Succession – With Open Eyes

By: Kelly Kearney

The finale of what could arguably be the greatest TV show in history, wrapped up in a satisfying way on Sunday–which isn’t often the case with a project of this magnitude. With such high expectations for a satisfying conclusion, any finale can be a risk but especially for a show that expects its audience to gnaw on their own interpretations rather than accept spoonfed plots that easily go down without much of a chew. Succession mastered that skill in storytelling like no other show before it and in “With Open Eyes,” we say goodbye to not only the Roy family and their greedy hounds of finance but to a show that captured the zeitgeist of a nation waging its own war with the elite ruling class.

Where is Roman?

We open on an overly confident Kendall (Jeremy Strong) heading into the board vote for the GoJo merger. Proud as a perky feathered peacock, the second-born son is under the assumption that he has gained enough support to send Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) back to Sweden and end this takeover. Kendall walks the halls of his not-so-dearly departed father’s company like he’s the new King and this is his first of many victory laps. All his self-congratulatory pats on the back are a bit early though because his sister is just as confident about her role in making sure Matsson steals Kendall’s gold-plated crown. Like Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron) told Roman (Kieran Culkin), the money always wins, and in Lukas’ case, the money goes a long way towards settling their fears over those inflated subscriber numbers. In fact, even Ken’s bestie, Stewey (Arian Moayed), is now on board with the GoJo merger and when Kendall finds this out we see the first signs of his confidence start to crack. To get this deal to go through, it looks like Kendall will need Roman’s vote, but where is that flippant foul-mouthed Slime Puppy? After his beatdown by those anti-fascist Mencken protesters, nobody knows where the younger Roy-boy is. Calls go unanswered, texts–unread, and now both Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Kendall are in a dead heat with this deal and need their brother now more than ever. We also get a brief understanding of that terrible ATN call handing the country over to Jeryd (Justin Kirk), it seems the legal battle for those torched Wisconsin votes could send him back to whatever racist rock that knuckle-dragger was birthed from and not to Washington D.C. This means everything Roman did to ensure Jeryd’s win for his support in the deal, could’ve been for nothing. He was already feeling the smack of rejection from Gerri–who had every right to ignore his pain after he inflicted some targeted attacks on both her job performance and her age, followed by his public funeral breakdown that Kendall now thinks is the single reason they could lose the deal.

When Shiv gets wind of Roman going off the radar, she finds out he is nursing his wounds at Caroline’s (Harriet Walter) compound in Barbados. Shiv heads to her mother’s, and Kendall–thanks to double-agent Greg with the details, separately, follows behind her. From her private jet, Shiv checks in with Tom (Matthew Macfadyen), who is still worried about getting fired if the deal goes through. She promises him she will do her best to convince Matsson to keep him on and then suggests they get back together! Tom is less receptive to that offer and that leaves Shiv hurt and angry.

Once all three kids descend on Mom’s island retreat, we see Roman, battered, and bruised, but somewhat refreshed thanks to the sea air and Peter’s (Pip Torrens) nursemaid skills. Caroline isn’t exactly winning awards for her maternal love and care, so she shoved off parental responsibilities to the seat sniffer, but not without ulterior motives. Peter and his pals plan to pitch some business deal that Roman and his siblings couldn’t be less interested in. Their main focus is figuring out who should lead the company and how each of them will play a part in its future. Kendall is full of fear and fluster as he tries pitching himself as the more stable choice. Too bad for him because Shiv thinks she’s already won and tells her brother to, “take it like a man and eat it.” Little does she know Matsson is considering an alternative U.S. CEO after letting her think she was locked into the job. Lukas is looking into a soft and amendable lapdog he can control from across the pond. There are mentions of Lawrence– from the defunct Valuter, circling the rumor mill but the one person Lukas is really interested in is Tom. He tests Tom’s mettle when he admits he can’t work with Shiv if he wants a sexual relationship with her. Lukas is aware of the on again- off again marital struggles between Tom and Shiv, and uses this possible sexual hook-up to gauge his reactions. Tom plays it cool–always looking out for himself, while also attaching his parasitic lips to Lukas’ backside; his suck-up desperation is a vibe Matsson can work with. He is an empty vessel willing to be filled with whatever Lukas pours down his throat, and he knows Shiv would never be that easy. Tom’s restraint impresses Matsson, who invites him to hang out on his birthday. Greg (Nicholas Braun) tags along and as Tom’s job insecurities start to rattle him, he takes his panic out on Greg. He tells his fellow Disgusting Brother that even if he does land the CEO spot, Greg isn’t guaranteed a job. What he does guarantee is Greg’s 200k salary taking a huge cut. By night’s end, Lukas has made his choice;  he is hiring the man, “who put the baby inside her [Shiv], instead of the baby lady.”

After going back and forth about who Logan wanted to replace him, Kendall– his first choice, and Roman–his last, the siblings go for a swim and decide Matsson is a flake and Kendall might be the only way they hold onto a piece of the company. Logan told him at age 7 that the Kingdom was built for him, and no matter how many times he fell into drugs or bad business deals, he always felt like their father trained him for it. If Kendall is the right choice, then the siblings can drop their rivalries and focus on the real enemy in their midst: Caroline’s endlessly empty fridge. The scene that ensues is one of the few times we see Kendall, Roman, and Shiv, unencumbered by their father’s legacy and just act like kids who mess up their mother’s kitchen and cause a ruckus late at night. Lady Caroline is not a culinary guru; in fact, her fridge is so bare we can assume she stays nourished on sarcasm, spite, and a detest for the banality of human connections. The woman is colder than an ice cube, which ironically is maybe the only thing to eat in her whole house. When her hungry children wake her up in search of scraps of food, she hands them a bag of Peter’s leftover, “knobbies” [ends of bread] and then reprimands Roman for touching her husband’s specialty cheese. It’s prison rations for her babies, so they do what all unsupervised children do, and make their own grotesque concoctions from the bits and bobs they find around the house. Roman heavily tongues Peter’s designer cheese for good measure, while Shiv starts pouring hot sauce, ketchup, a can of beans, pieces of bread, and scoops of Branston pickles, into a blender for a smoothie from Hell. It’s a drink to congratulate the anointed savior of Waystar, Kendall (as well as method actor Strong), who downs it in a few disgusting gulps. The bonding moments between these three are few and far between, but it is a nice springboard into the drama that is about to unfold once they get back to New York.

While the siblings have agreed Kendall might be the name that makes the most sense on paper. Greg is in New York and listening in on Matsson speak in his native tongue about the new CEO. He hits Google Translate to see what all the secretive chatter is about and realizes Shiv is out of the running and this is information that could be used to secure his own job security. He calls Ken to fill him in and proposes an idea: he repays Greg for his loyalty by giving him a spot on the sibling’s team, calling it, “Quad Goals.” Kendall vaguely agrees just so Greg will spill Lukas’ tea and then fills Shiv and Roman in on what is going on back home. Shiv is enraged once Greg’s rumors are confirmed to be true, and now she is all in on Team Nuke the Luke. All three Roy kids make a strong voting bloc at the vote and feel undefeatable.

The Great Reallocation

The one Roy who can’t be bothered with board votes and Daddy’s crown is Connor, who has his hands full of family heirlooms and clearing out his Dad’s apartment before his moving trucks arrive with Will’s cowhide couch. Roman, Shiv, and Kendall stop by to find their eldest brother documenting who gets what of Dad’s before his relocation to Slovenia. Shiv can’t help but point out that the Wisconsin results are in question and that might mean Jeryd isn’t the winner and his Ambassadorship won’t happen. Willa hates the sound of that. She was very excited to send her husband away while she concentrated on her next off-off-way-off Broadway fail. Her dreams of a long-distance relationship might be over. The family get-together leads to another warm moment between the siblings as they all gather around to watch a home video of their father’s birthday. They see a smiling Logan surrounded by his other family– the old guard. It’s a peek into who he was when they weren’t around, and the fun side of him that came out when business took a backseat to good times with old friends. Logan makes everyone laugh reciting “the losers list” of all the failed Presidents, and the laughter picks up when Gerri adds in a lewd limerick. Her voice alone catches Roman’s attention–that woman does things to him beyond his control, and it has him holding back a smile while he sits on the floor watching with eyes resembling child wonder. Karl (David Rasche) picks up where Gerri leaves off and sings, “Green Grow the Rashes,” as Kerry lovingly rests her head on their dad’s shoulder. All the kids hold back their tears but grab onto each other as they try and make sense of this rarely-seen playful side of their tyrant of a father.

That family bonding doesn’t last long when Shiv learns her replacement at GoJo is Tom! Now she is out for blood, but so is Tom, because he also learns Greg was the one who tipped off Kendall putting the deal in jeopardy. So livid is Tom that he attacks Greg in an empty office and the two have a knockdown fight. It’s brutal and reminiscent of the water bottle incident in season 2 but this time the stakes are much higher. Eventually, their brawl dies down and Greg licks his wounds while Tom gears up to fight for what is his. Matsson is also in war mode, as he screams out and orders his team to get ready for the incoming attack from the united kids of Logan Roy.

The Molewoman Brings the Rockstar to His Knees

At the offices of Waystar, everyone is in the trenches, and even PR maven Karolina (Dagmara Domińczyk) gets into the muck when she lobbies Shiv to oust Hugo and take his job if Team Sibs pull this off. Pinky nods like it’s a done deal as the board gathers for the final vote. After some begging from Kendall, Stewey seems to be wavering back to his side, but none of that matters once Gerri Kellman walks in. Roman spots her through the glass office door and instantly falls apart. His confidence–which seemed strong when he walked in the door has been ripped from his chest at just the mere sight of her. He becomes small, weak, and cannot look at her and equally doesn’t want her to see the state he is in because the pain is too great and the embarrassment too real. He is also worried about his appearance, which is pretty banged up,  and he hides his face from her as starts to crumble into a blubbering pile of skin wrapped around a broken heart. He says he is leaving and in one of the most disturbing and heavily debated moments in the episode, Kendall grabs Roman and violently hugs him until his forehead stitches pop! Whether this was Kendall’s anger manifesting into a bloody abusive act or a brother who lovingly knows Roman seeks comfort in pain, his motives are unclear, but the act of violence gives Roman a chance to reset himself for the task at hand.

Inside the boardroom, Chairperson Frank (Peter Friedman) holds the vote, and with a 6-6 tie, the breaker lands on Shiv! Instead of immediately backing her brother, she storms out of the office for a moment to think. If Tom is the GoJo CEO isn’t that sort of a win for the mother of his child? That must be going through her head when Kendall follows her and Roman is tossed into the mix as the sibling rivalry hits new and toxic heights behind the glass doors where everyone can see them. Kendall rants about how he is owed the job and screams at Shiv, rather pathetically, “I’m the eldest boy!” Shiv cannot hold back her laughter at that delusional lie and responds with a biting, “I love you but I can’t f*cking stomach you.” No matter how much she wants the job, it doesnt change the fact she and Roman do not actually think Kendall is capable of handling it. All three start screaming at each other and that’s when Shiv drops the bomb about the waiter he killed and why that proves he is a risk they should not take. Kendall is taken aback by this and tries to lie his way out of it by swearing he never killed anyone and his admission was all lies. This pushes Roman to turn on him and point out that maybe Shiv is right and since she is the one carrying the family bloodline, they should let her have the final say. Kendall isn’t the biological father of his children and their father always wanted an heir to pass on his legacy. Kendall becomes enraged by Roman’s offensive remarks about his kid’s legitimacy and attacks his younger brother and then turns his violence on Shiv. Roman manages to pull him away from their pregnant sister long enough for her to run into the boardroom and cast her deciding vote. The final tally: 7-6 in favor of Matsson and Tom! That poison, Kendall spoke of on election night, doesn’t just drip through if Shiv turns on the faucet and lets it pour through her. A distraught Kendall breaks free from Roman’s grip and runs into the boardroom where Frank tells him it’s over, he lost. Full of despair, Kendall can’t reason with this truth. He was built for this–or so he thought, and without the company, he has nothing left to keep him afloat. He leaves as Matsson enters to sign the deal and take a photo with Tom and the board, and everyone is all smiles but the siblings.

With the deal done, Lukas asks Tom to survey the room for who will be folded into the new company and who will be handed their golden parachutes. Frank and Karl are out, but Gerri is in because she knows how to battle in the trenches with Titans; after all, she was the one who taught Tom how to be a sin cake eater and it looks like they both better be ready to eat. Tom also gives Greg his sprinkles and sticks an ownership sticker on his forehead because if he has to be Lukas’, “pain sponge” then he is going to need one of his own to wring out when times get tense.

Eat, Drink, and be Merry, for Tomorrow We Die

The series ends on a depressing note, but for a show about immoral greed-hounds of finance, fascism, and family feuds, it was never getting some rom/com happy ending. According to Shiv, Logan never wanted any of them to have the company, and maybe that’s because he raised them all to be better backstabbers rather than serious people with smart business sense. Out of the three siblings who spent their lives leap-frogging each other to get Daddy’s kiss, Roman might be the only one who ends up in a better place. When we first met him he called Waystar a cage and now he’s free of those confines and wealthy enough to invest in making his own pile of cash–unrestrained by the doom and gloom of Logan’s legacy. We see him sitting alone at a bar sipping a martini–Gerri Kellman’s preferred cocktail, and smiling. When the vodka washes over him that smile fades into a haunted look of regret knowing the woman he loved could’ve taken him to the top but did he even want it? In his quest to make his father notice him,  he lost the man, the company, but one woman who believed in him in a way he hoped Logan and even Mencken would. Maybe Succession’s most bizarre and beloved pseudo-couple can work things out because his smirk seems to suggest he hasn’t given up on them yet. The sibling who has given up, is Shiv. Always on the outside trying to find a way into her father’s male-only world, Shiv’s spectator seat is now a permanent one. Her only hope is manipulation from the passenger seat of Tom’s CEO ride and that’s exactly like the toxic union her mother and father inflicted on her and her siblings. In the backseat of their car, we see Tom staring forward with a cold look on his face. and as he offers Shiv his hand, she halfheartedly hovers her own over his as a sign that the power balance in the relationship might have flipped but she is never going to be Tom’s silent and dutiful wife. Finally, we find Kendall walking through the park with Colin (Scott Nicholson) following closely behind. He makes his way to the pier looking out across the Hudson as the gray clouds seem to settle over his head and the choppy waves beckon him like a welcome embrace. Without Waystar he has no purpose, that legacy was indeed crossed out in not just pen but blood, and now he seems fated to wander the earth untethered and directionless that seems to always lead him back to water. His end is a suicide, of sorts–one of the soul, where watching a lifetime of expectations washes away with the tides and there is no current to resurrect the past. No matter where his siblings go from here– Shiv, in a loveless marriage, Roman remembering the love he lost, for Kendall, the choice was always the same: the Crown or the drowning abyss, and waters keep calling him.