Editor’s Note: The article below contains spoilers for the Succession series finale.The King is dead. Long live the son-in-law. Thanks to a last-minute change of heart from Shiv (Sarah Snook) during the crucial final episode vote in HBO’sSuccession, when she realised thatJeremy Strong’s Kendall was not the right man to lead the company, GoJo now owns the media company, and GoJo CEO Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) has crowned the occasionally-hapless but ultimatelycompetent and pliable Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) as its American CEO.
Speaking on the ‘Controlling the Narrative’ featurette on the Max streaming service,show creatorJesse Armstrongdiscussed where the Roy children - who have, in their own ways, all been crushed by the entire battle (apart from the eldest, Connor, who found his own happiness of sorts) - would find themselves in future. He has visualised their futures and folks, they don’t sound great.
This is Where the Show Loses Interest in Them
“I thought about all their stories,” Armstrong said. “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."
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Roman (Kieran Culkin)was the first to crack under the pressure. The youngest, with the sharp tongue and big mouth,wilted during his father’s eulogy, making himself publicly weak and a no-go in terms of a leader for a public company. He was never a serious man, and Armstrong believes that this was just a distraction for Roman, who will soon return to his life of empty debauchery with nothing to show for it. “In a reductive, brutal way, Roman ends up exactly where he started,” he continued. “He is that guy still. And he maybe easily could have been a playboy jerk with some slightly nasty instincts, and some quite funny jokes. He could’ve stayed in a bar, being that guy.And this has been a bit of a detour in his life, I would say.”
As for Siobhan? She still retains power, in some form.Her unborn child – with Tom – stands to inherit that position one day too andshe can manipulate things, but at a cost. Her family is now irrevocably fractured, and she has committed the ultimate betrayal. “Shiv is still in play, I’d say, in a rather terrifying, frozen emotionally barren place,” Armstrong said. “But she has got this kind of non-victory, non-defeat. I mean, there’s gonna be some movement there. There’s still a lot of that game to play out, but that’s where we leave it.And it feels like it’s going to be hard to progress for them, emotionally, given the things they’ve said about each other."
Which leaves the prodigal son, Kendall, who we see last of all, utterly defeated and contemplating his future – andperhaps his own life– in the final scene of the episode.The realisation he will never be his father will haunt him for the rest of his days. “For Kendall, this will never stop being the central event of his life,the central days of his life, central couple of years of his life,” Armstrong continued. “Maybe he could go on and start a company, or do a thing. But the chances of himachieving the sort of corporate status that his dad achieved are very low.And I think that will mark his whole life.”
