House of Guinness’ ending leaves us at an intense cliffhanger, with the fate of the protagonist, Arthur Guinness, still unclear. In addition to that, the events leading up to this ambiguous conclusion also leave a few other questions unanswered, making it almost certain that the series will return for a 2nd season. In this article, I will take a look at the finale of House of Guinness and also try to decipher the fates of some of the important characters, especially with regard to what they might be up to when the series returns.
Spoiler Alert
Do Arthur and Edward symbolize Ogma and Dagda?
At the very beginning of House of Guinness, the two brothers of the Guinness family, Arthur and Edward, are suddenly thrust into the limelight after their father’s death. Their younger brother, Benjamin, manages to avoid public attention, much to his own misery, because of his alcoholism, due to which he is not left any share of the distillery business. During the funeral ceremony, the brothers’ aunt, Agnes, pays her condolences and then talks about how their true characters will now be tested. The two young men are compared to Ogma and Dagda, two gods from Irish myth, who were also brothers, and whose display of power and mercy is what differentiated them from one another.
Due to his education in England and a deep detachment from Irish culture, Arthur is clueless when Agnes brings up these names, and Edward clarifies the matter. In short, he states, Ogma could not be trusted by humans because of his extreme strength and cunning ways, while Dagda was an outright convincing figure who could always be trusted to do good. Aunt Agnes makes this symbolic connection to claim that Arthur and Edward, two brothers quite different from one another, could very well turn out to be one a troublemaker and the other a responsible businessman, now that they hold immense power and wealth in their hands. She wondered which would be which, perhaps having had her own biased opinion in her mind already, but the events in the series do not ultimately make the realization of this symbolism an easy task.
Once the plot picks up, it seems like Arthur would be the more troubled of the two because of his secret life as a gay man and also his inability to sometimes control his drinking. He is the one initially painted in the color of Ogma, while Edward plays off the stereotypes associated with Dagda, as he is much more calm, restrained, and most importantly, wholly dedicated to running the family business. Arthur seems too distracted by the other occurrences in his life, and the fact that he has been forced to be a part of the business by his father’s will is very evident. Edward, on the other hand, keeps his head down and works to expand the Guinness brand further, targeting the United States of America as the next stage for business.
But this symbolism is overturned because of two specific incidents—Edward falling in love with Ellen Cochrane, who is technically a sworn enemy of the family, and Arthur deciding to take charge of the family’s political ambitions and become a Member of Parliament from Dublin. From the perspective of their father, the late Sir Benjamin Guinness, any son of his who would carry forward the mantle of politics in the family would be an ideal successor, and although he might have believed Edward to be better suited to this role, it is actually Arthur who takes the lead. On the other side, Edward gets more and more involved with Ellen Cochrane, an integral member of the Fenians, a group that wholeheartedly hates the Guinness family because of their pro-British stance. Despite knowing that any romantic relationship between them will never be accepted by either side of Irish society, Edward fails to keep his composure in this regard, and he ends up romancing Ellen, which naturally creates more problems for the family and their business. Ultimately, both Arthur and Edward show character traits of both Ogma and Dagda, as is more believable, instead of either of them being exclusively trustworthy or deceitful.
How do the Guinness brothers still hold on to conservative practices?
Through their decisions and actions in their daily lives, both Guinness brothers appear to be rule-breakers and free spirits who might just try to amend the conservative practices of the family and society at large. However, such a crusade never takes place, and the characters ultimately hold on to the orthodox ways of society in their personal lives as well, which certainly makes them a little less satisfying as characters, although much more convincing. House of Guinness wants to keep reminding us that it takes place in the 1860s and ‘70s, when businessmen hailing from aristocratic families tended to reform their personal lives rather than set out in pursuit of social reformation. As a result, Edward is only heard joking to Arthur about bringing a bill that would legalize homosexuality if he can become an MP.
Arthur firstly gives up his romantic relationships with the men in his life and even agrees to tear down the wharf, which actually operated as a safe space for unmarried couples, including homosexuals, for the sake of the expansion of the family business. But more importantly, he fails to keep in check the arrangement that he himself had proposed to his wife, Lady Olivia Hedges, when they had first married. Arthur and his family had been in need of a noble woman who would not expect to be loved by him and would know (at least indirectly) about his homosexuality so that Arthur could go about romancing men even after his marriage. He too had agreed to let Olivia get intimate with any man she desired, with no consequences for her infidelity at all. However, what Arthur had not considered was the possibility that his wife could get pregnant with another man’s child, or worse, that she could fall in love with a different man. Yet, this is exactly what happens towards the end, as Olivia falls in love with her husband’s foreman, Sean Rafferty, gets intimate with him, and also gets pregnant with his child. She is clearly not happy about having this pregnancy aborted, despite knowing very well that she would never be able to give birth to it. But Arthur now grows jealous of this developing romance, for he claims to love his wife in his own twisted way. Just like any egoistic man, perhaps befitting of a politician, Arthur goes back on his previous arrangement and forcefully stops Olivia from ever getting intimate with, or even meeting, Rafferty again. He threatens to expose her affair otherwise, fire Rafferty from his job at the factory, and draw public scandal. Despite having once made tall claims about not being like the usual aristocrats who want to have an open marriage, Arthur ultimately follows the conservative practice of quashing his wife’s emotions and forcing her into an arrangement of his liking.
On the other side, Edward gradually develops a genuine bond with Ellen Cochrane while trying to figure out how to get the Fenians to support the Guinness family as well. Because of his dedicated and straightforward nature, it seems like Edward might actually make his relationship with Ellen public and will even propose to her. Although Ellen knows that her own brother and the Irish loyalists will never accept their relationship, there are moments when her love for Edward overtrumps these feelings and fears. She too clearly wants their love to be publicly acknowledged and so is left heartbroken when Edward announces his marriage to his cousin, Adelaide. Despite letting himself and Ellen down with this move, Edward ultimately chooses to follow the customs and traditions and take the easy way out by marrying for the benefit of his family and business. Despite having had the chance to set an example by marrying someone belonging to a faction that is perceived as the enemy, he decides to carry on with the age-old customs.
Does Sean Rafferty betray his employers?
From the very beginning of the series, the foreman at the Guinness factory, Sean Rafferty, works as a trusted henchman for the family, always dealing with their opposition in the toughest manner possible. Rafferty also keeps warning his employers about possible dangers and threats, making him one of the most loyal people in the unit. However, this starts to change when he is appointed to be the illegitimate lover of Lady Olivia Hedges, and although he begins sleeping with the woman just to satisfy his physical urges, he too genuinely falls in love with her by the end. Therefore, when Arthur stops Olivia from seeing Rafferty anymore, both of them are enraged by the decision and love each other enough to disregard the rules.
Olivia arranges for them to continue meeting at the house of a cousin of hers, since she is not barred from seeing, or sleeping with, other men. But Rafferty directly makes a promise to her, stating that they will soon be reunited in the most direct manner, and in the process of making this statement, he also mentions how he will eventually look for ways to bring down the Guinness family and ensure that he and his lover are no longer subjected to the tight grasp of Arthur. Although he claims to help Arthur survive the elections and the possible assassination attempt, the reason for continuing to support the man is because Arthur becoming an MP will only increase his chances of meeting Olivia secretly.
Therefore, when the assassination attempt does indeed take place, Rafferty does not seem to have had any role to play in it. What is more important is that he has already made up his mind to betray his employers in the future, meaning that he will most definitely set out to hurt them very soon, that is, if he manages to survive. In fact, the manner in which the series ends seems to suggest that Rafferty might just immortalize his loyalty towards the Guinness family instead of betraying them, for it is quite likely that he is about to jump straight into the firing line to protect Arthur and get himself killed in the process. How Olivia reacts to such a scenario, if indeed this is how things pan out, will be interesting to watch, as her sorrow and grief might even bring her close to her legal husband, Arthur.
Is Arthur Guinness assassinated?
In House of Guinness’ ending, Patrick Cochrane makes a return to Dublin with the sole purpose of seeking revenge against his sworn enemy, the Guinness family. After he had been arrested by the Dublin police for having been a member of the illegal revolutionary group called the Fenians, Edward had negotiated a deal for him and the other prisoners to be freed, but only after being taken to the United States as part of an arrangement between the British and American governments. Although this arrangement had essentially set Patrick free, much to the joy of his sister, Ellen, he had seen this to be a cruel step taken by the Guinnesses to get him out of their way. Therefore, he now manages to return to his beloved country and immediately cooks up a plan to assassinate Arthur Guinness at the public speech before the election.
But when Patrick shares this plan with Ellen, she obviously does not want him to execute it, for doing so will surely get him arrested and most likely executed. Ellen genuinely cares for her brother and therefore wants to protect him from any rash decision, which is why she tells Edward about this possibility, letting the Guinness family prepare for this attack. During the public speech, the Fenian members infiltrate the town hall by posing as normal citizens and even manage to hide a gun inside the place. Then, they stage a ruckus, which draws the attention of all the guards, and in walks Patrick, with his eyes set on Arthur.
However, as Patrick prepares to shoot at Arthur on the dais, Ellen spots him and blows the whistle she had been carrying to alert everyone about his position. We are intentionally not shown the fate of the characters, as House of Guinness ends with Patrick aiming at Arthur, and a gunshot being heard. If we are to refer to history, since the Netflix series is actually based on real historical events and figures, then Arthur Guinness will not die in this assassination attempt, and he will go on to win the election and become an MP as well. In that case, it might be Rafferty, who is seen pushing people aside to get to Patrick, who might get shot if he jumps in front of the gun. It is also possible that Rafferty will bring Patrick to the ground, meaning that someone in the crowd, or nobody at all, gets hit by the bullet. But the ending specifically leaves us in the dark, intending to keep us engaged till the 2nd season.
What will happen to the Fenians?
Irrespective of whether the assassination attempt succeeds or fails, Patrick Cochrane is sure to get arrested and possibly hanged for his outrageous effort on the life of a politician, and more importantly, a member of the Guinness family. This means that Ellen’s plan of protecting her brother from his own rash decisions will fail. However, this will not bring an end to the Fenians, despite Patrick having been the local leader, for the pro-Irish independence group will only gain more power with passing time. Historically, it was the Fenians who went on to form the Irish Republican Army (IRA), who played an integral part in Irish and British history. Ellen’s grief at her brother’s loss might turn her even more vengeful against the Guinness family and their British friends, making her lead the Fenians in the area. It will be interesting to see how the Fenians, and the gradual change in their structure, are portrayed in House of Guinness season 2, since they honestly deserved better representation in the first season.
Will Edward and Ellen ever get back together?
However, if Ellen’s legally enforced detachment from her brother makes her emotionally vulnerable instead of enraged, it is possible that she and Edward might once again get back together. After all, the two had earlier made up their minds to stay away from each other, and yet had kept coming back to one another. Even during their last meeting, after Edward has been married to Adelaide, he confesses to having feelings for Ellen and suggests that had the situation been any better, he would have chosen to be with her for the rest of his life. But such an affair will be difficult to carry out, as Adelaide is not like the other women in the family, and she would choose to end her marriage with Edward rather than be in a loveless relationship riddled with infidelity. Therefore, Edward and Ellen might continue to be unlucky romantics for the rest of their lives, running across one another but being unable to be together, or there might be some cherished solution for them in House of Guinness season 2.
