Summary
“No Friends” uses several friendships, new and old, to explore different dynamics among the core characters to hilarious and eventually poignant effect.
This recap of Breeders season 2, episode 8, “No Friends”, contains spoilers.
Change is in the air in the latest episode of Breeders, which opens with Paul’s parents stood outside as all their belongings are loaded onto a truck, and cuts quickly to Ally telling Keeley that since “the incident” she and Paul continue to be distant. They used to be best friends, and now they don’t seem to be, and she understandably hates it. But what is to be done?
At a birthday party, “No Friends” cleverly deploys flashbacks to show how Paul and Ally’s relationship has changed — they don’t even have fun being judgemental about people anymore. Paul also laments how much of a loner Luke is, which is odd since in the very next scene he seemingly has a very intriguing new friend who recommends him Charles Bukowski poems. You can see where the title of Breeders season 2, episode 8 is coming from.
Jim and Jackie, it turns out, are being forced to downsize by the Housing Association since they have too many bedrooms for just the two of them, which explains the opening scene. Both are furious about this since they’ll be leaving their new friends — the house share students next door — and Jim thinks if you run out of friends you die. This is obviously bad news for Paul since Jim insists he doesn’t have any, and indeed Luke, who Paul thinks doesn’t have any. It’s probably what inspires Paul to immediately rekindle a friendship with his old mate Dean Andrews, who he spots at the birthday party he and Ally are at, much to her consternation.
Both Ally and Paul are surprised to discover Luke’s friend Jacob, a hilariously forthright toff boffin, in their house when they return, but at least he puts Luke in a good mood. Dean also puts Paul in a pretty good mood, even if the excitement of that relationship makes him even less interested in Ally (and forces Ava to mate around with his obviously controlling older daughter, Chloe.) There’s a funny bit in “No Friends” when Ally thinks that Jacob is pushing drugs, but he really just has various samples of different coffees.
Things begin to take a bit of a turn in Breeders season 2, episode 8. Ava doesn’t want to be friends with Chloe anymore; Dean gets Paul into coke; Ally worries that Luke’s dependence on Jacob’s friendship is setting him up for failure. Dean wants Paul to speak to Ava about Chloe, and because Paul is rather pathetically attached to Dean, he tries to. But at least it leads to a revelation. He doesn’t need a best friend like Dean who he has to upset his daughter to keep sweet. He already lives with his best friend. When they both sit and ridicule Jim and Jackie’s youthful neighbors, it’s almost a tear-jerker.
