Summary
Half Man continues to be impossible to look away from but harrowing to watch. In the past, Ruben’s violent psychopathy follows Niall to university, while in the present, a big reveal reshapes the story.
Half Man is a cruel show when you think about it. Sure, it’s about cruelty, but that’s not really what I mean. Just think about how it’s structured. Its premiere did enough to introduce brothers Ruben and Niall and communicate why the latter would be so desperate to get away from the former. In Episode 2, it allows Niall to get away for just long enough that Ruben storming back into his life stings even more. That feeling of inescapability is palpable, for Niall and indeed for us.
In the flashback sequences of this follow-up hour, Niall has gone to university – crucially, without Ruben. It’s an opportunity for a fresh start, and he treats it as such. Freed from the confines of Ruben’s protective mania, he’s suddenly alone, and the ways in which he’s unable to properly function without Ruben’s say-so become obvious as he attempts to navigate a dynamic with his new flatmates, who include Joanna, a French student named Celeste, and a sensitive gay man named Alby.
Niall’s early, fumbling attempts to make friends and enjoy Fresher’s Week are awkward but nonthreatening. He’s a guy still coming to terms with who he is. But he’s also a guy who has left behind his safety net, even though that safety net is a nutcase criminal, and it’s only a matter of time before he needs that comforting shroud again. The push and pull between Niall’s fear of Ruben and his need to be protected and reassured by him remains fascinating, especially given the distance that has accrued off-screen between episodes.
Ruben’s arrival brings with it a flurry of partying, intimidation, and eventually violence. Initially, he’s mostly enamoured with Joanne and Celeste, and they with him, but the longer he’s there, the more combustible things become. Ruben’s personality is good for a party, but the need to constantly be straining against the boundaries of acceptability never turns off. He makes conflict where there is none and continuously injects chaos into calm. It’s impossible for Niall to settle in, because it’s impossible for Ruben to settle at all.
Alby becomes Niall’s outlet because he sees something of himself there. Niall has, on some level, always known that he’s gay, but he has never had the opportunity to explore that with anyone who might feel the same. Alby’s comfort with his own sexuality allows him to take on a nurturing quality for Niall, helping him to guide him through his confusion. But, again, Ruben.
Alby’s understanding has limits. After he and Niall progress their relationship, the predicament of having to keep it secret from Ruben presents itself, and that isn’t something that Alby is willing to do, even out of respect for Niall. The situation becomes especially fraught when Alby believes that Niall has told Ruben about the two of them and misinterprets Ruben’s “apology” – he’s saying sorry for spitting in Joanna’s face and wrecking the flat, not for being cruel about Alby and Niall’s relationship – as acceptance. Once it becomes clear that Niall hasn’t had the courage to tell Ruben the truth, Alby understandably feels betrayed, ashamed, and annoyed, and threatens to out Niall. When Niall tries to stop him, Alby shrugs him off, causing him to fall and bang his head, so Ruben goes postal and beats Alby half to death.
This, like the “sex” scene in the premiere, is bracingly hard to watch. Half Man Episode 2 doesn’t shrink away from all kinds of discomfort, but the savagery of its violence is especially disturbing, an assault so prolonged that Ruben can’t even pretend to have seen red and snapped. There’s a calculatedness to it that gives Ruben a truly monstrous contour, those tiny moments of humanity and possible redemption glimpsed in the premiere now in the rear-view mirror.
Ruben shooting gun fingers at Niall as he’s folded into a police car becomes a recurring motif in the present day; he does the same thing when he takes a seat in the pews at the wedding. Niall, we learn, is marrying Alby, who is now badly disfigured from the beating. He’s as surprised and as terrified as Niall to see Ruben lurking in the crowd (I think this is happening before the barn scene we saw in the premiere). What on earth is going to happen next?
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