‘Adults’ Season-Finale Recap: ‘Vote for Paul Baker’

There’s a prevailing sentiment among critics right now that the second season of Adults has been a significant improvement on season one. And I’m generally inclined to agree, even if I’m not quite as effusive about every episode as some of my colleagues. This season has been a level-up; there’s no question. But there’s also still room to grow, and certain structural issues as a result of this eight-ish-episodes-per-year format. That particularly becomes clear when it comes to romance.

We’ll get into that. But despite any issues I have with the plotting choices, “Vote for Paul Baker” largely works really well as a conclusion to the season leading up to it. This time, the occasion bringing the house together is a local election. It makes sense that Paul Baker, of all people, would run for president of the homeowners’ association, even if he doesn’t know much at all about policy or bureaucracy. He has the good looks and charm of a politician, like a long-lost bisexual Kennedy nephew who was raised in Canada and grew a mustache to disguise himself. It’s not all that hard to believe that he’d be neck and neck with incumbent Sandy Adler (David Paymer).

Everyone in the house gets involved in the election, phone banking and going after the 80 or so votes still up for grabs. A returning Julia Fox even shows up to help out. But then Sandy stops by for a friendly chat, and his daughter Nina (Zosia Mamet, ice-cold and slightly underused) gets serious. The HOA means everything to her bored old father, she explains, and he can’t lose that. If Paul Baker wins, Nina will report the zoning violation that is their household.

Paul Baker actually has no problem dropping out, but voting has already begun. That means Nina is basically forcing him and his team to go out of their way to stop the remaining voters. And that’s exactly what Issa and Anton do, heading to the library and individually speaking with neighbors they already called or met earlier in the day. And here’s where we get to the real focus of the episode, beyond the unlikely “will everyone be forced to move out?” framing. Twice that day, Issa hears about earnest stuff Anton said to win voters over to Paul Baker’s side. She’s finally starting to understand that he has real feelings for her ex-boyfriend.

While this is going on, the mission to tank Paul Baker’s campaign continues on multiple fronts. Billie has the idea to call in his straight male friends from the season premiere, an inspired choice; I could totally see these guys coming back every season. They get in on the reverse-canvassing, and of course it all comes down to a Swing Vote (2008) situation: The one vote up for grabs is Mr. Lee, an old friend of Sandy’s who ended their friendship for good after Sandy fucked his wife. (They drifted apart first, to be fair.) It’ll be nearly impossible to get him to vote for that guy.

But Paul Baker and Billie’s intervention isn’t what changes Mr. Lee’s mind; in another inspired turn, he’s moved to forgive his old friend and vote for Sandy after overhearing Issa’s support of Anton going after Paul Baker, live on the TV broadcast of the polls at the library. Their close friendship is most important to her, and nobody will get in the way of that, even an impossibly lovable Canadian like Paul Baker.

So the announcement arrives that Paul Baker lost the election, meaning nobody has to move out, and Anton and Paul Baker share their big kiss. Not a jokey-yet-surprisingly-real make-out following a green-card marriage, and not as part of a threesome that nobody truly wants — it’s a real kiss, and it implies that these two will be fully dating in a potential season three. It’s a sweet conclusion to the love triangle arc of this season, and it … mostly works, even if I really wish the storytelling could’ve been more incremental here, a true slow burn. Imagine if we’d gotten episodes to more fully process what Issa and Paul Baker’s breakup means for each of them, both before and after it actually happened. Imagine if we saw Anton going on dates with other guys, making Paul Baker jealous. Imagine if the show let us yearn for just a bit longer.

I’m also a bit thrown by the big turn with Samir and Billie at the end of this episode. Most of his story in this episode rings true to me, though, and not just because I’m also in a long-distance relationship (though mine is more “Paris-London” than “Paris-Barcelona,” to use Julia Fox’s example). He’s committing fully to his relationship with Carly and wants to make it work while she’s in Seattle for her dental residency, but they can’t even FaceTime for more than a few minutes without cutting out. “It said my connection was unstable,” Carly says miserably, and I know that feeling very, very well, my friend. (But also, good pun.)

Carly herself seems to understand that this won’t work between them, since Seattle-New York is more like London-Moscow than London-Paris. But Samir still can’t stop committing, even claiming he’ll move to Seattle to be with her. This is his first and most meaningful relationship, and he won’t let it go until Carly reminds him that he can’t abandon his life here. If he leaves his life behind for her, or if she misses school for him, or if they continue on long-distance, they might grow to resent each other, or even just lose the perfection of the connection they had. Neither of them wants a watered-down version of this dynamic, and both of them understand why it needs to end.

It’s sad, and in general this is probably the most I’ve ever felt for Samir. His ill-advised hook-up with Billie is … a little much this early, though, even as an impulsive act while both are feeling lonely and/or celebratory. These two have been a potential will-they/won’t-they pairing since the beginning of the show, a childhood friends-to-lovers arc, but I’ve also enjoyed them as two codependent friends, so it’s hard to tell if I’d dig their vibe as a real romantic item yet. They do have decent chemistry, though, and I could see them working as a couple in the right context. Regardless, the messiness of the twice-broken “no group-cest” rule should create some good drama and excitement next season, if we’re so blessed.

So ends a rock-solid season of Adults. I’ve had my quibbles with the plotting this year, and I’ll admit that sometimes my ideal version of this show isn’t totally aligned with the creators, even if I remain grateful for its laughs-first ethos. But I’m impressed by the confidence of the eight episodes that dropped this summer. Really, when it comes down to it, my biggest issue with this show is that there aren’t more episodes of it. That’s a good spot to be in two seasons in.

• Issa gets a little love story of her own with Margaux, the strict librarian who turns out to be neurotic and silly just like Issa, turning into a “weird little guy” and doing accents to deal with her own anxieties. Curious if she’ll stick around next year, or if this is just a fun one-episode fling to show that Issa really is over Paul Baker.

• Billie’s season-long unemployment arc doesn’t really reach a conclusive ending, but it does come into play with her ability to tank Paul Baker’s campaign. She proves her usefulness in knowing how not to get a job.

• “I once organized an entire front row at a Marc Jacobs show.” “For what cause?” “Just to get dinner after.”

• “She’s House of Cards-ing us.” “She touched you?”

• “‘Mar-gaux’? Like chateau?” “Or ‘Mar-gox,’ like no name we’ve ever heard?”

I get what Julia Fox means when she says that Samir’s relationship will devolve into sending Instagram memes, but memes can be an important cornerstone of a relationship, not just a crutch when you have nothing else to talk about. In my humble opinion.

• Also, Julia ends up leaving because she’s too turned on by Paul Baker’s bro friends.

• The ASL interpreter bit was very good.

• “Kiss him like a slut, then kiss him like a princess, and then kiss him like both.”