WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the Breeders Season 1 finale, "No Cure."
Breeders doesn't pull any punches on just how terrible Paul (Martin Freeman) is as a dad to Luke (George Wakeman) and Ava (Jayda Eyles). As both are under 10-years-old and in their bratty phase, it's all the more difficult that his wife Ally (Daisy Haggard) is caught up in her sound engineering job, and, lately, relying on Paul a bit more than usual, as she's out the country.
When the first season comes to a close, though, a near-brush with death for Luke and a major decision about Ally's career pushes Paul over the edge, setting up a dramatic Season 2 that'll hinge on therapy.
In the two-part finale, "No Cure," Luke falls ill and is taken to hospital with encephalitis. Paul feels guilty, as he ignored the warning signs, thinking Luke was just being an annoying pain in the butt. However, as they induce him into a coma, Paul prays to his god (David Bowie, as he's an atheist), saying he'll be a good dade if Luke is saved. He won't yell, curse or treat the kids like burdens, and while the finale is edited in a very scary fashion, as if to tease Luke dying, he ends up making it out okay.
It's a big sigh of relief, and as the series flashes forward, it seems Paul's changed his ways. That is, until Luke and Ava engage in a tug-of-war over a toy giraffe, leading to another typical Paul meltdown. After a profanity-laced rant, Paul immediately looks towards his wife, who's stunned he broke his promise just weeks later. The show then cuts to its final sequence, Paul in therapy admitting he has anger issues towards his children.
It's interesting, however, as he was the one who always wanted kids and to get married, not Ally. The children may not necessarily be the root of the problem, and he may hold resentment towards partnering with the wrong person. When Ally asks him about them being on sturdy ground and if they're "solid" before he loses it with the kids, he doesn't reassure her, as he says they're flexible which he thinks is fine. He's clearly passive-aggressive over Ally having to now permanently be in between their English home and Berlin, which was weighing on him and causing him to be negligent in the first place. What makes it worse is he can't commit to a dream job with a new start-up because it'll require too much time and as a single parent of sorts presently, he chooses the kids.
This paves the way for a frustrated Paul to become a bigger monster in Season 2, unless therapy could change that. The problem is the kids are still growing up, and he doesn't have the support from Ally that he'd like. And clues are being dropped he forced this future with Ally, hoping it'd be stable, not realizing her corporate life would place him in a squeeze. So as much as Paul thinks he's working on himself, it might turn out to be more couples counseling than anything else with one party, and the hot-headed dad coming to the stark realization he settled with the wrong person who wasn't on the same page as him. His rage towards his kids may be a deflection from what he really thinks of his marriage, and he could soon discover his bullying is because they're easier targets.
Breeders stars Martin Freeman, Daisy Haggard, George Wakeman and Jayda Eyles, and airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on FX.