Encore en confinement

As soon as Ruben says “I think I can live with it,” smirking through the offer to have Niall work as his gardener/cleaner to help pay back the loaned money Niall is unable to return to him, Niall, who considers this role to be another way that Ruben is attempting to make Niall his “bitch,” attempts to regain his footing in the relationship by complimenting Mona on how “free” she looked dancing in school, now that Ruben won’t let her do the same as an adult.  

Now Ruben, who has been emasculated by Niall siding with his wife’s right to self-expression over his brother’s role as patriarch, establishes himself as the dominant brother by forcing Niall to spy on Mona for him under the threat of telling Ava that Niall misused the funds her father gave them to pay off Niall’s debts to Ruben.  

Niall, of course, does as Ruben requires. His initial revenge comes in the form of inviting Mona for a drink – something Ruben explicitly ruled against. Later, when Ruben finds the information Niall offers from the spying-session to be unsatisfactory and attempts to force him to continue spying while actively belittling every aspect of Niall’s life and declaring “I’ve got your fucking balls, Bambi” -- which, of course, utilizes the infantilizing nickname that Niall, a settled adult, rejects –  Niall, peeved, has to one-up him by flaunting the one success he has had that Ruben cannot achieve: he embraces Ava’s pregnancy and announces it to Ruben.  

And how does Ruben respond to this slight? Well, after getting caught stripping and groping Niall in the street, he emasculates him in front of his girlfriend by asking for the money Niall owes him in front of her. “Ava, you’re gonna be a great mum. And Niall. You’re gonna be a dad.” (Ruben, who views himself as a “provider,” despite his current failure to do so successfully, still can only see himself as a feasible patriarch because he lives up to the standards of hegemonic masculinity; penniless, weak Niall, does not and, thus, cannot be a good dad).  

And how does Niall get his revenge? -- he strikes at the heart of Ruben's home again by, first, asserting himself as the innocent/good guy (“he forced it out of me," telling Mona to leave Ruben, and initially rejecting her kiss) and, then, besmirching Ruben's crown jewel/encroaching on his territory by having sex with his wife in his own kitchen.  

And what do we see next, but the complete collapse of the dynamics they managed to maintain even through fourteen years apart! A jobless Ruben is running from Niall through the streets of Aberdeen, Niall is abandoning his girlfriend and unborn child for a prostitute, and Ruben is smashing in the wrong man’s head.  

In the end, they’re both at rock bottom (Ruben broke and, thus, unable to meet the demands of his “place in the world” and Niall, losing his girlfriend and child, the one thing he had that Ruben could not, and breaking up his pitiable brother’s marriage) for the very reasons they used to be on top (having money/masculinity and successfully fathering a child).