Sumith Prasad
AMC’s drama series ‘Lucky Hank’ revolves around the life of William Henry “Hank” Devereaux, Jr., the head of Railton College’s English department. Hank’s married life with Lily starts to fall apart when the latter joins the renowned Arlyle School in New York City. Hank suspects that Lily is moving to NYC to get away from him. The series progresses through Hank’s efforts to deal with Lily’s departure from Railton. The first season of the show ends with a significant decision Hank makes regarding his relationship with Lily. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Uncertain Future for Hank and Lily
Hank’s stagnancy as an individual is best reflected in his married life with Lily. The English professor accepts that he is a mediocre professor and a terrible writer, which leads him to a scary state of inactivity. Everything fails to excite Hank, who immerses himself in the mundane routine of his life. The English professor not only makes his life bleak but also sucks the joy out of Lily’s life by trying to implicitly force her to stay in Railton with him when she gets an unmissable job opportunity in New York City. Although Lily initially dances to Hank’s tune, she soon realizes that she deserves to aim higher, which makes her accept the Arlyle job without thinking about how it would affect her relationship with her husband.
Lily soon realizes that there’s more to her life than sharing Hank’s boredom. She feels revived in the streets of NYC, which further distances her from her husband. When she dreams of her perfect day, Lily doesn’t see Hank or her daughter Julie Devereaux in the same, which makes her realize that she is moving on from them as a person. She even pours her heart out to a stranger pretending that the latter is Hank, only to say that she wants to separate from him since she doesn’t want to stop her growth while her partner isn’t even trying to grow as a person. Although Lily doesn’t say the same to Hank, her words make it clear that she is ready to break up with the latter.
However, Lily doesn’t break up with Hank explicitly. To be specific, she doesn’t even acknowledge to herself that she wants to break up with her husband, which is the reason why she expresses her wishes to a stranger rather than her partner. Underneath her heart, Lily must have been expecting the distance between NYC and Railton to gradually separate her from Hank. Meanwhile, Hank arrives in NYC after turning in his resignation notice to save his married life with Lily. He realizes that he shouldn’t be like his father, who abandoned his wife without making any compromises in life. Hank’s arrival makes Lily immensely happy but the same may not be enough for the former to save their relationship.
Since Hank arrives in NYC, Lily cannot rely on the distance between them to separate her from the former. Although her husband’s unexpected visit makes her happy, she soon realizes that Hank is the same person. It dawns on her that Hank is the problem and not the place they were or are living. Therefore, Lily may get forced to confront her fears and ultimately comes clean to Hank about her wish to break up with him. If the second season of the show gets greenlit, the school teacher may make it clear that she cannot tolerate the English professor’s cynicism to pollute her appealing NYC life.
The first season of the series ends with Lily not breaking up with Hank. Having said that they are far from “staying together.” Lily may give Hank a chance to reinvent himself and be at least tolerable to save their relationship. She may expect him to come out of his perpetual boredom and grow with her as a person and partner. If Hank succeeds in doing the same, we may see them stay together in the potential second season.
Read More: Is Lucky Hank Based on a True Story?
