Uncoupled (2022) is a romantic comedy series on Netflix that revolves around Michael Lawson, a gay man who suddenly sees his long-term relationship end and enters the vastly complicated dating scene of New York. The series is streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Michael and Colin have been in a relationship for 17 years and they are pretty happy with each other. It is Colin’s 50th birthday and while Colin doesn’t want to broadcast it, Michael has planned a surprise party for him later that evening.
Michael is part of a realtor team along with his friend, Suzanne, who is a single mom. His best friends are Stanley, the owner of an art gallery, and Billy, a mildly famous weatherman on the news. Stanley and Billy are also gay like Michael.
During the day, Michael gets a call from his housekeeper claiming that they’ve been robbed since there’s some stuff missing from the apartment.
When Colin arrives for the party, Michael brings up the robbery but Colin says they haven’t been robbed, he just moved out because he wanted some space. They enter the party at that moment and they go through the entire night without discussing that bombshell.
Michael is left devastated and confused by this revelation and doesn’t get a clear explanation from Colin about why he left. They have one session with a couple’s counsellor but he talks throughout the session without getting any answers.
Meanwhile, Michael receives support and advice from Suzanne, Stanley and Billy on how to move on. Billy is a playboy who only goes for meaningless relationships with younger men while Stanley can be a little too picky and snobbish about his choices.
Michael and Suzanne have a work rivalry with a young Millennial named Tyler who uses his connections to constantly get listings over the duo. They fight over a new client, Claire, an elderly divorcee who’s looking to sell her apartment after her husband cheated on her.
Michael develops a bond with Claire over their shared relationship trajectories and she gives him and Suzanne the opportunity to sell her apartment. Michael finally gets one over Tyler after he found out that Tyler helped Colin find a place before their breakup.
Michael tries out so many different ways to get over his heartbreak. He joins Grindr and has a random hookup with a client that reached out to Suzanne.
He bumps into a man outside the supermarket and almost hooks up with him but backs out when the other guy suggests having sex without a condom because condoms are outdated nowadays.
He agrees to go on a date with his father’s dermatologist and things seem promising until the dermatologist offers to give Michael a temporary paralytic so that he can deal with the larger than normal size of the dermatologist’s member.
At a party, he is invited by a couple for a pity threesome, something he politely declines to. Then at the gay ski weekend, he hits it off with a fellow realtor he met a few years ago, but after finding out that Colin is dating someone else, Michael drinks too much and messes up his chance.
Every time it seems like Michael is showing some improvement, something about Colin comes up and ruins his entire mood. He even has a minor tiff with Stanley after Stanley secretly went for lunch at Colin’s apartment after they broke up.
Claire eventually becomes close friends with Suzanne and Michael and after they convince her to take up an offer for her apartment, she ends up buying the penthouse in Michael’s building so that she can start her new life with a friend close by.
Michael starts hanging out with a man named Luke after bumping into him at the roller rink. But after 6 days straight of hanging out, Luke starts getting a little too overbearing and Michael is not ready for that sort of thing just yet so he asks him to leave.
Michael is left with no one to accompany him to their friends’ upcoming wedding and dreads going there alone while Colin might be there with his new boyfriend.
Uncoupled (2022) ending explained in detail:
What happens between Suzanne and her son Kai?
Suzanne has been raising Kai all by herself and now he’s a 25-year-old man who is close to his mother. Suzanne realises that part of the reason she hasn’t been able to make it work with another man is that she’s held on to Kai too closely.
While hanging out with Claire, Suzanne tells her that she doesn’t know who Kai’s father is and never bothered to find out. She was backpacking around Europe in her younger days and Kai was the product of one of her encounters.
Kai finds out who his father is through the internet and sets up a meeting after realising that he stays in New York. He talks to Suzanne about it and lets her know that he’s changed his mind but his father says that he’ll stick around for some time in case he changes his mind.
Suzanne decides to see who he is and heads to the restaurant Kai and he were supposed to meet after she’s done at the wedding, and she is shocked to see who is waiting there, but their identity is only revealed to her.
Does Billy continue his ways?
Billy is a selfish narcissist throughout and his suggestions when it comes to Michael moving usually involve something cold and emotionless.
He’s way too focused on himself and his appearance and is constantly putting down other people but he’s self-aware and honest about his character.
He brings along Wyatt to the wedding and this is the first time in a while that he’s gone on a second date with someone. Wyatt is a wonderful young man who wins over everyone else and Billy does like him a lot.
However, when he’s alone, Billy runs into one of the waiters who he had hooked up with a couple of years ago. He ends up taking his number in case they wanted to hook up later and Wyatt catches this. He gives Billy a piece of his mind and Billy finally gets the reality check that he needed and immediately works on becoming a better person.
What happens to Stanley?
Stanley shows up at the wedding in a very gloomy mood. Billy says that he’s sporting his “I Do” face which he makes whenever he hears another couple say “I Do”, reminding him that he’s alone.
Stanley tells Billy and Michael that it’s something more serious. He had a visit to the doctor and he was informed that he’s suffering from breast cancer. It’s stage 1 so they caught it early and he’ll have to go for another visit to explore treatment options.
Stanley asks Michael to accompany him because he’s afraid he’ll be too nervous to hear what the doctor says. Billy is hurt that he wasn’t asked to come along. After the scolding he received from Wyatt, he tells Stanley that he’ll join in for the doctor’s visit and will always be there with him because he loves him.
Do Michael and Colin get back together?
Michael and Colin meet each other at the wedding and things are finally down to a normal cordial level between them. Colin tells Michael that he isn’t seeing anyone, he just went out on a few dates with some people.
Michael tells Colin that he wants to buy out his half of the apartment and continue to live there. Colin says he’ll think about it from an investment standpoint. Later on, when Suzanne approaches Colin about the situation, he tells her that he can’t imagine anyone else living there with Michael.
She tells him that it’s all his fault for leaving Michael all of a sudden with no explanation and this is his chance to do a nice thing for Michael to make up for the bad thing he did to him before.
They share a sweet moment and dance at the wedding and say goodbye on good terms. That night, as Michael walks into his apartment, he finds Colin waiting for him with Colin claiming that he thinks he made a mistake leaving Michael which is where they end the story for now.
Also Read: Never Have I Ever season 3: Release date, cast, synopsis, trailer & more