SPOILER WARNING: If you aren’t caught up with The Knick’s Season 2 finale, get out of here. I mean it! Get gone! Come back when you’re all done.

So if you watched The Knick’s finale, as I assume you have, then you’re probably dealing with the complete emotional devastation. The Knick wrapped up its second season, and likely this chapter of the hospital’s 1901 story, in a bleak and nihilistic fashion. Cornelia (Juliet Rylance) was so distraught over her brother’s evil doings that she fled to Australia, Everett (Eric Johnson) is going on a eugenics world tour after blinding Algernon (Andre Holland), who seems to be turning to psychiatry. And a super coked-up Thackery (Clive Owen) went out like a ball of fire, his own intestines in hand in the operating theater, so utterly crushed by the accidental death of his love Abigail (Jennifer Ferrin) that he declared everything meaningless as he slipped into the void with a smile on his face.

Naturally, the first question to ask then — after collecting ourselves — is whether or not there will, or even can be, any more Knick post-Thackery. And yes, he’s definitely dead. Speaking to Indiewire, the series’ director, Steven Soderbergh, said that Thackery’s death was planned from the very start:

"I just said [to Owen early on], ‘If it matters to you, we are going to kill you at the end of Season 2 just so you know.’ He was like, ‘Okay. Good to know.’"

Because of Clive Owen’s reluctance to sign on to a TV series, The Knick — created and written by Jack Amiel and Michael Begler — was only ever planned to run for two seasons. But Soderbergh suggested that thought it’s the end of Thackery’s story, it may not be the end of The Knick:

"I told them that I’m going to do the first two years and then we are going to break out the story for seasons 3 and 4 and try and find a filmmaker or filmmakers to do this the way that I did. This is how we want to do this so that every two years, whoever comes on, has the freedom to create their universe."

It seems likely that these next seasons would work as an anthology of sorts, no longer being beholden to the dawn-of-the-20th-century setting, or even the same cast. Soderbergh continued,

"They don't have to shoot it the way I shoot it. They don't have to score it the way I score it. They don't have to cast who I've cast,” he said. “They have maximum freedom to come in and just go, ‘I want to wipe the slate clean.’"

For fans of The Knick, that’s both good and bad news. While most of the main characters were scattered to the wind, there still seem to be plenty of other stories to explore with this particular cast. Still, it would of course be fascinating to see where the group might take the stories next, both in time and place. What elevated The Knick into such a fantastic piece of art, though, was Soderbergh’s direction, his vision for it, and his score. Without those elements, it’s hard to imagine any further iterations being as compelling or masterful.

The piece goes on to suggest that there might be a long break between the finale and a new season, though, and that there are no concrete plans for what the next story might be. Further, though Cinemax has made it clear that nothing has been green lit, Variety reported that a Season 3 script has been ordered.

In the meantime, Soderbergh will be busy all across premium cable with his mysterious and ambitious “choose your own adventure” Mosaic project for HBO, and the TV adaptation of his film The Girlfriend Experience, which will air on Starz.

But back to The Knick, what would you like to see from a third season? Did you find the Season 2 finale satisfactory as a series finale? Or do you want to explore more about Bertie’s (Michael Angarano), Harriet’s (Cara Seymour) and Cleary’s (Chris Sullivan) futures? And about how patricide fans Lucy (Eve Hewson) and Henry (Charles Aitken) might become partners in crime? Plus, Everett’s probable future as Hitler’s best friend? Or are you ready for something different, and if so, in what time period? Same cast, or new? Let us know. The possibilities are endless … except for Thack. RIP.