Succession is over, and a brand new king has been topped.

And whereas Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) wasn’t a reputation that many individuals would seemingly have thought of within the operating, there had been some clues earlier within the season – specifically a line from Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) and a thread that follows on from it – which will have slipped below the radar.

So what does the GoJo boss say, and the way does it level to his final CEO selection? Let’s recap.

What does Matsson say that factors to his CEO selection?

Throughout a video name with Kendall (Jeremy Robust) in Season 4, episode 2, Matsson makes a throwaway remark that’s, in hindsight, fairly a big piece of foreshadowing. It is about sleep.

Matsson: “I can not fucking sleep. You sleep good?”

Kendall: “Truthfully, not likely, no.”

Matsson: “I’ve by no means met anybody I respect who sleeps good.”

Kendall: “Inform me about it. One eye open, bro. One eye open.”

Meaningless bro-talk? On the floor, sure. However that bit about sleep finally ends up being key, as a result of there’s one character who actually would not sleep nicely in Season 4.

Tom’s lack of sleep is a recurring theme in Season 4.

All through Season 4, there are fixed references to Tom not getting sufficient sleep. In episode seven, on the pre-election occasion he and Shiv (Sarah Snook) are internet hosting, he complains by means of the evening about how exhausted he’s.

“I am drained, you realize. Election eve, it is so much,” he tells Shiv in the beginning of the occasion. Later, the horrendous argument they’ve begins when Tom says he will go to mattress. “I am bushwacked,” he says, “my eyes are sandpaper.”

Tom spends the whole thing of the pre-election occasion speaking about how exhausted he’s.
Credit score: David Russell/HBO

In episode 9, Tom is unable to make Logan’s funeral resulting from how busy he’s at work. Matsson even asks Shiv “The place’s your Tommy boy?”, and when she tells him Tom is at work, there is a transient second the place you may see the cogs delivering his head.

Later, when Tom turns up briefly on the drinks after the funeral, he is speaking as soon as once more about how drained he’s. “I am so, so, drained and I have been awake so, so lengthy,” he says to Shiv. “I simply felt like I could not depart.”

Tom mentions sleep in his closing pitch to Matsson.

After his meal with Matsson in episode 10, Tom is requested to pitch himself. His reply makes it clear that he’d be the precise match for the “ache sponge” Matsson is on the lookout for, however the cherry on the cake is Tom’s remark about sleep. “I am a grinder,” he says. “I grind as a result of I fear. I fear all evening about all the things.”

With out even realising it, Tom has proven himself as Matsson’s good match. He sleeps badly as a result of he is always interested by work, and he misses key occasions in Season 4 as a result of he is truly working whereas the opposite characters are busy scheming.

Possibly he wasn’t such a random CEO selection in spite of everything.

All episodes of Succession at the moment are streaming on Max.(opens in a brand new tab)