‘Hal & Harper’: Cooper Raiff Breaks Down the True Meaning of the Finale

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Hal & Harper Season 1.]

Hal & Harper isn’t about forgiveness or catharsis. Cooper Raiff says that the finale of his MUBI drama, which follows two adult siblings whose dad forced them to grow up too fast after their mom died, is about acknowledgement and seeing.

The eight-episode show begins with Dad (Mark Ruffalo) telling Hal (Raiff) and Harper (Lili Reinhart) that his girlfriend (Betty Gilpin) is going to have a baby, and he’s selling their childhood home. The finale sees both of those things come to pass, and they both represent what the show is all about. The baby, for one, makes the family “purify” themselves to accept the new addition into their lives.

“I think that’s the forgiveness that they give Dad,” the writer-director-actor told TV Insider. “It’s not like they need to say, ‘We forgive you for what you did.’ It’s just knowing that’s a pure human being who survived in the only way that he knew how, and that is the journey of the show, to me, it all builds to that last moment of seeing this baby and realizing… What a pure little thing, surrounded by four very pure people who have gone through a lot.”

Raiff recalls a scene in which Harper tries to name what is upsetting her about the baby, and she realizes that she feels jealous. “It’s that purity thing where you can’t really be jealous of this kid who’s going to have this happy life because the kid hasn’t had a happy life. You have no idea what the kid’s gonna go through,” Raiff said. “What it really is, is this starting over, and then when you really dig deeper, it’s that purity thing that you’re wanting in yourself, and we can give ourselves that. We can realize that we’re all human beings who deserve to be held in warm regard.”

Mubi

Keep reading for Raiff’s full breakdown of all the most important moments from the Hal & Harper finale.

One of the moments that really stuck with me the most was that scene of nine-year-old Harper running away. I was wondering if you could break down why you chose to include that when you did.

Cooper Raiff: To me, the whole show kind of builds to that running away and collapsing. It’s finally enough. It’s enough, and she has to say the thing out loud. It’s very moving to me to watch Dad chasing after her. And I think it’s in there, or maybe I just wrote it, but as he’s running, I think he yells out, “I know.” I think it’s this moment where she’s running away, and he’s not gonna lose her, and it’s only at that point when he sees her really running away — and also right before he thought he lost her for a second — and it’s at that point when it’s like, okay, all of the awareness, all of the questions, all of the stuff starts to come into sight.

I think he knows what she needs, and it’s something that he’s denied her, not actively and not meaning to, but the scene right before in the car when she’s saying, “Where did I get my voice from?” And he says, “The Doodlebops.” I think he is actively denying her what she needs. I think that when he’s running, he finally does know. That, to me, is the thing that makes it all land. It was a weird, crazy journey to get there. But that is the moment that I always knew would land with people, and Lili’s performance is just such a gift. It’s such an opening of the door to pain.

I think part of what made that moment so powerful was when it switches back to their child selves from their adult selves. Can you talk me through that choice, to have that be the moment that we see that other side of them? 

Raiff: There’s a lot of reasons, but the one that comes to mind is really understanding how Hal’s chasing after them. And you see Hal as a child first, and it’s to let people know how this stuff is so confusing for a seven-year-old, and it’s why he is the way that he is as a 22-year-old. It cuts right back to him. I think you see him as a kid, just to finally show them what it’s like to be a kid. You see this kid who’s watching this devastating thing, and I don’t think he understands it at all.

And I think when he’s 22, he’s finally starting to understand it, and he’s finally able to name it, and I think it’s particularly interesting because, for Hal, he was two years old when his mom died. With Harper, she was four, so it was a bit of a different experience. One is missing something, and the other, Hal, has really always experienced the loss. It’s been such a part of his life. But seeing them as kids, to me, it hits you in a way that you finally see the difference. Because throughout all the episodes prior, you’re going from Hal to Hal, and he looks the same, and so you’re not kind of able to see his growth.

Hal’s breakdown in the present is the beginning of his healing journey, whereas Harper’s has already started. Do you view it that way, too?

Raiff: I do, yeah. To me, the finale as a whole is about being afraid of pain. And with Harper, it’s being afraid of Dad’s pain and Hal’s pain. She’s not afraid of her pain. She’s been living with it forever. With Hal, he is afraid of the pain inside him. There’s that scary scene where he screams at Harper, “It’s just dark. It’s just dark.” And she says, “This is dark.” With Harper, she’s had to bear the weight of her pain, but also the family’s pain, and to name it is to really screw things up in her mind. Finally, when she’s running down that street, it’s too much. It has to come out, and Hal is there for her.

The reason I showed Hal chasing after them and being so shocked and confused was that I don’t know if that whole thing on the sidewalk ever really happened. To me, the show is about what they need to go through, and that year, going back to that specific year, was not because that’s the year that that happened. It’s the year that symbolizes the year that they came together and became enmeshed. To me, it’s almost a magical realism thing where I don’t know if this chase down the sidewalk actually happened, but I know that it unlocks something in the present that is desperately needing to be unlocked.

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'Hal & Harper': Cooper Raiff Praises Lili Reinhart's 'Sacred' Performance (VIDEO)

We don’t officially see Hal and Harper separate in the end. Do you think Harper ended up going to London?

Raiff: I think she definitely went to London. The big thing that I wanted to end with was, there’s that shot of Dad and young Hal and Harper. And they’re actually young Hal and Harper. They’re walking into the house, and then it cuts to present-day Dad walking away from the house. They can leave the house. That, to me, was the ending. The whole show is about them trying to come apart, but it wasn’t about finally seeing them come apart. What you realize at the end is that they just needed to say goodbye to this house that held so much pain, and they could only do that if they felt it, and by the end, they do feel it.

Hal & Harper, Season 1, Streaming Now, MUBI

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