Half Man finally bares its teeth in Episode 2.

This week’s episode of Richard Gadd’s HBO show Half Man demonstrates just how far the show is willing to go in its exploration of “male rage,” as Gadd described it in a recent chat with DECIDER.

“Had we done the show and not shown the extremity of that, I think we would have been doing a disservice to the story,” the actor said.

**Major spoilers for Half Man Episode 2 below!**

In Half Man Episode 2, Ruben (Stuart Campbell) brutally attacks Niall’s (Mitchell Robertson) flatmate Albie, sending Albie (Bilal Hasna) to the hospital and Ruben to jail. Niall had just begun attending university in Glasgow where he could get a fresh start away from Ruben’s influence, or “see what life is like without his light blinding your eyes,” as his mother put it. But when presented with the opportunity to explore his sexuality for the very first time with Albie, Niall panics and instead asks Ruben to visit him at uni, seeking his familiarly toxic style of protection. But this decision bears dire consequences for Albie, who ends up the victim of Ruben’s viciously violent temper.

While the level of violence seen in Episode 2 and beyond may be shocking for the viewer, Gadd strived to avoid making it feel gratuitous, instead hoping it would reveal something about these characters and their struggle with masculinity.

“I think anytime you see a bit of violence in the show, I think it’s always plot driven, it’s always earned. It’s always extremely revealing about the characters that are committing those acts,” Gadd said. “And I think where violence falls down in television and film is when it’s used gratuitously, for pointless reasons, or it’s just there purely to shock people or make them recoil in their seats.”

Gadd joked there was a desire on set amongst the stunt coordinators to “do the kind of Krav Maga sort of fight,” but he avoided that in order to ground the action and make it feel “real.”

“I think in an exploration of male violence, you have to show the lengths to which you can get to and the damage that it causes to others. And I think if you pull your punches on that, quite literally, you won’t get anywhere at all with the meaning behind it,” he said.

Needless to say, the scene is difficult to watch – but it is revelatory.

While Episode 1 hinted at Ruben’s violent capabilities when it revealed just how badly he had beaten Niall’s school bully, Episode 2 forces the viewer – and Niall – to truly face the darkest parts of his character. He can be charming, loyal and protective in a way that is admittedly compelling, but there’s a penchant for violence that he can’t resist. Ruben believes he’s defending Niall in his own violent way, but the attack is so brutal it’s hard to believe Albie survives it at all. At the same time, it also shows that Niall’s fear and shame can leave a real impact on others.

Half Man, at its core, highlights the ways shame and toxic masculinity intertwine in the tragic lives of these characters, leaving a trail of collateral damage in their wake. Gadd, who wrote, starred and executive produced the new limited series, said writing Half Man did not offer any catharsis or answers about the “knotty subject” of masculinity, but still led him to new conclusions about the complicated matter.

“I never really set out to answer questions about my own masculinity. I think all I really landed on was that there’s more questions than answers, really,” he admitted.

He continued, “I never landed on any conclusions other than that the whole experience around masculinity is very complicated. And I almost landed in a good way, finding that it’s even more knotty and confusing than when I started.”

New episodes of Half Man air Thursdays 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.