Summary
Episode 6 discusses the notion of long-term relationships, and what it means to build something with your partner.
The sexual tension is almost unbearable in episode 6, but the ending is unexpected; it feels like a salient message about long-term relationships. Everything feels unpredictable.
Sex/Life Season 1 Episode 6 Recap
Episode 6 opens with a flashback; Brad and Billie appear very happy, and Billie narrates how she has many things to look forward to. Sasha has a face on, so Billie asks her what’s wrong, and she hints that Brad is a “flight risk.” She’s worried about her friend falling into a pattern and states that Brad is damaged. Billie asks Sasha to be happy for them. Billie moves in with Brad, and she double checks with him that he’s okay with this as it is a “big step.” Brad calls his place “our space,” and what follows are intimate sex scenes between them. They had sex everywhere they could in the penthouse (obviously).
Billie wants to fix her marriage with Cooper
It then returns to the present, and Billie shuts her laptop to stop immersing herself in the journal. Hudson asks where his father is, and Billie tells him that he will return. Meanwhile, at work, Cooper and Francesca seem a little giddy about the previous night, but then Billie turns up at his work and eyes Francesca up and asks if she can talk to Cooper privately.
She tells him that Francesca is “stunning,” and Cooper tells her he didn’t sleep with her but spent all night on her couch imagining life without his wife. He asks how she got home last night and wonders if she went back on Brad’s motorcycle. He raises the possibility that maybe Brad makes her feel how Francesca makes him feel. Billie begs Cooper, saying she wants to fix their marriage. Cooper tells her to figure it out.
The start of episode 6 leaves the married couple more broken than ever.
Brad tells Billie to get used to him getting home
In a flashback, Billie is hosting a dinner party, but Brad hasn’t turned up yet — Sasha questions where he is, but Billie states he’s on his way. But Brad is really late, and they start eating without him. Despite the anxiety, Brad makes it back, and Billie is wondering where he’s been. He tells her he’s late because he’s brought back tons of magazines with her feature article inside. He tells her to get used to him coming home.
READ: Sex/Life Season 1 Review
And then we are presented with percentages — in a traditional relationship, can your partner give you 100% of everything you want? It seems unfeasible and impossible, right?
In the present, Billie meets an old friend who is a psychologist. She says 85% of her marriage is perfect, but 15% is lost — feeling desire and freedom to be anyone and do anything. She admits to writing a journal, but she is frustrated because she has Cooper, who is willing to give her everything, but she feels it’s not the same as what she had with Brad. Her friend tells her you can’t have all the security but all the thrills at the same time, but he wonders if she thinks there’s a world where Brad can give her both.
Francesca wants to be with Cooper
While Billie has a temptation, Cooper feels the heat of his boss, who is willing to risk it all for him.
Cooper secures a massive client at work, and there’s a desire to make him a partner at the firm. Francesca tells Cooper that he deserves it, and he’s the best decision she ever made. They talk privately, and Cooper brings up the night before — he calls her an amazing listener and that he has things to work out at home. Francesca tells him she would never break up a happy home, but his home isn’t happy and that he’s the full package. She doesn’t want to miss her shot, and she likes who she is when around Cooper. Francesca is laying a risky option on the table for him.
Meeting Brad in the city
It didn’t take long for Billie to give in to her desires outside of marriage as she heads out into the city with a new dress on that still has the labels attached.
Billie heads out late at night to meet Brad at a fancy art gallery — in a flashback, she’s at this gallery with another but older man. Brad is also with another woman, and they are making each other jealous on purpose. Brad and Billie then head to the stairway, and Brad tells her it’s hot when someone else wants her, and they have sex. In the present, Billie wants to know how Brad has changed. He asks her if she wants a drink. They head out in the rain, and they are both giddy. Brad takes her to a back alley restaurant — in flashbacks, they enjoyed this place many times. Brad secretly fingered her in this restaurant.
And this is when Brad lays down why he is a changed man…and his tale of discovery is convincing.
Back to the present, Brad tells her that she knew this moment was coming and that he doesn’t bite. Billie wants to know how he is different; Brad tells her he finally met his birth father, and it changed everything for him — his father was sick. Brad was there with him in the end and wishes Billie could have met him. He doesn’t want to be like his father and dying alone. Billie asks why he couldn’t be this person when they were together. Brad says if he didn’t meet her, he wouldn’t have been this person at all. He asks if she wants to get out of here, and she says yes. As they are about to kiss in the alleyway, Billie’s phone goes off — it’s Cooper with multiple messages, and he’s angry that he doesn’t know where she is.
Sex/Life Season 1 Episode 6 Ending Explained
And this is where Billie realizes what she has left behind — a family. Billie wants to go home, but Brad tells her to go home with him and asks her to consider if she’s married the wrong man. She gets angry that he asked that — she raises how Cooper never hurt her and that he deserves better. Billie runs home with tears in her eyes — she knows life cannot give it all and that it is a myth. In a flashback, Billie has a miscarriage, and it’s painful for her and Brad. In the present, her children are not at home, and she panics. She finds her laptop and can see Cooper has been reading her journal, so she throws her laptop against the wall.
When she looks outside, Cooper has returned home with the children. He took them for a drive so their baby could nod off to sleep. Billie apologizes to her children. She narrates that it “turns out, that last 15%, could cost you everything.” Where does leave Billie and Cooper? It feels like at the end, she realized what she could lose by craving a burning past.
Episode 6 discusses the notion of long-term relationships and what it means to build something with your partner.
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