House of Lies: Season 1 Finale

“Welcome to the new economy, America; where only the meanest, richest, and smartest will remain.” – Marty Kaan (Don Cheadle), House of Lies Season One Finale

When Showtime’s freshman half-hour comedy House of Lies premiered on January 8, the Occupy movement had reached new pinnacles of global pervasion beyond what even the most earnest Wall Street protestors could have envisioned back in September. Americans everywhere were chanting, “we are the 99%” as a ubiquitous battle cry of capitalist disillusion, a slogan of indignation toward corporate greed; and Showtime was promoting a comedy about the group that “put the con in consulting”—the devil whispering into the ears of our nation’s most loathed CEOs. Twelve episodes and 3.4 million weekly viewers later, the season finale of Showtime’s highest-rated comedy illustrates more clearly than ever how House of Lies transformed America’s most contemptible professional into television’s most compelling protagonist.

Marty Kaan is about as ruthless, callous, and conceited a protagonist one could ask for, but we love him for two main reasons: (1) the nature of who he is and what he does torments him with self-loathing, but (2) the people around him, those he selfishly cons and exploits for personal gain, are often far worse than him. As the season has progressed, we’ve seen Marty perpetually unravel with the world around him, often as a result of his own actions. His conflicts with Greg Norbert (Greg Germann) at the beginning of the season set in motion the MetroCapital acquisition of Marty’s consulting firm that reaches its culmination in the season finale. The episode also brings Marty’s strained relationship with his son to a new low, situating Marty to begin the second season with his personal life at rock bottom.

The merger was a storyline that seemed to rest on the backburner for the majority of the season until reemerging as the central story of the last two episodes. It’s a rather difficult plot to invest in since Marty’s Pod needs to remain intact for the show to succeed—though Cheadle is exceptional in the role, his supporting cast of Kristen Bell, Ben Schwartz, and Josh Lawson are equally vital characters. Since we all know that the merger somehow had to die, or at the very least the Pod will remain intact in some capacity, it only makes sense that writer/show-runner Matthew Carnahan close out the storyline with two thematic subjects that have persisted throughout the series as a whole: sex and betrayal.

The finale cuts between the acquisition banquet and the days leading up to it, a structural device that proves effective in certain moments while unnecessary at others. Marty’s ex-wife, Monica Talbot (Dawn Oliveri), informs Marty that Marco (Griffin Dunne) has been sleeping with numerous Galweather-Stern employees with promises of helping them ascend the rankings. Of course we already know that Jeannie Van Der Hooven (Bell) is one of his many sexual consorts, and it becomes clear from the initial meetings with the Pod that Marty suspects as much. 

But in a slightly uncharacteristic move, Marty says nothing—at least not at first. He sends the Pod on a search for Marco’s mistresses, hoping that if one speaks up the rest will follow. No one steps forward, but Marty still remains quiet about Jeannie until we cut back to the banquet, where he finally confronts her about the affair. Marty’s words and copious amounts of liquid courage finally push her to step up to the podium and announce the affair. Bell delivers a truly moving and vulnerable performance before closing the speech by asking the other women whom Marco sexually exploited to stand up as well. Nearly half the room does, and the revelation officially dissolves the merger.

It seems a fitting and timely conclusion given the various sex scandals that have emerged in the news over recent years—I needn’t list for you the countless powerful figures accused of sexual harassment/assault in the past decade. In fact, this correlation between sex and power is an important recurring theme of the show, one that House of Lies captures with unapologetic raunch while refusing to dip into vulgar gratuity (as has become the case of Showtime’s veteran comedy Californication). We’ve seen countless examples of characters using sex as a weapon or a tool for personal gain throughout the series, including most recently Marty exacting his revenge on Marco by sleeping with Marco’s daughter.

Despite featuring some of the most malicious and morally lacking characters on television, House of Lies does manage to infuse some odd sense of karmic retribution—and in this world completely void of integrity, it’s only a matter of time before everyone gets what’s coming to them. At the end of the finale, Jeannie’s fiancé leaves her after she comes clean about her sexual misadventures, and Marty’s son and father both leave him after his obsession with work and himself becomes a burden that neither can handle any longer. Jeannie and Marty have mirrored each other in many ways throughout the season, and the final scene of the two pounding back shots together suggests this relationship will be explored further when the show returns next year.  While their careers may have been saved, their souls have not. There’s always frustration when a season concludes on such an ambiguous note, though at least House of Lies spared us from any melodramatic cliffhanger revelation in the final moment. Instead, we have only the slightest implications of what’s to come; if the final few episodes of their freshman season are any indication, House of Lies has only just begun to explore its most cynical and sinister terrain, and Marty Kaan & Co. appear ready to take us there in 2013.