Netflix's 'Living With Yourself': What does the ending mean?

Warning: The following post contains many, many spoilers for Living With YourselfSeason 1 on Netflix. Catch up on the show or read at your own risk!

Netflix'sLiving With Yourselfis so much better than it had any right to be.

In retrospect, we should've seen it coming, with the unique premise of a man confronting his ostensibly better clone and placing that premise upon the more-than-capable shoulders of Paul Rudd (and Paul Rudd). Yet over the course of eight episodes, Living With Yourselfbecomes a beautiful, insular labyrinth, with twists and cliffhangers that would have Game of Thronesshaking. Atmospherically, it resembles Amazon’s Foreverand Netflix’s own Dead to Me, both shows that deal equally in humor and existentialism but with small enough worlds to allow the audience plenty of breathing room. It's wholly addictive and unprecedented throughout.

It also highlights Rudd's unique gifts as he imbues each version of Miles with qualities for which he is known; one dry and reticent, the other a charming everyman. The show is both a wealth of plot twists and an empathetic study of one man's journey to be better.

The first major curveball the show threw our way was Kate (Aisling Bea) finding out about the clones (that too at a T.G.I.Friday's-esque work outing). By that point, we've spent three episodes with Miles and Miles, recognizing that the situation between them, while precarious, is nuanced. It's hard to destroy an aberration when it looks and sounds and feels like you, that too you on your best day.

For Kate, it's cut-and-dry: He's not Miles and never will be. He never experienced the events he remembers, and that's simply not enough. But she questions that after they send the clone away and Old Miles shows no signs of changing. Crucially, she has sex with New Miles on her own terms, knowing full and well exactly who and what he is.

Can't these two just get along?Credit: netflix

Before we dive into the finale, here's a quick recap of the key twists that had us gasping for air during our Living With Yourselfbinge:

- Kate finding out about the clones- New Miles hooking up with Kaylyn- Kate and New Miles matching on a dating website- Kate and New Miles literally having an affair- New Miles telling Dan (You're The Worst's Desmin Borges, cast him in all the things please) about the cloning (and making him dig)- New Miles planning to kill Old Miles- New Miles' suicidal thoughts- Old Miles planning to kill New Miles- Old Miles actuallykilling New Miles (if only temporarily)- the preGNANCY

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Living With Yourselfhas fun playing in the secret-twin genre, like by having New Miles go to work while Old Miles stays home to work on his play (more on that ambitious project later). But each of these twists subverts it deftly. The pair of them don't get caught in a lie or spotted together, but outed to Kate by deliberate choice. We expect Kate to be angry at original Miles, but she's angry at them both. The ways in which the Mileses get along and don't is fascinating; in the beginning, they share a moment while recalling their first kiss, but most of the time they're butting heads and fighting like siblings (which kind oftracks).

Miles (Paul Rudd) and Kate (Aisling Bea) strive for elusive domestic bliss in Netflix's 'Living With Yourself.'Credit: Eric Liebowitz/Netflix

In this way, the show humanizes both versions of Miles. We're set up to think it's a show about one man's struggles, but it's as much about his wife's dissatisfaction and the fact that even when an ostensibly better Miles appears, he does not automatically earn the right to Old Miles' life, love, and happiness.

At one point in the later episodes, Miles asks himself: "What would you do if you were you?" It should be a nonsensical question, but Living With Yourself gives us a concrete explanation. What would you do if you weren't thisyou, but a different you. What would you do if you were the old you, the mature you, the optimistic you, or the aspirational you? Do all those versions exist in there somewhere? If so, how can they coexist?

The fact Old Miles does not immediately rise to the occasion upon viewing his nightmarish competition is key. He's still struggling with his mental and emotional health when the clone adds a new stressor, leaving little to no time for self-improvement (but plenty for introspection). Miles isn't a bad guy; he just isn't at his best. He's worn down, as Kate puts it — and herself admits to being — but what human being isn't? Old Miles gets jealous, insecure, hateful, and competitive — even when he sees New Miles behaving as the husband Kate deserves or the role model his colleagues admire, Miles himself still struggles to take steps toward being that person, right up until the last moments of the final.

The Living With Yourselftitle sequence begins glitching visibly after a few episodes, its uncanniness correlated directly with the tangling of Miles' life with that of his clone's. It brings to mind the fraying details of Nadia's reality in Russian Doll, the loss of control both she and the Mileses (both of them) feel as their lives spin out of orbit.

"I hate you!" "I AM you!"Credit: netflix

Living With Yourselfisn't a perfect show by any stretch. Miles' Hillston pitch at work is given life-or-death stakes, which is a hard thing to keep in perspective with illegal cloning afoot. Alia Shawkat makes the most of her guest appearance as Miles' sister, but that also gets lost in clone drama. Kate's character is woefully underwritten until halfway through the series, when Bea gets to truly flex in the episode from her point of view and the affair with New Miles. If the show gets picked up for more seasons, we have their chemistry to look forward to — luckily, the finale points toward just that.

Ah yes, the finale. Kate's reveal throws a massive wrench in everything, because it dawns on us as it dawns on Miles and Miles that either of them could be the father and they'll never know who. Though two of them technically have identical DNA and memories, their life experiences now diverge, making this some sort of scientifically twisted throuple. The three of them have no choice but to coexist moving forward.

Ultimately that decision lies with Miles, who gets a close up in the final moments as Kate and New Miles remain in the shocking aftermath of her news. Miles' expression goes blank, but you see his mind churning. Here is a man who has, in maybe the past hour, thought he was losing his wife, won her back, contemplated and committed murder, resuscitated his clone nemesis, and now learns that said clone may or may not have knocked up his wife. But when it comes to next steps, Miles shows more confidence than we've ever seen him display.

"We're having a baby," he says with a smile. He hugs Kate. They also hug New Miles. It's weird as hell, and we can't wait for more.

Living With Yourselfis now streaming on Netflix.

TopicsNetflix

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