It’s been more than two weeks since we were able to see the final episode of ‘Succession’, which broke the audience record for the series, but was far from HBO’s big hits like ‘The House of the Dragon’ or ‘The Last of Us. ‘. For his part, Jeremy Strong He has already offered his personal vision of the outcome for Kendall and now it’s time to make a stop in an interview granted by the creator Jesse Armstrongwho is clear that many have misunderstood the end of ‘Succession’.
“It was a moment of equality”
Armstrong has repeatedly made it clear that has no plans to continue the ‘Succession’ storyline in any way, so for him the characters stay exactly in the situation they are in at the end of that episode. Also, he points to the last scene between Tom and Shiv as one that’s being interpreted differently than his:
For me it was a moment of equality. Cold equality, rather terrifying, but equality, which had never existed in that relationship. Tom has always been subservient. He now he has this status, but his status is contingent. The whole episode is about it. Shiv’s status is like all boys’: safe. He is secure in a financial sense. He has billions of dollars. He has a wealth that could never diminish, no matter what happens to the world. And he, too, has a name, which in a way will haunt her and make her interesting, to a certain extent, for the rest of her life, and that can’t be taken away from her. While Tom’s position could be removed with the snap of his fingers.
Thus, the characters played by Sarah Snook and Matthew Macfadyen they reach an even position for the first time in the entire series. A very fragile and dispassionate equality that could explode at any moment or that Shiv even tries to break it shortly after, as Armstrong himself admits:
For me there is a very terrifying equality in that, in that dry handshake. It’s not really even human contact. It’s kind of like two pieces of china or something. So that’s what it is for me. That’s not what it would be for everyone. And you could certainly see the situation as a clever ploy whereby Shiv remains in play. Perhaps that thought will occur to you tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. But for me, the show is over at this point and the story is over and that’s where I think they end.
And it is that we must never forget that all the main characters in the series are mean and despicable beings, so a resolution like this fits very well for the path that they have all taken. In fact, Armstrong himself already commented at the time that Roman ends exactly where he started or that the shadow of what just happened will haunt Kendall forever, so Shiv and Tom is the closest thing to a happy ending, and it is very far from being able to be described as such.
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