If there is one character in House of Guinness who feels like he was deliberately designed to make viewers nervous, frustrated, and weirdly protective at the same time, it is Benjamin Guinness.
The first season gave us plenty of family warfare, money, ambition, and Victorian excess, but Benjamin’s story hit differently. Arthur and Edward were fighting over the future of the brewery. Benjamin seemed to be fighting simply to find a reason to care about his own future.
That makes the ending of Season 1 especially cruel.
Steven Knight left viewers staring at a gunshot, a crowd in chaos, and a cut to black with absolutely no easy answer about who was hit. Naturally, the internet immediately started doing what it does best: inventing increasingly elaborate theories.
So, what actually happens to Benjamin Guinness in House of Guinness Season 2?
There is no confirmed answer to every detail yet, and honestly, I think that uncertainty makes the character more interesting. But when the events of Season 1 are placed beside the real history of Benjamin Guinness II, several possibilities start looking a lot more convincing.
House of Guinness Season 2 Theories: Cliffhanger Explained, Cast Predictions, and Plot Spoilers
Benjamin Guinness Was Never Built for the Family Business
Benjamin entered the story as the odd one out.
Arthur and Edward inherited the responsibility of protecting and expanding the Guinness brewing empire. Benjamin got something far less satisfying: distance from the business and the uncomfortable realization that his father simply did not trust him with the family’s future.
That rejection matters.
Benjamin is not portrayed as some cartoonishly useless rich son who spends his days drinking and gambling because he has nothing better to do. There is genuine sadness underneath his behavior. He wants recognition. He wants affection. More than anything, he wants somebody in his family to look at him and see something other than a disappointment.
Instead, his wealth becomes another prison.
His gambling and substance abuse make things worse, obviously, but I found the character more sympathetic precisely because his problems are not presented as glamorous rebellion. Benjamin often looks exhausted by himself. He knows he is wasting his life, yet repeatedly struggles to stop.
That contradiction is what makes him work.
And Fionn O’Shea deserves a lot of credit here. He plays Benjamin with enough vulnerability that even when the character makes another terrible decision, you still find yourself hoping he will somehow pull himself together.
The Season 1 Finale Changes Everything
The finale leaves Benjamin’s future hanging over the entire Guinness family.
Patrick Cochrane’s attack creates the kind of cliffhanger that television writers know will send fans straight to Reddit. A gun is fired during a tense public confrontation, the episode ends before the consequences are revealed, and suddenly every member of the Guinness family becomes a potential target.
Benjamin is one of the obvious candidates.
There is a particularly cruel logic to the idea of him being injured. He has spent most of Season 1 believing that he doesn’t really matter to his family. If he suddenly becomes the victim of an assassination attempt, Arthur and Edward would be forced to confront how much they actually care about their supposedly useless brother.
That could be the emotional reset Benjamin desperately needs.
Or it could make everything much worse.
Could Benjamin Take the Bullet?
This is probably the theory I find most interesting, even though I would not call it a certainty.
If Benjamin is shot, the story immediately gains several possibilities:
- His relationship with Arthur and Edward could change dramatically.
- His addictions could become a major part of a recovery storyline.
- The family might finally treat him as someone worth protecting.
- Benjamin could develop a much stronger desire for independence.
- The shooting could push him toward a completely different life.
The most predictable version would be Benjamin surviving, becoming a better person overnight, and suddenly turning into a responsible member of the dynasty.
I really hope Knight doesn’t do that.
Benjamin is far more interesting when his progress is messy.
A near-death experience should not magically erase years of addiction, resentment, and insecurity. If Season 2 wants to make him compelling, it should make him fight for recovery instead of handing him redemption as a reward for getting shot.
Benjamin Could Become the Family’s Biggest Wild Card
There is another possibility that I actually like even more.
What if Benjamin stops trying to earn his brothers’ approval?
For much of Season 1, he exists in the shadow of Arthur and Edward. They control the respectable business world. Benjamin doesn’t. But that also means he is free to move through places they cannot.
Dublin’s gambling networks, political factions, criminal connections, and less respectable social circles could become Benjamin’s territory.
That would completely change his function within the story.
Instead of being the tragic Guinness brother everyone worries about, Benjamin could become the unpredictable one. Not necessarily a villain. Not necessarily a hero either.
Just dangerous.
And that would be much more fun to watch.
His existing relationships and connections could give him access to people who would never sit down with Arthur or Edward. If Benjamin begins building influence outside the brewery, the brothers could eventually discover that the sibling they ignored has become somebody they cannot control.
That is exactly the kind of family conflict House of Guinness seems built for.
His Romantic Life Could Become a Major Problem
Benjamin’s emotional weakness is another obvious pressure point.
He desperately wants to be loved, and that makes him vulnerable to people who understand how badly he wants validation.
Throughout the first season, there is a recurring pattern: Benjamin becomes attached, someone sees his vulnerability, and the relationship threatens to drag him even deeper into chaos.
Season 2 could push that much further.
A rival faction would not necessarily need to attack the brewery directly. Manipulating Benjamin could be much easier.
Imagine somebody convincing him that Arthur and Edward will never respect him. Imagine someone offering him financial independence, political influence, or genuine affection in exchange for a small favor.
Benjamin would not need to become evil.
He would only need to make one bad decision.
And considering his history, that feels painfully believable.
The Real Benjamin Guinness Offers a Very Different Future
This is where the historical material becomes particularly interesting.
The real Benjamin Guinness II was born in 1842 and died in 1900. His life did not follow the same path as the fictionalized, troubled young man we see on screen.
Most notably, he did not become the central figure in the day-to-day running of the Guinness brewery.
Instead, Benjamin pursued a military career and became a Captain in the Royal Horse Guards in Britain.
That detail could completely change the direction of Season 2.
If Steven Knight decides to bring the fictional character closer to his historical counterpart, Benjamin may eventually leave Dublin behind and enter the British military world.
And honestly, I would love to see that.
The visual and dramatic contrast would be enormous. Season 1 spends so much time surrounded by Dublin’s breweries, crowded streets, family estates, political tensions, and industrial wealth. Moving Benjamin into Victorian England’s military elite would give the series an entirely different atmosphere.
More importantly, it would give Benjamin something he has been missing all along: structure.
Why the Military Could Save Benjamin
Benjamin’s biggest problem has never simply been money.
He already has money.
His problem is purpose.
The military could give him exactly the thing his family never managed to provide. Discipline. Identity. A hierarchy he understands. A role that does not depend on whether Arthur or Edward considers him capable of running a brewery.
That does not mean everything suddenly becomes perfect.
A military career could also create new conflicts, especially if Benjamin carries his addictions and emotional problems with him. Changing his surroundings would not automatically change the person.
But it would give him a legitimate path away from the destructive cycle established in Season 1.
And historically, that path makes considerably more sense than turning him into a permanent Dublin criminal mastermind.
What Season 2 Should Do With Benjamin
Personally, I think the weakest possible storyline would be to keep Benjamin exactly where he was.
Another season of gambling, drinking, emotional breakdowns, and people telling him to get his life together would start feeling repetitive.
He needs movement.
The strongest version of Benjamin’s Season 2 arc would probably combine several elements:
| Possible Development | Why It Works |
|---|---|
| Benjamin survives the shooting | Gives the finale immediate emotional consequences |
| He begins confronting his addictions | Allows genuine character growth without an instant transformation |
| He clashes with Arthur and Edward | Keeps the family conflict alive |
| He considers leaving Dublin | Opens a new direction for the character |
| He enters military life | Connects the fictional story with Benjamin Guinness II’s real history |
| He builds independent influence | Prevents him from becoming passive again |
The trick is not to make Benjamin suddenly competent at everything.
Let him fail.
Let him relapse.
Let him make decisions that infuriate viewers.
But give those decisions consequences.
That’s what would make his eventual growth feel earned.
Benjamin’s Fate Could Be the Biggest Surprise of Season 2
There is something almost ironic about Benjamin’s position in the Guinness family.
He was treated as the brother who could not contribute to the dynasty. Yet that very rejection may eventually force him to become the most independent member of the family.
Arthur and Edward have the brewery.
Benjamin may end up with something much harder to control: freedom.
Whether that freedom comes through military service, a new life in England, dangerous business dealings, or simply walking away from his brothers, Season 2 has a chance to turn Benjamin from a tragic side figure into one of the show’s central players.
And that is where my expectations are cautiously high.
I enjoyed Benjamin’s storyline in Season 1 far more than I expected to. At times, the character’s self-destruction was frustrating enough to make me want to yell at the screen, but that frustration is also proof that the writing got something right. I cared what happened to him.
Now the show needs to reward that investment.
If Benjamin is the one who gets shot, don’t use the injury as a cheap shock.
If he leaves Dublin, don’t treat it as an excuse to abandon his story.
If he enters the military, don’t turn him into a completely different character overnight.
Let him carry the scars of everything that happened.
Because Benjamin Guinness is most interesting when he is caught between the person his family thinks he is and the person he desperately wants to become.
And if Season 2 gets that balance right, the supposedly forgotten Guinness brother could end up becoming the character everyone remembers.
