Arthur’s hard-won parliamentary seat doesn’t last long. Six months later, the opening title card tells us the scandal has caught up with him: the election result is voided. Arthur isn’t convicted personally, but the humiliation is public — and unforgettable.

Olivia, ever the provocateur, decides to “celebrate” by replacing her violin lesson with a private session of thinly veiled innuendo with Rafferty behind closed doors. Potter rushes to inform Arthur, who shrugs it off: this was always a marriage of convenience. Later, though, he advises Olivia to practice a bit more discretion in her extracurricular “fiddling.”

Anne, now visibly pregnant, receives no such levity. Visiting Reverend Grattan, she is told that Arthur is like an eel wriggling out of justice — and that Grattan knows the “full truth” about the vote-rigging. It’s blackmail, plain and simple, and a cruel blow for someone in Anne’s fragile state.

At the brewery office, Edward gets an unexpected visit from Adelaide, who has been dodging his invitations but shows up in person with an ambitious proposal: tear down Dublin’s slums and replace them with dignified, humane housing for the city’s poor — all funded by Guinness. It’s bold, expensive, and impossible to ignore. Adelaide claims she doesn’t want to influence him… but she still chose to deliver the plans herself.

Across the Atlantic, Byron reports that he has found “a fine plan to smooth our path once and for all.” His campaign to popularize Guinness in America is gaining traction, but at a cost: a deal that channels 15% of all profits through Fenian-approved charities. Edward is stunned — but the wheels are already turning, and Byron is already meeting with Eamon Dodd, the Manhattan Battalion Commander, whose version of the Fenian Brotherhood is equal parts political club and street militia.

Arthur, barred from Bonnie’s Angel house at Edward’s order, drinks himself into a rage and storms the brewery — only to find Edward gone. Instead, he runs into Patrick, the night guard he knows from his Angel visits. Patrick makes it clear he’s interested in an after-hours encounter. Arthur doesn’t hesitate.

Meanwhile, Edward heads to Ellen’s boarding house. To avoid the landlady, they slip upstairs, where Ellen warns him: if he refuses to renegotiate Byron’s deal, he risks getting his cousin killed. The conversation shifts, grows quieter, more intimate. They admit they think of each other often. They make love — a moment crosscut with Arthur’s tryst at the brewery and, in parallel, Anne’s noisy labor as she gives birth.

At the grand ceremony celebrating the brewery’s expansion, Arthur and Rafferty have a rare moment of honesty. Rafferty insists Arthur must play a bigger role in the business now that politics has failed him. Arthur agrees — and gives Rafferty tacit permission to spend time with Olivia, provided they are discreet.

Even Benjamin shows up, sober and with his new wife, Henrietta, on his arm, announcing that he’s going to be a father. “Has peace broken out on the Guinness battlefield?” he asks. For now, it seems so.

But not for everyone: Christine, devastated to learn Benjamin has married, plans to shoot herself. Aunt Agnes swoops in to deliver her solution: put the gun down, sign on with the new charitable foundation, and drown her heartbreak in gin.

Arthur closes the ceremony with a speech, praising Edward’s leadership and vowing to redouble his own efforts for the company. The crowd cheers, the family stands united, and for a brief moment, it feels as if everything is back on track. Then Edward leans in and reminds Arthur: they need to talk about New York.

This is an episode of boiling tensions — scandal, sex, birth, and business mixing like ingredients in a stout too strong to drink in one go. The time jump shows a family not just surviving public disgrace, but turning it into fuel for reinvention. The mood ends almost triumphant — until Edward’s final words remind us that the Guinness empire’s peace is fragile. The next toast may come with gunpowder.