Misfits series 5 episode 4 review

This review contains spoilers.

It’s official – this final series of Misfits is really great. Following one pretty average opener, the last three episodes have been consistently strong, emotional and hilarious hours that almost make you sad they’re bowing out this year. It’s so great that a show can manage to go out on a high even after a difficult couple of years, and I just hope the next four episodes are equally entertaining. In this week’s episode, Rudy Two turns up at the community centre as an old man and the gang have to look after him.

In terms of an emotional connection to a character at this point, Rudy Two is probably the best we’ve got. With everyone else doing fine, but only just settling into their roles, there’s a lot of pressure on Joseph Gilgun to guide us through these episodes. Rudy One had his own adventure a couple of weeks ago and, although this episode was billed as Rudy Two-centric, in reality it was about the rest of the group’s relationship with him. As much as they attested that he was as much a part of the group as any of them, he’s been routinely abused and taken for granted since his introduction three years ago. 

And that’s the point of this adventure – to realign the two sides of Rudy without the disconnect between his sensitive side and his crude, brash side. This is the long way round to a heroic redemption story, and there might even be the reward of love on the cards to boot. Rudy finally realised and appreciated the role Rudy Two has to play in his ultimate well being and, after some not-so-gentle nudging for Jess, stepped up to help the other part of him in turn. It may have felt slightly odd to see the character flip so fast from his usual offensive self to sentimental and caring, but that didn’t make it any less sweet. I also thought they might genuinely kill him off, and that made me doubly glad when they didn’t.

And the slow-build towards Jess and Rudy’s relationship has been really great to watch. It hasn’t been forced or rushed and now, against all of my expectations, it feels completely organic and natural. It helps that they are my two favourite characters currently on the show, of course, but this is a romance I can get behind leading up to our finale. Will it be happily ever after, or does that latest woollen creation foretell a much more tragic ending for them? The image on that jumper certainly didn’t look good for our heroes, but I doubt it would have been teased this early if it were going to play out the way we expect.

There wasn’t much room for other storylines this week, but we did get to see the beginnings of a superhero attitude in Alex after Abbey told him off for not using his power to help people. To be fair to him, the prospect of shagging a closeted gay guy (hilarious power!) and a tortoise Abbey had adopted isn’t great, and I’m glad he could resolve the former issue without actually using his power. All the different characters the support group have been bringing us have been great so far, and hopefully many of them will get to play a role in whatever showdown the writers have planned for a few weeks time. 

Next week Alex is on the rampage with a nail gun after being affected by the rogue-power of the week, and there’s trouble for Rudy and Jess before they even get started.

Read Caroline’s review of the previous episode, here.

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