NOTE: This article references plot details from last night’s season finale of The Knick.
Variety is reporting that Cinemax has ordered a single script (and an outline) for a third season of Steven Soderbergh’s medical horror show series The Knick. The new script—which we’re going to assume will be written by co-creators Jack Amiel and Michael Begler, the pair responsible (along with Steve Katz) for the vast majority of the writing on the Soderbergh-directed series—has presumably been commissioned as a way to see how viable the show might be after the status quo-shattering events of the second season finale—namely, the accidental death by self-surgery of lead protagonist Dr. John Thackery, played by series star Clive Owen.
By all accounts, Owen’s contract with the show is up, the original version of The Knick having been envisioned as a self-contained, two-season story. (Although when Variety asked Owen if this was “the last we’ve seen of you as Dr. Thackery,” the British actor replied with a slightly coy “It certainly looks that way.”) In any case, it’s pretty clear that not even Cinemax knows right now whether the Emmy-winning medical drama will survive Thack’s death, releasing a statement that simply says, “Cinemax has been in conversations with Steven Soderbergh on how we might continue with The Knick.” Given that the show’s second season was as horrifyingly fascinating—if not as avidly watched—as the first, we’ll keep our bloody, hideously filthy fingers crossed.