TVHalf Man

‘Half Man’ Ends With a Devastating Twist — and Baby Reindeer Creator Richard Gadd Says It Could Only Have Gone One Way

Richard Gadd’s HBO follow-up to Baby Reindeer wrapped its six-episode run Thursday with a brutal finale that answered the central mystery — two bodies in the barn — while leaving audiences split on whether the dour limited series earned its conclusion.

By Daniel Park6H AGO2 MIN READ

Half Man Series Finale Richard Gadd Hbo Baby Reindeer Ending — Image: Variety / HBO

Half Man, the HBO limited series from Baby Reindeer creator and star Richard Gadd, ended Thursday with a finale that revealed the show’s central mystery: what happened between Ruben (Gadd) and his stepbrother Niall (Jamie Bell) in the locked barn at Niall’s wedding — it turned out there were two bodies
Gadd, who wrote the project in 2019 before Baby Reindeer, told Variety the ending was “ambiguous” but “felt like the right way to end a show like this” — and told Slate there was only one way it could have concluded
Critical response to the finale was mixed: TV Insider and Time praised the devastating payoff, while TVLine called it a “sour note” and TV Fanatic found the series “exhausting” — a step down from the universal acclaim Baby Reindeer received
The six-episode series co-stars Jamie Bell; it premiered on HBO and streams on HBO Max

Spoilers below for the Half Man series finale.

Richard Gadd’s second act on HBO ended Thursday — and it went to a dark place, even by his standards. Half Man, the limited series Gadd wrote, created, and stars in (following the same model as his Emmy-winning Baby Reindeer), wrapped its six-episode run with a finale that revealed what actually happened between stepbrothers Ruben and Niall in the locked barn at Niall’s wedding. The show had kept that mystery at the center of its structure from the beginning; the finale answered it with what Slate called “a staggering scene of brutality and a twist.” There were two bodies in the barn, per Variety.

Gadd told Variety the finale was intentionally “ambiguous” but said it “felt like the right way to end a show like this.” He told Slate that there was, essentially, only one way it could have concluded — that the emotional and structural logic of the show pointed to this ending from early on. Gadd began writing Half Man in 2019, years before Baby Reindeer became a cultural phenomenon, making it a project he’d been carrying for a long time before HBO greenlit it, per Time.

A More Divided Reception Than Baby Reindeer

Where Baby Reindeer earned near-unanimous critical praise and six Emmys, Half Man has generated more friction. TV Fanatic’s reviewer admitted getting lost between episodes one and three. TVLine called the finale a “sour note” for a drama that had been consistently dour throughout. TV Insider’s exclusive conversation with Gadd characterized the ending as devastating and earned; Time called it “brutal” and affecting. The split reflects a show that was never going to be as widely embraced as its predecessor — it was always more difficult, more elliptical, more demanding, per TV Insider.

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About the author

Daniel Park

Daniel Park reports on television — showrunners, writers’ rooms, network shifts, and the long arc of prestige. He covered the writers’ strike from inside three rooms.