‘Conversations with Friends’ is based on Irish novelist Sally Rooney’s 2017 debut novel of the same name, and it is created by the same team that created ‘Normal People,’ a drama series based on Rooney’s 2018 book of the same name. ‘Conversations with Friends’ follows four primary characters — Frances (Alison Oliver), Bobbi (Sasha Lane), Nick (Joe Alwyn), and Melissa (Jemima Kirke) — and portrays the complexity of love via their shared experience. Frances and Bobbi are seniors at college. They were in a relationship prior to the timeline of the episode. They are now merely buddies and members of a two-piece poetry group. The lives of these four people are permanently changed after they meet Melissa and her actor husband Nick. Here’s all you need to know about ‘Conversations with Friends’ ending. SPOILERS FOLLOW.

Recap of Conversations with Friends

The majority of the show takes place in Dublin. Bobbi is an American expat from New York, whereas Frances recently relocated to the city from a small Irish town. Frances is the poet, and Bobbi thinks herself to be her muse. They perform in a variety of settings together. They encounter acclaimed author Melissa Conway at one such location, and Bobbi is immediately taken with her. Melissa later welcomes them to her house, where they meet Nick, her passive and overly mellow husband. And a complex relationship between the four of them begins to emerge.

Bobbi makes no attempt to conceal her feelings for Melissa, even from Nick, who, at first, is the target of Bobbi’s disdain and derision. Bobbi and Melissa even share a kiss on Melissa’s birthday, but their relationship doesn’t progress beyond that because Bobbi, unexpectedly, decides not to pursue it further. Melissa appears to have given her a sense of apathy, leading her to assume that it isn’t worth the effort.

Frances, on the other hand, initiates an affair with Nick despite being as reclusive and painfully introverted as Bobbi is direct and vocal. Their mutual attraction stems from how similar they are to one another. Frances and Nick flourish in the quieter moments of their lives when the world around them is busy reveling in its craziness. The two of them have a huge age difference, but that becomes immaterial when their incredibly lonely souls connect on a deeper level.

Bobbi and Melissa will eventually find out. The former after she walks in on Nick and Frances, and the latter after Nick tells her. Melissa refuses to end the marriage and allows the affair to continue. As the series nears its conclusion, we find that Nick has been suffering from depression for a year. During the course of a project, he experienced an anxiety attack. And when he returned home, he stopped working.

Melissa told him she didn’t want children and was having an affair with a mutual acquaintance. He praised her for everything she accomplished for him when she later sought for a divorce. This shattered her heart, and she burst into tears. Melissa soon ended her affair, and she and Nick began living in separate rooms, hoping that things would work out in the end. Despite the fact that Nick was finally functioning, he was still as unhappy as ever. This is when he meets Frances, and he finds it difficult to imagine that someone like her would be interested in him.

Frances ends her relationship with Nick after being diagnosed with endometriosis. The ending of ‘Conversation with Friends’ is highly vague. Frances and Melissa restart their relationship, while Nick and Melissa return to their normal routine. Nick accidentally calls Frances one day. Frances tells Nick to come fetch her at the end of the series.

Conversations with Friends Come to an End: Will Frances End Up With Nick or Bobbi?

‘Conversations with Friends’ is an exact remake of Rooney’s original work. Both have an unclear ending. Rooney remarked in an interview with PBS News Hour that she wrote various endings for the book, but it needed to have an open one. “I had written numerous alternate endings for the novel that were much lengthier because I seemed to believe at some unconscious level that it was my responsibility to “knot up” every ambiguity I had generated,” she explained. “Once I recognized and rationalized that inclination, I wrote the closing scene as it is now — and I felt the novel was finished.”

The show’s most prominent theme is the complexities of love. Since the beginning, Bobbi has been the most vocal opponent of monogamy and marriage. Even if, as we later find, her opinions are shaped by seeing her parents’ marriage slowly disintegrate, they eventually hold true in the setting of the drama. Nick adores Frances, but it doesn’t mean he no longer adores Melissa. Similarly, Frances loves Nick, but she still has feelings for Bobbi.

Frances’s first romance since Bobbi’s breakup with her is with Nick. He is also the first male she has dated. They both enter the relationship out of a place of hurt. We’ve already covered Nick’s situation. Frances, on the other hand, is still reeling from the anguish of the break-up. Their relationship blossoms, and they fall in love. However, this does not diminish their feelings for their respective relationships. Frances is still head over heels in love with Bobbi, as evidenced by the final two episodes of the show. While feeling entirely abandoned, she penned her short narrative from that place of hurt. Bobbi’s claims against Frances following the publishing are justified, yet it cannot be denied that she left Frances feeling estranged.

Frances ultimately chooses both Nick and Bobbi by instructing Nick to come fetch her, making the relationship between the three of them and Melissa as tense as ever. But, beyond anything else, love is confusing and chaotic. It’s clear that Nick and Melissa will not divorce, and Bobbi will not discontinue her relationship with Frances because of this. As a result, Frances and Nick’s romance will restart. And the four of them will stick to their individual notions of love.