Succession series finale recap: Twists and turns of best show of the decade

SPOILER WARNING. There are betrayals and then there are betrayals. Who comes out on top? It’s the only question for today.

Succession totally lands the ending. Picture: HBO

SPOILERS

Wow. Just wow.

Arguably the best TV series of the past decade, Succession, has closed its final chapter with a barnstorming finale that answers the question of who succeeded to the Waystar Royco top job. It’s a fate we’ve been awaiting with even more anticipation than who would ascend to the Iron Throne.

It was a stunning finale that had emotional twists, plotting, backstabbing, trauma bonding and a scathing indictment of wealth and privilege – exactly what we expected from creator Jesse Armstrong.

For this series finale, we’re doing something slightly different to our usual recaps. Below will be a conversation between regular recappers Wenlei Ma and Sam Clench, recorded, transcribed and edited in the hours after the broadcast.

Storytelling is a shared experience, we watch and listen to it as a collective and try to make sense of what it reveals about the world. And Succession had a lot to say, so we wanted to get into it together, one last time.

You know how this works by now, SPOILERS are ahead.

Spoilers are ahead. Picture: HBO

Wenlei Ma:

Where should we start? At the end? And what an end it was, better than the Iron Throne ending. I think a lot of people throughout the run had picked Tom to win.

Sam Clench:

As you know my theory throughout the whole final season has been ‘Ken’s going to become Logan, he’s going to get a Pyrrhic victory and he’s going to be CEO but he’s going to ruin everything in the process. Didn’t happen, obviously.

WM:

Well, he ruined everything but he still doesn’t get to be CEO.

SC:

But a couple of hours before watching the finale, I saw a viral TikTok, which was talking about the etymology of Tom’s surname, Wambsgans.

And how it’s like a very peculiar surname and the only like famous Wambsgans in history is a baseball player who pulled off the only one person triple play in history. That hints at Tom, right? Because he’s taken out all three Roy kids on his own.

I thought we had the big Tom twist at the end of season three, like his betrayal of Shiv at the end of season three was his moment. I’m really fascinated to go back and watch the entire show knowing where he ends up. I’m interested in whether that was seeded early or not.

Tom never really felt like a serious contender because he was such a lackey, he was such a suck-up. But part of the commentary of the show is that, well this guy is not serious and he is a suck-up, but that’s what it takes to succeed in this world.

WM:

That’s probably true of a lot of leaders in companies around the world where you do have quite a few people probably near the top who aren’t that inspiring or visionary but good at being useful to those with real power.

Tom Wambsgans, the successor. Picture: HBO

SC:

It was not the ending I expected, but a very fitting one.

WM:

It’s a great ending because ultimately the show is, in some ways, nihilistic. They all lose to varying degrees. You can make an argument that Roman maybe won but doesn’t know it yet.

SC:

Roman sees it quite clearly at the end, right? He’s in that conference room at the end and he says, ‘We are bullsh*t, it’s all bullsh*t’. They are fundamentally, as Logan said, not serious people. Ken can’t see that and Shiv can’t really see that but Roman sees it.

WM:

It’s one of those rare instances where Roman’s crippling self-esteem issues also happens to align with the truth. Roman had the instinct, but not the killer. Kendall had the killer at times, but not the instinct. And then Shiv had half a killer instinct.

SC:

Kendall, in the end, is just cringe. He’s always been cringe and he just ends that way with that meltdown. Oh, it’s so painful to watch. I mean, it’s very well acted, but it’s very painful.

WM:

That scene in the glass-walled boardroom, where everyone can see their body language and hear their shouting. It is so deeply uncomfortable. And I felt bad for all of them in that moment because we had those scenes earlier in the episode where you got an insight into what they were probably like as children.

When they were playing the game ‘Meal for a King’, it was like, ‘Oh, this is actually how they trauma bonded when they were kids’.

SC:

Fundamentally, they turn back into children, don’t they? In the conference room scene, you see the trauma, you see that they’re fundamentally still the same people they were when they were in their single digits.

WM:

And Kendall bringing up the fact Logan had promised it to him when he was seven-years-old, and he threw that tantrum about how he’s the eldest boy, which, firstly, poor Connor, who’s actually the eldest boy, and secondly, just the gross entitlement of primogeniture.

He also said the word ‘birthright’ elsewhere in the episode. And it is just this idea of wealth, privilege and entitlement that is supposed to, in their view, be generational, not shared. And there is a hierarchy to it. To me, that is so anathema to the 21st century even though we know that still goes on.

Constantly regressing to childlike states. Picture: HBO

SC:

Connor is the one who ultimately comes out the best of all the siblings, he’s the most well-adjusted, but it’s so typical of Kendall to erase him from existence.

I really like ending, because they’re all so entitled and they all think it’s a family business but ultimately the board doesn’t give a sh*t. The board just wants what’s best for the company, and that’s how the modern world operates.

And Tom is the guy who’s willing to, what was the phrase, ‘suck the biggest d**k in the room’.

WM:

We’ve seen that peppered throughout as well. This season has stealthily been about what really makes up Tom as a character because he and Shiv have finally been honest to each other. What he said about having always wanted to be near power and money.

It’s very clear Tom wants the trappings, he wants the power, he wants the privilege, he wants the wealth, but he’s not actually interested in doing anything with that power, which is why he’s so easily prostrates himself to Matsson, ‘I will do whatever you want, I will take your sh*t and I will eat it’.

In return he’ll get 17 Rolexes and be at the table without actually exercising any of the power and influence he has.

SC:

There’s an old comment from Jesse Armstrong, where he said the relationship between Tom and Shiv is central to the show. And having now seen the finale, I think we perhaps underestimated how much that was true.

The Tom/Shiv relationship was literally central to the succession. I watched this final season assuming that Kendall has always been the central figure of the show. It’s always been about him. But that’s not entirely true.

WM:

We talked about it last week after the ninth episode where I thought, ‘Oh, we’re not watching King Lear, we’ve been watching Richard III, we’ve been watching Kendall as Prince Hal. And actually maybe this is the lead-up to Macbeth. Shiv refers to Lady Macbeth at the start of the episode and this is the first act.

SC:

That final shot of Shiv and Tom, where they’re in the car together, it’s kind of creepy. He holds out his hand and then she takes it but it’s a very loose grip.

WM:

They’re definitely not fully connecting.

SC:

I don’t know what to make of it but it feels full of meaning.

The paragon of a happy marriage. Picture: HBO

WM:

The question that she poses to him, ‘Do you want a real relationship?’ And now it seems very much like this is purely a marriage of convenience and power and they’re at least honest about it now.

SC:

Let’s talk about Greg, playing both sides until the very end and he turns out OK in the end.

WM:

I would’ve loved to have seen Tom fire him. I don’t know what his utility is if you know he’s going to betray you unless you use him to back channel in some way, knowing he would betray you. Or maybe Tom just wants to have his punching bag around because he’s going to cop so much sh*t from Matsson. Where else is he going to channel that?

SC:

A lot of people had Greg on their lists of who would win.

WM:

There was tiny moment in this episode when it seemed possible. I’m glad they didn’t because I don’t think they would’ve earnt that.

SC:

I don’t think that would’ve been plausible. The wonderful trick of this show is that it’s managed to be so outlandish while still maintaining a level of plausibility the whole time.

WM:

It feels like all of this could’ve happened. Or has happened.

Let’s quickly talk about Caroline. She invites her kids for dinner and has nothing to feed them. Just like in season two. Do you think Roman asked her to call Shiv?

SC:

I got the vibe she had done it off her own bat because she was very suss about it. But it’s interesting that Roman went to her. Romans has always been the one who is maybe the neediest. He the one who wants a parent. He had his little meltdown and he did his self-harm thing with the protesters, and then he’s like gone crawling to his mother.

Roman is finally out, and it’s probably what he wanted the whole time. Picture: HBO

WM:

What about that scene where Roman is pushing his wound into Kendall’s shoulder but Kendall is also pushing him into it?

SC:

This is the one where Roman said, ‘It could have been me’.

WM:

Yes, he’s doing his best ‘I could’ve been a contender’ Marlon Brando.

SC:

Kendall gets to the heart of the matter a bit later when he asks Roman, ‘Do you even want it?’ I think the answer is no. What Roman always fundamentally wanted was to probably end up in the place where he ends up, which is just like a rich playboy.

He can do whatever he wants. He doesn’t want to be the CEO with all that responsibility and stuff.

But Kendall does. We saw a hint in the previous episode where he’s is essentially cosplaying as his father. There is a weirdly abusive vibe between the two of them in this episode. Kendall is fixated on being the dominant brother to a point where he’s not being helpful to Roman and in the end, that doesn’t get him anywhere.

WM:

I found that scene full of conflict because on the one hand Roman was intentionally hurting his wounds so that the physical pain distracts from his emotional pain. But I can’t make sense of why Kendall is holding him down as well. Love hurts?

Brotherly love. Picture: HBO

SC:

We know Roman was beaten by Logan as a kid. In the previous episode, he was really struggling to process his grief and he goes out there with the protesters wanting to be hurt.

He feels like he should be punished for having screwed up at the funeral. That’s the particular form of trauma that he has. That does carry over into this episode. Kendall is trying to take advantage of it for his own gain. Like all of the stuff that Kendall does in this final episode, he’s just very not subtle and not elegant and ultimately counter-productive.

WM:

We finally get to see Kendall smile this episode, with his teeth! Watching that scene, it really struck me this was an unfamiliar sight.

SC:

He thought he was finally getting what he’s wanted since he was seven. It’s so tragic but you can tell in that moment that it’s destined to go bad.

WM:

I want to float something. I don’t think it tracks, but do you think there is a possibility that Shiv and Tom orchestrated it in some way? Because when Kendall tells her at their mum’s that Matsson is going to screw her over, and to make some calls and confirm it, do you think one of the people she called was Tom?

Tom with the choice of whether or not he betrays her again, actually decides to bring her in this time and then the scene at Logan’s house was all for show?

SC:

I think that’s possible. It’s probably deliberate from the showrunners that we don’t see who she actually calls. I will say, I felt that her reaction at Logan’s house was quite genuine.

WM:

That’s the bit where my theory doesn’t track.

Shiv keeps herself in the game, but at what cost? Picture: HBO

SC:

Although the vibe I get from that final scene in the car between the two of them is that she’s not comfortable with it. This isn’t something that she was seeking.

WM:

Yes, and that was how she was going to stay in the game. This is the best she can do for now after knowing that Matsson wasn’t going to choose her and that Kendall was going to seize the CEO spot.

SC:

Matsson not choosing her was extremely predictable. When her brothers are telling her that she got played, it’s indisputably true. She has spent most of the season being a bit naive about Matsson. That’s quite fitting. They all have their weaknesses and they’re all a bit sh*t in the end, aren’t they?

WM:

Jesse Armstrong has given an interview about the ending. He said you find Roman basically in the same place as when we met him at the start of the series, and that Shiv is still in the game.

And Kendall might go and start his own company but he will never get to the level of success that he measures himself against, in terms of his dad. That these few years that we have been watching them is like the highlight of his life and he’ll never really get over it.

SC:

Having watched four seasons, Kendall probably will come up with some hairbrained new company, be cringey and fail at it. The tragedy of it is that by the only way he measures himself, against his father, there’s no chance he could ever live up to that.

Whereas I think the other siblings may have a separate source of self-worth that they can maybe go back to. I worry for Kendall.

WM:

He was very honest with his siblings during his pleading. He said, ‘I was a cog built to fit in this one machine, and that’s it. I’m not good for anything else. I can’t do anything else’. It’s going to take a lot to build himself up to even where a semi well-adjusted person needs to be.

The sun is setting on Kendall’s play to be CEO. Picture: HBO

SC:

One of the strengths of the acting on this show is how all three of them have so frequently managed to regress to being children again. How old is Kendall meant to be? 40? But all three of these actors are showing you what these characters were as children.

They’re regressing to that constantly. The clearest example of that is Roman in the last episode at the funeral where he literally like becomes like a six year old for our eyes. But Jeremy Strong as Kendall has been doing that all throughout the show.

He has this hubris and he gets overconfident and cringey and then something knocks him down and he just regresses to childhood again. He plays that so well.

Which is why I think even though these are quite loathsome people and they’re on many levels difficult to relate to, we still find them relatable and we still almost root for them because we can see the children that they were.

WM:

And the arrested development of it, of a childhood where no one really showed them that they loved them. Maybe the ultimate message of this series is ‘love your kids’. And capitalism isn’t great.

SC:

Matsson taking over is not a great look for capitalism.

WM:

I don’t think he’s a Musk figure directly, but he’s pretty symbolic of the tech cowboy.

SC:

He’s Musk-adjacent for sure.

WM:

Yeah. The tech bro that is awful and morally bankrupt and should not be in charge of even a corner shop, let alone these multibillion-dollar multinational companies.

SC:

We can all agree that the Roy kids are not ideal to be in charge of a major news organisation and obviously Matsson and Tom aren’t much better. It’s not a very hopeful show, is it? When it comes to the way the world works.

WM:

It is very much a commentary on the world we live in. I find myself way bolshier in the three months the show is on every season, and I find myself ranting about capitalism and inherited, generational wealth much more frequently. I will miss that.

SC:

It’s a great advertisement for a death tax.

Fools at the top table. Picture: HBO

WM:

Why do you think Frank voted against Kendall in the end?

SC:

I was surprised by that. Frank has known all of these people since they were children and he knows that they’re not serious people. Maybe like Karl he just wants his little payout, his nest egg. But they did seem to be setting up him being on team Kendall for most of the season.

WM:

Actually maybe that’s the most scathing indictment against Kendall of all because Frank really has been quite fatherly towards him in a way that Logan wasn’t. You can love your kids but you don’t necessarily have to think they’re going to be great CEOs of multi-billion dollar companies.

Shiv probably never wanted back him anyway, but Frank also doesn’t think he’s going to do a good enough job.

SC:

Frank is essentially a surrogate father for Ken and he behaves that way throughout the series. In episode four of this season, when they found a piece of paper with Kendall’s name on it, Frank says to him, ‘Kendall, you’ve got sh*t cooking, you’re doing OK with your addiction, why would you want back in?’

He seems to understand that this is not good for Kendall. So, maybe it’s not surprising that he ends up voting against him.

WM:

It’s a kindness.

Succession is over and we’re devastated. Picture: HBO

WM:

We could watch this show seven times over and still not get to the bottom of everything because it’s so layered. I’m truly sad that it’s ended even though you can’t fault the timing. This is a great way to go out. And I don’t know what we would’ve gotten with another season.

SC:

I’m so glad that they’re ending. I’m also sad because it’s tragic because this is probably the best show of the last decade?

WM:

This and The Americans are well above everything else in drama.

SC:

To my great shame, I have not seen The Americans. I’m going to miss the writing of this show so much. But it absolutely could’ve overstayed its welcome.

There would’ve been a point where it would be a constant, ‘Who’s going to be CEO, who’s going take over?’ It takes a level of courage to say, ‘This is the story we want to tell and this is where it ends’. HBO would’ve gladly green lit another four seasons of this so I have to respect the creators for having their vision and sticking to it.

WM:

And we’ll always have face eggs.

Succession is streaming now on Binge and Foxtel on Demand

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