Diksha Sundriyal
In Netflix’s ‘House of Guinness,’ a matter of succession turns the tables on four siblings– Arthur, Edward, Anne, and Ben. Arthur and Edward receive the responsibility of carrying on the family business. This also comes with the load of maintaining the family reputation, due to which Arthur, who is gay, has to marry a woman. Luckily, he finds Olivia, who not only does not have a problem with his sexuality and the arrangement of their marriage, but she also wholeheartedly supports him in all his endeavours. For the most part, Arthur and Olivia remain a power couple, but a hitch in their seemingly perfect marriage arrives in the form of an unexpected pregnancy. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Olivia’s Pregnancy Creates a Complicated Situation for Arthur
When Olivia and Arthur decide to get married, they agree upon a set of terms. One of them is that, like Arthur, Olivia will get to entertain lovers of her own with the same discretion that her husband enjoys with his. However, she will, in her words, “f— and forget,” which means no emotional connections can be made outside of the marriage. Initially, this agreement suits both of them rather well, but then Sean Rafferty enters the picture. Olivia chooses him to be her lover, but soon, she ends up falling for him. Arthur is not unaware of their developing connection, and while he is a little jealous of Rafferty, he decides not to intervene because he has promised Olivia her freedom in this matter. However, things come to a head when it is revealed that she is with child. There is no doubt that it is Rafferty’s baby, and this fact will not remain hidden from the world when the baby is born.
While Arthur’s homosexuality is a protected secret, it does move around as a rumor, which would be fuelled if Olivia’s pregnancy came to term and the baby was brought into the world. It would lead to all sorts of questions about the legitimacy of the child and would tarnish the Guinness family’s reputation to the point that no one could bring them back from it. So, it is decided that Olivia will get an abortion. For this, she is sent to London, where a doctor is hired to get the job done while also being discreet. The excuse for Olivia’s trip to London is that she went there to visit her sister. From Arthur’s point of view, it is a necessary step, especially considering that his campaign for the elections is about to begin, and he cannot risk any scandals to stop him from winning.
Losing the Baby Emboldens Olivia and Sean’s Desire to be Together
Even if, for Olivia, Arthur had any intention of letting her keep the child, it is pulled out of his mind and thrown away when Byron Hedges takes control of the campaign and gets into the family’s dirt to clean it. In all of this, no one asks Olivia what she wants. However, she is too smart to know that even if she had birthed the child, she wouldn’t have been allowed to keep it, and the baby most certainly wouldn’t have received the Guinness family name. Later, as she and Arthur talk about it, it is clear that she is not angry with Arthur about making her get the abortion, but that doesn’t lessen the heartbreak of losing the prospect of having a child with Sean, with whom she has fallen in love. It is also a reminder that her marriage is now a prison and not the source of freedom she initially thought it would be.
She cannot be with Sean because that would mean leaving the Guinness name. It would also mean betraying Arthur, who would not forgive her for ditching him. More importantly, it would be a fatal error because it would make the Guinnesses try to protect their reputation, and by now, she knows how far they can go to save their name. So, in the end, she has no choice but to grieve silently, albeit not alone, because Sean shares it with her. What it does is push Arthur to make Olivia give up the man she loves, which leads her to rebel against her husband and her lover to rebel against her boss. The abortion brings Olivia and Sean closer together, as they both become adamant about their desire to be with each other.
Read More: House of Guinness: Are Patrick and Ellen Cochrane Based on Real Fenians?
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