‘House of Lies’ season 4 finale review: Did Marty and Jeannie have a baby?

“House of Lies” did not exactly have a strong first part to their season 4 finale on Sunday night. This is where we come bearing the good news: The second half-hour was far better. It set the stage for Marty Kaan’s present and future, while still wrapping up some of the other dangling stories.

What the show failed at, just to get this out of the way, is creating any real emotional moment with Clyde over the death of his father. This is why this show will probably never have nice things: It breathes in so much cynicism that this is all it breathes out. We know it’s not the sort of show to get sappy, but even an added scene or two would be nice. Ben Schwartz can definitely pull that off so why not give him some meaty material?

Now, we turn to the myriad of things that the series did right. The time jumps were executed brilliantly, mostly because it showed the sequences of events that led to a desperate Marty pleading with clients to give him a year to turn their businesses into monster success stories. His relationship with Denna is also over. Meanwhile, Clyde and Doug using the sale of their app to fund Kaan & Associates ended in disaster. He had nothing else to go on anymore.

While all of this was happening, Marty also dealt with the ramifications of his son creating a hate crime on himself, a ploy so that he would not get expelled from his prestigious school over his illegal purse trade. Roscoe could have been freed thanks to politics and threats, but he wanted instead to face the consequences of what he did, tell the truth, and move forward. After spending some of the season harboring anger and pouting over Marty’s prison sentence, Roscoe moved forward and tried to be a better person.

To think, the main event here was still to come: Jeannie and Marty’s child entering the world. In the midst of so much chaos, seeing thing daughter may be the thing to have finally convinced these two cutthroat, crazy people that they are better off together. This was the icing on the cake of a funny, and at times sweet, season finale that gives the show a proper conclusion, in the event it is not renewed. Grade: B+.

If you missed it, head over here to read our scoop on the future of “House of Lies”. Also, sign up now to score some additional TV news on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Showtime.)