point in the series, Cooper and Nick had also exchanged cars. Nick might have noticed that the trunk in Cooper’s car keeps opening on its own. He might have used this to plant a gun in the trunk to set him up for Paul’s murder.

4

Hunter

Hunter Was Not A Suspect Until A Recent Story Development

Cooper’s son, Hunter, was not even one of the suspects in the show’s earlier episodes. However, one scene makes him quite suspicious. When Cooper returns home after a long day in one episode, Hunter assures him that he knows he did not kill Paul. He also adds that he specifically came to his house to tell him that. While Cooper lets out a sigh of relief after his son’s words of assurance, Hunter still seems to be hiding something, perhaps hinting that he killed Paul.

The only problem with Hunter turning out to be the killer is that it would make Your Friends and Neighbors a little too similar to Presumed Innocent. The ending twist in Presumed Innocent also reveals that the main character’s daughter was the murderer. Since Presumed Innocent is also an Apple TV+ show, it would be surprising that another show on the streaming service pulled off the same twist. Another possibility is that Hunter witnessed who killed Paul, explaining why he knows his father is not the murderer.

3

Bruce

Bruce Was At Coop’s Place Before He Was Caught

Allison’s former partner, Bruce, does not seem to have a concrete reason to murder Paul. However, it seems strange that he was at Cooper’s place moments before the police found the gun in Cooper’s car. Moments after Bruce left Cooper’s home, the gun suddenly appeared in Cooper’s car, that, too, with his DNA. This makes it hard not to suspect that Bruce killed Paul and is trying to direct the blame in Cooper’s direction.

Another possibility is that Bruce was one of Paul’s shady investors or was hired by the investors to get him out of the way. Or, as time will likely tell, Bruce had other reasons to kill Paul and found a scapegoat in Cooper.

2

Elena

Elena Already Had A Gun

Elena and Cooper were together on the night of the murder before they had a fallout and decided to part ways. With what followed, Elena left before Cooper decided to steal from Sam’s home. This suggests the possibility that before Cooper headed to Sam’s home, Elena went there and tried to steal something valuable. However, to her surprise, she encountered Paul in the house. In the heat of the moment, she ended up shooting him before fleeing the crime scene.

A previous episode established that Elena owned a gun. Your Friends and Neighbors‘ episode 8 also confirms that Elena broke into Cooper’s home when he was arrested and stole all the wealth he had collected from his stealing endeavors. It seems possible that she might have done this before to plant the gun in his car. She even keeps calling Cooper soon after she discovers that news channels are reporting Paul’s murder, which again makes her a little suspicious.

1

Sam

Sam Seems Even More Suspicious After Episode 8

Olivia Munn’s character, Sam, in Your Friends and Neighbors tops the list of suspects because she had a solid reason to get Paul out of her way. Many early moments of the series established that she despised Paul after their divorce and hated how he had already moved on. Although she seems to have a solid alibi, it is possible that she might have hired someone to kill her ex-husband. In a previous episode, she said she knew exactly what Paul was doing at their home while she was gone.

In Your Friends and Neighbors‘ episode 8, Sam also suddenly starts accusing Andrew of the crime without having any reason to do so. This makes it hard not to believe that she is either protecting herself or someone else. She might have committed the crime herself and set up Cooper after he rejected her plea to take their relationship seriously. Or, she might have hired someone to kill Paul to ensure she did not land in trouble for the crime.