House of Guinness Recap Episode 8: The Dangers of Kindness

House of Guinness Season 1 Episode 8

In a scene that was a callback to the first episode, with the four Guinness children together in a room, Arthur spoke briefly and with much fondness of how far they had gotten since that day of their father’s funeral, when Anne made all of them hold hands. Benjamin was less drunk. Edward had taken their already successful company internationally. Arthur, who had struggled against the bond of the Guinness name, declared that there was nowhere on earth he would rather be than in that room, with his family, as part of their company.

And then there was Anne, weakening still from an unnamed disease, whom Arthur credited for making sure the Guinness name was remembered not just for beer but for kindness. Anne’s time in Cloonboo affected her so profoundly that she became the primary driver of the Guinness philanthropy. Aunt Agnes and Adelaide eventually joined her, and Christine as well, in a small capacity, but it was Anne who pushed her brothers into allocating a substantial part of their earnings into bettering people’s lives. That was a good thing, right? Right?

The Guinness philanthropy had won them supporters on both sides of the political divide, a public relations win that was also dangerous to their enemies. As Rafferty pointed out, kindness made the status quo bearable. Why join a violent struggle for independence when there was a wealthy Irish family already working to better the lives of the people? Why push for land reform when working for the Guinnesses meant good housing and secure retirement benefits? Why overthrow the system when the overlords were benevolent? Patrick Cochrane had no love for the Guinnesses, certainly not toward Arthur who threatened him and his sister when they showed up at his wedding, but his decision to accept the task of gunman was hardly just an impulsive decision of an angry man. 

That was one of the questions that remained unanswered on the House of Guinness’s finale – who ordered the assassination? Everyone assumed the target was Arthur, but of this, we are not yet certain as well. Since Patrick came to a Guinness political event, with all the major members of the Guinness family there, there was a good chance the target was a Guinness. But who? And since the Guinnesses were funnelling money to the Brotherhood in America, who decided to put an end to, or at the very least seriously endanger, this lucrative arrangement? 

Whatever the circumstances that brought Patrick back to Ireland, they were clearly very serious, because the Brotherhood remained tight-lipped despite Rafferty’s violent persuasions or Byron Hedges's gentle probing via his late father’s connections. No one would even admit that Patrick was in the city. If it were not for Ellen’s letter to Edward, they would never have known of the danger. 

Ellen warned Edward because she wanted to save her brother from the gallows. If he succeeded in being an assassin, his life was forfeit. There was always this fundamental difference between brother and sister, with one believing that violence was inevitable, whilst the other was committed to finding a political solution, even if it involved a touch of blackmail. When Edward came to see Ellen, to try and find out if she knew where Patrick was, what he found himself was the answer to a question that had dodged him through his short marriage. He still loved Ellen. 

Benjamin, the one who was for all intents and purposes cut off from the family wealth save for a relatively small allowance, found himself with a less impossible love. He and Christine were indiscreet with their affair, a fact that Anne decided to confront head on. She, Aunt Agnes, and Adelaide had decided to appoint themselves the official guardians of the family reputation. She told Christine, with Benjamin at her side, that if she promised to be discreet, the family would accept her as Benjamin's official mistress. And so Christine was with the crowd, not the Guinness family on a dais, the day of Arthur’s campaign event, the day that Patrick Cochrane enacted the plan to shoot, well, someone. 

It was a huge turnaround for Arthur, from a disgraced politician known but not proved at court to have tried to purchase himself an election, to a viable, even vibrant, candidate who had the Guinness philanthropic works behind him. Byron worked his magic, including giving Arthur an election beard on posters, because an 11-year-old child suggested a beard to Abraham Lincoln, he grew one, and he became president. Arthur was not nearly as patient with Byron’s political games as Edward was, but he cooperated as much as he could, though he was clearly worried before he took the stage for his big speech. 

Arthur was not just accepting the importance of a political position to the family business, he was learning how much power he had, and growing more comfortable in exercising it. It was always a dangerous thing for a truly powerful man to become aware of just how much power he had, and slowly decide to wield it. His wife was the first one who felt the brunt of it. 

Arthur sent Olivia to London, to the best doctor in Harley Street, to have an abortion. As he told Edward, he could not pass off Rafferty’s bastard as his heir. It was not a decision that he made lightly, but it was a decision that he made nonetheless, and Olivia, for all her strength, did not fight him on this. Once she was back home, however, she did not hide how upset she was. The freedom to choose her lovers was one of the terms Olivia named before she agreed to marry Arthur. She, according to Rafferty, was the one who insisted on unsafe sex. A woman used to getting what she wanted, Olivia confessed to being frightened, to feeling very lonely, before the surgery. On a matter of continuing the Guinness line in name though not in blood, she did not dare disobey her husband. 

From the moment they met, it was obvious that Arthur adored Olivia. Aunt Agnes, for all her pragmatism, was hesitant about Arthur marrying a woman who named her terms as bluntly as Olivia did. Arthur did not blink. He enjoyed Olivia’s strength, her clear-eyed identification of her needs and wants and frank negotiation of her terms. For a man who has had to live a life half in deceit, it must have been such a relief to know that the woman he was to spend the rest of his life with was someone he would not have to hide his full self from. 

‘You don’t have to love me because I love you’, Arthur had told Olivia, who was skeptical of her husband’s claim of love. Arthur may have preferred men, but it was quite believable that he loved Olivia. His reaction to Olivia breaking their agreement, to Olivia falling in love with Rafferty, to even wanting his child (for surely she did, else, she would not have insisted on them not taking precautions) went beyond how he felt for her. 

In Olivia, Arthur found a partner. Those moments when he would speak to her about what happened to him, when he would lay his head on her lap, when she would speak words of reassurance, those were moments when he did not have to be alone. If Olivia were merely having sex with random men, there was no threat to the closeness of their partnership. With Olivia having fallen in love, there now was someone else who joined their marriage. That it was his foreman, his enforcer, a man to whom he depended on for the most sensitive things in business and in life, only made the situation worse. Arthur was getting pushed off the table in his own house.

Arthur, for all his past desire to leave the Guinness name behind and live with his impossible loves away from the city that his family dominated, was still a Guinness. He rebelled from his father’s name, but he knew what it meant. Giving his name to his servant’s child was a bridge too far for him. 

When she walked into his house as Lady Olivia of Bantry Bay, Arthur, despite Aunt Agnes’s caution, decided to give her everything she wished for. This time, it was Arthur who laid down the terms, in his father’s old office, with his portrait watching. The way Arthur snapped his finger to indicate that Olivia should sit down was a small but clear signal that Olivia faced a different Arthur this time. He told her that she broke the terms of their agreement. She could leave with Rafferty if she wished, but she would return to her circumstances prior to their marriage, with no money, and now with a man who was unemployed and unemployable across the country. The reason for her situation would be known throughout the city. Or, both she and Rafferty could remain, with conditions altered. Intimacy between the two of them would be forbidden. 

It was a clear choice – go forth with love but none of the excessive wealth she has gotten used to, that she married Arthur for, or remain and be his wife, and let go of her love. Of course Olivia chose to remain. As Edward once observed, she was a practical woman. When Arthur insisted that she spoke to Rafferty right then and there, she obeyed him still. ‘Everything is as you wish. And always will be.’ Olivia was wise in knowing when a strategic retreat was necessary.

The Parting Glass by boygenius & Ye Vagabonds played as Olivia, escorted by Potter, made her way to the orangery to say her goodbyes to Rafferty. The thing is, not so recently, I watched this song used to great effect in a powerful scene with the brilliant Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine in Apple TV’s Smoke. Four months later, and that scene and this song has remained with me. The combination of the visuals, snippets of a life lived, a small footprint, perhaps, but one made nonetheless, seen rather literally through the eyes of Mr. Mwine’s Freddy Fasano, combined with this haunting song, was perfection. So, the song choice did not really work for me with this particular storyline, with this tale of doomed love that served more to help unpack Arthur’s character than be a compelling story on its own. It did not feel earned.

Potter’s second ‘Yes Madam’ after Olivia sent him away was filled with contempt of his master’s wife. Olivia instructed Rafferty not to speak, just look sad, as she laid down the terms of how they were to go on. Olivia’s spirit was not broken. She briefly switched to Irish when she told Rafferty her profanity-laced decision. She had a cousin in Donnybrook who could lend a house where she and Rafferty could meet up once a week. Rafferty swore that one day, they would be together. They are both hot, but I’m just not into this.  

Despite knowing the danger that Patrick Cochrane posed, Olivia, along with the rest of the Guinness family, joined Arthur up on a dais for his election event. Ellen was there, too, on the crowd, and she told Rafferty that she would blow her whistle if she spotted Patrick. She wanted Patrick arrested before he could do anything. But there was a plan in place that was executed well. Men caused a commotion to distract the guards, who left their post and allowed Patrick to slip in. Rafferty went to help disperse the situation as Patrick retrieved the gun that had been hidden inside the venue for him. Though Ellen saw him and blew her whistle, a shot was fired, and the screen faded to black.

The first season of House of Guinness was clearly set up to be just the beginning of a longer tale, and despite my few issues with it, I hope that it will be given the space to tell the story it wants to. Thank you for joining me on these recaps! I am sorry about the long delay in the back five episode recaps, that was purely because of life busy-ness and not due to any drop in interest on my part in the show. Through the first season, though, I haven’t been able to shake the feeling that the show was holding back. I would very much like to see the show fully unleashed and I will be on season two watch with the rest of the fans. Till next time! 

Rating: B+

Strays

👑I enjoyed the pettiness of Patrick tearing down Arthur’s campaign posters as he walked through the streets of Dublin upon his return. He was a committed hater, and I respect that. 

👑Patrick went to Ellen’s flat, and though they were both angry when Edward and his relationship with Ellen was brought up, Patrick’s gentle shoulder nudge of his sister was a sweet moment. 

👑On the same night that Edward went to see Ellen, Adelaide went to the brewery and found him gone. She waited for him, and they had a frank and not acrimonious talk. Neither of them loved each other, and Adelaide called it an imperfection they could live with. Adelaide’s situation may not have been as desperate as Olivia’s (she was a Guinness too, from the banking side), but she, too, married a Guinness for money, because the Guinness money allowed her to do the philanthropic work that fulfilled her. 

👑Lol at Aunt Agnes being excited about the experience of going into a shop herself and buying pins.

👑On the night that Olivia returned from London, Rafferty went to the house and asked to see her. Arthur told her that because he was kind to everyone but himself, he said yes. Arthur was both heartbroken and seething in the dining room whilst Olivia and Rafferty confessed their love to each other in the library.  

👑Arthur and Edward’s relationship had grown leaps and bounds from the first episode. It was Edward who bucked up a drunk and miserable Arthur whilst Olivia was in London and he was home processing his pain and his guilt over what he made her do. When Arthur later said that he realised he was brave and wondered who would have guessed, Edward told him he would have. It was also Edward who helped Arthur rehearse his speech. Arthur’s partnership with Olivia may have mostly ended, but his partnership with his brother Edward has become stronger. 

👑It was notable that Edward started as the cold fish, obsessed with work and solely focused on growing the business, but as the story went on, he softened considerably. He genuinely supported the good works Anne and Adelaide pushed for. In contrast, Arthur began as one who longed for freedom and love and wanted to walk away from everything Guinness. His mellow nature and inclination toward kindness was tested a few times, notably by the betrayal of his lover Patrick and his wife Olivia, and we ended the season with an Arthur who exercised power and wanted more. 

👑Patrick Cochrane practiced shooting with bottles of Guinness.

Episode Writer: Steven Knight

Episode Director: Mounia Akl

Original Air Date: September 25, 2025

You can view RecapLab’s coverage of House of Guinness via this link. 

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