Succession ended the way it was always going to
By Shahana
The reign of the Roys is finally over. Just as it was always meant to.
With Open Eyes, the series finale of Succession, showed the Roy family at their truest; tearing each other down the way only family can. And the end result is this: none of the Roys will run Waystar-Royco, instead, Shiv’s “striving and parochial” husband Tom Wambsgans, a nobody with barely any connections, will become the American CEO of the company.
The essence of the finale can be boiled down to two pivotal scenes. In the first, Kendall, Shiv, and Roman watch a video of their father at a dinner, where he looks a certain way, one they’ve never seen him in. They realise soon, that the Logan Roy in the video is one they’ve never been privy to, because he’s completely at ease and he’s happy. The kids fondly watch their father do a recitation of presidential losers, and continue watching as the camera pans over the table: Gerri shares a limerick, Connor performs I’m a Little Teapot, and Karl sings an English folk song, with everyone joining in. The kids are emotional, not because they’re seeing their father again, but because they’re seeing a version their father never was with them.
The second scene takes place towards the end of the episode. The three kids are cloistered in a cabin, when Shiv rushes out of the board vote before casting her deciding vote over whether they sell to GoJo or Kendall becomes CEO. A lot comes up, including Kendall’s “accident” with the cater-waiter at Shiv’s wedding, all of which culminates into a physical fight between Kendall and Roman—but the most important thing is that they finally say what Logan and Succession have been trying to tell us from the beginning—They’re not serious people.
The show may have been called Succession, but none of the Roy kids were ever going to succeed Logan. Logan always knew this, which is why his final moments were spent in trying to sell his life’s work to Lucas Matsson. This is why everyone at the table when Logan was free and happy, who were all serious people, agreed to sell and voted in favour of the deal.
Roman and Shiv, on some level, have always known this. None of them have ever been cut out to lead, because none of them have the “magnificent, awful force” that helped Logan build Waystar-Royco. The only one who didn’t know was Kendall—Kendall, who listens to rap music to boost his confidence, hoping the music will help him ape the swagger and comfort of being a Roy. Kendall, who watched his father be “comfortable” but doesn’t know how to do the same.
This is perhaps why both of Kendall’s attempts at getting power at Waystar were thwarted by his siblings, by Roman in Season 1 and Shiv in Season 4. Roman, who has never had the motivation or fire his siblings possess and seems to go through life wanting others to call him vile. As the show ends, Roman nurses a martini in a nameless bar, unclear about where he goes from here.
And Shiv—oh poor, Shiv. It was never going to be Shiv. “He couldn’t fit a whole woman in his head,” Shiv says at Logan’s funeral, but in the world we live in, the one Succession exists in, no one can. Shiv will go on to live the rest of her life as she has lived, close to power but never having access to it, never being able to wield it. The men in Shiv’s life enjoy the fruits of her labour, especially Tom, and nothing has changed. Shiv loves power, and by withholding her vote from Kendall, she has taken power her brothers never gave her. Now that Shiv can no more look down at Tom, their marriage is on a more equal footing, and she can demurely place her hands in his, and unhappily relegate herself to a life being the trophy wife.
But no one ends Succession in a place as low as Kendall finds himself in. Dazed, he walks around Manhattan. He says earlier in the episode that he is a cog that fits only one machine, and now that it’s been taken away from him, Kendall doesn’t know what to do with himself.
He walks aimlessly, completely alone, followed by his father’s bodyguard, Colin. At great cost, Kendall finally has what he wanted. Kendall has finally become Logan.
p.s. Shahana is going to take a moment to gloat, because everything she predicted would happen, ended up happening. If you disagree, write to us, let’s discuss.
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