House of Guinness ends with a literal bang, as the tensions boiling in 1870s Dublin come to a violent culmination at a high-stakes political rally for Arthur Guinness (Anthony Boyle). On one side of the barrel is Patrick Cochrane (Seamus O’Hara), the Fenian Brotherhood leader who volunteered to assassinate Arthur, the de facto head of his powerful family. On the other side of the revolver is Arthur, his brother Edward Guinness (Louis Partridge), and the rest of their complicated band of brewery heirs. Although Arthur’s life is on the line — along with the well-being of his entire family — he has, in many ways, never been better.
“He’s found bravery — and he backs himself,” Boyle proudly tells Tudum. “He’s doing it for the good of the brewery, the good of the company, the good of the legacy, the good of the family name.”
At last, Arthur is standing up for his family — and they’re standing right there with him in the line of fire. Each member of the Guinness family agreed to sit on the rally stage alongside Arthur, despite knowing the imminent dangers. “It’s a show of solidarity. It’s a show of strength,” Partridge tells Tudum. “For once it feels like they’re all pulling in the right direction. Arthur is on board, and they’re stronger as a family unit.”
The road to the Guinnesses’ show of familial kinship was paved with schemes, betrayals, and surprises aplenty throughout House of Guinness. So how did the siblings go from failed election rigging scandals and shady intercontinental deals to the edge of political greatness? Where do all of their complex relationships, marriages, and affairs stand? Just how dangerous is Patrick’s bullet? Well, keep reading as Boyle, Partridge, their co-stars, and House of Guinness creator Steven Knight explain every twist and turn of the series.
All of the major players of House of Guinness converge at Arthur’s rally. The Guinness family — including Arthur, Edward, Anne (Emily Fairn), and Benjamin (Fionn O’Shea) — sits atop the stage as the stars of the show, knowing an assassin is on the loose. The brood has come a long way since their disastrous pre-funeral meeting in the series premiere. “They’ve all rallied around the flag of Guinness for different reasons. Edward, we know, wants the business,” Knight says. “Arthur is sort of converted to that concept, but also has accepted his fate. Anne believes that Guinness success means she can do more good work. Benjamin’s motivation changes every five minutes. At the end, they are a happy family.”
Boyle agrees. “They all do love each other,” the actor says. “They come up on stage with him, and it’s such a powerful thing for Arthur — that they’re risking being killed to stand beside him even after all the arguments and all the mess.”
As the Guinnesses come together, factory foreman Sean Rafferty (James Norton) and his men survey the crowd, looking for Patrick the gunman — as does Patrick’s sister Ellen Cochrane (Niamh McCormack), albeit for very different reasons. During an unrelated commotion, Patrick slips into the event. The danger has arrived. “Finally we are united, even though there is that threat of imminent death,” Partridge says.
However, House of Guinness does not reveal whether the Grim Reaper is headed to Dublin. In the final seconds of the finale, we see Patrick take aim and fire into the crowd. But his ultimate target — and whether he hit it — is unclear. “Hopefully none of us die,” Partridge quips.
Adding to the tension is the fact that Rafferty is the one standing between the Guinnesses and a bullet… and Rafferty isn’t particularly happy with his employers by the end of the finale. Earlier in Episode 8, Arthur forces his wife Olivia (Danielle Galligan) to end her love affair with Rafferty. Now, Rafferty is expected to protect Arthur at all costs. “That goes to the heart of Rafferty's contradictions,” Norton tells Tudum. “He's an incredible bodyguard, caretaker, and fixer for the family. He does this job well. But also there is this undercurrent of hate.”
Arthur and Edward’s relationship crumbles in Episode 4, immediately after Arthur’s wedding. At the reception, Edward and Ellen approach Arthur with a plan to discuss a “united and free Ireland.” The underlying threat is that the Fenians could — and would — out Arthur as a gay man, should he not support their political proposals. Edward considers the conversation to be “business”; Arthur views it as “blackmail” and is devastated his brother would betray him in such a way at his own wedding. An icy estrangement begins immediately.
So Arthur is left vulnerable to outside influence during his campaign to become the Conservative Party’s member of Parliament for Dublin. In Edward’s absence, Anne’s husband’s brother steps in as Arthur’s running mate. Their team creates an elaborate system to rig the election. Whoever casts a postal ballot ahead of the election for Arthur is given a used train ticket. One then takes that train ticket to a printing press secretly owned by Arthur’s political party, and a man hidden in a closet gives them five British pounds.
Although Arthur technically wins the election, his victory is short-lived. In Episode 5, the results are voided due to bribery. However, Arthur is deemed not guilty of having a personal hand in the voting fraud. Knight was inspired by the real-life history of Arthur Guinness’s MP campaign.
“He’s learning along the way,” Knight says. “The stuff about how they try to rig the election with tickets and cupboards with holes is true. It is mad. You wouldn’t dare make that up. That obviously wasn’t smart.”
From the very beginning of House of Guinness, Edward is clear about his ambitions to expand his family’s beer empire to the shores of America. He finds an unexpected “bridge” to making that dream a reality with the appearance of Byron Hedges (Jack Gleeson), the son of a Guinness woman and a Fenian rebel. Byron offers to go to New York as a Guinness ambassador of sorts. Edward — realizing he needs Irish Catholic support in East Coast cities to even get his beer off the docks and into the hands of consumers — agrees, despite an inherent threat of blackmail from Byron, whose mere existence is a scandal waiting to explode.
“This was the time when, in terms of business, Guinness was expanding around the world into all sorts of places. But New York and Boston were, for me, the most interesting. That was where all the sensitive points about religion and politics were even more an issue,” Knight says. “I wanted to go where you’re seeing the same issues as Dublin, but in a different environment.”
In New York, Byron meets various leaders of the local Fenian Brotherhood, an Irish Catholic organization, including William Randall Roberts (Moe Dunford) and the fearsome Eamon Dodd (Sam C. Wilson). During one backdoor deal in Episode 5, Byron pitches a partnership between the Guinness family and cash-strapped American Fenians: the Brotherhood will receive 15% commission on every bottle of beer sold in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington DC. To cover up the connection between the Guinnesses and the Fenians (who are seen by British Loyalists as a dangerous, rebellious organization), Byron suggests writing off the bribery as a “charitable donation.” Edward is appalled.
“It’s laughable how bad this has gone. Edward knows that Arthur is never going to let him off the hook for this,” Partridge says. “It was a real punt Edward took, and it’s really backfired. He wants the ground to swallow him up.”
Arthur and Olivia meet at the start of Episode 3, alongside Guinness family marriage broker Aunt Agnes (Dervla Kirwan). Arthur and Agnes offer Olivia a mariage blanc — or a wedded union “in form but not in function,” as Arthur explains. However, Arthur (whom all in the room understand is gay) would function elsewhere with other individuals when he so chooses. Olivia requests the same protections for herself, should she eventually desire similar affections. Arthur agrees, as long as Olivia remembers to “forget” whichever lover she picks, thereby avoiding any emotional entanglements.
In Episode 5, Olivia finds an object for her carnal appetites: Guinness factory foreman Rafferty. Arthur has unexpected feelings about the affair. “He sort of falls in love with his wife and starts getting a bit jealous,” Knight explains. “He really likes Olivia — they get on like a house on fire because they’re very similar people.”
By Episode 8, Arthur cannot stomach Olivia and Rafferty’s relationship any longer. At this point, Olivia clearly has feelings for Rafferty that far exceed a fleeting moment of sexual attraction. She also had to go to London to terminate a pregnancy. Arthur believes that Olivia’s passions have broken the terms of their marriage contract, and forces her to break up with Rafferty — or suffer the consequences of poverty with her lover.
“Arthur loves her. He wants to control her. It’s such a messy, complex relationship,” Boyle says. “Sometimes it felt like we were in love with each other. Sometimes it felt like we hated each other. Danielle and I wanted to keep it like that. To keep the relationship fresh and complicated.”
Despite their hardships, Olivia still decides to sit on the rally stage with her husband, putting herself in the eye of the storm with Arthur. “What history tells us is they actually really liked each other, and they almost loved each other,” Knight says. “So what began as this sort of quite cynical deal actually ends in a beautiful relationship.”
Although Olivia ends Episode 8 with her husband, the true locus of her loyalties is a little bit murkier. When Arthur demands the end of Olivia and Rafferty’s relationship, his wife seems to oblige. She meets Rafferty in a secluded room of the Guinness mansion and — knowing there are eyes and ears everywhere — loudly tells him they’ll never be together again. However, in Irish Gaelic, she says, “Fuck that and fuck them all.” Olivia reveals her secret plan: she will maintain the appearance of moving on, find a new lover, and, all the while, the “new” beau will actually be Rafferty. Both agree they’ll be together one day.
Norton relished the chance to peel back the layers of Rafferty. “This is a man who we see melt. For whatever reason — whether it’s the military, a broken heart, family, or faith — we arrive at the show meeting a quite stern, calcified survivor,” he says. “Then he meets a kindred spirit in Olivia. They give each other permission to be vulnerable and experience love — all the things a hardened badass doesn’t allow themselves.”
That’s why Rafferty is shattered by the Episode 8 breakup, even if he and Olivia both know they intend to defend their love. All Rafferty can say is “I am sad.” But the way he says those three words is imbued with deep and painful meaning.
“Steven could write three words, and it breaks you,” Norton says. “In that moment, all artifice is stripped back. Rafferty doesn’t have to be the fixer. He doesn’t have to be the gangster. He can just be the broken lover.”
Knight knows fans will be rooting for this tragic duo. “I think most people in an audience will support the true emotion as opposed to the convention,” he says. “People are looking, hoping that love wins. I think most people will be rooting for Rafferty.”
Before Rafferty and Olivia’s relationship even sparks, viewers may wonder why he — a Catholic man, if a lapsed one — would dedicate his life to the Guinness family, a Protestant, English Loyalist clan. Norton explains that Rafferty’s relationship with his religion isn’t black-and-white; he, Knight, and the rest of the House of Guinness creative team discussed the character’s past in great detail.
“We decided that there was complicated and nuanced stuff in Rafferty’s past involving the church, and his family,” the actor says. “That’s why he allows himself to work for the Protestant Guinnesses. Rafferty’s religion is now his work. There is really only one God in his life — and it’s himself. Rafferty lives under a law unto himself. And he does his job really well.”
Although Edward and Ellen are initially introduced in Episode 3, their connection doesn’t heat up until Episode 5. Edward goes to Ellen’s lodgings after realizing what Byron has agreed to with the Fenian Brotherhood in New York. Ellen points out that Edward didn’t need to come to her home in the middle of the night to have this conversation, and Edward admits he thinks of her often. Their business discussion quickly becomes romantic, and a relationship blossoms in subsequent episodes. This is career-obsessed Edward’s first real personal transgression.
“He’s really torn between duty and what he wants to do,” Partridge says. “Edward is kind of in love and perhaps realizes there’s more to life than just being the hardest-working guy. It was really interesting, spinning those plates while not losing any of the Edward-ness.”
Yet, Edward cannot help but be ruled by his true nature. He eventually settles into a comfortable relationship with the woman he is expected to marry, his cousin Adelaide Guinness (Ann Skelly). Edward breaks the painful news to Ellen in Episode 7. McCormack’s heart broke for her character.
“She didn’t see it coming. And that was very interesting to play, especially with her being so strong throughout the whole series and then having that breaking point,” McCormack says. “It’s Romeo and Juliet, but Romeo leaves Juliet. Ellen really thought that they were going to free Ireland and sell beer and have beautiful babies and live out the rest ... Despite it all. She thought they were going to be the start of a movement.”
Still, Ellen and Edward are brought together again in the finale, as her older brother Patrick prepares to kill Edward’s older brother Arthur. The tragic and pressing matter only reminds Ellen how much she and her former flame have in common. “They also kind of have that annoying brother that they always have to keep an eye on,” McCormack says. “Guinness represents everything she hates at the start of the season … But here comes Edward, who sees her as a whole person. He has such a love for his brewery, and she has such a love for the cause.”
So are these two permanently over? “Oh God, are you ever done with anyone?” McCormack sighs. “But she does know what is important to her and no man will ever get in the way of that.”
Edward sets his sights on marrying Adelaide at Arthur and Olivia’s wedding. “Edward knows that this is a really, really politically good idea. It absolutely fits,” Knight says. “This is what they should be doing.”
But Adelaide refuses Edward’s pursuit. “The way I’ve tried to create her and looked at the real person is, ‘I’m not going to do what society tells me to do,’ ” Knight continues. “I like to think of her as a very modern person. She’s part of a generation that is starting to reject the idea that ‘I’m going to marry who I’m told to marry.’ Adelaide believes that she’s got something to do in the world. She’s going to change things, she’s going to do charity work, she’s going to help people.”
And she does. Adelaide remains in Edward’s orbit throughout House of Guinness, using their shared family name to improve the lives of the impoverished with philanthropies like the Guinness Housing Trust. Adelaide and Edward naturally become close through their collaboration, culminating in a perspective-changing trip to Connacht and Cloonboo in the Irish countryside.
“They realize that actually they like each other. There’s a reluctance at first for both of them to accept it,” Knight says. “But in the end, that’s actually a very, very good place to start a relationship because all the trouble is at the beginning.”
The duo finally marry in Episode 7. By the finale, both halves of the couple can admit the other is “close” to being the person they love. Partridge says Edward is simply “new” to this kind of relationship, which is somewhere between friendship and romance.
“Edward always viewed marriage as a business transaction. Though he may not love Adelaide, she challenges him. He likes that,” he says. “He’s discovering and Adelaide is being patient with him. So there’s a fondness and a care there that’s really sweet.”
Throughout House of Guinness, Anne notices that her body stops working the way it once did. As she tells Edward in Episode 5, “It is always I who gives news to the doctor. Telling him of some new thing I can no longer do.” Knight explains that it’s “impossible” to know today what illness the real-life Anne Guinness had, due to a lack of medical information.
“But we know she gradually, as it’s portrayed, lost control over her body,” Knight says. “But that still didn’t mean that she was not expected to not have children.” In the series, Anne births many children of her own, despite pregnancy difficulties and traumatizing miscarriages. Fairn, who plays Anne, empathizes with her character.
“She doesn’t have anyone to talk to about what’s going on with her. So if anything, Anne is just trying to hide it,” Fairn says. “She’s trying to do so much for other people: the other women in the family and the poorer people of Ireland. She’s trying to help all these other people and her brothers, but she’s actually really struggling herself.”
In the House of Guinness series premiere, Ben tells his love interest Lady Christine O’Madden (Jessica Reynolds) that he is “the madness” that seems to follow him around. “He really believes it. Ben really thinks that Christine’s life — and probably his family’s life — would be a lot better if he wasn’t around,” O’Shea says. “He’s trying to fix his problems with money, sex, relationships, and gambling.”
Yet, Knight says Ben isn’t that different from his family. He simply inherited more of “the madness” than the rest of his siblings. “All the Guinness family members have it in them,” Knight says. “I’ve given Rafferty the line that, ‘Inside all of you there is a black cat waiting to get on the roof and howl.’ I find that to be true throughout the history of the family.”
Ben tries to improve his habits after Arthur’s wedding. During the event, he strikes a pact with Aunt Agnes: for 4,000 British pounds a year (or 600,000 pounds in modern times), he will marry a “suitable” lady from society and drop Christine. The family agrees, and Ben weds Lady Henrietta St Lawrence (Elizabeth Dulau), a kind aristocrat he meets at his brother’s nuptials. For a while, Ben remains sober and faithful. But, by the time Edward is married, Ben is battling his substance abuse struggles once again … and sleeping with Christine; in Episode 8, she becomes an official Guinness mistress.
“Ben gets to a point where he gets everything that he thought would make him happy — and it hasn’t changed anything,” O’Shea says. “That is probably the scariest point that we see him because now he’s forced to look at himself in the mirror and look inward.”
Peer right into the looking glass with Ben by (re)watching House of Guinness, now streaming on Netflix. Keep coming back to Tudum as more news flows.
