‘Not Suitable for Work’ Episodes 6 and 7 Recap and Ending Explained: Every Relationship You Were Rooting For Has Been Blown Up

Mindy Kaling’s latest Hulu comedy has been quietly building one of the more satisfying ensemble dynamics on streaming television, and the show’s newest double-drop finally starts cashing in those relationship chips. ‘Not Suitable for Work‘ episodes 6 and 7 landed on Hulu on June 16, 2026, giving fans two fresh installments to devour in a single night. The show has been on a roll, and these two episodes prove that the messiest part of the season is just getting started.

‘Not Suitable for Work’ premiered on Hulu on June 2, 2026, marking Mindy Kaling’s return to television comedy following the success of ‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’ and ‘Running Point.’ The show follows five work-obsessed twenty-somethings as they navigate their professional and personal lives in Manhattan’s Murray Hill neighborhood. With only two episodes remaining after this week’s pair, the stakes are finally starting to feel real.

‘Not Suitable for Work’ Episode 6 Recap — Kel Gets Stuck in the Middle

The hook of Episode 6, titled “Handsome Mug Guy,” is a classic trope: Kel, frustrated with Josh and Davis for acting like man-children on a Friday night, staying up late playing video games and eating his meal prep, decides to move out. But since his parents still aren’t talking to him and he is a struggling actor working as a substitute teacher, his only real option is to move in with AJ and Abby.

Rather than treating this as a standard fish-out-of-water premise, the show uses the setup to shake up every ongoing dynamic at once.

Immediately, both AJ and Abby begin seeing Kel as a confidante to air their frustrations about each other, namely that Abby is being judgmental about AJ’s relationship with Bill, and AJ is being naive about the same. Technically, AJ and Bill are dating, but they are keeping everything completely secret, which makes sense at work but less so out of hours. Kel, already nursing a crush on Abby, is the worst possible person to drop into this particular situation.

Things turn out pretty well for AJ and Bill, though. She finally sucks it up and demands that he start taking her on real dates, and he, to his credit, does. He is uncharacteristically open about his humble beginnings while AJ is wildly overdressed for a PB&J sandwich date on the Staten Island ferry, and it seems like they are majorly into each other. It is one of the episode’s warmer moments in an otherwise chaotic half-hour.

Kel ends up back in his original apartment after AJ and Abby both fall out with him for playing both sides, but the whole thing progresses his relationship with the boys, weaves in his career, solidifies in his mind that Abby isn’t into him, and leads to him texting Kate, his colleague. It is a lot of character mileage for a one-episode mishap.

Meanwhile, Abby is trying to set up on her own as a celebrity stylist, but Vanessa is having her blacklisted for disloyalty, leaving Austin as her only client. Austin is starting to take on a legitimately sinister contour, inviting Abby to a meeting and deliberately timing it so she sees him with another woman, manipulating her into work opportunities as part of a longer game.

The Abby and Austin Storyline Takes a Surprising Turn

The anti-ketamine ad that Abby styled Austin for is really blowing up, which leads to an opportunity for him to become a brand ambassador for the designer whose shirt he was wearing. For a moment, it looks like the show is setting up a slow-burn professional dependency between them, something with real teeth for the back half of the season.

Instead, Austin simply drops Abby as his stylist so he can use the same one as Sofia Coppola. It certainly speaks to his arrogance, but it feels like such a sudden, random development that it is hard to know what to make of it.

Critics who have been enjoying the season’s more patient character-building have noted this as one of the show’s first genuine misfires.

The show has been fairly good at using tropey subplots as building blocks for relationship development, but the unceremonious way it dispenses with the Abby and Austin dynamic is becoming a trend. With Abby now stripped of her most compelling professional conflict, it raises the question of what she is going to do with the remaining episodes.

Episode 7 Recap — Davis Finally Faces the AJ Truth

Episode 7, titled “Does Jon Hamm Cry?”, opens with Josh learning from Kel, who is in bed with Kate, about Bill and AJ’s relationship. The plan is a “Steak and Tears” night, a macho approach to delivering bad news that uses high-quality beef to soften the blow. Before that night arrives, however, Josh gets some bad news of his own that completely reshapes the episode’s emotional center.

Josh’s awful dad is leaving his presumably less-awful mother after thirty years, for no better reason than that she makes him feel old. This finally prompts Josh to confront his father at work and start throwing away all the expensive things he bought him. The nepo baby dynamic that has been a consistent source of comedy all season finally gets a moment with some real feeling behind it.

The birthday complication arrives courtesy of AJ’s aggressively Bostonian mother, Amy, who turns up unexpectedly at the apartment and then at Fisher-Stassen, where she brings a cake and sings “Happy Birthday” in the middle of a fifty-million-dollar deal. It is easily the episode’s biggest set piece and one of the funniest moments in the season so far.

Davis runs into Amy outside the apartment, says some genuinely kind things about AJ, and when Amy mentions that AJ has been crushing on someone at work, Davis naturally assumes it is him. He is less than thrilled to learn from Josh and Kel that Bill is the object of her affection. The Steak and Tears dinner that follows lands differently because of it.

What the Ending of Episode 7 Means for the Season Finale

Davis also pretends to be Kel’s agent in order to get him an audition for a Jeremy O. Harris Broadway play, and is very charming with the effort, even if he is not especially good at it. It is a small but telling moment, showing a version of Davis that is genuinely generous rather than just charming for his own benefit.

With episodes 6 and 7 now out, only two episodes remain in the first season. Season 1 has been defined by consistently good writing and solid, if sometimes overly broad, humour, but Episode 7 is the first time the season feels a little uncertain about where everything is heading. The romances are being shuffled quickly, and the show will need its final two episodes to stick the landing.

With Abby now seemingly free of Austin, and Kel newly in bed with Kate, the season’s final shape is starting to come into focus. ‘Not Suitable for Work’ has been co-created by Mindy Kaling and Charlie Grandy, and it has become known for its witty take on the lives of young professionals working in New York City.

Whether the finale can tie together everything the show has been building toward will be the real test of whether ‘Not Suitable for Work’ has earned its place in Kaling’s increasingly impressive television legacy. If you have been following along, now is the perfect time to weigh in — do you think Davis has any real shot with AJ by the time the season wraps, or has that window already closed for good?