The Hulu comedy series Not Suitable for Work has wrapped up its first season, and the finale delivered a mix of romantic payoffs and heartbreaking near-misses. Created by Mindy Kaling, the show follows five twenty-something professionals living in New York City as they navigate careers, friendships, and complicated love lives. The final two episodes dropped on June 23, 2026, bringing the season to a close with a New Year’s Eve backdrop that gave most characters a fresh start while leaving a few dealing with genuine heartbreak.
The series stars Ella Hunt as AJ Pascarelli, Avantika as Abby Chilukuri, Will Angus as Davis Beau Bradley Barrett III, Jack Martin as Josh Teitelbaum, and Nicholas Duvernay as Kel Washington. The show has received 6.7 stars on IMDb and has been building a dedicated following throughout its nine-episode run.
Abby and Kel’s Heartbreaking Near-Miss
The Abby and Kel dynamic has been the emotional core of Not Suitable for Work, and the finale refuses to give audiences a neat resolution. After spending most of the season pining for Abby, Kel has finally moved on just as she realizes her true feelings for him.
Abby comes to understand that she genuinely has feelings for Kel, and after taking AJ’s advice, she decides to make things right between them and asks for his forgiveness. It becomes one of the more quietly moving scenes the show has pulled off all season, a moment of vulnerability from a character who spent most of the run guarding herself carefully.
Kel invites Abby to his new show’s cast party, but by the time she arrives, he already has his eyes on one of his castmates. He had already resigned himself to the fact that Abby was not interested in him romantically, and now that she finally is, he doesn’t even notice. It is a cruel bit of timing, and the show earns the sting of it because it has been building this near-miss all season.
Abby also hears from Vanessa, who offers her job back, which gives her story a parallel path forward even as the romantic door closes on Kel. The writing is smart enough to give Abby agency outside of romance, which keeps the ending from feeling like a punishment.
Despite some romantic chemistry finally sparking between them, the finale denies Kel and Abby a date, even though they come mighty close. For viewers who have been shipping this pairing since the early episodes, the episode is genuinely painful to sit with.
Kel gets a nice payoff to his substitute teacher arc in the finale, since the girls all attend his show, even if his parents do not, despite him having left them tickets at reception. It is the kind of small, bittersweet victory that feels true to life, and it makes the romantic miss land harder because Kel is clearly doing well everywhere except where Abby is concerned. The finale is asking the audience to accept that good timing matters as much as genuine feeling, and it makes that argument convincingly.
AJ and Davis Finally Get Their Moment
While Abby and Kel finish the season in frustrating limbo, the AJ and Davis storyline delivers a more satisfying resolution. Davis finally gets AJ, though he takes an extremely complicated road to get there.
After breaking up with AJ, Bill Gibson (Jay Ellis) returns to work as if nothing happened between them. Davis becomes disgusted by Bill’s nonchalance and dismissiveness. When Bill tells the team that they have to work overtime, AJ storms out, deciding to take PTO early after working eight days straight over the holidays. After she leaves the room, Bill calls her “unhinged.”
Following the meeting, Davis confronts Bill for describing AJ’s behavior as “unhinged” after everything he put her through and they start fighting until a colleague intervenes. Davis reveals he requested a transfer to another department, but Bill escalates the situation by firing him.
The physical altercation ends with Bill firing Davis, but he’s barely phased. In that moment, all he cares about is doing right by AJ. A video of the office brawl gets spread around, which is how AJ eventually finds out about it. That night, while AJ is waiting for Josh, Davis knocks on her door to deliver a work award, and she asks him outright why he fought Bill. The moment strips away all the season’s accumulated miscommunication and finally forces Davis to be honest about how he feels.
When AJ asks Davis if he likes her, he says he does and she kisses him. Their dynamic has been one of the show’s most layered slow burns, and landing it here without rushing feels like exactly the right call.
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Josh’s Heartbreak Sets Up Season 2 Potential
Josh has one of the more quietly satisfying arcs in the finale, even if it ends on a slightly lonely note. Josh helps his boss Wes, who was left upset after being left out of the New Year’s Eve line-up. He manages to secure Wes a guest spot on a popular show, and he is even on hand to save him by piping him answers through a teleprompter, and Wes kills. It is Josh at his most likeable, putting someone else’s success above his own.
Josh had offered to spend a lonely New Year’s Eve with AJ after running into her while doing laundry, a seemingly platonic offer that he was clearly considering to be more of a date. The season ends on a bad note for Josh, who wanted to spend time with AJ on New Year’s, only to see Davis and AJ together. It is a gut-punch ending for the character, and it sets up what could be the most compelling thread of a potential second season.
Not Suitable for Work is streaming on Hulu and Disney+. The series has been produced by Kaling International, 3 Arts Entertainment, and Warner Bros. Television, giving it a solid institutional foundation should Hulu want to move forward. Creator Mindy Kaling has expressed hope for a second season, and showrunner Charlie Grandy has mentioned that they have already mapped out arcs for future seasons.
Also Read: See You at Work Tomorrow! Episode 2 Release Date, Time and Where to Watch
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