{"id":439480,"date":"2026-05-22T04:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T04:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/439480\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T04:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T04:51:15","slug":"half-man-episode-5-recap-were-just-normal-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/439480\/","title":{"rendered":"Half Man episode 5 recap: We’re just normal men"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a moment while watching last week\u2019s <\/a>Half Man that I wondered if maybe I\u2019ve been unfair to Ruben. It happened during the long argument at the hospital. Yes, Ruben flipped out and physically assaulted Niall. But Niall\u2019s bitter rant during that scene seemed unnecessarily mean. He suggested that not only did Ruben not deserve any success, but that he fully expected his semi-brother to screw everything up. It\u2019s not unreasonable for someone who was a raging bull as a teenager to mature into a person who could take responsibility for his actions and lead a productive life. That Niall would actively root against this almost\u2014almost\u2014put me on Ruben\u2019s side<\/p>\n

But I\u2019m glad I didn\u2019t waver, because in episode five\u2014the penultimate episode of this miniseries\u2014Niall is proven right. Not only does Ruben slip back into his old ways, but by the end of the hour we learn that even his \u201cbetter man\u201d persona was all an act. Ruben, it seems, will always remain Ruben.<\/p>\n

The problem with this, from a narrative perspective, is that Ruben\u2019s regression (and Niall\u2019s, which I\u2019ll get to) is wholly predictable. As soon as Richard Gadd sets up this episode\u2019s plot dominoes, it\u2019s easy to see how they\u2019ll fall. Nothing really revelatory emerges.<\/p>\n

In fact, the most startling thing about this episode is how it begins. After a brief framing scene at Niall and Alby\u2019s wedding, the flashback drops us to a point roughly a year after the hospital confrontation. Niall seems to be doing much better. He\u2019s working on a new book, and he\u2019s dating a very nice and apparently well-to-do woman, Ava (Anjli Mohindra), who is pregnant with his child. He\u2019s also back to socializing with Ruben. Early on we see Niall and Ava having an afternoon glass of wine at Ruben and Mona\u2019s house, and even Ruben is amused by how \u201cposh\u201d these two poor Scottish lads have become.<\/p>\n

That sweet life rapidly sours. Before heading home, Niall gets a discomfiting request from Ruben, who asks for immediate repayment of the 30 grand he has loaned to Niall. That\u2019d be a tough tab for anyone to pay, but it\u2019s especially tricky for Niall, because a few months earlier he got Ava\u2019s father to pony up that 30k\u2026 which Niall then spent on himself. He has nothing to give to Ruben and no one\u2019s pockets to dip into\u2014at least not without having to answer some embarrassing questions from Ava and her folks.<\/p>\n

What happened to the money? The answer to that dredges up one of the largest issues with Half Man that Gadd hasn\u2019t quite solved\u2014although he does try in this episode. Niall used the cash to engage the services of a quack therapist and con artist, who sold him a \u201ccure\u201d for his homosexuality and then cleaned out his bank account.<\/p>\n

Niall\u2019s discomfort with his queerness has always rung a bit false, given that his mom is a lesbian\u2014and knows he\u2019s gay\u2014and given that every woman in his life has been cool with it. (\u201cWhy can\u2019t you just be happy with that side of yourself,\u201d Ava asks him, adding, \u201cFrom what I understand, every truck driver in Glasgow knows.\u201d) Niall\u2019s explanation for his squirminess is unsatisfactory. When people remind him that the public\u2019s attitude toward gay people has softened considerably, he replies, \u201cThe fact the world has changed makes it worse.\u201d His attitude here is similar to how he reacted to bombing out at Oxford. Because Niall had every advantage and squandered it, that means his worst enemy is ultimately himself, and not society\u2014or Ruben.<\/p>\n

Conceptually, this makes sense. Thematically, it makes sense. In this show about the darker side of manliness, of course Niall would see his attraction to men as a character flaw. But this trait has never seemed believably organic. Half Man\u2019s \u201cself-hating gay\u201d element comes off like a literary construct. It feels conceptual. It feels theme-y.<\/p>\n

All of that said, do you know what still works like gangbusters on this show? Gadd\u2019s and Bell\u2019s performances. They bring a vital spark to the miserable pieces of shit they\u2019re playing. As the plot this week rolls inexorably in one direction, the show\u2019s two stars keep finding the nuances\u2014and even some nasty kind of joy\u2014nestled within the inevitable tragedy.<\/p>\n

As I said, it\u2019s not hard to figure how everything will play out this episode. When Ruben privately moans to Niall about how his wife wants to teach dance classes alongside her friend Benji, you can set a countdown clock for: 1. When Niall will sympathize with Mona; 2. When he\u2019ll sleep with her; and 3. When Ruben will stomp on Benji. (It\u2019s also only a matter of time before Niall succumbs to his lusts and starts having sex with men again.)<\/p>\n

The biggest twist this week is also fairly obvious. Why is Ruben suddenly so anxious to get his money back, when he earns a six-figure salary as an oilman? It\u2019s because he lost that job a long time ago, and has never told anybody. Niall finds out by accident when he drops by Ruben\u2019s ex-employer, after which we get an inverse of last week\u2019s chase scene, with Niall running after Ruben in a suburban neighborhood in order to find out why he got fired. (The answer, unsurprisingly, is that Ruben got violent with a co-worker.)<\/p>\n

The fun of this episode\u2014and it is fleetingly fun, however perversely\u2014comes from watching how Niall and Ruben use what they know to torment each other, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Before Ruben comes clean about why he needs the money, he allows Niall to start paying him back by serving as his housecleaner. (Oof.) Niall retaliates by encouraging Mona to teach that dance class; and once Mona lets it spill that Ruben has a low sperm count and can\u2019t father a child, Niall suddenly becomes super-excited about his own baby.<\/p>\n

Niall\u2019s sickest bit of manipulation though comes after Mona treats her tryst with him as no big deal. For Niall, this was supposed to be his devastating secret betrayal of Ruben. When Mona shrugs it off as nothing special, Niall begins fanning the flames of Ruben\u2019s jealousy over her relationship with Benji. It\u2019s like Niall\u2019s aiming a weapon directly at Benji\u2019s head.<\/p>\n

Ruben\u2019s rageful side\u2014suppressed so skillfully in episode four\u2014comes out often this week. Sometimes we hear about it from Mona, who confesses that when she suggested they adopt a kid he tore a sink out of the wall. Sometimes we see it in its full horrifying flower, as when Ruben congratulates Niall for becoming a father by first playfully poking at him and then angrily yanking Niall\u2019s pants down, demanding to see the penis that got a woman pregnant.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a sad figure of a man, this Ruben Pallister. He maxed out credit cards to keep pretending he could pay for a cushy middle-class lifestyle. And he refuses to declare bankruptcy, because that wouldn\u2019t be macho. The person Ruben is prevents him from being the person he yearns to be. And the worst part? With every skull he cracks and every bill he leaves unpaid, he knows that he\u2019s living down to Niall\u2019s expectations. Niall knew Ruben would blow it. It\u2019s the one thing Niall always gets right.<\/p>\n

Stray observations<\/p>\n

\u2022 Our closing credits song is The Psychedelic Furs\u2019 \u201cSister Europe<\/a>,\u201d from their moody and raw 1980 debut album, a personal favorite. It reminds me that I haven\u2019t yet written about this show\u2019s odd approach to time\/eras. Perhaps the finale will offer a reason to get into that.
\n\u2022 I\u2019m not going to guess what might happen in the finale, because my few stabs at speculation in these reviews have gone pretty poorly thus far. That said, it\u2019s clear in the flashback that Niall\u2019s next novel will be about Ruben (called \u201cCosmo\u201d in the book), so I could still be right about that being the impetus for Ruben\u2019s wedding fury.
\n\u2022 Our framing scenes this week are especially useless. The opening sees Niall picking a fight with Ruben during the outdoor dancing part of the wedding; the ending sees the two of them enter the barn. Again: nothing new.
\n\u2022 I have to admit that I\u2019m kind of on Niall\u2019s side when it comes to the birthing instructor publicly making fun of him for not paying attention in class. Niall\u2019s the paying customer! Cut him some slack! (That said, Ava\u2019s not wrong to be mad at Niall for this. It\u2019s his baby she\u2019s having. He should focus.)
\n\u2022 A perfectly cutting line from Ruben: \u201cAva, you\u2019re gonna be a great mom. And Niall, you\u2019re gonna be a dad.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was a moment while watching last week\u2019s Half Man that I wondered if maybe I\u2019ve been unfair…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-439480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}