Warning! Contains SPOILERS for Living With Yourself season 1.
Netflix’s Living With Yourself drops a big twist at the very end, with the reveal that Kate Elliot (Aisling Bea) is pregnant, but doesn’t know which Miles (both played by Paul Rudd) is the father. Living With Yourself, created by Timothy Greenberg (The Daily Show With Jon Stewart), centers on Rudd’s Miles, an unhappy man who goes through a mysterious process in order to become the idealized version of himself.
Of course, things hit a bit of a hitch when it turns out that it really involves cloning, and that the original Miles has been replaced by a clone. When the first Miles returns and meets the new and improved version, that’s when things take a turn and Living With Yourself lifts off. Across the course of season 1, both versions of Miles compete for Kate’s affections, which gives the Netflix comedy a chance to pit Rudd against Rudd (who absolutely carries the show despite pulling double time). Along with that, a central thread is Kate and Miles’ attempts to have a baby, with a flashback revealing they previously lost their unborn child.
In the Living With Yourself series finale, Kate finally makes a choice between the two Mileses, opting for the original one over the more perfect clone (of course, there are no bad choices when Paul Rudd’s involved). However, just when Clone Miles is about to leave and you think Kate and Original Miles can get on with their lives and pretend this whole weird incident never happened, Kate reveals that she’s pregnant, and doesn’t know which Miles is the father. On top of that, there’s apparently no way to check, which makes sense since both versions would presumably have the exact same DNA make-up. Not to worry, as Original Miles declares that they are now “a family”, which means they’re all going to be living together and raising the child as a trio (something that could provide good fuel for season 2, should it happen).
However, given this is a show with clones, it seems unlikely that its high-concept couldn’t stretch to figuring out the parentage of a child, even if the two potential fathers are technically the same. While Living With Yourself’s ending doesn’t offer an answer, either saving a reveal for season 2 or letting viewers decide, it is easy to imagine that the father is Clone Miles, since, as the perfect version, he’d surely be more likely to get Kate pregnant given her and Miles’ struggles to conceive. That would likely offer up greater potential for the future too, since she’d be giving birth to a half-clone baby, which means it could extend the concept further.
The counter to that, however, is that it thematically makes more sense for Living With Yourself to have Original Miles be the father; since it’s about him and Kate working through their problems, and realizing there isn’t a magic fix to a relationship, but that it’s worth sticking at anyway. On that level, it would be nice to think he is the father, rather than the clone. It doesn’t offer the same comedic potential for the future, but if Living With Yourself is a one-and-done show, then having Kate and the Original Miles get their happy ending is rather more fitting. Whether we’ll get an answer remains to be seen, but by the end of the series, the two versions of Miles have reconciled their differences with each other and Kate, understanding and appreciating their flaws and coming to terms with who they are and what they have. It’s only at that moment, really, that Living With Yourself fully realizes its title.
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