#ph posts

THERE'S A NEW UPDATE , PEOPLE!!! OPEN THY SOCIALS

I’ve been thinking a lot about Lauki these days, including how their story might end. I remember a few years ago Eph said that no one had come close to guessing the ending of PH. That was a while back, but even now, I still can’t imagine exactly how it will wrap up, and we still have a while before the story ends. The only thing I feel certain about is that Lauki won’t stay together by the end (please don't kill me for saying this). Maybe they don't separate forever, but after everything that’s happened, it’s hard to picture a "they lived happily ever after" for them. After the fall of the Phantom Scythe, how would they even function as a couple in ordinary life? Their relationship was born out of extraordinary circumstances, and both still carry wounds that will take a long time to heal.

Kieran, for one, won’t stay in Ardhalis. I can't see that happening. Even if people don’t know his identity as the Purple Hyacinth—or if only a handful do—it still wouldn’t be safe for him (and for Lauren). And beyond safety, he needs space to heal. His journey feels like one of self-forgiveness and redemption, and I don’t think he’ll find that in the same city where he spilled so much blood. I can see him faking his death in the end—symbolically “killing” the Purple Hyacinth so he can finally live as Kieran White. To the world, it would look like he’s gone, but Lauren would know the truth. She’d carry the knowledge that he escaped and is alive somewhere, but he's unreachable. This is bittersweet and it's so fitting for Lauki to be honest. In fact, I can imagine her helping him stage it—maybe she’s the one who “kills” the Purple Hyacinth. That would tie back to the prologue imagery: the gunshot (Lauren) and the bloodied hyacinths (the death of the Purple Hyacinth). My theory is that those panels represent Lauren helping Kieran to fake his death (or it's the fall of the monarchy because purple hyacinths are the royal crest, but that's a theory for another time).

Meanwhile, I don't think Lauren would leave Ardhalis. Ever since the Greychapel episodes when Kieran called out privilege and the state of the south shore, I feel like it has opened Lauren's eyes. Whether or not she stays a detective, I think she’d be deeply involved in rebuilding the city and fighting for its most vulnerable. Like Kieran, she has guilt to work through, but it’s different. Kieran has literal blood on his hands, the hundreds of lives taken as an assassin. They both have healing to do. Lauren’s burden is heavy too, but it’s not the same, and once she learns the truth about Dylan's death she will start to move on (I'm sure we'll finally get the Dylan reveal in s3 part 2). In my opinion her role seems to be about creating something new out of the wreckage, while his is about finding redemption away from it.

That’s the bittersweet beauty of Lauki: they’ve been helping each other heal, but their paths might ultimately diverge—Lauren staying to rebuild, Kieran leaving to forgive himself. Still, I can’t see the story ending without them reuniting somehow. Maybe it’s years later, maybe it’s an open ending where they find each other but we’re left wondering if they get back together. I like the thought of Kieran sending Lauren a letter when he plans on coming back, one that uses a phrase only she would recognize. Or maybe they meet again on the bridge where it all began, where they first made their deal. Their story would come full circle, with them meeting again not as two broken souls scarred by trauma and loss, but as people who have finally begun to heal. They'd meet as lighter, freer versions of themselves, no longer defined by their past.