You know the show is a masterpiece when you do not skip the titles. [Spoilers Ahead]
Jesse Armstrong is a genius. For me, two dialogues from the show sums it up pretty well.
Words are nothing but complicated airflow.
What kind of people does not let a brother speak [on a funeral] for the sake of the stock price.
Those two dialogues sum up the motivation and behavior of every character amazingly. To talk a bit about the characters, starting with…
Roman fucking Roy. The fourth season was for Roman. Especially after Logan’s death the way they showed his internal turmoil of now sustaining his father’s legacy by keeping Waystar and figuring out how he feels about his death since he has always deflected his emotion in slurs, beatings, and flirts. He always postponed feeling with his words and sometimes vulgar playfulness. But in the funeral episode, he gets redemption as well by letting it all out. By not speaking there, by not hiding his emotions behind words anymore, he becomes a man from a younger child who was always beaten up by his older siblings, his father, and the world.
Shiv and Tom is such a good depiction of toxic relationships shown on television. They love each other, but cannot stand each other. Their relationships suffer in their bigger motives. She has saved his phone by his full name even after years of marriage shows a weird way to distance herself. In the last scene, the way their hands are on top of each other’s was so perfect and hard-hitting. Where she chose to be the un-loving wife of a king rather than being a nobody in politics which she already was.
Greg is such an interesting character. He is all over the place, both physically and literally. He speaks awkwardly, with words just throwing out of his mouth, not making complete sense. This depicts his physicality as well, where he is 6 2” and does not know how to carry himself, he is hunched mostly to listen to what any of the Roys are saying in his ears. The character was so well played.
Kendall Kendall Kendall…I still do believe that Kendall could have easily continued the legacy of Logan Roy. He was in a subtle way always at the center of the show, especially after Logan dies and he does not have a drug addiction anymore. He is the self-proclaimed eldest son and he believes it is conventionally fair for him to get his dad’s chair. So do we. He kills a boy. Still, in the end, we find ourselves rooting for him.
In fact, that’s the beauty of great shows. You find yourself rooting for messed up people to point your start questioning your own self and beliefs.
Connor, Matson, Marcia, Hugo (who is also one of the producers), Gerri, everyone in the show is just perfect! I can never stop talking about that, lol.
The End.
Succession’s ending was one of the most devastating shows ending for me.
I hated the fact that what I wanted didn’t happen but I think it was an absolutely great ending. That’s when you know the showrunners did a great fucking job!
The last episode was perfect.
When Kendall presses his wound against his shoulder. It is again an ode to how Roman is, as we discussed above. Roman was being emotional. Only pain brings you to the present moment. That’s what Kendall did. He hurt his wound to bring him into the present, to not let him sway away in his emotions and ruin the plan.
The scene where siblings are together and they anoint Kendall as king is such great bait. You know if they are making you more attached to a character, that character is going to die for sure.
And so does the sibling relationship. Where Shiv chooses her husband, who won, over her siblings because profitably that makes sense.
Kendall with Logan’s bodyguard by the water and that last stare by Roman gave them an ending that I couldn’t have asked for more.
I am sad that the show is ending. But all great things must.
Thank you.