And what a final it has been marked ‘Succession’. The HBO series has said goodbye and has given us almost ninety minutes that has been in suspense with the final play between the Roy, Waystar and the GoJo of Lukas Matsson. A lot of nerves so that, as it ends, the big question is answered: who will be crowned successor to the emporium?
Of course, from here spoilers for the season finale.
The answer is Tom Wambsgans (Matthew MacFayden) after the desperate attempt by Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) was thwarted at the last minute. The company is sold and he is the new CEO.
A script decision that, although it could be somewhat frustrating for those of us who expected one of the brothers to be crowned, does not lack great logic. Tom is not only the guy who “has always been there” but already in the season 3 finale with his betrayal he showed the stuff he was made of and that he would do anything to climb the ladder.
As Jesse Armstrong explains in this week’s “Behind the Episode”:
“The idea around Tom being the ultimate successor is something I’ve been thinking about for a while as the right ending. Even if, say, he’s not the most powerful monarch you know. The can of it comes from Matsson. Those guys who go up and offer themselves to powerful people are out there.”
Or, how well it sells Shiv to Lukas, the good thing about Tom the thing is “I’d eat the biggest dick in the room.” Speaking of Shiv, Mark Mylod, director of the series, assures that they have worked around this idea that the character played by Sarah Snook was going to “sabotage itself and sabotage the deal.”
What has become of the three “musketroys”
Of course, she comes out the best save of all, or at least, the one that “least” has lost. Although once the issue of succession at Waystar was resolved makes the characters, in the words of Jesse Armstrong, lose their interest. According to him, all this has marked each of the Roys in a permanent way, despite the fact that each one is in a different emotional place:
In a reductive and brutal way, Roman ends exactly where he started. He’s still that guy. And he might have been a jerk playboy with some nasty instincts and some funny quips. He could stay in a bar being that guy and this has been a roundabout life for him.
I would say Shiv is still in the game, in a scary, cold, emotionally barren place. But he has had this kind of neither win nor loss. That is, he is going to have movement. There is still a long way to go in the game, but that is where we left off and it looks like it will be difficult for them to progress emotionally given the things they have said to each other.
For Kendall, this will never stop being the pivotal event of her life, the pivotal days of her life, the pivotal couple of years of her life. Maybe he could go and start a company… but the chances of him reaching the corporate status that dad got are very low and I think that will mark his whole life.”
The baseball theory
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By the way, before the episode a video started circulating trying to discern if the names of the protagonists could be a clue regarding the end of ‘Succession’.
Specifically, he focused on Tom’s last name as a reference to bill wambsgans, baseball player (for Cleveland) with a rather rare feat to his credit: pulling off what’s called an unassisted triple play in a World Series. The only time, in fact, something analogous to what Tom would have done in this series finale.
In Espinof | The entire ‘Succession’ takes place in a single year! How all the events of the excellent HBO series fit into its tight timeline