‘Adults’ Bosses & Stars Break Down Season 2’s Twist Ending for Billie & Samir

Adults Season 2 has arrived, and with it a clever twist reveal in the finale’s closing moments that teases romance for two of the friends at the center of FX‘s comedy… and we’re not talking about Anton (Owen Thiele) and Paul Baker (Jack Innanen). Warning: Spoilers for the Adults Season 2 finale!

While Paul Baker and Anton’s obvious chemistry led to a satisfying love confession over local live TV as all of the friends worked to tank Paul Baker’s run for HOA president. But as Issa (Amita Rao) sneaks through the halls of Samir’s (Malik Elassal) parents’ house, she overhears a commotion coming from the room designated to Paul Baker and Samir.

Believing the noise to be Paul Baker and Anton’s seemingly inevitable hookup, a check at the hallway after Issa disappears into her room reveals that it’s — gasp — Billie (Lucy Freyer) and Samir behind the door!

“We always knew that Billie and Samir had some sort of history together,” cocreator Rebecca Shaw shares with TV Insider. “And for the most part, I think their history was pretty platonic, but I think oftentimes when you have friendships where the attractions match, it always leaves a little bit of a lingering question mark, and it was a question mark.”

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“When I first read it, we were all told it together, and it felt like I was like the dream where you’re in your underwear in front of people… I was so nervous. I was nervous for the group. I was nervous for Billie and Samir. I’m just excited to see how they play it,” Elassal muses of the predicament that Samir and Billie find themselves. Shaw and fellow cocreator (and real-life husband) Ben Kronengold teased the cast’s reaction to the twist reveal on Instagram, and the shock is evident across all of their faces.

While Anton and Paul Baker have spent time pining for one another throughout Season 2, Billie and Samir’s hook-up appears to be the direct result of his breakup with Carly (Rachel Marsh), who planned to move to Seattle to continue her education. Destroyed by his disrupted run as a great boyfriend, Billie’s feelings may be a little different as the finale hints at her upset at the brief possibility when Samir was intending to travel with Carly to Seattle.

“Are they gonna be casual about this or are they gonna really go for it?” Elassal questions about Season 3 possibilities post-hookup. “Samir just got out of something that’s a messy spot to be, but also, it works out sometimes.”

 

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Freyer feels quite similar to her onscreen colleague, as she adds, “I was so excited about the idea of that. The way that they wrote it is so clever. I’m excited about it because it would be very different to what they’re doing with Paul Baker and Anton.” As Freyer puts it, “Whether that means that they’ll wake up the next morning and regret what they did or they’ll be like, we shouldn’t have done that… I think it’s gonna be different, and I’m excited about what that could possibly be.”

“I’m worried about the rest of the house,” Elassal teases. “Are they going to know? Are they going to feel an energy shift?” If Shaw and Kronengold have any say, there will be excitement in exploring this story thread further.

“It was an interesting avenue to explore, and I think knowing these characters, in the finale of Season 2 we’re finding them at very specific places in both of their lives,” Shaw stresses. “Samir, who has for the first time found something he’s really good at, which is being a boyfriend, is now faced with that part of his identity being taken away.”

“He really has this big heart and loves to take care of people, and when Carly breaks up with him, we see that he’s sad about the breakup, but we also see that he has this loss of identity that he’s grappling with,” Shaw continues. “At the same time, when Billie realized that Samir was leaving, she’s going to miss him.”

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While Samir was going through a loss, Shaw explains, Billie was undergoing a realization about herself, saying, “She’s actually been really happy for a while now, so I think the threat that the life that she really loves with the people she really loves might be changing makes her want to cling on to that all the more tightly.”

As for who leaned into the hookup first, Shaw reveals, “I love the idea that it was genuinely truly mutual… in my head, maybe this is something that we’ll reserve the right to explore in a flashback sequence in Season 3.” While Season 3 hasn’t been greenlit by FX yet, the show’s growing popularity bodes well for the possibility, but only time will tell for certain.

“It’s like the choices that you leave off camera,” Kronengold adds, with Shaw pointing out, “It is less about who leaned in first and more about how they’re both going to feel when they wake up in the morning.”

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“We’re very excited that we now have many different kinds of connections and relationships in the house that we’d be able to explore,” Kronengold shares, hinting at potential future dynamics yet to unfold. “We really love telling relationship stories, and it’s something that we haven’t really gotten to do on the show.”

Whether that means a full-blown romance is in store for Paul Baker and Anton remains to be seen, but we’re certainly curious to delve deeper into the surprising bonds teased in the finale, whether it’s Billie and Samir, or even Issa and librarian Margaux (Mia Fowler).

“I think that’s what makes it exciting is that neither of these two thought too much about it,” Freyer acknowledges of Billie and Samir’s hookup, “which makes for fun tension and what comes next.”

Here’s to hoping we’ll see what’s next as we await Season 3’s green light. Until then, let us know what you thought of Billie and Samir’s hookup in the comments section below and stay tuned for additional Adults Season 2 coverage.

FX’s Adults, Season 2, Streaming now, Hulu and Disney+