Spoiler alert: This review contains spoilers for the final season of HBO’s Succession.
Established already in the pantheon of truly great TV, Succession’s run as possibly the most talked about show came to an end this week. The final episode aired on Sunday, drawing to a close the brutal story of one of America’s most powerful (fictional) families.
★★★★★
With the Roy family matters solved – at least to some degree – and Waystar Royco wheezing on under the new Scandinavian leadership of GoJo and its American CEO / “pain sponge” Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfayden), the lingering question of Succession has been answered. That question powered the show’s early success as Logan Roy, on the edges of reluctant retirement, looked to his family for the right heir.
Played with intimidating physicality by Brian Cox, Logan Roy’s hulking mass was the undeniable gravity around which the show’s extended cast of characters inevitably revolved. Those closest to his sun found themselves frequently burned, but none more so perhaps than his son, Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong). The apparent heir to the Waystar throne and at times the show’s emotional and moral centre point, Kendall’s ‘daddy issues’ have always resonated with the show’s passionate fan base. Alongside siblings, Roman (Kieran Culkin), Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Connor (Alan Ruck), the Roy children’s embattled relationship with their father made up the core of Succession’s story. However, the self-proclaimed ‘eldest boy’ has always seen himself – rightly or wrongly – as the chosen one.
Only he can’t be. After revealing his role in the car crash that resulted in the death of a young waiter to Roman and Shiv at the end of season three, the incident – which halted Ken’s original power play – proves to be his ultimate undoing in the final season, too. Expertly crafted, the final season builds Kendall back up piece by piece from his apparent attempted suicide, only to break him one last time. When Shiv cites the incident as a reason why her brother cannot become CEO, it delivers a form of justice that blindsides Kendall, who is mere moments away from getting everything he ever wanted. It is a powerful and painful moment in a series that has been filled with them.
“I really love you, but I can’t fucking stomach you”
Shiv to Kendall, S4 E10
Logan’s death, just three episodes into the final series, cast a dark shadow over the show’s final run and set off a reprehensible jostling for position amongst all those around and underneath him. Emerging from the darkness is Shiv’s husband Tom, the show’s unlikely ‘winner’. For the second season in a row, Wambsgans thwarts the trios’ plans for a power grab with his own relentless, but often pathetic, pursuit of power. Tom’s grubby submissiveness makes him the perfectly malleable “meat puppet” for GoJo head Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård). A safe pair of hands more likely to “suck the biggest dick in the room,” his cold pitch to Lukas is a glorious summary of a man who is acutely aware of his own limitations and yet able to place himself precisely a Matsson’s side. It’s a note-perfect performance from Macfayden; a mixture of passive aggression, self-depreciation and ambition that the actor has finely tuned over the show’s lifetime. Rendered relatively cold and emotionless, thanks in part to some emotional bludgeoning at the hands of Shiv, it is Tom who is working at ATN during the fall-out of a controversial Presidential election while the Roy family and America’s elite are at Logan’s emotionally charged funeral — a fact not lost on Matsson.
After Logan’s brother Ewan makes an impromptu speech chastising what he saw as his brother’s failings, Roman breaks down in front of both Matsson and the new President-elect of the United States. It is a huge credit to creator/writer Jesse Armstrong and Kieran Culkin that a character so ostensibly awful as Roman delivers one of the show’s most powerful moments as he finally reckons with the loss of his father. “Can we get him out?” might be one of the most devastating lines in recent television history. The episode, however, seems to seal Roman’s fate. Roman cannot replicate Logan’s gravitas, a man who had presidents at his fingertips. Whatever strides the world has made in its understanding of masculinity, things at the top have not changed. His grief is seen as a weakness and Kendall steps up. In an interview with the The Guardian, Succession screenwriter, Georgia Pritchett stated, “The final season was a sad and sobering one to write.”
Yet, when Roman insinuates in the final episode that Kendall’s children are not truly part of the Roy bloodline – “a pair of randos” – it is a timely reminder of just how callous he can be. Roman, who moments earlier presses his head wound against Kendall’s shoulder in an act of heart-breaking sadomasochism, reverts to type. Capable of uttering the most grotesque words, he breaks Kendall with an insinuation that strikes at the root of succession, dynasty and bloodlines. It also sheds new light on Logan’s troubled relationship with Kendall’s children. Was Logan striking Iverson purely a result of his worsening health?
It is no coincidence that a newly pregnant Siobhan ends the series alongside her husband. For Logan, Tom was always looked at as a means to an end. Even during their troubles, he found ways to use him for his own gain and a divorce was not seriously tabled until Logan had passed. Even then, Tom’s increasing cruelty – a Logan-lite if you will – draws Shiv closer.
You could be forgiven for feeling surprised, and maybe a little anguish at Shiv’s boardroom betrayal, but ultimately it should not come as a shock. Reluctantly buying in on Kendall’s CEO stock after learning of Matsson’s betrayal, Shiv was never truly sold on her brother’s ascension. Her disgust at seeing Ken mark his territory – firstly in Logan’s old office and then in the boardroom – was perhaps the final straw for a woman who was frequently left on the outside looking in.
In the show’s final moments, Shiv gently rests her hand atop of Tom’s, with the pair set to continue the Roy family succession. Her bloodline is undeniable. The poison drips through… Roman, now free of any oppressive Waystar responsibilities sips a drink at a bar, but he is haunted by his betrayal of Gerri (J. Smith Cameron), the only person who came close to understanding him – part mother, part sexual confidant. For Kendall, staring out across the water towards the horizon and flanked by his father’s former bodyguard now seemingly on suicide watch, it is telling that in these final shots, he struggles to fill the frame…
Words by Jeremy Arblaster
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