Well, Successionistas, it’s been a good ride, but here we are at the series finale of Succession. In the season’s hour-and-a-half-long final episode, we finally learned who “won” and “lost” a game where no one truly ever wins or loses, because every player is still disgustingly rich and has sold half their soul to reach the finish line.
But we love watching these terrible, terrible people, so let’s dive into how it all ends!
It’s the day before the board meeting (my favorite sentence!!! I love Succession board meetings and we all deserved to have the show end on one!!!). Kendall and Shiv are in the building, but in markedly different rooms — Ken is trying his best to round up enough votes on his side to kill the GoJo deal, while Shiv is in Matsson’s HQ conference room, gearing up for her impending role as U.S. CEO under his acquisition of Waystar Royco. While not obvious to her, the role doesn’t seem all that solid… Matsson never explicitly promised her the position and we see him eyeing a magazine cartoon that portrays Shiv as the puppetmaster behind the Swede (exactly the opposite of the roles she promised they’d play out). He brushes off the drawing, but not convincingly.
The two groups are pretty closely split for the board vote on the acquisition, with GoJo a bit in the lead. But one important board member is missing: Roman. Neither Kendall nor Shiv have been able to get ahold of their brother since he walked into the middle of an anti-ATN protest. That is, until Shiv finally gets a call from their mother, letting her know that Roman is in her care at her estate in the Caribbean. At the same time, Kendall receives the same information through Ratfucker Sam, whose actual role I’ve never really understood beyond “finding and intimidating people.” Both siblings decide to fly to their mother’s to try to pull Roman to their side.
On Shiv’s way, she gives Tom a call — Tom, who is booked for a meeting with Matsson later to make his case for keeping his job at ATN. But Shiv doesn’t want to talk about that — she’s more focused on their relationship. Shiv seems to be reconsidering their separation, asking Tom, “are there any positives about the nightmare we’ve shared?” It’s a vulnerable moment for her, who has always worked to have the upper hand in this relationship, as she finally puts to words her fear of emotional intimacy. But it seems that she’s missed Tom’s window of forgiveness. “You don’t like to fail a test, do you, Siobhan,” he tells her, before letting her know that he doesn’t know if he’s interested in a “real relationship” with her.
Pulling up to Caroline’s (uncomfortably plantation-y) estate in the Caribbean in their sleek SUVs, Shiv and Kendall each react with concern to Roman’s face stitches. Caroline shares their concern, saying, “I couldn’t look at him when he first arrived.” She also shares how disgusted she is by human eyes…? “I don’t like to think of all these blobs of jelly rolling around in your head,” she says, which was never a concern of mine before now! As weirdly hilarious as it is to hear her use the term “face eggs” to describe eyes, we can’t just completely bypass the moment in an episode titled “With Open Eyes.” The Roy family hates seeing things. They’ve chosen to ignore the impact their business has on the public, they’ve tried their best to look away from Logan’s abusive behavior, and they’ve certainly refused to face how ill-equipped they are and unsupported their desire is for the leadership of the family business. Caroline’s gross little monologue is a weird but important reminder, as they’re forced to really see themselves by series’ end.
But back to the Caribbean — after a few words of concern for Roman, Kendall has already moved on to business. Despite Shiv’s protestations, Kendall confronts his brother about his plans to vote on the GoJo deal, and is immediately suspicious that Shiv is trying to win him over for Matsson. “This is fucking DEFCON 1,” Kendall says (Caroline laughing at him for that is the only time I’ve ever found her relatable). Roman removes himself from the conversation, and Caroline uses the opportunity to guilt the siblings into staying for dinner. Kendall and Shiv agree seemingly just to spite each other.
Meanwhile, Tom is hanging out with Matsson (and is doing a really bad job of analyzing art at the gallery event they’re attending). Tom is stressed about his employment status, but Greg is feeling confident in his own role — until Tom reminds him how steep a salary cut he’ll probably take if the GoJo deal goes through.
At dinner, between complaining about their sea bass and cod cheeks, Matsson begins his final test of Tom, asking him to soft pitch himself to keep his role as head of ATN. Tom starts off with a pretty standard description of his managerial style, until Matsson stops him and asks him to describe himself on a personal level. “I’m a grinder. I grind ’cause I worry,” Tom replies after a moment of thought, “I worry all night about everything. All the threats to me and to my division and my physical body. And I have an excess of vigilance and a very high tolerance for pain and physical discomfort.” And that, my friends, is the exact description of the person Matsson wants as his puppet: someone who will do and take absolutely anything to keep their position secure. There’s one more test he must administer, though, to make sure Tom is truly who he says he is — someone who will allow anything to be inflicted upon him to get ahead. Matsson tells Tom, in extremely direct words, that he wants to sleep with Shiv. And that he believes she wants that too. And after Tom’s complete lack of reaction, Matsson makes his offer: Tom as U.S. CEO of Waystar Royco under GoJo. Tom, the ultimate puppet, who will do and say whatever he needs to maintain the appearance of being in power.
While Tom is briefly in shock, Greg makes his way to the bar where Lukas and Oskar are taking shots. As they drunkenly babble in Swedish, Greg subtly breaks out his live translator app — he really is either the dopiest smart guy or a dope with the most frequent accidental flashes of smarts that I’ve ever encountered. Through his sneaky eavesdropping, he learns that they’ve decided against Shiv as U.S. CEO and are considering another male candidate.
Back in the Caribbean, Caroline has gathered her children around for dinner. But when things start getting tense again, she calls over her husband Peter, who has a friend, Jonathan, in town with a pitch for the Roys. As he steamrolls his way through what sounds like a worse version of Living+, Kendall gets a call. It’s Greg, calling from the bathroom of the bar with a valuable piece of information. After a hilariously pathetic attempt to secure leverage, which leaves even Kendall smirking, he shares what he knows. After a fact checking call to a mystery contact, Kendall returns to the table and immediately pulls his siblings aside, then levels the news to Shiv: Lukas is interviewing for an alternative. At first she doesn’t believe him, but when Matsson doesn’t pick up her call she gets suspicious. A call to Karolina confirms it: he’s removed Shiv’s name from the acquisition announcement.
Once Shiv cools down from her rage, she agrees to a call with their advisor, Tellis, to get a sense of what their shot is at killing the acquisition as a voting bloc. They just need to present a strong plan and to get behind a single leader, in his opinion. Kendall agrees, with an obvious idea of who that leader should be: him. He presents himself as the option with the highest likelihood to beat Matsson, from a pragmatic standpoint. Roman interjects — Logan told him that Roman was his choice shortly before their father’s death. He explains the conversation they shared before the fatal plane ride. But Shiv also reminds her brothers that she was Logan’s choice once too. Finally, Kendall bests them all: Logan told him the company would be his when he was seven years old, while sitting at an ice cream parlor in the Hamptons. At least everyone agrees that this was a terrible thing for Logan to do!
Roman is holding steady to his claim, but Kendall shuts him down, saying his performance at the funeral was enough for people to lose faith in him as a leader. “He doesn’t want it, but he can’t say it,” Kendall tells Shiv as Roman walks away. Unfortunately I need to agree with Kendall Roy — Roman only wants it because he feels like he should want it. And Kendall does make the most sense IF we’re choosing between the three Roy siblings. (I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, all three seem uniquely terrible at being CEO of a major corporation).
The three take it down to the beach, where Kendall jumps in for a nighttime swim. While he’s floating, Shiv and Roman have a final debate — first over whether to allow Kendall to go for CEO, and second over whether it might just be easier to murder him. Despite them agreeing that he would be unbearable, they finally settle on him giving them the best shot to beat Matsson, and swim out to tell him. He’s almost in disbelief when they do, until Shiv says, “You can smile, bitch.”
It’s then time for them to anoint their new leader, which they do by running to the kitchen and building the most disgusting smoothie known to man — “a meal fit for a king.” They sing and do silly voices and Roman goes to town licking Peter’s special cheese. It’s like they’re suddenly children again, and while it’s endearing it’s ultimately sad — both in the pathetic sense, as so much of how they act as adults is childish, and in the tragic sense, as we get the idea that this might be their last happy moment together. Finally, Kendall drinks his spoiled milk, pickle juice, raw egg, hot sauce, and Shiv’s spit smoothie until the rest gets poured over his head by Roman. Tom and Greg may call themselves the Disgusting Brothers, but I think they have some Disgusting Sibling competition here.
It’s the next morning, and time to return to New York. In one of my favorite scenes of the whole episode, they deplane their jet in their all-black business garb and sunglasses, furiously talking to different contacts on their phones. They are so back! It’s like a caricature of business people. Their best talent as a trio has always been cosplaying their competence and this is a prime example. They look like they’re conducting important business and that’s all that matters.
Before they reach the board meeting, they have one important pit stop: Connor and Willa are making Logan’s estate available for the family to take home, through an intricate system of stickering the items they wish to possess. Willa is excited for Connor’s pending appointment as ambassador to Slovenia, which will allow her to basically have the Roy penthouse as her own bachelorette pad — as always, Willa is the true winner. The family walk through their late father’s home until happening upon a TV playing an old home video of Logan hosting a dinner for Connor and his senior advisors (and Kerry). The video is full of shenanigans, from Logan naming every losing U.S. presidential candidate to Connor singing “I’m a Little Teapot” in the style of his father. Finally, Karl sings a moving rendition of an old Robert Burns song, which brings the siblings to tears as they watch.
The sweet moment doesn’t last long for Shiv. She runs into Tom and asks him about his meeting with Matsson. After he clumsily reacts in faux-surprise to the news that she’s no longer in consideration for U.S. CEO — asking her to still consider voting in favor of the acquisition — she realizes his secret. “It’s me,” he finally admits to her, reminding his wife that she would probably have done the same in his position. But she’s enraged, gathering her brothers to tell them and walk them back to the office to take their vote.
Tom has a pretty good understanding of who leaked the info, and he brings Greg into the powder room to confront him, which eventually leads to him slapping his assistant. For the first time, Greg fights back, giving Tom a slap across the face as well — and the two finally (and clumsily) physically go at it. I feel like this tension has been building up for years, they needed to release it sooner or later!
At the Waystar Royco office, it’s finally time to vote. Everyone is taking their final opportunities to state their cases. First, Karolina pulls Shiv aside to ask that if the siblings win, Hugo gets asked to leave. Then, Stewy arrives to share a few last minute concerns with the Roys. Kendall (seated in his father’s old chair) offers him a chairman role to sweeten the deal, and Stewy balks at any responsibility, saying basically that he’s too edgy and complicated for that. “Bullshit,” Kendall retorts, “you like pancakes and waffles and you kiss guys on molly.” If nothing else, Stewy being, at the least, bicurious is a win for us all. Eventually, Stewy is convinced.
As Shiv walks out of Logan’s office, Roman and Kendall spot Gerri — and Roman is immediately thrown into a spiral. He starts backtracking on his agreement that Kendall is the most logical heir to the Waystar Royco throne and begins to throw his own hat back in the ring. Roman becomes fixated on his physical appearance, specifically his forehead stitches, saying that they aren’t bad enough for him not to look right for the role. Kendall has a fix for that: he grips Roman in a bear hug, at first in a seeming move to comfort him but then grasps harder and harder, pushing Roman’s stitches into his shoulder until they burst. Roman, who we know has been raised to equate pain with love, curses Kendall but doesn’t fight back — while the sight of Gerri reminded him of her once held belief that he could have done it, perhaps he’s looking for someone to tell him definitively that he can’t, even if through violence. Kendall releases Roman with a Godfather-esque kiss on the head, the fraternal dooming complete.
Finally, it’s time to decide on the GoJo deal. The board gathers in the glass-walled conference room and all cast their votes. By the time it gets to Shiv, the final vote, it’s a 6-6 tie: the fate of the company now rests in Shiv’s hands. After a moment, she suddenly excuses herself and leaves the room. Kendall and Roman follow quickly after, and they regroup in another conference room (easily seen and heard by all).
Shiv outlines her concern: she’s no longer as certain about Kendall’s ability to be CEO. He’s stunned, and tries to make her see what hours ago she was so certain of. “I am like a cog built to fit only one machine,” he says desperately. If he doesn’t get this job, he might die. It’s so pathetic, but it’s true — through his emotional manipulation Logan has made Kendall believe that he has this one purpose, and Kendall has never bothered to try and figure out if his father was wrong. He can’t understand how Shiv can view him as a bad fit for the role, so she pulls out the final stop: “You can’t be CEO. You can’t because you killed someone.” Ah, yes, Kendall’s most vulnerable moment, back to haunt him. His reaction? To literally pretend it didn’t happen. He tells his siblings he made that whole story up to feel close to them during a dark time, that he wasn’t even in the car with the waiter who died. Which… only makes him seem more delusional and less fit for CEO, turning even Roman against him.
The fight intensifies. As Kendall demands further reason for Shiv’s change of heart, she finally gives in, telling him, “I love you, I really love you, but I cannot fucking stomach you.” She just can’t get past the feeling of resentment that Kendall, who has repeatedly put himself first over his siblings, will end up with exactly what he wants, when she views all her strategy as smarter while getting constantly passed over. Kendall loses it: “I’m the eldest boy!” he shouts, as Shiv laughs in his face. And that’s really what it all comes down to. Kendall feels entitled to the role of CEO through his birthright of being a son and being first (and through complete Connor erasure!). He believes this position is owed to him, regardless of what skills he possesses or work he’s done to deserve it. And Shiv can’t stand that, so she sabotages — whether or not it serves her interests.
Roman decides to fan the flames further, adding that Shiv is technically the Roy “bloodline,” as Kendall’s children are not his direct descendants — Sophie was adopted and Iverson was born via a sperm donor. Under the guise of “that’s just what Dad said,” Roman calls Ken’s children “a pair of randos,” which finally sets Kendall off into physical violence, as he practically attempts to gouge Roman’s eyes out before Shiv pulls him off. The brothers continue to wrestle until Shiv storms out to cast her deciding vote. As the two men sit in defeat, Kendall starts strategizing how they can still win, to which Roman replies, “It’s bits of glue and broken shows, fucking phony news… We are bullshit… it’s all fucking nothing, man.” Roman is finally seeing their family for what they truly are: three people who happened to be born into a family that owned the world and who never did anything to earn their spots at the top.
With that, Kendall returns to the board room and Frank informs him that Shiv’s vote has been cast: the GoJo sale is approved. He wanders blankly to the elevator and out the door, soon after which Tom and his team enter. Everyone immediately begins to suck up to him (especially Mr. “Woof Woof” himself, Hugo, who is summarily dismissed). Even Frank and Karl (my guys!) contemplate “one last rodeo” alongside Tom (unbeknownst to them, Tom is already planning on cutting them in favor of Gerri and Karolina). Finally, Greg steps up to congratulate Tom and to assess his position. Tom at first plays it cold, but then assures Greg he still has a position with him — placing one of Connor’s stickers of possession on his assistant’s forehead. These two… they’ll never leave each other.
Roman eventually is the one who must partake in the photo op of signing the company away to Matsson and the GoJo team, which he does reluctantly. And so it’s official: Waystar Royco is no longer in the hands of the Roys, and Tom Wambsgans is (to a degree) in charge.
Finally, we get our last images of the Roy siblings.
Roman sits alone in a bar, once again the careless millionaire with no real responsibilities. He sips on a martini (Gerri’s favorite…) and slowly smiles, finally completely free of the burdens of the succession battles.
Shiv rides off with Tom after his “swearing in.” As they sit in silence, he places his hand out for hers, and she limply obliges. Their dynamic is forever changed, with Tom now in the position of power — while Shiv can likely be pulling some strings, she will always do so behind the scenes, never getting her moment in the sun that she has always so desired.
And, of course, there is Kendall. He aimlessly walks through the park, until he reaches the river — Colin close behind him. He stares at the rough waves, finally facing a life where the one thing that ever mattered to him is firmly out of reach. The camera cuts to black — without Waystar Royco there is no purpose in us following Kendall Roy, because there is no purpose for Kendall Roy. A perfect tragedy.
