The final season of Succession has been dominating the pop culture discourse for the past few months, and it came to a close on Sunday night. Its ending was unsatisfying yet perfect, all at once, but what’s in the cards for its main trio after the curtain call?
(Spoilers Ahead)
Shiv Roy
Shiv Roy ruined her chance of becoming the American Waystar RoyCo CEO after telling the GoJo boss Lukas Matsson that her husband Tom Wambsgans is the biggest yes man in the room. This exchange eventually inspired him to appoint Tom as CEO, betraying the promise he made to Shiv.
According to Succession creator Jesse Armstrong, Shiv is “still in play” after this non-victory, but she’s “in a rather terrifying, frozen emotionally barren place.”
Roman Roy
The last time we see Roman Roy, he’s sitting at a bar with a martini, with a faint smile on his face. He’s finally free, and Armstrong believes that in a reductive, brutal way, this character ended up exactly where he started, and the fight for control over Waystar was just a detour in his life.
Kendall Roy
The last shot of Succession is a gripping frame of Kendall Roy looking at waves crashing against the shore, with desperation in his eyes. His ending is the most tragic because this loss will stay the central event of his life, and he’ll never live up to his father’s name.
“I thought about all their stories. You know, they don’t end. They will carry on. But it’s sort of where this show loses interest in them because they’ve lost what they wanted, which was to succeed — which, you know, was this prize that their father held out,” Jesse Armstrong said in Max’s Controlling the Narrative featurette.
