‘Adults’ Season 1 Ending, Explained (& What Happened In The Prequel Episode)

Around the third episode of its first season, FX’s Adults (2025) became one of my new favorite shows, let alone an excellent addition to the hangout comedies. The friend group felt so lived-in and the jokes made me laugh until I cried. I was having a great time, so I was so excited when the show got renewed for a second season. I can’t believe that Season 2 is so close now. The entire season drops on Hulu on Thursday, August 27, 2026. Adults certainly made the wait a little easier by announcing a surprise prequel episode that filled in some gaps from the first season.

Doing so is incredibly smart in my opinion. Adults dropped its eight-episode first season in May 2025. The prequel episode, “Marathon Day,” dropped at the end of July 2026. Even though there is more than a year between seasons, the episode gives the allusion that the turnaround is shorter. Also, just from a viewership standpoint, I think that’s a clever way to re-energize returning fans and spark the interest of new ones. Moreover, this new episode acts as the first episode of the first season, adding more context to the existing season, including the finale.

Who Did Paul Baker Marry in the ‘Adults’ Season 1 Finale? 

The long-running bit about the house’s overflowing mailbox reaches its conclusion in the season finale. Underneath updates from Samir’s (Malik Elassal) parents and the current balance of Billie’s (Lucy Freyer) medical debt, there’s a pressing matter for Paul Baker (Jack Innanen). He learns that his visa is expiring. The only way that he can get a new one as quickly as possible is if he returns to Canada—or marries one of his roommates. Issa (Amita Rao), who has dated Paul Baker all season, volunteers with a deeply unserious proposal that’s also a very sweet gesture. 

However, there’s already a distinction between Paul Baker and Issa’s approach to marriage. It means something to him, but it’s just a construct to Issa. So much so that she married a former member of the friend group, Zack-Carlos (Julian Manjerico), as a bit over spring break. He’s absolutely hilarious and entirely uninterested in signing the divorce papers that Anton and Samir bring. He only budges at the suggestion that signing the papers so Paul Baker can stay will mean that Zack-Carlos can be a part of the friend group again. As it turns out, Zack-Carlos is not the first or the last problem that the friends have to navigate to get Paul Baker to stay.

Issa eventually panics about the commitment. Because unlike with Zack-Carlos, Issa has a more serious relationship with Paul Baker. So, Samir and Billie volunteer to marry Paul Baker, and Issa says the choice is up to him. The final scene of the finale reveals that—after a season of romantic tension–Paul Baker chooses to marry Anton (Owen Thiele). The episode proves that Anton knows Paul Baker. He knows what Paul Baker’s thinking at the bar and brings glow sticks to the wedding. Once the group is back home (without Zack-Carlos), Anton and Paul Baker share their first kiss. Even though the marriage is just a logistical loophole to keep Paul Baker in the country, the kiss is very real, and the whole friend group seems to realize that.

The ‘Adults’ Prequel Episode Reveals How the Group Met Paul Baker

In the show’s original pilot, Issa wants Paul Baker to move into the house, but Samir is hesitant. “Marathon Day” pulls back time just a bit to reveal how the friend group meets Paul Baker, recontextualizing that first episode and some of the season’s most important dynamics. It all hinges on Anton lying to his coworkers about his intentions to run in the New York City Marathon. Billie, Issa, and Samir rally around Anton, committing to the lie. While making signs with Samir, Issa has a breakthrough about the guys she’s been dating. She settles on making a change, saying, “I’m done fixing these lost, broken men. It’s charity. I’m not doing it anymore. I should be able to be the lost and broken one. I’d be so good at it.” Enter: Paul Baker.

He literally stumbles into the scene, dehydrated from the marathon. Issa doesn’t think twice before leaping to her feet to “save him.” They have instant chemistry, but they aren’t the only ones. Anton meets Paul Baker once they’re all back at the house. Anton, who’s trying to look like he’s completed the marathon, finds Paul Baker asleep upstairs. Anton tries to steal Paul Baker’s foil blanket, but the real tension comes from Paul Baker not liking that Anton and his friends lie so casually. Anton sees it differently—his friends lie to help and protect him, and it’s something that friends do for one another. Paul Baker doesn’t have friends like that—until now.

As the friend group’s lies to Anton’s coworkers snowball, Paul Baker swoops in to help by giving Anton his medal. Paul Baker shares a look with both Issa and Anton that adds so much to their dynamics throughout the rest of the first season. There’s chemistry there between all three characters, and it’s so uniquely defined in this prequel episode. It makes where they end up in the Season 1 finale all the more interesting. In turn, it builds anticipation about what’s next for Anton, Billie, Issa, Paul Baker, and Samir. I also like that “Marathon Day” finds some symmetry with the Season 1 finale in a bit in and around the front door. While the finale focuses on the mailbox, the prequel episode has a bit about using the front door. Needless to say, “Marathon Day” makes Adult’s first season’s comedy and relationships even stronger.