Sharon Horgan says her character in HBO’s “Youth” probably did not sleep with the man she wakes up beside in the Season 1 finale, though she wants viewers to decide for themselves.
Spoilers follow.
In the finale, which streamed Nov. 1, literary agent Alex spends the night at an industry awards ceremony after discovering that her boyfriend, Patrick (Rupert Friend), has written a list weighing the pros and cons of dating her. One entry notes that she cannot give him children. Alex drinks, flirts with the author Malcolm (Douglas Hodge) and wakes in his bed. Malcolm hints that they slept together. Her boss then calls to say he has re-signed with the agency, a deal Alex does not want.
Horgan, who created the series and stars in it, reads the scene differently. “I don’t think she did,” she told TheWrap, explaining that in her version Alex drank heavily to avoid the pain and ended up at the wrong man’s home to keep the night going. She added that she loves leaving endings open, and did not want her interpretation treated as settled fact.
The episode closes with a mirror of the premiere’s final image. Alex walks away from Patrick, telling him she will not take parenthood from him. She then asks her teenage son, Ruairí (Aran Murphy), whether she can climb into his bed, and he silently agrees. Horgan said she planned the echo while writing the first episode, and described the moment as the comfort a parent seeks once children grow out of giving it.
She built the finale around a single event after attending the Women’s Prize ceremony in London for research. A urinary tract infection that sends Alex repeatedly to the bathroom reflects an aspect of menopause that television rarely shows, Horgan said. She defended the sudden bursts of slapstick that interrupt Alex’s most painful scenes, calling comedy an ideal medium for hard subjects because it provides a release valve.
HBO renewed “Youth” for a second season a day after the finale. The eight-episode first season drew strong reviews, with critic scores on Rotten Tomatoes in the mid-to-high 90s. Horgan, whose earlier work includes “Catastrophe” and “Bad Sisters,” says she has only begun “noodling” ideas for what comes next.
