This article contains spoilers for Youth Season 1 Episode 6.
One of Sharon Horgan’s greatest strengths as a writer is her ability to lull audiences into a false sense of security, especially when everything seems to be going a little too smoothly for characters we’re rooting for. Episode 6 of Youth, written by Horgan and Lena Headey (Game of Thrones), exemplifies her fascination with the messiness of flawed relationships through Alex (Horgan) and Patrick (Rupert Friend), who still struggle to find themselves on the same page despite admitting their feelings for each other.
Commitment-phobe Patrick discovered a newfound lust for life in Episode 5 following Frank’s (Robbie Gee) heart attack, prompting him to admit to Alex that he worries he never tried hard enough to make their relationship work. By the beginning of Episode 6, they’re sharing kisses on their way to Sam (Sharlene Whyte) and a recovering Frank for dinner. The pair are now together, or so it seems. Horgan gives audiences approximately four minutes to believe Patrick has finally turned a corner before their inability to communicate casts doubt on their relationship.
Alex has fallen hard, but she can’t shake her uncertainty about Patrick’s feelings. She tells Sam she can picture herself and Patrick growing old and dying together, imagining a future with a man who still hasn’t reassured her that he wants one too. When Lars (Steve Windolf) asks Alex out for a drink, Sam warns Patrick that he needs to lock her down quickly. His response, “Good for her. You’re only young once,” is as painful as it sounds. Yet even Alex’s drinking and Xanax-fuelled afternoon fail to provoke the confrontation Patrick arguably deserves, even if she does later call him a drunk, institutionally single man-child.
If that weren’t enough to burst viewers’ bubble, Alex later broaches the subject in bed, hoping to establish whether she and Patrick are seeing other people. Patrick finds the conversation amusing, although he admits he’s wondered the same thing. They agree that whatever they have feels nice, and Patrick tells her that being with her has always felt easy. It’s a lovely sentiment, but it doesn’t answer her question. Alex wants to know whether they’re exclusive, but Patrick seems content to skirt around the subject rather than offer the clarity she desperately needs, leaving her to spiral over what he really means.
Horgan and Headey deliver a script that makes audiences laugh through the sheer cringe of Alex’s painfully relatable desperation while also evoking sympathy for her predicament. Alex deserves better than a man who takes one step forward and then two back, but the writers craft her relationship with Patrick so convincingly that it’s hard not to root for them, even when he seems incapable of offering the stability she needs right now.
Perhaps the most depressing part is how little dating seems to change with age. Girls and Sex and the City captured the romantic and sexual frustrations of women navigating their 20s and 30s on HBO, and Youth reminds us that your 50s aren’t necessarily any different from your 20s, 30s, and 40s. Women can spend decades waiting for men to decide whether they’re ready to commit, often convincing themselves that patience will eventually lead to the relationship they believe is worth waiting for. Alex knows what she wants, but instead of asking for it outright, she keeps searching Patrick’s carefully chosen words for reassurance, none of which give her a straight answer.
Elsewhere, Youth continues to sideline one of its most promising yet underdeveloped storylines with social media and its messaging influencing Ruari (Aran Murphy). The series has revealed why the teenager left university and offered some insight into his anxieties about society’s expectations of boys and men. However, it has yet to explore how those ideas have shaped his worldview or why he struggles to connect with women in depth. We repeatedly see Ruari glued to his phone, watching videos that range from mindless brainrot to more questionable content, but the show refuses to examine how online messaging about masculinity and relationships influences his attitudes and behaviour beyond his awkwardness and habit of embarrassing himself around women who show an interest in him, whether platonically or romantically.
In Episode 6, Ruari begins working in the office alongside Alex and Sam. Alex introduces him to Plum (Libby Mai), who invites him to a 1970s horror film club after noticing his The Wicker Man T-shirt. When he offers to open a coffee tin for her, he spills its contents everywhere, leaving himself red-faced once again.
The moment is amusing, but their limited interactions also highlight the storyline’s shortcomings. Ruari’s awkwardness has become a recurring punchline when there is so much more the series could explore about why he behaves this way. Horgan clearly understands how insecurity shapes relationships, as Alex and Patrick’s will-they-won’t-they dynamic demonstrates so effectively. Youth would benefit from applying that same curiosity to Ruari, particularly given the relevance of the issues his storyline raises at a time when incel culture is rampant.
Meanwhile, Alex’s work life proves just as complicated as her romantic one, with her tendency to act first and communicate later threatening another important relationship. While she and Sam deal with a disaster involving the ever-creepy Malcolm (Douglas Hodge), Alex receives a much-needed win when Yafa Barghouti sends her new pages. She forwards them to Camille (Laura Evelyn) at Blue Hour Publishing, determined to secure an offer for his book. The meeting ultimately proves successful, but not without complications. Alex receives a panicked video call from her elderly father, who cannot switch off his podcast. Unable to reach Ruari, she turns to Patrick for help, who agrees to talk her dad through the problem despite their earlier argument.
Back at the office, Alex reveals that Blue Hour has made an offer for Yafa’s book. Instead of celebrating, Sam confronts her for pursuing the opportunity behind her back, a development that surprises no one but Alex. Whyte is sublime, matching Horgan’s sardonic wit beat for beat and proving that the series’ compelling pairing has been the two women all along. And just when Alex’s day can’t get any worse, Horgan and Headey deliver the romantic payoff that both Alex and audiences have been waiting for.
After spending much of the episode avoiding any meaningful definition of their relationship, Patrick finally finds a way to express what Alex means to him when she returns home to find him playing video games with her dad. He explains that he wanted to spend time with her father because it made him feel closer to her. He also admits that he doesn’t want to see other people either. What they have might be messy, but he likes all of it.
Episode 6 ultimately reflects what makes Youth, much like the rest of Horgan’s body of work, so compelling and romantic. Patrick’s willingness to embrace everything that comes with Alex, not just the easy parts of their relationship, offers the reassurance she’s spent the episode searching for. It doesn’t resolve every problem between them, but it makes the possibility of a future together feel worth believing in, at least until Horgan inevitably pulls the rug out from under them again.
