Warning: This post contains spoilers for Thursday’s “Half Man” finale.
Richard Gadd was riding high after the surprise success of his Netflix series “Baby Reindeer,” so HBO understandably snatched up his next project, the limited series “Half Man.” (Gadd wrote and stars in the series, as he did in “Baby Reindeer.”) But even for “Baby Reindeer” fans prepared for shocking twists, “Half Man” has been a punishingly grim slog, dragging its characters through harsh violence and sexual trauma with almost no relief. Thursday’s finale wasn’t much of a relief, either… and it ended with one final twist of the knife. (Literally.)
As the finale begins, we head back to the barn at Niall’s wedding, where Ruben takes his shirt off and wraps his hands, preparing for a fight, before asking Niall: “How long did you wait? Before you took what’s mine?” Then we flash back to Niall basking in the rave reviews for his new book — a thinly veiled memoir of life with the volatile Ruben — while he snorts drugs and indulges in anonymous sex with random men. Ruben is in prison after the savage beating he dished out to Benji, but he’s motivated to clean up his life since Mona now has a three-year-old son named Baird. But wasn’t Ruben infertile? And didn’t Niall and Mona sleep together about four years ago? Yeah, we can sense a storm brewing.
Niall reconnects with an old friend
Mona later confirms: Baird is Niall’s baby. She wants to come clean to Ruben, but Niall warns her that Ruben would kill them both if he knew. Niall falls back into hard drugs and random gay sex when he gets an urgent text from his mom. Ruben’s mom Maura is dying, and a strung-out Niall rushes to her bedside — only to vomit all over her. (Ew.) He agrees to get checked out, and he sees a familiar face at the hospital: It’s Alby, his old college flame, who works as a nurse now. Alby encourages Niall to be honest about his sexuality, and when the two of them reconnect, we actually start to have hope for Niall. (We know they get married, after all.)
But Niall can’t stay away from the bathhouse, and after another wild night, he rams his car into a lamppost. He tests positive for meth and crack and gets arrested for driving under the influence. He ends up late for Maura’s funeral, and he’s surprised to see Ruben there, granted special release with a prison guard in tow. Ruben gives an impassioned eulogy for his mother, admitting that he doesn’t just miss his mom — he misses the relationship he could’ve had with her. He breaks into sobs as he says how much he regrets all the years he spent locked up, because it cost him time with his mother. He’ll see her in the next life, though, he adds, and he’ll do everything he can to make up for this one.
The truth comes out
After the funeral, Niall confronts Mona and warns her to stay away from Ruben, and she’s threatening to tell Ruben everything when Ruben walks in and overhears. He demands to know what they’re hiding, but the prison guard pulls him away before they can answer. Niall learns that a reporter saw him at the bathhouse, and he’s panicked that his lifestyle will be splashed all over the tabloids. Alby encourages him to be honest with everyone in his life — including Ruben. So Niall visits Ruben in prison and tells him the truth: He’s gay. (OK, not the whole truth: He says Mona was threatening to tell Ruben that when he walked in.) To Niall’s surprise, Ruben laughs it off and points out that Niall was really the only one who was bothered by his sexuality. Well, that was easy.
Ruben opens up to Niall about his father, who sexually abused him as a boy, and how ashamed he was that his body “would respond” sometimes to the abuse. Niall offers him support, and the two share a laugh for once, opening up about all their darkest secrets. But the laughs stop cold when Niall admits he slept with Mona and that Baird is his son. Then we head back to the barn, where Ruben lies on top of Niall, suffocating him. Niall reaches for a knife and stabs Ruben in the side with it, but Ruben regains the upper hand and finishes the job, killing Niall. The series ends with Ruben sitting in silence, catching his breath — and we know from the earlier episodes that he dies from his wounds as well.
It’s a bleak and unsatisfying end to a bleak and unsatisfying show. “Half Man” certainly touched on some provocative topics and contained some standout performances — Stuart Campbell was particularly impressive as a young Ruben — but in the end, it felt like a lot of pain and suffering for not much purpose at all. But what did you think of “Half Man”? Give the series a grade in our poll, and hit the comments to share your thoughts.