House of Guinness Ending Explained: Does Arthur Die?

Netflix’s ‘House of Guinness’ presents a heavily fictionalized version of the real-life Guinness family. The story picks up in the aftermath of Benjamin Guinness’ death, leading his four children to deal with the contents of his will, which leaves each of them entirely dissatisfied. A major focus lies on Arthur and Edward Guinness, but as the story progresses, more characters enter the fray, making an already complicated family dynamic even more chaotic. The season ends on a cliffhanger, leading to uncertainty about the future of the main characters, while also raising the question of whether all the violence and heartbreak were worth it.

House of Guinness Plot Recap

When Benjamin Guinness dies, his fortune, primarily in the form of the brewery, is left to his sons, Arthur and Edward. Arthur would have preferred not to get involved in the brewery business because he didn’t want to stay in Dublin. It would have suited Edward well because he wants to focus on the brewery. Believing that Arthur, being the firstborn, will receive a majority of their father’s business, the brothers decide that Arthur will focus on the family’s political agenda by focusing on his seat in the Parliament, leaving everything about the brewery to Edward. However, their father had a different idea. His will dictates that the family business and fortune should be equally divided between the two, and should one of them try to step back, they should lose everything. This binds Edward and Arthur to each other, and they have no choice but to work together.

While it looks miserable to both of them, it is still a much better deal than what their younger siblings, Anne and Ben, receive. Because she is already married, Anne is given nothing and has no reason to be involved in the business. Ben doesn’t receive anything either because he is a drunk and a gambler, and his father worried that any money given to him would only worsen his philandering ways. Thus begins the story of the Guinness siblings, which is further complicated by the introduction of socio-political elements of the time. A major problem for the family is the Fenians, the Irish revolutionaries who are fighting for Ireland’s freedom from Britain. The Guinness, being Irish but supporting the union, is a thorn in their side, which is why they have an aggressive stance towards the family.

This is fuelled by the hatred that their leader, Patrick Cochrane, has for the Guinnesses. His sister, Ellen, also doesn’t like them much, but she sees them as a means to an end and decides to dig up their secrets, which can be used against them, especially Arthur. It turns out that the eldest Guinness is gay, which means that not only does he risk losing his and his family’s reputation, but he could also be sent to prison for his homosexuality. Meanwhile, Ben continues to struggle with alcoholism and his degrading mental health, while Anne is stuck in an unhappy marriage, with her physical health declining, and she laments being sidelined by her father. It seems that the responsibility of keeping the business going has fallen on Edward, and he is ready to do whatever it takes to make it a success.

Over the season, despite their differences and the many troubles they land in one after another, the Guinnesses work together to take their family’s name and success to new heights. Edward’s plan of expansion works out, despite some initial hitches, as America becomes their most prized market with a major profit turnout. They also indulge in several philanthropic endeavors, courtesy of Anne, which adds more credibility to their name. The only thing remaining to be conquered now is the government, so their next focus is on turning Arthur into an MP and ensuring that power remains in their hands as they shape the law and policy to work in their favor.

Patrick Cochrane Comes Back to Dublin With a Vendetta

The hatred that the Fenians have for the Guinness family is evident from the opening scene of the show. As Benjamin Guinness’ funeral march passes the street, the Fenians, led by Patrick Cochrane, attack it viciously. By the end of the episode, they end up burning the Guinness factory to destroy their barrels and stop their business in its tracks. As his sister, Ellen, predicted, this provokes the family to act against him and the revolutionaries, and the cycle of hate and violence keeps on going forward. For a moment, it looks like there might be a truce between them as Ellen and Edward develop a close relationship, while Byron Hedges creates a bridge between the Guinness and the revolutionaries in America.

At one point, when Patrick is arrested, Edward makes arrangements to get him out of prison, though it means that he will be exiled to America, but at least, he will have a chance to start fresh. Despite all this, Patrick’s hatred for the family does not decrease one bit. In fact, he is inflamed when he discovers that his sister has brought the enemy into her bed. His departure for America and working in their family’s interests makes him angrier. He says that he’d rather rot in prison his entire life than make deals with them. It is with this anger that he returns to Dublin and decides to kill one of them. As a message, he has a bullet with the Guinness name delivered to them. Though it remains unclear exactly which Guinness he wants to kill, it is fairly assumed that Arthur and Edward are the only possible targets.

Does Arthur Guinness Die? Does Patrick Cochrane Shoot Him?

While Patrick Cochrane is working on his assassination plan, the family is preparing for Arthur’s election rally, with which they hope to draw support from the voters. Despite the danger of Patrick lurking about, they decide to go forward with the rally, agreeing to take extra precautions. Everyone is on their toes, and even Ellen shows up at the rally, trying to find her brother and stopping him from committing murder. While Arthur takes to the stage and gives his speech, Patrick’s plan unfolds while Ellen and Sean Rafferty look for him. Ellen spots him and blows a whistle to alert the others of his presence, but by this time, it is too late. Patrick fires his gun, though we never find out if the bullet hit its mark or not.

Despite the heavily fictionalized nature of the story, the show sticks to important facts about the family. So, we know for a fact that Arthur was not killed by a revolutionary’s bullet during an election rally. Whether or not he is hit is another question entirely. One possibility is that the bullet will hit him, but the shot will not be fatal. He will recover from his injuries, and getting shot might actually end up making him popular, leading him to win the elections, this time without any need for committing fraud. The other possibility is that the bullet hits a different person on the stage or in the crowd. Perhaps, Arthur hadn’t been the target at all. Perhaps, Patrick’s anger was targeted at Edward, who not only runs the business and sent him to America, but also slept with his sister.

Edward is also the one who was supposed to have honored the deal that Byron made with the Brotherhood in America. So, if they sent Patrick, it is most likely to send a message by killing the man who didn’t honor his deal. Another possibility is that some other innocent person, member of the family or not, takes the bullet, which would open another can of worms for the family. In any case, it is bound to work in favor of Arthur’s political career, strengthening the Guinness family’s position in the world. So, we can confirm that Arthur has not been removed from the picture yet, as there is still a lot more left to unravel in the story about him and his siblings.

Do Olivia and Rafferty Break Up?

While his business does well and he is ready to take on another election season, a price in Arthur’s heart remains in the form of his wife, Olivia, falling for Sean Rafferty, the family’s right-hand man. Due to Arthur being gay, the marriage between him and Olivia allowed both of them to take on other sexual partners. However, the deal was that neither of them would fall in love and wouldn’t let their marriage be affected by it. Arthur keeps his end of the agreement, though it’s more out of the fact that, as a gay man in a society where homosexuality is a crime, he doesn’t really have the option of running away into the sunset with someone. Olivia, too, keeps her end of the deal, for a while. When she asks Rafferty to be her lover, Arthur doesn’t think twice about it. But then, she ends up getting pregnant, and that brings tension in the marriage.

For obvious reasons, she cannot have the baby, so she has to go through with the abortion, which breaks her heart on a number of levels. While Arthur gives her and Rafferty the space to process their grief together, he also senses a deepening connection between them. This breaks his heart because he loves Olivia, in his own way, and having her fall in love with someone else means he will lose that relationship as well. So, he tells her that she is in breach of the contract that was signed when they got married. While she was free to take a lover, she was supposed to stay unattached.

But not only has she fallen for Sean, she also ended up being reckless, which led to her pregnancy, which could have ruined the family’s reputation. So, it is decided that she should not see Rafferty again. Olivia agrees without any pushback, but that’s just on the surface. When she meets with Rafferty, she does not break up with him, as she was instructed to do. Instead, she tells him that they will continue their affair. She has devised a plan to meet each Wednesday at a different place, which no one will know about. They will have to be more discreet, but this is better than not seeing each other again.

Rafferty agrees and takes things a step further when he tells her that while he will follow this arrangement, it will not be so in the long run. He will find a way for him and Olivia to be together, and he says it with such conviction that she is convinced he will make it happen, by hook or crook. This means neither of them is ready to let the other go so easily, and now, Arthur has a new set of problems heading his way. What makes things worse is that his new enemies are the people he loves and trusts, which means that fighting them will be much worse than taking a bullet from Patrick Cochrane.

Read More: Is House of Guinness Based on a True Story?