'Succession' ends with a brand new CEO, however no actual winners

A vote, a smoothie from hell, and one final spherical of backstabbings closed out the fourth and ultimate season of HBO’s Succession.

“With Open Eyes,” the present’s finale, was a beast of a better, taking Succession‘s mixture of dramatic household infighting and darkish humor to morbid new heights… and crushing new lows. Sure, by the tip of “With Open Eyes,” Waystar Royco formally has a brand new CEO — one thing many viewers members and the present’s characters themselves view as “successful.” However the journey to get to there’s one filled with devastating betrayals that fracture relationships past any restore. It is an episode filled with burned bridges, scorched earth sibling rivalries, all resulting in the inevitable: selecting Logan’s (Brian Cox) successor. For actual this time. Let’s break down how we bought there.

Kendall and Shiv sq. off to get Roman’s vote.

Jeremy Robust, Sarah Snook, and Kieran Culkin in “Succession.”
Credit score: Sarah Shatz/HBO

By the tip of Succession‘s penultimate episode, battle traces had been clearly drawn within the combat for who will get to regulate Waystar. In a single nook, we have now Kendall (Jeremy Robust), who hopes to maintain Waystar within the household. Within the different, we have now Shiv (Sarah Snook), who has allied herself with GoJo CEO Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) in an try to accumulate the corporate. As “With Open Eyes” begins, Kendall and Shiv are vying to safe votes from Waystar’s board members earlier than the board assembly. One key vote is up within the air, although: Roman (Kieran Culkin), who’s gone lacking after breaking down at Logan’s funeral.

As each Kendall and Shiv shortly discover out, Roman is not actually lacking. He is within the Caribbean with their mom Caroline (Harriet Walter), who needs the 2 to return down and converse to him. They do — to not consolation him, however to debate enterprise. Roman is in no place to take action, having been injured and shaken by a run-in with folks protesting the presidential election. (Talking of the election, the Wisconsin votes are topic to a courtroom case, so Mencken might not be the winner in any case.) Nonetheless, his siblings don’t have any hassle treating him as a “human fucking vote,” in his personal phrases.

Matsson considers completely different CEO choices.

Alexander Skarsgård in “Succession.”
Credit score: Macall B. Polay/HBO

Because the board vote grows nearer, Matsson wavers on his and Shiv’s settlement to make her the American CEO of Waystar. He claims he isn’t fazed by a caricature depicting her as his puppetmaster, however between that and his admitted need to sleep together with her, Matsson has opted to go in a special route. He admits as a lot to Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen), on one among their many cringeworthy “hangs.” Tom thinks he is on the chopping block, however Matsson suggests one thing else: CEO. The provide is much less one among energy, and extra one among being Matsson’s private “ache sponge.” However, Tom accepts.

The scene echoes one among Succession‘s Season 3 finale’s most iconic scenes: when Tom asks Greg (Nicholas Braun) if he needs to make a take care of the satan not lengthy earlier than betraying Shiv and her brothers. Right here, although, Tom is in Greg’s place (what’s Greg, if not a “ache sponge”?), and Matsson takes on Tom’s position. Each scenes finish the identical manner although: with Tom screwing Shiv over.

However we won’t rely Greg out simply but. Tom’s lackey makes use of a translating app to decipher Matsson’s Swedish discussions and inform Kendall of Matsson’s alternative. In fact, he asks for one thing in return for the intel — at all times making an attempt to make “the quad” occur, that Greg! In the meantime, Kendall passes the information on to an understandably mad-as-hell Shiv. And similar to that, the Roy siblings are a united entrance once more. Type of.

Kendall, Shiv, and Roman resolve which ones ought to be CEO.

Jeremy Robust, Sarah Snook, and Kieran Culkin in “Succession.”
Credit score: Sarah Shatz/HBO

Because the clock ticks right down to the board assembly, Kendall, Shiv, and Roman repeat one among their favourite arguments: Who did Logan wish to be CEO? Who amongst them would have gotten the kiss from daddy(opens in a brand new tab)? The arguments vary from Roman’s declare that he was Logan’s most up-to-date option to Kendall’s reminder that Logan promised him his empire at age seven. (No strain.) After a lot arguing, Shiv and Roman inform Kendall it ought to be him.

What follows is one among Succession‘s funniest scenes ever, the place the trio make Kendall “a meal match for a king,” aka the world’s most disgusting smoothie. (Tabasco, eggs, and bread nubbies all make the lower, together with some Shiv spit.) Kendall bravely offers it a chug earlier than Roman dumps it throughout his head. Ceremoniously, in fact.

Between the anointment-by-smoothie and Roman and Shiv coming to their determination whereas Kendall floats on a platform within the ocean, “With Open Eyes” continues Succession‘s motif of associating Kendall with water. Earlier this season, after his profitable presentation on Residing+, Kendall took a swim within the Pacific Ocean. It was a second of rebirth for him, in addition to a form of thematic baptism of him because the extra highly effective of the “CE-Bros.” Nevertheless, Kendall’s affiliation with water has not at all times been so optimistic. Within the Season 1 finale, he and waiter Andrew Dodds crashed right into a lake, the place Andrew drowned. In direction of the tip of Season 3, Kendall falls off a pool floatie and makes an attempt to drown in a very despairing second. In each circumstances, Kendall plus water spells out all-time low. Does his floating on the ocean in “With Open Eyes” correspond extra to his rebirth or “anointment” as future CEO? Or will it spell doom for him?

The tables flip earlier than the board assembly.

Justine Lupe and Alan Ruck in “Succession.”
Credit score: Macall B. Polay/HBO

Tensions are excessive earlier than the board assembly, however that does not cease Connor (Alan Ruck) and Willa (Justine Lupe) from internet hosting a gathering the place folks can declare the objects in Logan’s condominium via a “sticker perambulation circuit system.” (Connor has additionally created tiers of grievers to find out who will get precedent.) Because the Roys declare their objects, they discover a video of Logan having dinner with Connor, Frank (Peter Friedman), Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron), Karl (David Rasche), and Kerry (Zoe Winters). Because it performs out, the Roys get a second to bond with their father from past the grave — one the place he is not berating them, however is relatively having fun with Connor’s impression of him performing “I am A Little Teapot.”

However the enjoyable and video games finish when Tom tells Shiv he will be CEO. From that time on, either side rally the troops in a last-ditch effort to get the votes they want. Tom additionally discovers that Greg leaked Matsson’s option to Kendall, giving us the definitive TomGreg scene of the season: the 2 of them slap preventing it out in a rest room.

Shiv throws a wrench into the Waystar vote, and a brand new CEO is topped.

The ensemble of “Succession.”
Credit score: David Russell/HBO

The board vote proceeds, with six members voting for Kendall, and 6 voting for GoJo. Shiv has the deciding vote, however on the final second, she has doubts. And as she tells Kendall it should not be him, his smarmy, assured enterprise persona melts away into pure desperation. “I’m like a cog constructed to suit one machine… It is the one factor I understand how to do,” he pleads.

Nevertheless it’s all too straightforward for Shiv to close him down: “You possibly can’t be CEO since you killed somebody.”

Kendall enters disaster spin mode, but it surely’s too late. If he agrees that he killed Andrew, he is admitting he is a killer. If he claims he made the dying up (which he does), he seems to be manipulative and loses his siblings’ belief. Is it wealthy for Shiv to make use of this in opposition to him after being so blasé about it again in Season 3? Completely. However does it make for a brutal blow to Kendall’s CEO candidacy? Indubitably.

The Roys aren’t accomplished knifing one another although. Roman needles Kendall for his youngsters not being a part of the Roy “bloodline,” as they don’t seem to be his organic youngsters. That is the final straw for Kendall, who assaults Roman whereas Shiv casts her deciding vote. In what has felt inevitable this complete season, GoJo acquires Waystar. In a twist, Tom truly does develop into CEO.

With Tom turning into CEO, the place does that go away the remainder of our characters?

Matthew Macfadyen and Sarah Snook in “Succession.”
Credit score: Courtesy of HBO

As Tom and Matsson formally take over Waystar, it is clear modifications are afoot. Tom appears to wish to hold Gerri and Karolina (Dagmara Dominczyk) onboard, however needs to axe Hugo (Fisher Stevens), Karl, and Frank. (To be truthful, these final two do not appear notably eager about staying on.) Tom additionally plans to maintain Greg with him, despite the fact that he “fucked it.” He seals the deal by pasting one among Connor’s stickers to Greg’s brow. One final hurrah for the Disgusting Brothers, everybody!

And as for the opposite Roy siblings? Shiv did ask Tom earlier within the episode if we was “focused on an actual relationship,” and by the seems to be of her using out of Waystar with him, it seems like they might be giving {that a} attempt. She even takes his hand after he presents it to her on their automotive experience! Granted, it is much less of a hand maintain and extra of a “relaxation my hand in yours” scenario, so it is clear their intimacy and belief aren’t totally again. (Are you able to blame them? Extra importantly, can we pray for his or her kid’s upbringing?)

After Roman indicators Waystar over to a gloating Matsson, he heads to a bar and has a drink alone. His ultimate scene is simply as ambiguous as Shiv’s, as he offers a smirk after which a frown, caught someplace between pleasure and disappointment. Does he really feel freedom at not being tethered to Waystar? Or does he remorse destroying his relationship with Matsson and never pushing more durable to be CEO? Both manner (or maybe a mixture of each), it is a quiet farewell to one among Succession‘s wildest, most bombastic characters.

Succession closes with the tragedy of Kendall Roy.

Jeremy Robust in “Succession.”
Credit score: Courtesy of HBO

After we first met Kendall Roy, manner again in Season 1, he was on prime of the world: rapping alongside to the Beastie Boys, hoping to shut a deal to accumulate Vaulter, and subsequent in line for Logan’s CEO throne. The Kendall we half methods with in Season 4 is completely damaged: His ultimate scene with Shiv and Roman lower him deep, and with the sale of Waystar, he has misplaced the one factor in life he fought so exhausting for. His place at Succession‘s finish recollects the aftermath of Season 1’s vote of no-confidence in opposition to Logan — solely right here, he is additional at all-time low, and certain has no salvageable private relationships left.

When telling Shiv and Roman about how being CEO is the one factor he’d know methods to do, he tells them, “I would die” if the vote does not go his manner. And for a second, it appears as if Succession goes in that route. In Succession‘s final scene ever, Kendall walks via Battery Park on the southern tip of Manhattan. As he heads in direction of the railing bordering the river, it appears for a second that he may very well be able to throw himself in. However Succession doesn’t go that route.

As an alternative, Kendall pulls away from the railing and sits, nonetheless gazing out on the water, along with his father’s outdated bodyguard (Scott Nicholson) trying on. Colin’s presence is actually a reminder of Logan and of Kendall’s ambitions to be like him, and in that manner, he is additionally a reminder of Kendall’s failure. At this level, he is the final particular person Kendall has left.

However the larger focus of this scene is as soon as once more the pairing of Kendall and water. Succession leaves Kendall’s actions open-ended as he contemplates the river. He might nonetheless select to leap, an motion that might play into the despair-linked water motif we have seen earlier than in scenes involving Andrew and the Tuscan pool. Or might he be contemplating a rebirth, like we noticed in his Pacific Ocean and Caribbean swims?

If that rebirth includes Kendall beginning his personal enterprise and leaping again into the enterprise world, that might be a tragedy in itself. He would proceed to perpetuate the hurt his father and he and his siblings wrought on the world, and he would by no means break freed from the field he is positioned himself in. Like Shiv staying with Tom now that he is CEO, Kendall actually solely is aware of one lifestyle. Perhaps the cycle continues in any case. Perhaps the poison continues to drip via.

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