Global Courant 2023-05-29 10:10:28
Spoiler alert: This article contains plot details from the final episode of the HBO drama series Succession.
Succession was never really concerned about who would succeed Logan Roy as CEO of Waystar Royco.
It was a cover for the more compelling question of who Logan (Brian Cox) would become, just enough to fill the horrible void he left behind, to be able to strike fear through people’s hearts the way he could, to push all the love away . and desire for closeness in favor of power.
Kendall Roy’s fate in Sunday night’s fantastic series finale, a 90-minute whirlwind of whiplash-inducing double-crossing and familial disasters, is in many ways a reversal of his father’s. While Logan has been destined for death since the show’s pilot in 2018 — it’s in the title, after all — so too is Kendall (Jeremy Strong, in the version of his life), a man chained so irrevocably to the statue from his father that he wants commits suicide by doing the job that killed or dies his father.
The series of wealth corrupts the family and takes precedent over love, loyalty and morality, which boil over during the finale’s climactic scene, in which Siobhan ‘Shiv’ Roy (Sarah Snook) decides she won’t cherish Kendall’s frenzied quest to screw up the GoJo . deal, taking back her board vote in a stunning final betrayal.
During the show’s climactic scene, Kendall – who has been yelling things like “f-ck the patriarchy!” for four seasons! when it suited him best – his defense barks back that he should have the crown because he’s the oldest boy, while Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin) viciously replies that Kendall’s adopted children are illegitimate and not part of the Roy family. bloodline.
From left, Jeremy Strong as Kendall Roy, Sarah Snook as Siobhan ‘Shiv’ Roy and Kieran Culkin as Roman Roy during the Succession series finale. (HBO)
That the Roys are so bound by the idea of holding on to wealth and control of the company for the sake of their future children – symbols of intergenerational power, but not much else – while being denied love, safety and protection is Logan’s ultimate heritage. It’s something we’ve seen Kendall repeat over and over in his relationship with his own kids, two characters we almost never see because people who aren’t in the orbit of Succession’s main characters simply aren’t shown.
When, midway through the episode, Roman and Shiv agree – and those agreements are always fleeting – that they will agree to Kendall’s long-held ambition to run the company and give him the board votes to support a takeover of Waystar by the media streaming platform GoJo, Roman sums up the futility of their years-long battle for control of the company, the poison apple that Kendall wants so badly to eat: “It’s haunted and cursed and nothing will ever go right, but enjoy your bauble.”
For a family that constantly weighs the value of bloodlines, it feels fitting that the last strings are pulled almost entirely by outsiders: Lukas Mattson (Alexander Skarsgard), the irreverent Swedish tech brother; Jeryd Mencken (Justin Kirk), the neo-Nazi president of Roy Creation; and Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen), an intruder who successfully infiltrated the family to get close to the money, a man who basks in moral decay like holy water.
Shiv is used and discarded by Mattson and defeated by her husband Tom, who she always thought was inferior to her. (HBO)
Where to begin with Tom and Shiv, Succession’s cursed romance? Shiv’s fate, in her own mind and sense of self, boils down to castration – overcame by a husband she always believed to be inferior, after being used and discarded by the puppeteer Mattson. Her marriage to Tom is captured bitterly in a final shot of them in his car, her hand resting limp and dead on his with no sign of life.
The final shot of the episode is of Kendall looking out at the water, a repeating motif that we’ve come to understand is an association of his relationship with death: the young waiter chasing him died in the water, while Ken himself seemed to die. drowning during the season two finale of the show. When he finds out his father is dead, he is trapped on a boat.
Here he is left almost completely alone, isolated from his brothers and sister, his children and ex-wife, his friends and business associates. The only person following him is Colin, his father’s security agent, best friend and constant shadow.
The Succession Finals wasn’t about tying up every loose end or offering a neat ending for each of its players. Other finals like Six Feet Under have done that well, but it can be a thankless task. Here, each character’s fate is sealed in a way that completes the trajectory this show has paved for them: Roman is left alone with his nihilism, a pathetic worm, just as Gerri predicted; Shiv – ouch – is just the CEO’s pregnant wife; and Kendall has become one of the worst parts of his father with no one from the realm to show.
