


What happens in The Death of Bunny Munro, Episode 5 ‘Dead Man’?
Warning: Major spoilers ahead
In his dreams, Bunny imagines a carefree Libby dancing in her wedding dress under a spotlight. In reality, he and Junior are sleeping in a layby, with Bunny greeting the morning with a large glug from a bottle of whisky.
Before heading back on the road, Bunny recalls going to Butlin’s holiday camp with his dad as a kid and witnessing him smooth-talk the ladies at the bar as he floated in the pool. That same trip, he met his first crush, noting she filled the emptiness he felt inside him, and he realised in that moment he was destined to be like his dad.
Bunny Munro The First
The visit to see Grandad Bunny does not go well. Bunny and Junior arrive at Senior’s house, only to find the curmudgeonly man masturbating in his armchair while watching pornography. Bunny quickly turns it off, with Senior noticing it “doesn’t work anymore anyway” before demanding a cigarette.
Senior is far from the man Bunny has made him out to be, angry and yelling at his son for wanting to make him tea. Diagnosed with cancer, everything he says is acidic and said between hacking coughs, with Bunny crumbling into a shy figure around him.
Turning his attention to Junior, Senior says he hopes he breaks his heart like Bunny broke his. He lays out his disappointment at him not following his footsteps by selling antiques. He brands Bunny a “lost cause” for becoming a door-to-door salesman – deriding him for selling “toilet roll” - and brags to Junior about his glory days of finding and selling rare items. Senior cruelly says Bunny had “made a mockery” of his name.
Bunny, shrinking into a seat in the corner, looks defeated and heartbroken at his father’s words. When Senior tries to make Junior promise “not to turn out like him” the boy jumps to his dad’s defence, saying he could “sell a bicycle to a barracuda”. This infuriates Senior, who starts prodding the youngster with his cane and accusing him of “mocking” him.
Bunny struggles to step in and stand-up to his dad and when he does is almost beaten, pathetically cowering away from him. Senior revels in it, saying they’re both beyond help and demanding they both leave. His parting words to his son are “I’m dying.”
Junior tries to lighten the mood by mocking Senior’s cough, but instead Bunny snaps at him, telling him not to dare. When they get back in the car, Bunny grabs his bottle of Scotch and starts glugging.
Out on His Bunny Ears
At a roadside cafe, a newspaper headline reveals the “horny devil” killer has reached East Sussex, which catches Bunny’s eye. Junior suggests they go home so he can go back to school. Bunny says before they do, they need to go to the big beauty expo in Brighton, which he is still fixated on.
Officially in a spiral, Bunny is behaving increasingly erratically, scaring his server, Emily, with his talk about the devil arriving in Brighton. He attempts to hit on her with his old routines, but all they achieve is to make him appear unhinged. He continues to embarrass himself, to the point even Junior tells him to calm down, but drunk and deluded, Bunny thinks he’s in with a chance and continues to push it.
When Emily’s co-worker asks him to leave, Bunny accuses him of ruining his shot with her because he’s jealous before storming out. Getting paranoid when a police car starts driving behind them, he panics, only to be relieved when they turn a corner.
Continuing to drink himself into a haze, he calls manager Geoffrey from a payphone, who is legitimately worried about him and Junior. Bunny ignores his concern and instead pushes him for new leads for sales, but Geoffrey refuses to give him any. He urges him to go home and tells him he loves him, but Bunny is paranoid that the police are after him and are listening in, screaming obscenities before hanging up the phone.
Junior, waiting in the care for him, calls out for his mum to appear, but she doesn’t.
Deciding to go knocking on houses and cold calling, Junior helplessly watches from the car as Bunny starts banging on doors, approaching and chasing women down the street. As his sales pitch becomes more aggressive, it devolves into him begging random women to have sex with him. More desperate than ever, he rings a call girl whose number is taped in the phone box.
No Way Back
On the drive to the woman’s house, Junior admits to his dad he’s been talking with his mum and really wants to go home. But his pleas fall on deaf ears, and he’s left in the car once again as Bunny arrives at the door of sex worker “Anna’s” house. Junior watches in dismay as his father finishes the last of his bottle and enters.
The house is dilapidated and apparently abandoned, with graffiti over the walls. An electric guitar has been left screeching against an amp and he unplugs it, before spotting “Anna” slumped against a wall, having recently shot heroin.
Sitting with her on a mattress on the floor, he confesses he doesn’t have any money to pay her, but she can barely move and is beyond communication. He attempts to initiate sex with her but cannot get an erection. Frustrated and miserable, he collapses next to her, noticing she’s silently crying.
Back in the car, Junior finally sees a vision of his mum, and he apologises for losing the encyclopaedia that she bought him. She says it doesn’t matter, as the look on his face when he got it was all she wanted.
She promises it’s a weird and wonderful world and apologises for not being strong enough for him. She says he is strong enough in a way she wasn’t, but his dad won’t be able to help him, too far gone with his own problems. Junior admits he knows.
She tells him that no matter what, he needs to persevere. Junior realises that something bad is going to happen, and he needs to be ready for it.
Bunny returns and the pair drive off. He spots the yellow cement mixer driven by the horned figure once again and admits to himself that he is doomed.