This week, an HBO dark comedy wrapped up its four-season-long series on Monday night. But enough about Bill Hader’s Barry. While I also have many things to say about Barry, that will be a newsletter for another time. Today I’m talking, Succession.
Jesse Armstrong, a Brit, of Peep Show and The Thick of It fame, captured the brutish tactics of billionaire CEOs from massive American media empires like Rupert Murdoch of Newscorp and Fox News, and Sumner Redstone of Viacom and CBS.
Despite Armstrong’s original intentions of creating a film about the Murdoch family, Succession is about a fictional family consisting of Logan Roy (Brian Cox) of Waystar RoyCo and his children Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Siobhan “Shiv” and Roman (Kieran Culkin)—and to a lesser extent, eldest son Connor from a previous marriage.
The show is ultimately about the conniving and backstabbing of Logan Roy’s offspring as they try to latch onto power and what they think is their piece of the pie. The season four timeline takes place in just under a fortnight, making Succession feel even more propulsive than usual, focusing on the acquisition of Waystar Royco by Alexander Skarsgård.
Series finales are an interesting beast as they need to bring some sort of finality to a show’s myriad of storylines. As a result, a finale can often feel different from a regular episode of a show. Showrunners may feel the need to tie up any loose ends, but more importantly, address the ends of character arcs and come to a thematic conclusion. Some shows may time jump into the future, revealing what has become of the characters we had grown so attached to over the years.
Succession attempts to thread the needle, with an episode that starts and ends like a regular season finale, but right smack dab in the middle there, Kendall, Shiv and Roman finally come together in Barbados, as siblings and not as business partners or rivals. It’s a moment that feels out of place (in a good way), one that could only happen in a series finale.
“With Open Eyes”
Succession: Season Four, Episode 10
As with Succession’s other season finales, this episode’s title “With Open Eyes” comes from the John Berryman poem “Dream Song 29”, which could relate directly to Kendall holding onto guilt and past failures.
The episode opens with the two camps trying to sway voters of the board; Kendall who wants to shut down the GoJo deal, versus Shiv and the Elon-Musk-type Lukas Matsson (of Swedish tech giant GoJo), who want to see it pass and acquire WayStar Royco.
Current co-CEO Roman is absent after the events of the last episode where he broke down into tears attempting to read a eulogy at his father’s funeral. Perfectly understandable but a business faux pas, especially in these circles. His dad was a shark, showing no signs of what could be conceived as weakness. Afterward, Roman also antagonized a crowd of rioters related to the newly appointed far-right President, Jeryd Mencken. What’s done is done and Kendall is in full damage control, trying to reign in Stewy and whoever else he can in his brother’s absence.
We find a bruised and battered Roman staying at his mother’s in Barbados. Shiv travels there first to get his vote, followed soon by Kendall, but she is pretty smug her team is going to win the deal.
“Well, if I can have fucking anyone in the world… why don’t I get the guy that put the baby inside her instead of the baby lady?”
- Lukas Matsson
Tom is assigned to “hang” with Matsson, and Matsson doesn’t hide the fact he is still a misogynous prick, that he wouldn’t want Shiv to be the American CEO of his newly merged company, as he might want to fuck her, and would much prefer the empty suit of the man that put the baby in her. Eager to please Tom is all but happy to oblige.
While Tom reassures Greg that he will be okay should the deal pass, Greg then learns through eavesdropping on a conversation in Swedish using a translation app, that Shiv is to be ousted, and passes this information onto Kendall for a seat at the table, should his side win. Always hedging his bets, our Greg.
Shiv learns that Matsson used her and never intended to make her CEO, eventually leading her to switch to the side of her siblings. They share a night on the beach in honest reflection, as she and Roman crown Kendall “king”. They go for a swim and raid their mother’s kitchen to make a disgusting concoction including far too much tobasco sauce and Shiv spittle, that they demand the new king drink, which in fairness Kendall does take a swig of before Roman dumps the rest out onto Kendall’s head (and of course Jeremy Strong actually drunk it). They make impressions of their cheese-obsessed stepdad and look to be happy for once. It’s a sweet series of scenes that feel out of step for Succession, which usually trades in vicious insults, but are there to make what is yet to come, sting all the more.
The trio returns to their father’s old apartment in New York, where Connor is hosting a complicated sticker auction for their father’s remaining worldly possessions. We also get to see Logan one last time, again in video form, as he enjoys a meal with his underlings. Connor is seen seemingly enjoying his pop’s company while his three siblings are absent. They’re on the outside looking in. Ain’t that always the way, Roy family?
At the board meeting, Kendall demands a vote and thinks he has things all sewn up when out of nowhere, we get to the tiebreaker, Shiv, who leaves the room in a hurry. Kendall confronts her, with Roman in tow. He questions her decision to turn heel and Shiv says she doesn’t think Kendall would make a good CEO. When Kendall demands to know why, she brings up his murder of the cater waiter from season one. Kendall denies his involvement and says he made it all up. Both Shiv and Roman don’t know how to react to that. After Roman makes some pointed barbs about Kendall’s kids not being “real”, Kendall physically lashes out at Roman, and Shiv rushes back to the board room to let the deal go through.
“You’re fucking bullshit, man. I’m fucking bullshit. She’s bullshit. It’s all fucking nothing, man.” - Roman Roy
Why did Shiv make the decision to reverse course? Was it as she said, because she didn’t think Kendall would be good at it? Was it out of love for her brother, that she didn’t want to see him become his father? Was it out of spite, that once more she was overlooked in favour of her brothers? Or perhaps she saw a way through with Tom, that maybe they could make their vicious relationship work, with the baby on the way and start that family they had always wanted? That being the wife of the CEO is the closest to power she will get? I don’t think the show gives us a definitive answer, but it’s not uncharacteristic of Shiv to live up to her namesake and stab Kendall in the back.
Tom Wamsgans is the successor that Jesse Armstrong promised us in the show’s title. He’s not of the Roy bloodline, but he still managed to marry into the company, and leech his way to the tippy top, leading coverage of an election night resulting in a far-right President and ultimately becoming CEO of GoJo Royco or whatever name they come up with. While thankfully not Greg, crowning Tom is still one of the more cynical choices the show could have made. Which for Succession means King Wamsgans is absolutely fitting.
Tom makes his way through the Waystar Royco offices, as the old guard from the previous administration looks to latch onto the new power in town. Even Greg gets a pass after betraying Tom. May the fan fiction live on.
Together, Tom and Shiv leave the Waystar Royco tower in the backseat of a car together, Tom extending a hand. She takes it.
After signing away the company in a photo-op, Roman is in a bar ordering a martini, the cocktail that Gerri so loved. He looks almost, happy?
Once more, defeated, Kendall is again seen looking out to the ocean, with his dad’s old bodyguard in the background. The spectre of Logan Roy continuing to hang over him.
That’s it. Succession is over. I found this finale a wholly satisfying conclusion to the series. It didn’t do the whole time jump thing many anticipated, but instead put us in another boardroom deal that again doesn’t go to plan, throwing us into the direct aftermath and leaving us guessing at what will become of the Roys.
While it was teased that Kendall might finally do it this time, alas he is trapped in a Sisyphean cycle of getting too close to the sun and burning up in a fiery blaze (I am mixing up my Greek mythology). Abuse passed down by the father lives on in the son and all the while, billionaires continue to threaten our democracy.