As Succession entered the final stretch, the media focused all their attention on one question: who would be in charge of Waystar Royco when the credits rolled. The Jesse Armstrong series had premiered while Game of Thrones was producing its final season and the Roys precisely fit the HBO brand for being adult, having characters far from the hero profile and moving away from the fantastic and epic mold of the Seven Kingdoms. It is, therefore, a very ironic situation that, at the time of closing the Succession story, it has been reduced to discovering who is the tenant of the symbol of power, only exchanging the Iron Throne for the chair of SEO of a company valued in the tens of billions of dollars. And for those of you who don’t want to know the answer because you haven’t seen the episode yet, you better close this tab.
The last episode of Succession, for which Armstrong had Mark Mylod as director, placed Kendall (Jeremy Strong) on ??the ropes: he had to secure enough votes in the council in a matter of hours and that Waystar Royco was not bought by Lukas Matsson ( Alexander Skarsgard). When one sells an asset like this, even if the deal is lucrative, it usually indicates that he will never be able to have the same legacy again. For Kendall, in addition, there was a matter of pride: to demonstrate in front of the financial world that he was capable of taking over from his father and possibly also to prove it to Logan (Brian Cox) after his death. And, not even for a few hours, he had the position in the bag.
He convinced his sister Shiv (Sarah Snook) after obtaining key information about Mattson’s plans: the Swede could have sold him that he would be CEO of Waystar Royco, working under him, but he was looking for someone with less personality, who would simply obey. and not give him headaches. This person, as the only daughter Roy would later discover, had ended up being Tom (Matthew Mcfadyen) for the same reason that she always despised him: he is a power licker, what the owner of GoJo was looking for. Aware of her betrayal, Shiv was going to crown Kendall in exchange for controlling ATN herself and for Roman to keep everything that she had to do with social networks.
At the last moment, however, in the middle of a vote, Shiv changed his mind. “I just don’t think you were going to be any good,” his sister snapped at Kendall, casting doubt on her ability to turn Waystar Royco around. “We’re all shit-eaters,” Roman told him. And, behind the statements of both, different motivations.
For Roman, it was a matter of personal wear and tear: he had no desire to continue being involved in the struggle for power and had had to admit his own weaknesses after his father’s death. For Shiv, on the other hand, it seemed that her anger had pushed her to this last decision: if she couldn’t have control of her, she wasn’t going to have it, Roman. For that matter, she could pick up a pinch on the purchase and stay in the company conversation through her husband, Tom, who forgave Greg for being a treacherous lizard: Tom, in a way, identifies with him and can understand his motion.
Since it couldn’t be any other way, the end had to be heartbreaking with Kendall attacking Roman. Any hint of brotherhood had been destroyed. Their parents did not educate them on an emotional level, instructing them only in the competitiveness, arrogance and psychopathy that virtually unlimited fortunes grant, so they followed one of the learned principles: skin each other. Roman, in a deep existential crisis. Shiv, dissatisfied in a marriage of convenience because she is too cowardly to fall in love or assume that she can aspire to sentimental fulfillment. Kendall, depressed on a bench and the future he was born to shattered. And Tom, on the throne of Succession, even if it is made of papier-mâché.
