Summary
Half Man bristles with tension in Episode 5 as Niall repeatedly tries to pre-empt another of Ruben’s outbursts, creating a highly stressful hour that still leaves the biggest question unanswered ahead of the finale.
Watching Half Man can be so stressful that I’m not sure it even qualifies as entertainment. Art is supposed to make you feel things, obviously, and this show certainly does that. But what I mostly felt during Episode 5 is sheer, weapons-grade anxiety. It’s built around the inevitability of coming violence and ruin, and Niall’s fervent, albeit fruitless, efforts to stop it, and those two things in combination make the whole thing a nightmare. It’s really quite brilliant when you think about it.
I’ll also spare you the suspense, since it doesn’t actually reveal what happened to Ruben, whose death was confirmed in the brief present-day sequences of the previous episode. We see Niall confront him for the first time at the wedding, we see them walk together to the barn, and, at the very end of the episode, we see Ruben lock it. But we see nothing else. We’re none the wiser about what really went down. That, I suppose, will be something for the finale to unpack.
We’re also nowhere near Niall meeting Alby. As far as we know, Ruben’s trial was the last time Niall saw him. That means that their entire relationship is going to have to be confined to the margins of the final episode, which seems an odd creative choice that I’m unsure how the show will handle. But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Half Man has earned enough goodwill for us to assume that the matter will be handled pretty adroitly.
In the meantime, we find Niall in a relationship with a woman named Ava. She’s 42 and unexpectedly pregnant, which is bad news for Niall, both because he obviously doesn’t want a child — let alone with a woman — and it also happens to be a particularly sore spot for Ruben, with whom Niall has maintained a relationship since their little exchange of apologies last week. Niall is doing okay for himself and is on the cusp of publishing another book, but it’s clear that Ruben has been financially propping him up. And now, out of nowhere, he wants that money back.
Niall owes Ruben £30,000. Ava knows about the original loan, but she also thinks that Niall paid it back with money she got from her dad for that purpose. What he actually spent the money on is shamanistic conversion therapy, which gradually comes out during the episode. So, just in case you were wondering whether Niall had come to terms with his sexuality over the years, the answer is a resounding no. Lori even points out that his relationship with Ava only began when he got back in touch with Ruben. The implication is that she’s a beard, which makes it even more problematic that she’s planning to keep the baby.
Ruben is, by all accounts, working on himself. He has a new thing where he will acknowledge if he said something too harsh, but won’t go so far as apologising for having said it. He’s still threatening with Niall and intent on violating his space and his privacy all the time, using the idea of violence to force him into doing his bidding. When, for instance, Niall agrees to become his free housekeeper to work off some of the debt, Ruben keeps asking for pictures of his progress, then pushes Niall to essentially stalk Mona so that he can determine whether or not she’s having an affair with a man named Benji who attends her dance classes.
Ruben has an enormous problem with Mona and the dance classes. He’s terrified of her living a life on her own terms and is frantic about her potential relationship with Benji. But Niall isn’t ideally suited to being a spy. When he follows her to the dance class, he does spot a bit of familiarity between Mona and Benji, but he also goes out for a drink with Mona immediately afterward, and she reveals that the source of Ruben’s angst is that he’s infertile. This makes Ava’s pregnancy even more complicated for Niall, since he assumes — rightly — that Ruben will go ballistic with jealousy if he finds out.
Amy Manson in Half Man | Image via WarnerMedia
One of the best moments of Half Man Episode 5 — and again, I’m not sure “best” is necessarily the right word — is when Ruben does find out, and acts like a creepy lunatic in response. Gadd’s wildly compelling and deeply frightening here. You can tell that there’s a war going on behind his eyes, a supportive army taking on a desperately jealous one, and the only way he can work through it is by exerting himself physically over Niall. This is a man who is near the edge; has always been near the edge, but is teetering ever-closer all the time.
When Ruben leaves for Aberdeen to go to work offshore, Niall remains behind with Mona, who allows him to work in Ruben’s office. His new novel is unmistakably based on Ruben, and indeed her, and it’s very obvious where this is going. But the subplot doesn’t feel predictable so much as inevitable, which isn’t quite the same thing. When Niall gets home, he finds Ruben sitting in his living room, having dropped off some congratulatory roses for Ava. But he’s also calling in his debts, exposing Niall’s deception, which he assumes, understandably, is payback for the whole pregnancy thing.
During this conversation, Ruben manages to intuit that Mona has told Niall about his infertility, and he once again loses his mind. Niall is able to rush over and prevent Niall from going too far, but in the aftermath, after Ruben has left, Niall and Mona sleep together on the kitchen floor. It’s a bigger deal for Niall than it is for Mona, who, the next day, claims to have already slept with someone behind Ruben’s back — Benji. Niall is furious to discover that Ruben was right all along, but also, as Mona points out, to discover that he’s not special.
In a bit of a panic and a fury, Niall attempts to track Ruben down at work, leaving him countless voicemail messages before eventually turning up in person. The reception staff tells him that Ruben was let go ages ago and is staying with someone named Roy. After Niall catches him out and about, Ruben is forced to confess that he lost his job a year ago for lashing out at a supervisor, and has been keeping up appearances ever since by maxing out credit cards. He swears Niall to secrecy, and he agrees. It’s a different, more desperate and pathetic side of Ruben that we haven’t seen before, but it quickly gives way to the usual mania when he later turns up at Niall’s house, having picked up the frantic voicemail messages he left him and assumed — correctly — that something happened while he was away.
What he assumes, though, is that something happened with Benji, and Niall’s attempt to beat around the bush only makes that sound like a likelier possibility. For the final time in this episode, Ruben goes ballistic and races to Benji’s home, with Niall hot on his heels. By the time Niall arrives, though, Ruben has already smashed his way in and is stamping Benji’s head to pulp. Niall, frozen by flashbacks to the similar event with Alby in Episode 2, can do nothing other than collapse while Ruben smilingly looms over him.
