In this week’s episode of Half Man, the boys are growing up – but they’re not quite growing apart.

Half Man stars Mitchell Robertson and Stuart Campbell, who respectively play younger version of Jamie Bell and Richard Gadd‘s characters, continue at the helm of HBO’s riveting new drama in Episode 2. After years of living together under the same roof, Niall moves to Glasgow to attend university on his own, where his mother drops him off with a stern warning not to contact Ruben. But uni proves to be more overwhelming than expected when he meets Alby (Bilal Hasna), who challenges him to try and accept – or at least explore – his sexuality.

But in his moment of panic, Niall retreats to the only person who he’s felt protected by: Ruben.

“It is a real turning point,” Robertson recently told DECIDER in a chat about Half Man Episode 2. “It’s funny, like you sometimes will choose potentially what’s bad for us just because it’s familiar. And it kind of feels a little bit self-destructive when he does it. When he’s in that moment of panic, the only solution that he can really think of is Ruben.”

Ruben arrives in Glasgow with an alluring air of danger, appearing like an evil being Niall mistakenly summoned. And to the surprise of no one, his visit ends in tragedy for Niall and Alby in a moment that will change the trajectory of all of their lives.

Keep reading to check out DECIDER’s chat with Robertson and Campbell, in which the actors discussed this “turning point” in the series and their experience working with Bell and Gadd on developing their characters together.

DECIDER: I know the show takes place over several years, beginning in the 80s, but do you feel like the subject matter of the show is particularly relevant to today? 

MITCHELL ROBERTSON: We’ve been speaking about this. Yeah, it feels like if you took away the texture of the 80s, then the story could very much happen in 2026. 

STUART CAMPBELL: I think that was kind of a sort of the goal as well. We did the research about the 80s and were sent videos, but the context and the culture and what it meant to be growing up in that time, but also we’re just trying to tap into the truth of the characters and sort of create truth on screen for these people. And that can kind of be, could, could still be now I think. 

MR: Yeah. Yeah. And that kind of time of the 80s as well was, in different ways, particularly specific to Niall’s journey as well. Obviously the things that he’s struggling with, the time that the story exists and like adds to that as well. But it definitely could. It could happen in 2026 and he could have the same things going on and say them. 

Did you work with Jamie and Richard on developing your characters for the show? 

MR: Yeah, I spoke to Jamie a little bit before. We shot first, so I spoke to him a little bit before we started shooting, and we had a conversation about the inner workings of Niall and how that may be manifest and like the relationship he has with himself, the relationship he’s got with Ruben. By the time we were shooting our stuff, I kind of spoke to him a little bit. But to be honest, all of the consistency that you see going into older Niall was all Jamie’s work, and that’s from him watching dailies of our stuff. 

SC: Richard was kind of there all the way through the process, all the auditions and the rehearsals and every day on set as an EP and writer. So I kind of had him to lean on and as a constant sort of source. We could ask each other questions. We kind of did the work together. It was my job to try and find some of his inflections to bring the voice closer to him. He captured some of my mannerisms that I’ve seen now in 4, 5 and six that I maybe didn’t know that I was doing. So that’s credit to him. And then we talked about hair and makeup, tattoos, clothes, things like that, to what that meant as the character. But he was really good at not being like trying to inhibit my performance and to not take away the spontaneity that we could find on the day together. So that we can kind of capture truth. There’s not a fixed idea of what Ruben has to be. So, we need both, really. 

Mitchell I’d love to ask, what did you think about Niall’s decision to call Ruben when he gets to Glasgow? It feels like a real turning point for the series. What do you think?

MR: It’s funny, we were at the London screening when that happens. One of my agents said they actually wanted to like, hit me because he was sat next to me to be like, ‘Why are you doing that?’ It is a real turning point. It’s almost like he’s chosen. It’s funny, like you sometimes will choose potentially what’s bad for us just because it’s familiar. And it kind of feels a little bit self-destructive when he does it, and when he’s in that moment of panic, the only solution that he can really think of is Ruben. But it is a turning point, because what happens maybe if he doesn’t call him, you know? Maybe all pans out different. We’ll never know. 

And on the other side of that, Stuart, what do you think is going through Ruben’s mind when the boys reunite in Glasgow? 

SC: Well, so this is the kind of bridge between Episode 1 and Episode 2. And I think that the relationship has kind of flourished in a way, because when Ruben first arrives, it was my intention to bring a kind of lone wolf, ‘I can sort of survive. I don’t really need anybody’ energy. And then all of a sudden, we do click and there’s an unspoken connection in that we give each other what the other maybe lacks. I probably want to encourage it and want to be with you at university. That just sounds like fun. […] I want to kind of be around him and go towards him. It’s not just it’s not just Niall wanting protection from him, I get something from the relationship as well. 

MR: It’s that sometimes Ruben also kind of enjoys the version that Niall thinks he is, so he can maybe play up to that.