#half man speculation

[danielsarmand]

before i lose you forever. before i lose you forever. before i lose you forever. it always bothered me that ruben says this to niall AFTER the marriage because well, technically, he's lost him already by then. but no. it's way more literal than that. before i well and truly lose you forever because you are not getting out of here alive and possibly neither am i and we both know this

[dorsetti]

Have we considered the very strong possibility that if Niall had come out to Ruben in their teenage years and they had acted on their attraction & gotten together, Niall would have the same fate as Mona? Love is powerful but we have to accept that it alone can’t undo the severe trauma Ruben experienced. Would Ruben have allowed Niall to even go to university? Oxford would’ve been a non-starter unless Ruben had received a lot of help. And his idea of masculinity doesn’t seem to allow for that professional help.

And unless Ruben does the work to overcome this trauma, 2010 Niall would be the one sitting at a set dining table for two, alone & crying. Conflicted by his love for Ruben, the suffocating reality that he may never change, mourning the boy he was, and resenting the man he’s become.

[make-a-desert-call-it-peace]

Walk with me on this one, but I have been thinking about Ruben biting some adult man’s nose off at age 15. And the man’s wife left him afterwards. And while it’s unclear when Maura and Ruben’s dad separated, it’s clear that Ruben lived in the same house as his dad pre-nose-biting.

What if Ruben’s dad wasn’t the only one abusing him? What if that guy did too (or tried to)? Biting a nose off is not exactly a first choice move in most fights, but if you’re under someone with their face close to yours it’s a pretty good target. And Ruben’s dad seems like the shitty kind of guy to trade access to Ruben for drugs or favors or access to other victims.

[danielsarmand]

so anyway i have been known to say this but if the show ends with one of them still alive (niall i guess at this point) i will actually move to a cabin in the middle of the woods and relinquish all worldly possessions and pleasures forever

[danielsarmand]

"why don't you just tell him, niall?"

what? oh tell my brother that the baby he's having with his wife is actually mine because i wanted to give him a child so bad that i had to use her body as proxy? i can't very well do that now can i alby. so anyway are you in the market for marriage

[danielsarmand]

what's totally fucked is that uncreative or not (and i don't think it would be), having both niall and ruben die really is the only kind of happy ending we can get here. sounds absolutely bonkers but it's true that's how they end up together AND that's how the cycle breaks AND that's how they get to rest. i need richard to be uncreative if this is what it means idc lmao

[danielsarmand]

Do you think Ruben and Niall will have a new set of golden years (like the years between episodes 1 and 2) now and before next episode?

based on the preview i think they might! a few years of respite before it all breaks down again, where niall is once again involved in ruben's life and with mona too and they have this thing going on for them. but i don't really think it'll last long unfortunately (then again, it never did)