She the People Ending Explained: Is Governor Harper Dead?

Netflix’s ‘She the People’ follows the trials and tribulations of Antoinette Dunkerson after she is elected the Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi. Being the first Black woman to do so, she is happy to be a part of history and excited to take her place in office and help change the state for the better. However, right on her first day, she realises that she is surrounded by people with varying degrees of racism and sexism who don’t want her to be anywhere near the decision-making process. To stifle her efforts to work or assert herself in office, Governor Harper appoints her entire staff by himself, claiming that she cannot choose to hire her own people. The only person she is able to bring with her is Shanika, her cousin and close confidant who also serves as her secretary.

If the challenges at her workplace were not enough, Antoinette has to deal with the problems in her personal life as well. After being divorced from Cyrus, who cheated on her, she has become a single mother to two teenagers, Titus and Lola, both of whom come with their own set of challenges. Lola, particularly, poses more of a challenge, but it takes a while for her mother to understand that she is just trying to emulate her. Antoinette is so caught up with her job and her kids that she has no time for romance, that is, until she meets her Chief of Security, Michael. He is handsome and focused, and sometimes flirtatious, but getting involved with him would be extremely unprofessional, which isn’t something she can afford to be at the moment.

After being repeatedly sidelined at work, Antoinette finally finds something worth fighting for. It turns out that the Governor has greenlit a pipeline project that is poised to run through the poorest neighbourhoods of Mississippi and two more states. The Governor claims that it will bring thousands of jobs to the people, but he fails to mention that it would make even more people homeless. Moreover, a lot of people are already trying to change the path of the pipeline, and when Antoinette joins the fight, something very unexpected happens.

Governor Harper’s Health Fails Him at a Critical Time

One thing Antoinette notes is that a lot of people are set to make millions of dollars if the pipeline project goes through. Governor Harper happens to be one of them, but more importantly, it is the people who have backed his campaign who want the project to break ground at all costs. This means that if someone finds a way to completely halt it, it would be very, very bad news for the businessmen involved in the project and even more so for the Governor. So, when he discovers that someone has filed a case against the project, he gets very nervous about facing the men who have backed his campaign so far. To make matters worse, Antoinette reveals her true sentiments about the project during a press conference. This increases his problems tenfold because it shows that Antoinette will not back down from the fight.

Her standing against him on the pipeline project shows that she is also free to express her opinions on his other policies, making it more difficult for him to green-light them. While it would be a good thing for democracy, it wouldn’t be so great for the wealthy people who hoped to make even more money with Harper in office. This is why he wanted to completely sideline Antoinette and keep her busy with the grunt work so that she would never get around to the important stuff, and he would be free to do as he wanted. However, she proves that she cannot be trifled with, and that means that Harper has a problem. What makes matters worse for the Governor is that his problems aren’t limited to his professional life. His health has already been on a downward spiral, which is reflected in how easily he sweats and how his assistant, Jed, is always on call to “dab” him.

Following the press conference, Harper’s heart starts to race, particularly after Antoinette tells him that she is not backing down at all. At first, she wanted the pipeline to be moved a few miles north to save the homes of the poor from being razed. That would have been comparatively fine, but now, she reveals that she is looking to get the whole project scrapped, which means a whole lot of trouble for the Governor. This worsens his health as he starts to sweat more and more, and as soon as Antoinette leaves his office, he breaks down. All we see is people frantically running into his office, but it’s clear that he has suffered a serious health issue, most likely a heart attack, and the pressure of making the project work has pushed him to his death.

Will Antoinette Become the Governor?

On her first day in office, Harper tells Antoinette that as the Lieutenant Governor, she doesn’t really have much to do. He claims that she has no real power and jokes that all she has to do is wait for him to die. At the time, he doesn’t give much thought to what he is saying, which turns out to be a habit for him. But after the press conference, it seems that his joke might turn into a reality after all. The last scene shows all of his staff running into his office, and Jed tells Antoinette that it’s all her fault.

This proves that something bad has happened to Harper. If it is a heart attack, there is a chance that he might die. However, we have yet to see how bad the situation really is, which means that he might survive this health scare. In any case, it is kind of good news for Antoinette. Whatever the extent of Harper’s health problems, it is clear that he will be forced to leave office, at least until he recovers enough to be able to come back to office and assume his responsibilities. In the Governor’s absence, his powers will fall on the Lieutenant Governor, which means that Antoinette finally gets to exercise some power, even if temporarily.

This gives her enough window to bring a positive change through her policies, and more importantly, to connect with the public, particularly those who are still loyal to Harper, and show them she is dedicated to working for them, and they can trust her. If Harper dies, her path will be cleared until the next elections. But even his temporary absence is enough to give her the opportunity she had been vying for all this time. If nothing, then this small window might give her the confidence to run for Governor next time and beat Harper at his own game.

What Happens to the Pipeline Project?

All the fuss and the mess in the Governor’s office are caused by the pipeline project. Like most other things, he presented it as a huge opportunity to the public. He showed them the jobs that it would bring to the state and all the development it would lead to. What he did not talk about was how badly it would impact the poor neighbourhoods, which wouldn’t receive anything as a safety net from the government. He also didn’t talk about the environmental impact that the pipeline would have, the cost of which would also be paid by the public. The fact is that the public and the people never crossed the Governor’s mind when he decided to go through with the project. All he saw was the money it would make him and the people around him, who would funnel that money into his next campaign so he could, once again, become the Governor.

Despite the concerns from the locals, including the pastors of the locales that would be affected by the project, among others, he didn’t think twice about what he could do to make it better. In fact, when he is asked to shift the pipeline’s direction a couple of miles to the north so that it only affects the farmlands and not residential areas, he refuses to consider the request because it would cost him more money. Later, it turns out that some parts of the farmland are owned by the wealthy men involved in the project, and they don’t want to give up their own land. When Antoinette finds out about it, she knows that she has to do whatever it takes to either push the direction of the pipeline, or better, to completely scrap it. First, she finds a way to delay the project by getting her friend Kelly to file a case against it by claiming a church on the project’s ground as a place of historical significance.

She believes that this should be enough to halt, if not cancel, the project, but that is just the beginning of her plan. With more of her friends on board as her newly appointed staff, something that she’d wanted to do the day she stepped into office, she knows that she can figure out how to do away with the project. To show her dedication to the task, she expresses her opinion about it during the press conference, which puts her at odds with Harper. If she becomes Governor, she might be able to cancel the whole thing, but with a lot of rich and powerful people behind it, the task might not be as easy as it seems, especially if and when Harper comes back to claim his position. So far, the project is in limbo, and its fate rests on who is in power and how they decide to use it.