Succession: Why Shiv, Roman & Kendall Could Never Really "Win", Explained | Compilation - video Dailymotion

The Take Film TV Movie

Shiv, Kendall and Roman Roy seemed to have everything: money, fame, power. But no matter how hard they tried, they never seemed to be able to get the *one* thing they truly desired... In this...

Transcript

00:00:00Is being a woman in business still a liability?

00:00:03You're a young woman with no experience.

00:00:05A woman. That's a minus.

00:00:06Well, of course it's a f***ing minus.

00:00:09I didn't make the world.

00:00:10As Succession's Logan Roy decides which of his four offspring

00:00:13might inherit his media empire throne,

00:00:16on paper his smart and hardworking daughter Shiv

00:00:19seems like the most capable contender.

00:00:21But Shiv feels she's been treated differently for being a woman,

00:00:25and she's right.

00:00:26I've always thought you were the smartest.

00:00:28Oh, so that's why you tried Kendall and Roman first.

00:00:31The people in her world are open about just how much

00:00:34her gender is seen as a downside.

00:00:36She's trotted out when having a female executive is useful

00:00:39for a crisis or a deal, and then once that passes,

00:00:42again, sidelined, overlooked, mocked,

00:00:44or held to a higher standard than her brothers.

00:00:47Corporate daycare.

00:00:48What's up with dip here?

00:00:50That's not a good retort.

00:00:51Don't f***ing laugh at that.

00:00:53In case you want it in writing.

00:00:54But Succession does a great job of dealing with not just

00:00:57how the woman dynamics realistically play out around Shiv,

00:01:01but also how they've shaped her psychologically.

00:01:03Due to the biases around her,

00:01:05Shiv gets less training from a young age,

00:01:07so at first she isn't as ready to manage as her brothers.

00:01:11You can't blame her for her lack of experience.

00:01:13Well, sure you can.

00:01:14Just watch, you'll get the hang of it soon enough.

00:01:16There's a vicious cycle at play,

00:01:17where she overreacts and overcompensates,

00:01:20copying the toxic behavior her dads modeled for the company.

00:01:24As a result, Shiv has been molded into an arrogant yet insecure girl boss,

00:01:28who not only doesn't help other women,

00:01:30but often weaponizes feminism in service of her family.

00:01:33Here's our take on how Succession uses Shiv to accurately illustrate

00:01:37how being marginalized as a woman or member of another outsider group

00:01:41can work against you, wear you down, and very much mess you up.

00:01:48Shiv Roy shows how contrary to how much of today's rhetoric,

00:01:52being a woman near the top of many work cultures is still an obstacle,

00:01:56but there are a lot of complicated reasons why.

00:01:59Don't get us wrong, as an individual,

00:02:01Shiv has plenty of flaws and isn't that likable.

00:02:04Rhea is right when she says,

00:02:06"'Shiv thinks she's smarter than she is.'"

00:02:08Having grown up rich with everything handed to her,

00:02:10but noticed she's at least smarter than her brothers,

00:02:14Shiv has developed an epic level of arrogance.

00:02:16She's impatient for rewards without working for them,

00:02:19thinks she knows things before developing expertise,

00:02:22and displays a dangerous combination of entitlement and inexperience.

00:02:26Yet a lot of the problem is also Shiv's reacting to

00:02:29and compounding her disadvantage.

00:02:31One lesson Shiv internalizes is that her achievements don't count.

00:02:35In Season 3, we see her pull off a huge win that saves the family

00:02:38from losing the company, but her dad again denies her the credit.

00:02:42Then, when Roman brings in the fascist presidential candidate,

00:02:45Jared Menken, Logan lavishes praise on his son.

00:02:48You did good this weekend, son.

00:02:51And there's a vicious cycle at play for Shiv.

00:02:53The more she feels she has to prove herself and doesn't get validation,

00:02:56the more she feels defensive, desperate to get recognition,

00:03:00rather than open to receiving the training and experience she actually needs.

00:03:04Roman COO, you have a toddler with a hard-on for chief operating officer,

00:03:08and I'm going through a management training program?

00:03:11Shiv then gets in her way in numerous work interactions,

00:03:14by overcompensating.

00:03:15Like many ambitious female precursors,

00:03:17going back to Lady Macbeth's doomed quest to unsex herself,

00:03:21she feels she has to act more like a tough guy with big energy

00:03:25than even the boys do.

00:03:26But this act doesn't get her respect from the men around her,

00:03:29who generally don't like the level of brash assertiveness

00:03:32from a female executive that they tolerate in a male one.

00:03:35Cow's not happy with your level of input.

00:03:38Oh, okay.

00:03:39Well, f*** him, right?

00:03:41I don't need another toothache.

00:03:43Logan tends to keep Shiv more behind the scenes than her brothers,

00:03:46and then, even when her father does put her in formal positions of power,

00:03:50like when he privately chooses her as his heir or installs her as president,

00:03:54it's not long before he undermines that by freezing her out,

00:03:57having secret interactions with her brothers about major business,

00:04:00not backing her up,

00:04:01or letting her know she's on thin ice if she ever makes an error.

00:04:05Well, you okayed me to go in there and kick some ass, and I barely-

00:04:08I gave you a destination.

00:04:12I can't walk you there, okay?

00:04:14This situation, repeated over and over,

00:04:16has made Shiv both resentful and deeply insecure.

00:04:19Initially, even Shiv herself doesn't really think becoming the CEO is a possibility,

00:04:24so she looks to her husband, Tom, to rise in the company.

00:04:27Like her siblings, she's been falsely empowered by her wealth,

00:04:30to view herself baselessly as above others, but because of her gender,

00:04:34she's been shamed by her father into a state where she views herself as below.

00:04:38As therapist Tammy Nelson told The Cut, Shiv's performance of confidence is, quote,

00:04:43based on sort of the internal hill of sand,

00:04:45because she's not confident about herself as a woman and as a worker.

00:04:49She looks to her father to feel confident,

00:04:51and when she does get moments to lead,

00:04:53she sometimes chokes, loses control, and makes a big gaffe.

00:04:56Sometimes I think you just need a good old-fashioned dinosaur cull.

00:05:00And who's the big T-Rex in your sights?

00:05:04Oh, I- no, I-

00:05:05Or fails to summon the confidence to meet challenges decisively.

00:05:09It's the sort of tough choice people need to be able to make.

00:05:14People who would be very senior people.

00:05:19I can't choose that.

00:05:21So if we look deeper, we can see how much Shiv and her flaws have been shaped

00:05:25and exacerbated by her culture's hostility toward her being a woman.

00:05:29In a work context, she's expected at various points to compensate for being a woman,

00:05:33act like she's not, use it, and sell her gender out in order to get ahead in this world.

00:05:38She's put at the forefront whenever there's a sensitive crisis involving women

00:05:42or progressive issues, culminating in her talking a sexual abuse victim

00:05:45out of testifying against her family.

00:05:47And of course, those favors where she has to disown her woman-ness aren't even remembered.

00:05:52So in order to prove to her family that her being a woman isn't an issue,

00:05:56she's not even allowed to truly be one.

00:05:58From childhood, Shiv felt the main female model in her family,

00:06:02her cruel mother, was grotesque.

00:06:04You were my onion.

00:06:08You are my onion.

00:06:09When her mother isn't physically absent, she's emotionally violent to Shiv.

00:06:13Truth is, I probably should never have had children.

00:06:17Shiv has inherited some of this, even while trying to reject her mother,

00:06:23and more consciously modeling herself on her narcissistic, bullying father.

00:06:28Ah yeah, we get it already. Stop moaning about the race.

00:06:31The toxic male behavior she's learned to ape from her dad and the company

00:06:35is taken to an extreme in her most intimate, personal relationship.

00:06:39She becomes a bully in her relationship with her husband Tom,

00:06:42making him into her punching bag, just as everyone in the Roy media empire

00:06:46falls somewhere on the abusive hierarchy, receiving pain from the higher-ups

00:06:50and passing it down.

00:06:51You're not good enough for me.

00:06:53No, I'm way out of your f***ing league.

00:06:54And because of the way Shiv has mistreated Tom

00:06:57and based their relationship on inequality,

00:06:59That's why you love me,

00:07:03even though I don't love you.

00:07:04he eventually feels justified betraying her to seize his own power.

00:07:08So overall, Shiv's toxicity is a realistic portrayal of the fact

00:07:12that when people are excluded due to gender, race, or other factors,

00:07:16this doesn't necessarily prove the adage that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

00:07:21Instead, adversity can provoke unhealthy coping habits

00:07:24that aren't beneficial in the long run.

00:07:28Shiv's an extreme version of the self-serving girl boss type,

00:07:31who trades on her gender when it helps her,

00:07:34but happily screws over other women for personal profit.

00:07:37But a trademark of the girl boss is secret hypocrisy,

00:07:40and Shiv is pretty open about her cynical self-centeredness.

00:07:44Deep down she's status and money obsessed, like you.

00:07:48One of the conflicts in Shiv's life is trying to decide

00:07:51whether to not be a terrible person,

00:07:53or just double down and embrace it.

00:07:55When the series begins, she's working for progressive,

00:07:57Bernie Sanders-esque presidential candidate Gil Evis,

00:08:01and she talks like she maybe wants to do something good for the world,

00:08:04as long as there's enough in it for her.

00:08:06Yet her pretenses of having morals falls away

00:08:09when she gets a shot at running her father's company.

00:08:12Shiv's conflict between her two sides plays out in the first season

00:08:15through her affair with Nate,

00:08:16who describes himself as an exciting bastard

00:08:19in comparison to her nice fiancé, Tom.

00:08:22Yeah, Tom, he's a great guy.

00:08:23Sure. Great guy, with the square head.

00:08:26Should be with an exciting bastard like me.

00:08:28These two men represent the two disjointed sides of Shiv.

00:08:32On one hand is her arrogance.

00:08:33She views herself as the exciting bastard,

00:08:36someone who's mean yet better than everyone else.

00:08:38But on the other hand is her insecurity.

00:08:40She likes that Tom feels like a safe partner

00:08:43who will worship and never leave her,

00:08:45because she has a buried sense of inferiority.

00:08:47Shiv flip-flops between these selves.

00:08:49She frequently laments that she's not a nice or good person.

00:08:52You should be good people.

00:08:56I know.

00:08:57Wouldn't it be nice to just wake up in the morning

00:09:00and not feel like a f***ing piece of s***?

00:09:03But mostly comforts herself,

00:09:04she's at least marginally more ethical than the rest of her family,

00:09:08while not really behaving differently from them.

00:09:10You tell yourself you're a good person.

00:09:14But you're not a good person.

00:09:16In the end, neither of Shiv's opposing self-images is really true.

00:09:19Her affair with Nate doesn't end up being that exciting,

00:09:22and in the end, her nice husband Tom

00:09:24turns out to be not as nice or safe as she thought

00:09:27after he sells her out in Season 3.

00:09:29Her conception of herself as an ultra-talented bastard

00:09:32is likewise proven false.

00:09:34She makes a fair number of mistakes

00:09:35when actually given a shot in the business,

00:09:37and interestingly, in Season 3,

00:09:39she surprises herself when she draws a line

00:09:41at helping a fascist presidential candidate.

00:09:43So it turns out she kind of does have a few principles after all.

00:09:46Mencken is an integralist, nativist f***head.

00:09:50He is toxic.

00:09:51More centrally, in her reconciliation with her brothers

00:09:53in the Season 3 finale,

00:09:55we also see the beginnings of a desire

00:09:57to openly communicate emotions in a positive sense.

00:10:00This is something Shiv is historically terrible at.

00:10:02Her wedding speech is a cringey showcase

00:10:05of how hard it is for her to actually show emotion,

00:10:07and she chooses her wedding night to tell her husband

00:10:10she wants an open relationship.

00:10:11We have a plan, but in terms of the relationship,

00:10:13I'm just wondering if there's an opportunity for something different

00:10:16from the whole fox-set death march.

00:10:19When she discusses having children with him,

00:10:21she's not only terribly unromantic about it

00:10:24Did you mean it about the baby?

00:10:25Yeah, we should freeze at least.

00:10:26But also, Audley jumps to discussing divorce and comas.

00:10:30It's different if one of us dies or is in a long-term coma.

00:10:32You know, I don't just automatically get them if we divorce,

00:10:35or something like that, if that's the thing that concerns you.

00:10:38And she repeatedly tells Tom she doesn't love him,

00:10:41but in ways that makes us wonder if she almost does,

00:10:44or would, if she could love anyone that way.

00:10:47You know, Tom, I may not love you, but I do love you.

00:10:52So it's a big step in the season finale,

00:10:54when she awkwardly tries to participate in

00:10:56unsarcastically being there for a suffering Kendall.

00:10:59Hey, buddy.

00:11:01Hey, you okay?

00:11:04It's okay.

00:11:05And an even bigger one, when she suggests the siblings

00:11:08start saying the tough things out loud to each other.

00:11:11You know dad is never gonna choose you,

00:11:13because he thinks there's something wrong with you.

00:11:16And I'm sorry, but maybe it's time that we said these things to each other.

00:11:19As the siblings try for the first time to truly band together into season four,

00:11:23not creating a binary between niceness and ambition could be Shiv's only chance

00:11:27to transcend her self-destructive pattern of being both hyper arrogant and hyper insecure.

00:11:33Her road to becoming a more mature and actually more successful adult may be tapping into that nice

00:11:39side of her, but not as a compromise or a settling the way she's always seen it.

00:11:44She just needs to have some equal human relationships, which can be both loving and honest.

00:11:49Shiv has to learn not to base her self-esteem on the approval of her father,

00:11:53the ultimate patriarchal figure who will never be able to see her separate from the minus of her

00:11:58being a woman. She can't help how her world sees her gender, but she can potentially learn to stop

00:12:04making the woman thing become an extra problem to herself. Roman Roy is an exhibitionist, and not

00:12:10just when he's giving New York City a view from his office, he's an emotional exhibitionist,

00:12:14wanting people to see and acknowledge how screwed up he and his family are.

00:12:18Your family?

00:12:19He used to lock me in a cage.

00:12:20What the f**k?

00:12:21No, that's a true story.

00:12:23It's this predilection that leads to the Succession fan-favorite game,

00:12:26in which Jerry tells Roman how sick he is, and Roman listens attentively.

00:12:32You are a revolting little worm, aren't you?

00:12:34But Roman's kinkiness doesn't just make him a memorable treat of a character,

00:12:38his particular perversities outline the Roy family's psychological pitfalls.

00:12:42His absent mother, Caroline, shaped his masochistic personality.

00:12:46Cold and inhospitable. Seems to check out.

00:12:48His father, Logan's abusive parenting resulted in Roman's arrested development,

00:12:52stuck in his childhood trauma and never maturing.

00:12:55You stole my idea.

00:12:56You stole my idea! What are you f**king six?!

00:12:58And more broadly for the Roy's, sex revolves around power plays.

00:13:02Go on. Mistress.

00:13:05Business power plays use the language of sex, and love is associated with humiliation and pain.

00:13:10Initially written as a bratty, congenitally sadistic King Joffrey type.

00:13:14Can you hit a ball?

00:13:15Yeah.

00:13:16Great, because I will give you one million dollars if you hit a home run.

00:13:19Over Succession's first season, Roman's character unfolds into the filthy-minded,

00:13:23sad clown of corporate America we love today.

00:13:26A court jester-type character, he's more aware of how the family looks to outsiders than the rest,

00:13:31becoming a running commentary on Roy family pathology.

00:13:34You know Waystar? Waystar Royco? We do hate speech and roller coasters.

00:13:38We don't usually get insight into the jester character's feelings,

00:13:41but with Roman, we see where his pain comes from,

00:13:44what makes him compulsively crack jokes.

00:13:46And the season 3 finale gives us hope that he just might be able to escape his father's

00:13:50influence and find a way to become a separate, more whole human being.

00:13:55Here's our take on Roman Roy, and how the way out of his trauma is going through it,

00:13:59again and again and again.

00:14:01You need an intervention.

00:14:02Yeah, totally. Yeah, yeah.

00:14:10It's safe to say there's something wrong with Roman, although no one is sure what exactly.

00:14:14The f*** is wrong with you?

00:14:16I don't know.

00:14:17To be fair, there's something wrong with all the Roys.

00:14:19They're a family of pathologically narcissistic and deeply damaged individuals,

00:14:23with personalities warped by cruelty and obscene wealth.

00:14:26But the surface-level explanation for Roman's particular weirdness are his mommy issues.

00:14:31Poor Roman!

00:14:32And his dreams of porking mom, slipping through his little lubed up fingers.

00:14:36Mommy issues can be defined as an umbrella colloquialism for a number of ways an unhealthy

00:14:41relationship between mother and child can affect the child's personality and attachment style.

00:14:45In the case of Roman and his mother Caroline Collingwood, she was a cold and absent mom.

00:14:50We were just...

00:14:53an absence.

00:14:54Caroline is a textbook narcissist, turning any criticism her kids have back on them and making

00:14:59herself the victim.

00:15:00I was 10, mom.

00:15:02I was a f***ing kid.

00:15:04You were 13.

00:15:06And you knew how to twist the knife.

00:15:08Since the mother is usually the initial caregiver,

00:15:10this relationship lays the foundation for a child's ability to trust and bond with others,

00:15:14including later sexual partners.

00:15:16When a mother's unloving, withholding, or even derisive like Caroline,

00:15:20I should've had dogs.

00:15:22Children may believe the problem isn't with their mother, but them.

00:15:25That the reason the mother rejects them is that they are fundamentally

00:15:28unlovable, disgusting even.

00:15:29Roman, as the youngest boy in the family and recipient of emotional abuse from both his parents

00:15:34and his elder siblings, has grown up feeling love and mistreatment to be inseparable.

00:15:38Don't threaten me, Jerry.

00:15:40I don't have time to f*** off.

00:15:42Adult Roman has grown into a classic exhibitionist.

00:15:44Can I suggest we all take our shirts off?

00:15:46Someone who wants people to pay attention to him and to be disgusted when they do,

00:15:50because he sees himself as repulsive and because that's what connection felt like in his childhood.

00:15:55Can. Make him put his shirt on.

00:15:57Roman constantly makes perverted jokes.

00:15:59We need to control the narrative.

00:16:01Control the narrative. You probably yell that when you f***.

00:16:03Oh, control the narrative. Oh, control it.

00:16:06Control the narrative. Oh.

00:16:08Meanwhile, there's a disconnect between Roman's sex talk

00:16:11and his ability to connect with romantic partners.

00:16:14We learn early on that Roman doesn't have much sex.

00:16:16You love showing your peepee to everyone,

00:16:18but someday, you know, you're actually gonna have to f*** something.

00:16:20When Roman tries to sleep with his girlfriend, Tabitha,

00:16:23he suggests she play dead because he needs the sex to be taboo or wrong in some way.

00:16:28Do you think there's a way that we can, like,

00:16:33make it kind of, like, wrong?

00:16:36And while Tabitha is uncomfortable with Roman's desires,

00:16:38he eventually finds acceptance of his attachment style

00:16:41in Waystar Royco's legal counsel-slash-fixer, Jerry.

00:16:45Succession is full of Oedipal references,

00:16:47and a lot of the jokes are about Roman wanting to sleep with his mom.

00:16:50How romantic would it be?

00:16:51Imagine that, if you could marry Mommy on her wedding day.

00:16:54The show links this to Roman's attraction to older women,

00:16:57like his father's wife, Marsha.

00:16:59Did I say that I was going to f*** Marsha?

00:17:01No. Although I definitely would, because she's hot.

00:17:05And especially to Jerry, who feels like the closest thing

00:17:08the Roys have to a semi-maternal figure.

00:17:10Jerry's and Roman's building attraction culminates in special conference call scenes,

00:17:14where Roman enjoys being humiliated by Jerry.

00:17:17You have a problem, Roman. A revolting problem in your head.

00:17:22This is why there will never be anything but a disgrace.

00:17:24So what exactly makes this union sort of work?

00:17:31Fans and critics agree the Jerry-Roman liaison is genuinely hot.

00:17:35So apart from the glaring dearth of older woman-younger man pairings on TV,

00:17:39what makes Jerry and Roman so compelling?

00:17:41The first factor is the natural chemistry between the actors playing the duo,

00:17:44Kieran Culkin and J. Smith Cameron.

00:17:46And look at this behind me. Look at it. I can smell you.

00:17:50You think you could sneak up on me with that perfume?

00:17:53The Jerry-Roman flirtation originated from the two actors goofing off on set.

00:17:57Kieran Culkin explained how their chemistry ended up written into the script.

00:18:00I said something really like gross sexual to Jerry and she like rolled her eyes.

00:18:04He saw that in the end and he was like, oh, these guys, okay, there's a thing here.

00:18:09The second factor that makes their relationship interesting is the age gap.

00:18:12The older woman-younger man relationship is a rarity on screen and in life,

00:18:16while the reverse is omnipresent.

00:18:18Logan, Roman's father, is so disgusted by Roman's sexual attraction to Jerry that when he discovers it,

00:18:23this is the moment that essentially changes his mind about his plan to anoint Roman as his heir.

00:18:28She's a million years old. It's f***ing disgusting.

00:18:32Of course, Logan himself is engaged in an affair with a far larger age gap.

00:18:36Clearly f***ing.

00:18:39Don't carry? Please.

00:18:40Showing memes to a young menial? Tale as old as time.

00:18:43But to Logan, dating a younger woman reinforces the status and power of dominant man,

00:18:48while dating a woman much older indicates the opposite,

00:18:51a desire to be dominated and a weakness or perversity.

00:18:54So what is it, son?

00:18:55Are you scared of p***y?

00:18:58Logan's views aren't that far off from our general culture's attitudes.

00:19:02When we do see older woman-younger man couplings on screen,

00:19:05they tend to follow the cougar trope.

00:19:07So where's your little date tonight?

00:19:09Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me.

00:19:13And the hypersexual cougar is treated as a one-dimensional fantasy or a punchline.

00:19:18Roman and Jerry's dalliance is humorous,

00:19:20but not at the expense of her age or his desperation.

00:19:23The key to the attraction for Roman is Jerry's personal qualities,

00:19:26that are partly acquired through years of experience.

00:19:29I've always thought of you, and I mean this in the best possible way,

00:19:33as a stone-cold killer b***h.

00:19:36Who says she don't know how to flirt?

00:19:38Jerry has the assertiveness and the motherliness Roman yearns for.

00:19:42Plus, she understands and knows how to satisfy Roman's needs.

00:19:46The Jerry-Roman relationship is satisfying to watch because it becomes therapeutic.

00:19:50Having his taboo desires met in a safe space seems to make Roman more confident

00:19:54and more ready to take on responsibility maturely at work, too.

00:19:58Finally, factor three in their relationship, the power dynamic.

00:20:02You're acting like an overexcited little boy.

00:20:04You know, technically, I'm your f***ing boss.

00:20:06It's rare to see convincing, nuanced sexual power exchanges on screen,

00:20:10and Succession dramatizes just how messy this one is.

00:20:14Roman is aggressively pursuing a woman whose career depends on his family's employment,

00:20:18and in the process, he's crossing all kinds of boundaries,

00:20:21like trying to send her d*** pics during a meeting.

00:20:23On the other hand, Jerry is confident and experienced.

00:20:26She knows how to keep him in line.

00:20:27The thing is, I'm dating, I am dating, and that needs to be understood.

00:20:31Yeah, okay, I get it, yeah, yeah.

00:20:33And also, he wants her to humiliate him.

00:20:36So as inappropriate as it all gets, and what doesn't on Succession,

00:20:39there is a general feeling of equality in their relationship.

00:20:43But lest any of us started to get too warm and fuzzy about this romance,

00:20:46the season three finale destroys all the personal growth

00:20:49we've been seeing happen via their dynamic.

00:20:51In the moment of Roman's greatest need,

00:20:53in the same scene where he's just been screwed over by his father

00:20:56and his biological mother,

00:20:57he turns to his other maternal presence, Jerry, for help,

00:21:00and she reveals that her first priority is professional self-preservation.

00:21:04You can help us, right? You can help us stop him.

00:21:06But it doesn't serve my interests.

00:21:08How does it serve my interests?

00:21:10On one level, the line clarifies that all along,

00:21:13Jerry was trying to keep their relationship professional

00:21:15and mutually advantageous,

00:21:17and to instruct Roman as much as she could in business.

00:21:20Yet the result is, once again,

00:21:22Roman has misguidedly sought solace and understanding

00:21:24in a mother figure who turned out to be cold, selfish,

00:21:27and destined to reject him.

00:21:32There's a saying that everything in human life is really about sex,

00:21:35except sex. Sex is about power.

00:21:38In Succession, business negotiations are described in sexual terms.

00:21:41Are you guys trying to f*** me here?

00:21:43Is she gonna f*** us?

00:21:45I hear you're bent for him, and he f***ed you.

00:21:48This creates a strange effect where the trash talk ends up sounding like dirty talk,

00:21:53and the Roys' constant business talk means they're often describing being sexually dominated

00:21:57by family members.

00:21:58I just walked in on mom and dad f***ing us.

00:22:01While it seems that sexual abuse hasn't literally taken place in this family,

00:22:04emotional abuse has been the norm, and that's what all this language points to.

00:22:08Fundamentally, a denial of personhood, an assault on personal boundaries.

00:22:12He's like a sex robot for dad to f***.

00:22:14He's like an old beaten dog.

00:22:16The sexual trash talk also communicates the pure obscenity of wealth.

00:22:20There is something dirty about being as rich as the Roys are.

00:22:23There's a reason we call it being filthy rich,

00:22:25and the Roys' perverse, cruel, animalistic language reminds us

00:22:29just how distorted their moneyed world is.

00:22:31She can't hack the hate.

00:22:34Well, she can f*** off and enjoy her lily-white chicken-flesh concerts

00:22:39working for a f***ing phone company.

00:22:41Actual Sex and Succession, meanwhile, is rarely about just sex or love,

00:22:46but more often, an instrument of power.

00:22:48For Logan, love is synonymous with domination.

00:22:51Love. Fear. Whatever.

00:22:53And the kids learn their father's lesson.

00:22:56Offering love to someone is an invitation for them to hurt you.

00:22:59That's why we routinely see the siblings mistrust each other's declarations of love.

00:23:03I love you.

00:23:07Oh, you're such a f***ing b***h.

00:23:09We love you.

00:23:10What is this? What's the angle?

00:23:12Of the four siblings, Roman is the one most overtly seeking love.

00:23:15He cares about his parents and says so.

00:23:17So, uh, uh, yeah.

00:23:19Love you, Dad.

00:23:19Uh-huh.

00:23:20Bye.

00:23:23Roman's out.

00:23:24But in the Roy family, wanting love equals being a masochist,

00:23:28inviting people to take advantage of you.

00:23:29Logan actually makes fun of Roman for showing love towards him.

00:23:32I have to dissect that.

00:23:34Oh, my daddy.

00:23:39I never figured you for a f***er.

00:23:40No.

00:23:41Caroline succinctly describes Logan's approach to love.

00:23:44Well, you could have had dogs.

00:23:46No, not with your father.

00:23:47He never saw anything he loved that he didn't want to kick it,

00:23:50just to see if it would still come back.

00:23:52And Roman is that beaten but still loving animal.

00:23:55Logan literally hits him.

00:23:56Don't f*** with me!

00:23:58Hey!

00:23:59Connor says,

00:24:00You are one sick puppy.

00:24:01And Jerry reinforces the image.

00:24:03You little slime puppy.

00:24:05You are a sick f***ing animal.

00:24:07But still wanting love and wanting to put love first

00:24:10is what gives Roman the potential to be more than just his father's miserable pet.

00:24:14Guess I finally broke out of the cage.

00:24:18Can't keep a good dog down, right, Ken?

00:24:20I'm going to grow up and become a real little boy and learn the price of an egg

00:24:27and do phone sex with my girlfriend like a normo.

00:24:30For all the Roy's money, therapy, and rehabs,

00:24:32they're stuck in their family's past trauma and remain under their father's thumb.

00:24:36Their arrested development comes out in their childish behavior.

00:24:39F*** you, man.

00:24:40Stop!

00:24:41Ah!

00:24:41Stop!

00:24:42Wait!

00:24:42Stop it!

00:24:43Stop it!

00:24:44The constant sense that they're kids pretending to play important grown-ups.

00:24:48Do you want to call your dad?

00:24:51Do I want to call my dad?

00:24:52The number of scenes that take place in childish settings

00:24:55and the many references to children's books and games.

00:24:58What's he doing?

00:24:59Is he playing with his f***ing Legos?

00:25:01You're playing toy f***ing soldiers!

00:25:03Fundamentally, the Roy's are still trapped in childhood

00:25:06because they're still fighting for that scarcest of resources, their father's love.

00:25:10Your friend doesn't like you, boo-hoo, boo-hoo.

00:25:13Dad wants to fire you, woo-hoo, boo-hoo.

00:25:16Succession's plot is built around, well, succession.

00:25:19The question of who will fill Logan's shoes at the company.

00:25:22But emotionally, the show is about a different kind of inheritance.

00:25:25The trauma and abuse the siblings get from their parents,

00:25:27who probably inherited it from their own parents

00:25:30and which the siblings will probably hand down.

00:25:32My guy says that if dad had had therapy, I wouldn't need so much.

00:25:35My guy's surprised I got through it at all.

00:25:36I'm not sure you did make it through at all.

00:25:39So by season three, it becomes clear that what matters isn't who becomes CEO,

00:25:43but rather who can evade being the successor to the Roy's parents' pathology.

00:25:47In the season, Roman is, for a time, kind of groomed to be CEO by his dad.

00:25:52And we start to see how Roman could potentially gloss over his performative weirdness and be

00:25:56accepted as the typical asshole CEO in his father's vein.

00:26:00He even puts himself so deeply into the role of uncaring rich asshole boss

00:26:04that he supports a neo-Nazi presidential candidate.

00:26:06Stopping a dirty little pixie and whispering swastikas in dad's ear.

00:26:09Then, as we saw, the lewd text meant for Jerry reignites his dad's fears

00:26:14that Roman is just too weird and impulsive.

00:26:16In the finale, Logan again seems to offer this lifeline to Roman to make himself in Logan's model.

00:26:21If you need to get straightened out, get straightened out.

00:26:25But a little later in the episode, a shift occurs.

00:26:27The siblings' strategy meeting in an empty lot during their mother's wedding

00:26:30turns into an emotional conversation.

00:26:33Leave me here with all the feelings, thank you.

00:26:35And an actual display of affection and support for each other.

00:26:38Can I be with you guys?

00:26:40Yes.

00:26:40Okay.

00:26:42When they head to confront Logan, they're a united front for once,

00:26:45and it's a great personal moment for Roman that he backs his siblings

00:26:48instead of caving to his dad, even though it ends up screwing him over in that situation.

00:26:52Can you take him out, Romulus?

00:26:55I don't trust him.

00:26:57It just might be better, you know, if we all here.

00:27:01The fact that Roman is able to stand up to his father

00:27:03when supported emotionally by his siblings

00:27:05shows that his seeking love is his strength as a person,

00:27:08even though it's a weakness in this world.

00:27:10So this is the best evidence yet that Roman could actually grow.

00:27:13What have you got in your hand?

00:27:15What have I got?

00:27:18I don't know, f***ing love?

00:27:21The great irony of many stories about the rich is that people who have

00:27:25everything in the world still lack something as elementary as love.

00:27:28It's when the Roys engage with common human experiences

00:27:31like sex and love and family that we see how tragic they really are.

00:27:35Just wanted to let you know mommy still doesn't love you.

00:27:37Bye Ken, bye.

00:27:38And it's through Roman, who wears his heart and his pathologies on his sleeve,

00:27:42that we can understand and empathize with their twistedness.

00:27:45Roman's relationship with Jerry is its own kind of fantasy,

00:27:48and while the reality slam at the end of season three

00:27:51is a reenactment of his dysfunctional mothering,

00:27:53it was after he asked for help and stood up to his dad.

00:27:56I do think that we puke could make a pretty good team.

00:28:03So if he can continue to seek out love in whatever form that takes for him,

00:28:07Roman just maybe still has a chance of escaping his childhood.

00:28:11The final season of Succession is the ultimate test for Kendall Roy.

00:28:15Now that his father is finally out of the picture,

00:28:17can he become the killer his father doubted he could be?

00:28:20Is the bro-y tribute band actually stone-hearted and smart enough to pull it off?

00:28:25We're death wrestling with ogres.

00:28:26Bah. You're reading documents.

00:28:28Much of Succession so far has been the story of Kendall repeatedly attempting

00:28:32to metaphorically kill his father in business,

00:28:35only to fail spectacularly, get pulled back into his dad's orbit,

00:28:38and sink back into a depressive state and his pattern of substance abuse.

00:28:42So after all these failures, it seemed like the initial frontrunner

00:28:45was pretty much out of the running to inherit the Waystar Roy Co.

00:28:49top job and replace Logan Roy.

00:28:51It ain't gonna be me.

00:28:53Yet something fundamental has changed in Kendall this season.

00:28:56He's no longer giving himself away,

00:28:59and when everyone expects him to blow it as usual,

00:29:01he's shocking them all by holding it together.

00:29:06General buzzes.

00:29:08What? How is it?

00:29:09Really good.

00:29:10So is Kendall the new king?

00:29:12Long live the king!

00:29:13Or, when actor Jeremy Strong tells Vulture this is the closest

00:29:17the character has flown to the sun, does that mean a fall is still coming?

00:29:21Let's look at what's going on with Kendall,

00:29:23and whether he has the most important quality it will take to win in Succession.

00:29:27On-screen bros are usually one-dimensional villains,

00:29:33or laughingstocks, beloved heroes of a frat-boy antics movie,

00:29:37or else they're proven to have hidden depth.

00:29:40But we never really see a bro on-screen like Kendall Roy,

00:29:43the billionaire bro, wannabe tech bro, and striving to be woke bro,

00:29:49who desperately wants to be more, yet remains a total bro.

00:29:53I'd like my Twitter to be off the hook.

00:29:54This could all get super earnest, so I was thinking of hitting up some Bojack guys,

00:29:58just to smash that shit, make my feet a little powder keg people need to check in with.

00:30:02A lot of who Kendall really is comes through in his language,

00:30:05while he thinks of himself as this sensitive, expansive soul,

00:30:08and peppers his discourse with a wide range of illusions.

00:30:11End times.

00:30:12Right.

00:30:13Weimar meets Carthage meets Dante meets AI,

00:30:16and antibiotic-resistant superbugs.

00:30:19Most of his speech is just cheesy.

00:30:21I think Volta is the shiz.

00:30:24We're the shiz?

00:30:25And the content is empty.

00:30:27The vision, he outlines to his siblings in season three,

00:30:30is the ultimate jargon-filled disruptor tech nonsense, lacking all substance.

00:30:35We can become omninational and reposition.

00:30:38Information is going to be more precious than water in the next hundred.

00:30:41Detoxify our brand, and we can go supersonic.

00:30:44Mixed with the corny tech gibberish, he talks in the profanity-ridden,

00:30:48dick-measuring, corporate raider style that's trying to ape his dad.

00:30:52So, we ready to f*** who up?

00:30:55I hear you bent for him.

00:30:56While he reveals himself in this speech style,

00:30:59perhaps Kendall's biggest weakness comes through

00:31:01in how he's pathologically incapable of listening.

00:31:04He's obsessed with hiring the best people,

00:31:07but interrupts every time they say a word.

00:31:09That's just an offer on the f*** off, Tom?

00:31:11In pitch meetings or negotiations,

00:31:13he rushes in to get whatever he wants to say out,

00:31:16coming across as obnoxious or making obvious gaffes.

00:31:19So?

00:31:19That's okay.

00:31:20I don't need to hear the pitch.

00:31:21I've been through the deck, and I get it.

00:31:23With no self-awareness of how he's being received

00:31:26or what other people think,

00:31:27it's a known fact that many powerful people in business,

00:31:30like Logan, tend to speak less,

00:31:32leave pauses before letting others know what they're thinking,

00:31:35and impose their authority by not revealing themselves.

00:31:38But it feels like Kendall is always cutting people off,

00:31:40because he's afraid he'll lose the great point he's about to make.

00:31:44The first time we meet him,

00:31:45he's pumping himself up to play the part

00:31:47of the successful businessman with music.

00:31:49But when we cut out to watch him

00:31:50without hearing the music in his headphones,

00:31:52the effect is ridiculous.

00:31:54Brownstones, water towers, trees, skyscrapers!

00:31:56He's always continuing this pumping himself up act,

00:32:00always feeling on the verge of some great move

00:32:02that he won't quite pull off when the moment comes.

00:32:05Relentlessly positive sounding,

00:32:06even when obvious downs need to be acknowledged.

00:32:09It's not a big deal. It's an opportunity.

00:32:11We just, you know, flip a big name, boom, it's all good.

00:32:14Totally.

00:32:15It's all good.

00:32:16So his upbeat energy is tense, hollow,

00:32:18and reveals a fundamental lack of faith in himself.

00:32:21And because he's so fixated on the Kendall performance,

00:32:24he loses the opportunities to focus on what others want,

00:32:27like when he could have gotten his siblings to follow him

00:32:29in season three by playing to their motives.

00:32:32After all this being so well-established about Kendall,

00:32:34what's striking in season four is that we're finally starting

00:32:38to see him do what seemed impossible for him,

00:32:41keep things to himself, have secrets, not show his hand,

00:32:44and successfully play others.

00:32:46In season four, episode four, we see this new era of Kendall begin

00:32:50when he blackmails Hugo to go behind his siblings' back

00:32:53and spread dirt on their dad.

00:32:55Then in episode five, Kendall lets Roman lose it with Lucas Madsen

00:32:59and potentially make himself vulnerable.

00:33:01We're not selling to you, okay?

00:33:02We're not doing that.

00:33:03You just f***ed yourself.

00:33:04Whereas the old Kendall wouldn't have been able to hold himself back

00:33:07from swooping in there.

00:33:09In episode six, as the Roys gear up for a new product launch

00:33:12and the Roy brothers try to tank the Madsen deal,

00:33:14people are viewing both brothers as out of their depth, weak,

00:33:18and not worthy of the respect given their father.

00:33:20You are a weak monarch in a dangerous interregnum.

00:33:23You don't treat me with sufficient respect.

00:33:26And if you f*** up his deal, or you try to stand up numbers

00:33:30that I am not comfortable with, I swear to God, easy.

00:33:34And Rome does regress and self-destruct under the pressure,

00:33:37firing not one but two incredibly senior and competent women

00:33:41in an impulsive display of extreme pettiness,

00:33:44then choking before the presentation and letting Kendall get all the kudos

00:33:48when it actually goes well.

00:33:49Meanwhile, everyone is looking at Kendall to likewise repeat

00:33:52his usual pattern of extreme grandiosity,

00:33:55followed by a crash.

00:33:57You think it's nuts?

00:33:58No, no, I mean, you know, I mean,

00:34:00pitching f***ing playhouses and living forever

00:34:03and then doubling up the f***ing numbers.

00:34:05He's characteristically spouting all the bro-y jargon nonsense,

00:34:09Just break the logjam.

00:34:10Get the franchise pump-pumpin.

00:34:12Pump it up.

00:34:12Yeah, f*** yeah.

00:34:13getting carried away with extravagant dramatic gestures,

00:34:16Could we build me a living plus house?

00:34:18Maybe clouds appear above the house?

00:34:20and pushing the business projection numbers

00:34:22to an ethically treacherous place,

00:34:24Numbers get crazy good.

00:34:26Yeah, okay.

00:34:28But while Roman snaps and responds to his authority

00:34:31being challenged by becoming the petulant boy-man,

00:34:34Kendall surprisingly holds himself together.

00:34:36When Karl tries to put Kendall in his place,

00:34:38Kendall just smiles,

00:34:39sticks to his plan,

00:34:40and controls the situation to suit himself.

00:34:43Detailed financials I will leave to Karl Mueller,

00:34:46a legendary CFO.

00:34:48There he is.

00:34:49Round of applause.

00:34:50What happens next is very illuminating,

00:34:52and reveals some key things about what it actually takes

00:34:55to succeed in this kind of position.

00:34:57It's not actually about whether the numbers are true,

00:34:59I think we can make the argument.

00:35:00We can make the argument.

00:35:01Or about whether the leader is being smart,

00:35:04and certainly not sensible.

00:35:05Instead, in this moment, it's about going big,

00:35:08because only a huge play could stop the Gojo deal from going through.

00:35:11As Kendall tells Roman,

00:35:12It's numbers.

00:35:13It's time.

00:35:14It's big swing time.

00:35:15A key thing that characters like Lucas Madsen also demonstrate to us

00:35:18is that this elite stratosphere of success isn't primarily about

00:35:22any kind of business genius.

00:35:24It's much more about cold-blooded ruthlessness,

00:35:26a certain instinct for battle,

00:35:28and a flair for drama.

00:35:30He's a genius.

00:35:31Nobody minds a genius acting weird.

00:35:33Honestly, it probably kind of adds to the mystique.

00:35:36His reputation is priced in.

00:35:38Shiv pointed out the same thing about Logan.

00:35:40It wasn't that he was actually always right about business,

00:35:43but he made everyone believe in his legend.

00:35:46So Kendall's problem all along hasn't necessarily been

00:35:49his grandiosity dreaming too big,

00:35:51but that, until now, he's failed to convince people,

00:35:54in large part because he didn't believe his own act himself.

00:35:57Actor Jeremy Strong told GQ that creator Jesse Armstrong

00:36:00told him to think of Shakespeare's Richard III.

00:36:03And we're already seeing Kendall channel that play's two-faced

00:36:06protagonist who plots his way to the crown

00:36:09by betraying and exploiting everyone in his way.

00:36:12Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous.

00:36:16Season four Kendall is screwing over anyone he needs to,

00:36:19and crucially appearing however he has to in order to manipulate

00:36:23and coerce others to obey his will.

00:36:25A huge step for this person who in the past was incapable

00:36:28of hiding anything, and in episode six,

00:36:30while Kendall clearly is hurt when his brother abandons him,

00:36:33on some level during this period he could be intentionally

00:36:36giving Roman the space to self-destruct.

00:36:38After all, at the end, Kendall sends Roman this text

00:36:41confirming his brother's worst fears about himself.

00:36:44The Shakespearean vibes are especially strong in this season.

00:36:47Season four, episode five is made to feel like a modern update

00:36:50to a battle out of one of the history plays.

00:36:53And if this is truly Kendall's story,

00:36:55the most important Shakespeare comparison

00:36:57might be Henry IV part one and two,

00:36:59which follow a prince named Hal who gets scolded by his dad,

00:37:02Henry IV, for his princely privilege and for being a shadow of succession.

00:37:07This is exactly how Logan and everyone sees Kendall.

00:37:10You're a tribute band.

00:37:11But Prince Hal actually does mature into a successful and powerful king,

00:37:15Henry V, by becoming cold inside.

00:37:18Something has changed in Kendall that's suddenly giving him

00:37:21the self-assurance not to constantly give himself away.

00:37:24So what's caused this difference?

00:37:26Of course, the main thing that's changed is his father's absence.

00:37:30Let's look more closely at how that's changing everything about how Kendall is.

00:37:37Throughout the series, there have been two Kendalls vying to dominate.

00:37:41One is the dynamic, cool, woke visionary Kendall wants to be,

00:37:45the one who disrupts the status quo, keeps trying to kill his dad,

00:37:49and insists he's a good person.

00:37:51But after the season two finale gave Kendall his amazing hero moment,

00:37:55season three was careful in the aftermath

00:37:57not to let Kendall actually be the hero that he thinks he is

00:38:01for taking down his dad.

00:38:03Instead, it situates his business plays in childish settings

00:38:06like his daughter's bedroom and his birthday party

00:38:08recreation of his childhood treehouse to underline that

00:38:11even when he gets the chance to shine and do something great,

00:38:15the image of Kendall that's always coming through

00:38:17is still that of that little kid dressing up, trying to prove he can wear daddy's shoes.

00:38:22More importantly, that's how he feels to himself,

00:38:25and because of that, Kendall can't ever really convince anyone else

00:38:28that he's more than just a bro-y rich kid playing pretend.

00:38:31The Canadians, there seem to be a little static on some details.

00:38:35Like what?

00:38:36Like...USCEO.

00:38:40Whenever he rebels, the cool people who hate his father

00:38:43that he tries to win over detest him too.

00:38:45Anna Pussy has ghosted my ass.

00:38:48Benedict had Arnold. Paranoid Kendall.

00:38:51In part because he hasn't earned any of his success,

00:38:54so he's operating on a level that's disproportionate to his actual skills,

00:38:58and in part because they intuit Kendall's rebellion against his father is fragile.

00:39:03I'm not a Roy, okay? Not really.

00:39:06It senses you're a coked up prick who can't shit straight.

00:39:09Something they're proven right about repeatedly.

00:39:11You have 15 minutes to gather your belongings and exit the building.

00:39:14Why?

00:39:15Because my dad told me to.

00:39:18Because your dad told you to?

00:39:20So if the first Kendall is the pretend hero,

00:39:22the second Kendall in the series is the wounded and broken child

00:39:26who just wants his daddy's love and feels like a nothing.

00:39:30This is the one who becomes his dad's hollow soldier,

00:39:33whom Logan is able to manipulate by making him feel weak.

00:39:36He's encapsulated by the recurring image we see of Kendall,

00:39:40a boy underwater.

00:39:41In every season premiere image of Kendall, he's submerged.

00:39:44In the penultimate episode of season three, he slips under and almost dies.

00:39:48And of course, the crisis of his character in season one

00:39:51is when he accidentally drowns a caterer boy at Shiv's wedding after driving high.

00:39:56This symbolism of a boy who can't lift himself above water

00:39:59represents Kendall's problems with substance abuse,

00:40:02which is one of the most true-to-life risk factors for kids who grow up affluent.

00:40:06And in Kendall's case, there's a clear link between using

00:40:09and the inability to deal with all the pain that his father causes him.

00:40:13All the times we see him really going on benders connect to some way

00:40:17that his dad callously hurt him or forced him to do something really awful,

00:40:21like after his father makes him shudder Valter, his pet project.

00:40:24Kendall summons his inner dead-eyed soldier-like resolve to get it done,

00:40:28and then gets high out of his mind that night to not feel it.

00:40:32Or look at how Kendall pretends not to care when,

00:40:35at their fake therapy retreat, his dad says,

00:40:38You are a f***ing nobody.

00:40:40He's smiling, but very soon after, you can see how the comment hurt him.

00:40:44And again, he takes a drink.

00:40:46After Logan manages to leverage Kendall's guilt about the caterer boy

00:40:49to crush the rebellion of season one, season two's Kendall the Robot

00:40:53is a direct result of Kendall shutting off from his emotions

00:40:56because processing what he feels about the boy's death is too challenging.

00:41:00The broken robot version of Kendall is always about to crumble

00:41:03and utterly dependent on his dad.

00:41:05If dad didn't need me right now,

00:41:11I don't exactly know what I would be for.

00:41:14To the point that when Kendall becomes obsessed with a new fling,

00:41:17a mere facial expression from Logan is enough to instantly kill that attraction.

00:41:22She's in theater.

00:41:24Anyways, this is so awesome.

00:41:26Yes, it is.

00:41:28Logan likes Kendall weak, so he can control him.

00:41:31Though at the same time, he doesn't respect this Kendall who's his pawn,

00:41:34and we can see clearly how this Kendall results from his dad's abuse.

00:41:38In the penultimate episode of season three,

00:41:40Logan has his own grandchild sample his food just to underline how willing he is

00:41:45to let Kendall and Kendall's children die for him.

00:41:48When Kendall tries to assert,

00:41:50I'm better than you,

00:41:51Logan again brings up the boy and successfully makes Kendall feel that he's a nothing.

00:41:56So we see how Logan has been truly killing his son.

00:41:59Now that Logan's gone, that Kendall who couldn't rise above water might finally be too.

00:42:04At the end of season four, episode six,

00:42:06Kendall is at last floating in the water at peace.

00:42:09It's partially the success of the launch,

00:42:11and it's also that whether it's fiction or not, post his father's death,

00:42:15he's achieved his father's approval, at least within his own mind.

00:42:18The belief that his father wrote his name on that piece of paper

00:42:21and did want it to be Kendall has reactivated that drive in him.

00:42:25My dad wanted me to take over.

00:42:27After all, we see Kendall looking at that paper right before his scene with Hugo.

00:42:31Just before he gets into the ocean at the end of episode six,

00:42:34he writes a number one in the sand,

00:42:36seemingly a reference to being told he's his father's number one boy.

00:42:40So Kendall does seem to have finally convinced himself

00:42:43that his father loved and believed in him,

00:42:45even if it could be a deliberate act of self-delusion.

00:42:48In episode six, at the start,

00:42:49we see Kendall watching footage of Logan criticizing his children.

00:42:53You're as bad as my f***ing idiot kids.

00:42:55But by the end of the episode,

00:42:56Kendall has resurrected his father and even edited his father's words

00:43:00to create the Logan who showers benevolent love on his son.

00:43:04Thank you, Dad.

00:43:04With all this play-acting of his dad's fake ghost,

00:43:07Kendall has been weirdly freed from his actual dad's toxicity,

00:43:11and more than trying to please that person,

00:43:13Kendall is trying to become like his father.

00:43:15It's what he would do.

00:43:17He'd want this for the firm.

00:43:19We still see his siblings wondering what his father would want,

00:43:22whereas Kendall is paradoxically not worrying about what his dad would think.

00:43:26What do I think he would do?

00:43:27Yeah.

00:43:29I'd have exactly whatever the f*** he wanted.

00:43:31He's consciously trying to morph into the Cold King

00:43:34by doing whatever he wants.

00:43:36That's not to say his elated floating amidst the waves moment

00:43:39signals he's free from danger.

00:43:41Strong told Vulture that even in the aftermath of his dad's death,

00:43:45Kendall is still wrestling with these two identities

00:43:47of his superbeing and his wraith.

00:43:49The superbeing is what we see coming to the forefront here,

00:43:52but the wraith is waiting in the wings,

00:43:54hiding in plain sight at all times to pull him down.

00:43:57But while that grandiose superbeing is still strong in him,

00:44:00importantly, he's given up the hero Kendall delusions

00:44:04about trying to do good in the world.

00:44:06He hasn't the slightest moral objection to making up numbers

00:44:09that everyone else is pretty scared by,

00:44:10and manipulates video of his father to lie to shareholders.

00:44:14Hey, dude, it's enough to make you lose your faith in capitalism.

00:44:17Like, you could say anything.

00:44:19Strong and Vulture's Matt Zoller Seitz also discussed

00:44:22how Kendall emerging from the water after the caterer's death

00:44:25in season one could be his satanic rebirth.

00:44:28And ever since that moment, as Kendall has gradually accepted the boy's death,

00:44:32he's experienced a moral attrition.

00:44:34It's a process that Strong and the team have likened

00:44:37to Michael Corleone's spiritual corruption in The Godfather.

00:44:40So, from all this, we can infer there's a chance

00:44:42that Kendall's wraith will return,

00:44:44and he'll come crashing down from his close-to-the-sun moment.

00:44:48And there still remains the pesky question of whether

00:44:50Kendall is truly smart enough to pull all this off in a sustained way.

00:44:54The movie. And what about these f***ing press stories?

00:45:01Are you Scooby-Doing me here?

00:45:02Even though Kendall has risen to the occasion so far,

00:45:05it's still early days.

00:45:06Well, Ken and I have been doing a pretty good job

00:45:09in the last 24 hours.

00:45:11And if he is Richard III, in that play,

00:45:13the slimy hero doesn't last all that long as a king.

00:45:16Yet more central than this question of whether he'll keep the crown

00:45:19is the tragedy we're witnessing of what's happening to him inside this show

00:45:23that Strong says ultimately about family trauma

00:45:26and a satire of late-stage capitalism.

00:45:28As both of the false Kendalls, the pretend hero and the broken robot,

00:45:32finally fade away, we're seeing him at last integrate his selves

00:45:36into a new Kendall that was always waiting in the wings.

00:45:39The bro-y Logan Roy tribute band,

00:45:42who's at last getting his shot to rule the kingdom,

00:45:44channeling that Viking spirit to become a fierce Logan 2.0,

00:45:48and play some killer originals as well.

00:45:51At its core, Succession is really about bad parenting.

00:45:55As the Roy siblings attempt to grab at their deceased father's crown,

00:45:59they can't help reverting to their childhood selves,

00:46:02and they become victims of their own arrested development

00:46:05and undying family conflicts.

00:46:07The show's genius is in how it links the family tragedy to a societal one.

00:46:12The Roys are the kings of our modern era,

00:46:14responsible for many of the ills impacting our culture,

00:46:17and they're decidedly not us.

00:46:19Yet, they're brought down by the same petty BS

00:46:22that plagues so many of the unhappiest families we all know well.

00:46:26As Succession reached its conclusion,

00:46:28the show completed so many arcs that it set up at the very beginning,

00:46:32and sent some powerful messages.

00:46:34So where did Succession leave us, and what did it all mean?

00:46:39It's fitting that, after all the women of Succession have been through,

00:46:46it's Shiv who gets to make the final decision.

00:46:48Even if it's between what are for her, two pretty bad choices.

00:46:52Succession has leaned a lot into illuminating just how much this top corporate world screws

00:46:58over its women.

00:46:59From long-serving superstar Jerry getting fired by petty, petulant Roman,

00:47:04Maybe I'm firing you for a list of failures I choose not to outline right now.

00:47:07I am good at my job.

00:47:08Shall we get started on the paperwork?

00:47:09You wanna do it yourself, or do you want me to get somebody a bit sharper?

00:47:12To extremely competent Carolina having to put up with Hugo,

00:47:16to all that Logan's wives and girlfriends have suffered.

00:47:19Shiv voiced at the funeral that the culture that stemmed from Logan

00:47:22didn't have enough room for fully formed women.

00:47:25He was hard on women. You know, he couldn't fit a whole woman in his head.

00:47:31Billionaire Lucas Mattson is just as wildly sexist.

00:47:35To be fair, he was kind of up front about this during their heart-to-heart about how

00:47:39he was harassing his former flame Ebba.

00:47:41I sent her some of my blood.

00:47:43Oh, okay.

00:47:45And he's openly awful to Ebba in a professional context.

00:47:48Guys, gather around.

00:47:49This guy is about to fire my senior comms.

00:47:53The jokes are funny.

00:47:54But the tiny, yet infinitely consequential thing that's the nail in Shiv's coffin

00:47:59is the cartoon of Shiv towering over a much smaller Lucas,

00:48:03and playing him like a puppet.

00:48:05As much as he denies it, the image obviously gets under his skin.

00:48:08The cartoon?

00:48:09Huh?

00:48:11You think it's funny?

00:48:11The cartoon?

00:48:12No, that was funny. I enjoyed that. No.

00:48:15And then he openly admits to Tom that he doesn't want to install Shiv

00:48:19because he's sexually attracted to her.

00:48:21I wanna her.

00:48:22He then says that he's choosing Tom because he's the person who impregnated her.

00:48:26Well, if I can have anyone in the world,

00:48:30why don't I get the guy who put the baby inside her instead of the baby lady?

00:48:35As if weirdly, this somehow enables Lucas to dominate Shiv, put her back in her place,

00:48:40and disprove that image where the baby lady was somehow bigger and on top of the small man.

00:48:46In the end, Lucas opts for a room full of guys hailing him as Jesus.

00:48:50Jesus and his disciples.

00:48:52Shiv did do her usual thing in this episode of getting ahead of herself and gloating too much.

00:48:57I played it better.

00:48:59So why don't you take it like a man and just eat it?

00:49:02But she's right.

00:49:03She did play it better than the others.

00:49:05As usual, she was smarter than her brothers.

00:49:07She explicitly lost here purely because Lucas didn't like that she was a woman.

00:49:12Just like she was cut out earlier in the season for the same reason.

00:49:15While her brothers get mad at her for playing them,

00:49:18they were the ones who betrayed her,

00:49:20and expected her to just fall in line while offering her nothing.

00:49:23So while she did make a mistake in trusting Lucas,

00:49:26she was again choosing between an array of men who were all just going to screw her

00:49:31in the end for being a woman.

00:49:33The crucial line that Shiv utters when she makes her decision is,

00:49:36I love you, but I can't, I'll f***ing stomach you.

00:49:39Her words, I can't stomach you, are about their sibling dynamics,

00:49:43but also a repudiation of how her brother promises to continue on Logan's way.

00:49:48It's a way that sidelined her and messed her up.

00:49:50It was hard to be his daughter.

00:49:55And maybe Shiv not crowning Kendall does ensure at least a slight improvement to the culture.

00:50:01Jerry's back in, Carolina will get her wish of canning Kendall's dog, Hugo,

00:50:05the old guard, Carl and Frank are finally out,

00:50:08and they're the two who probably know the most of Logan's dirty secrets.

00:50:12How bad was dad?

00:50:14He was a salty dog, but he was a good egg.

00:50:20What you saw was what you got.

00:50:21There's the question, though, of whether the fox they just let into their chicken coop

00:50:26could bring all sorts of new, unanticipated darkness.

00:50:29After all, this hostile outsider beat all of them,

00:50:33and whether they thought they were aligning with, using, or outsmarting him,

00:50:37he came out on Tom.

00:50:42Instead of Shiv, the powerful woman, Lucas went for Tom, the pain sponge.

00:50:46It's gonna get nasty, so I need a pain sponge.

00:50:52I have a very, very high tolerance for pain and physical discomfort.

00:50:56Who's also described two times in crucial moments as a suit.

00:51:00He went for a, uh, an empty fucking suit?

00:51:03Oh, by the dry cleaner.

00:51:04Even his wife describes him in the same episode as,

00:51:07He is very plausible corporate matter, but he's also just a highly interchangeable,

00:51:12modular part.

00:51:13Yet, what does it mean to be a suit in this context, in this day and age, and at such a high level?

00:51:19In some ways, as much as the born Roys strive to be Logan, Tom has the most of Logan's ruthless drive.

00:51:26Tom is the outsider coming from, relatively, humble origins.

00:51:30His demeanor and refined act couldn't be more different,

00:51:33and Tom's habit of rambling when Logan makes him nervous is a great source of comedy.

00:51:38Yet, when Tom's, rarely, showing his real thoughts and self,

00:51:42usually when he's talking to Greg and going full bully mode,

00:51:45he's as blunt, cruel, and harsh as Logan could ever be.

00:51:49We're good!

00:51:50Because it doesn't feel good, Greg!

00:51:54What's this? Can we stop?

00:51:56Tom pitches himself as the humble, loyal servant.

00:51:59Tip-toe, Tommy.

00:52:00Here to serve.

00:52:00Mm-hmm.

00:52:01Here to serve.

00:52:02And his whole persona, at first, is the nice midwestern guy.

00:52:06This, uh, corn-fed basic from Hockey Town.

00:52:10Yeah, Tom. He's a great guy.

00:52:11Sure. He should be with an exciting bastard like me.

00:52:13But he's perhaps the character in the inner circle who's best at hiding that true self,

00:52:18and so it can be jarring how not-nice Tom is on the inside.

00:52:22He's the classic suit in this sense,

00:52:24defined by a pristine, faceless outer shell that hides an ugliness inside.

00:52:29Like a yuppie Patrick Bateman-esque suit, he's so in love with having money and the nice things

00:52:34that money can buy, that he identifies with his nice things.

00:52:38The suits and my watches and…

00:52:40Yeah, sure, I know. I like nice things, I do.

00:52:45He feels defined by them, and he doesn't really know who he'd be without them.

00:52:49This is something about him that's unlike power-hungry Logan.

00:52:52Tom is much more driven by money, as he talks about to Greg early on.

00:52:56Look, here's the thing about being rich, okay? It's f***ing great.

00:53:03Okay? It's like being a superhero, only better.

00:53:06And as he finally admits to Shiv in season four.

00:53:09And if you think that's shallow, why don't you throw out all your stuff for love?

00:53:12Throw out your necklaces and your jewels for a dated and three-star Italian?

00:53:17But the other meaning of suit that emerges in Tom's and Lucas' conversation is a pain sponge,

00:53:22almost a fall guy of sorts, who can absorb pain and the nasty things Lucas is apparently planning to do.

00:53:29I'm not looking for a partner, you know? I'm looking for a front man when I'm under the hood doing

00:53:37what I love, you know?

00:53:38As the head of the Fox News-esque ATN, which is highly reviled in most of the elite circles Tom

00:53:44frequents, Tom's already used to taking a lot of s***.

00:53:47Your phone, it's red hot, Tom. A lot of very important people want to scream at you.

00:53:54So while Tom has taken the prize the Roys have all been striving for,

00:53:58the actual job looks to be a lot more unpleasant, with a lot less real power than they envisioned.

00:54:08Season four saw Shiv and Tom getting real about what actually tied them together.

00:54:12When I met you, all my life, I've been thinking a little bit about money,

00:54:21and how to get money, and how to keep money.

00:54:24And these truth bombs were ugly.

00:54:26You're f***ing me for my DNA, you're f***ing me for a f***ing ladder,

00:54:30because your whole family is striving and parochial.

00:54:33I think you are incapable of love, and I think you are maybe not a good person to have children.

00:54:40Then, after all that was said, in the finale,

00:54:42Shiv finally confesses to Tom that she was driven by fear of the underneath.

00:54:47I think I've always just been scared in relationships of the underneath.

00:54:53You know, what's the worst thing a person thinks?

00:54:56But when all is said and done, maybe she still wants a real relationship.

00:55:00Tom, though, turned her down.

00:55:02Are you interested in a real relationship?

00:55:05Honest to God, I don't know.

00:55:07There was an important shift that happened in the relationship in these later episodes.

00:55:12Previously, it always seemed that Shiv had the upper hand in their dynamic,

00:55:16and that Tom was not only her servant, but also genuinely more in love.

00:55:20That's why you love me.

00:55:25F*** you.

00:55:26Even though I don't love you.

00:55:28But after Tom betrayed Shiv to help Logan at the end of Season 3,

00:55:32it was kind of an admission that his true first allegiance was to her father,

00:55:36and the money and power of it all.

00:55:38Looking back, it was always clear that Tom liked this whole lifestyle,

00:55:43and wasn't just with Shiv for the romance.

00:55:45You've played your hand well, and you're sitting at the top table.

00:55:48Wow, shucks. Thank you.

00:55:51I fell in love with your sister, that's what happened.

00:55:53Sure.

00:55:54Oh yeah, right, right, right.

00:55:55But in Season 4, Tom is honest about just how much that was a driver for him.

00:56:00And I really, really, really love my career and my money.

00:56:05And a new reality comes into focus.

00:56:08It's Shiv who wants and needs Tom more, however toxic the relationship actually is for her.

00:56:14So it's striking that, after Shiv gives Tom the chance to come back to her out of real love,

00:56:19he refuses, and then betrays her by taking her CEO job.

00:56:23In the end, Shiv finds a way to get Tom back, and bind him to her forever.

00:56:28The final shot we see of Shiv and Tom driving away is a graduate-esque ending.

00:56:33That 1967 film famously ends with a shot of the couple who just run away from their families

00:56:38to be together, in what should be a happily ever after.

00:56:41But the camera lingers a little too long on the pair,

00:56:44so we see their uncertainty grow as a little doubt enters about what they just did.

00:56:49Similarly, the camera stays with Shiv and Tom as it settles in that they're now

00:56:54permanently bound together again.

00:56:56Leading up to this moment, it felt like a win for both of them.

00:56:59Obviously for Tom getting the top job, and for Shiv to at least get to screw over Kendall.

00:57:04And it's not the worst outcome for her, to be the boss's wife and secure her future

00:57:09child's succession.

00:57:10In the reality of embarking on this future, though, they look kind of miserable.

00:57:14Shiv took her opportunity to chain Tom to her, but now they know all the underneaths.

00:57:19What's interesting is that this is exactly their original plan.

00:57:23In the early seasons, Shiv and Tom are a Macbeth-like couple plotting for him to be CEO.

00:57:29Because at that point, she clearly doesn't think it's possible that she'll get a shot.

00:57:32And in the end, it turns out she was right that the people of this world weren't going to let a

00:57:37female be on top.

00:57:38But she does play her original Lady Macbeth role, and get glory through her husband.

00:57:43In their phone conversation, Tom voices that Shiv might be wanting to save their marriage

00:57:47not due to pure love, but out of not wanting to fail.

00:57:50You don't like to fail a test, do you, Shiv?

00:57:53And it's similar to what drives her brothers.

00:57:55This need to win and succeed at all costs, even if the prize isn't really what you want.

00:58:02He doesn't want it, but he can't say it.

00:58:03Likewise, it turns out that Shiv's initial goal of making Tom CEO is fairly empty and unsatisfying to her.

00:58:10In The Graduate, the subtext of the ending is that this couple who've tried so hard

00:58:14to escape their parents are now gradually going to become them.

00:58:18And that's also what's hinted at here in the final shot of Tom and Shiv.

00:58:22Tom takes the place of Logan, the outsider who rises from humble origins to take on the CEO role,

00:58:28in a marriage with a woman he doesn't love, thinking already into the distance of the succession

00:58:33for his future child. Shiv, a woman with more smarts and potential, is sidelined out of any

00:58:39formal business role and most likely headed for a future where she feels increasingly sour about that.

00:58:45Incidentally, Shiv's saying the worst underneath because she fears that's what others are thinking

00:58:50is something she's inherited from her mother.

00:58:52In the finale, Caroline says,

00:58:54It's nice to see you've got something to agree about, besides what a terrible mother I am.

00:58:58Oh well, we'll never disagree on that, mom.

00:59:02Yeah, sure.

00:59:02And it's the same defense mechanism because, despite the jokey tone I'll take, Caroline

00:59:08knows she is a terrible mother and the kids genuinely think that.

00:59:15In the final season, Kendall finally succeeded at the thing he's been trying to do all along,

00:59:21becoming his dad. Kendall is on top of the world because, after so much struggle,

00:59:26he's cracked it. He's gone full Logan. He's dominating others, blackmailing, playing dirty,

00:59:32riling up crowds. In the finale, he reveals that this has basically been his goal since the age of

00:59:38seven. When I was seven, he sat me down at the candy kitchen in Bridgehampton and he promised it to

00:59:45me. But what pulls the rug out from under Kendall in the end is that, just copying his father's

00:59:50game isn't enough. While the kids think they're starring in this Shakespearean succession drama

00:59:56about inheriting a kingdom, it turns out they're actually in the midst of a giant corporate power

01:00:01grab where the family isn't entitled to anything. Kendall has almost played this whole thing perfectly.

01:00:08And once again, he goes into a board vote, arriving on time this time, believing he has the votes.

01:00:13But at the last second, when Shiv challenges him, his games break down. He quickly loses his composure,

01:00:19reverting to that little boy who's just trying to play daddy, and thinks he's owed this.

01:00:24I am like a cog, built to fit only one machine. It's the one thing I know how to do.

01:00:29Well, it's not all about you. Yet, as Kendall tries to prove some

01:00:33level of entitlement to the throne, his siblings quickly point out the flimsiness of all these

01:00:38claims. I'm simply saying he said a lot of things, and he said them to me first.

01:00:43Yeah, when he said it to me last. Even by the most traditional,

01:00:46outdated measures, he's clutching at straws. He's not even truly the eldest boy.

01:00:51Though he thinks of himself that way.

01:00:53I'm the eldest boy!

01:00:56I am the eldest boy!

01:00:59And he can't claim the continuation of the bloodline,

01:01:01because Shiv is carrying Logan's first biological grandchild.

01:01:05It mattered to him. He wanted this to go on.

01:01:08Well, I mean, she's the bloodline though.

01:01:10She also voices honestly in this moment that she doesn't actually believe in Kendall's skills as a

01:01:15manager.

01:01:16I can do this.

01:01:17I don't think you'd be good at it.

01:01:19And when Kendall emotionally completes his transformation into Logan by denying that

01:01:24he killed the caterer kid.

01:01:26What, like you killed so many people you forgot which one?

01:01:30That's not an issue. That didn't happen.

01:01:33Wait, it didn't? As in what?

01:01:35It's just a thing I said. It's a thing I said. I made it up.

01:01:37And seemingly believing himself, it's like in that moment, Shiv sees that Kendall has fully lost

01:01:43whatever soul he still had that was preventing him from being as ruthless as his dad,

01:01:48and adopting Logan's whole NRPI philosophy.

01:01:52NRPI. Don't beat yourself up.

01:01:54No real person involved.

01:01:57You know, it's...

01:02:00It's nothing.

01:02:01Once again, this episode links Kendall to the water.

01:02:04The first time we see him with water is the sequence when he's being pre-anointed by his siblings.

01:02:09He's swimming easily, at one with the ocean, relaxed, the air apparent.

01:02:14As his siblings joke about murdering him, but ultimately promise him the crown.

01:02:18Kendall reached his peak point earlier this season after his product launch performance,

01:02:23which actor Jeremy Strong compared to Kendall's flying too close to the sun moment.

01:02:27There, he's in a form of ecstasy, merging with the waves, floating above the surface.

01:02:32Whereas in so many of Kendall's worst moments, he's submerged, unable to get out from under the

01:02:38weight of his pain. But at the end, after he's lost, he's barred from the water, trapped,

01:02:44as the fence separates him from the water and the Statue of Liberty.

01:02:48A symbol of both freedom and the immigrant dream that's present in both Logan and the Godfather.

01:02:53The only person with Kendall is Colin, the security guard who was always at Logan's side,

01:02:59and arguably the closest person to Logan in the end.

01:03:02Colin's scene recalls Logan's walk with Colin through Central Park.

01:03:05But to Kendall, Colin is a human reminder of what he did to the caterer, because Colin

01:03:10oversaw the cover-up of Kendall's hit-and-run that killed the boy.

01:03:13Director Mark Milod even calls Colin Banquo's ghost, referring to how Macbeth is haunted by

01:03:19the ghost of the friend he killed.

01:03:21So even though Kendall fought so hard to deny that reality and be totally unmoved by any guilt,

01:03:27shame, or pain, the last shot shows us he can never escape what he's done.

01:03:32The finale is called With Open Eyes, and it contains a line with Succession's patriarch

01:03:36saying she doesn't like human eyes.

01:03:38Like, human eyes we all have.

01:03:40I don't like to think of all these blobs of jelly rolling around in your heads.

01:03:44Like the other season finale titles, the name comes from John Berryman's Dream Song 29,

01:03:49about someone named Henry who has a crime so heavy sitting on his heart that,

01:03:53if he had a hundred years, he could not make good.

01:03:56The poem goes, ghastly, with open eyes, he attends, blind.

01:04:01Here too, Kendall is attempting to be blind to those truths in the way his father conditioned him,

01:04:06yet he ultimately can't erase the truth, for others or for himself.

01:04:10You can't be CEO. You can't, because you killed someone.

01:04:13Kendall tells Shiv explicitly that he'll be suicidal if he doesn't win.

01:04:18If I don't get to do this, I feel like that's it. Like I might, like I might die.

01:04:27Which comes off as a play to use their pity in his favor, but is also true.

01:04:31And Colin is seemingly there to make sure Kendall doesn't hurt himself.

01:04:34Kendall's being kept away from the water so that he can't sink.

01:04:38A completion of how he's attempted to detach from himself ever since he was responsible for the boy's death.

01:04:43This episode can't help but recall the first season's board vote, which also goes very badly for Kendall.

01:04:52And that time, it's Roman who blows it.

01:04:55So that's clearly in Shiv's and Kendall's minds as the two vie to secure Roman's vote in their showdown.

01:05:00Both understand how Roman has a tendency to weaken in the moment.

01:05:04And that's exactly what we see when Kendall has to fend off Roman's potential rebellion or copping out at the last minute.

01:05:10When this happens, Kendall pulls Roman into a violent bear hug that pulls out his stitches.

01:05:15It's likely an allusion to Logan having been abusive with the kids.

01:05:18There are a couple of moments of Logan physically hurting his family.

01:05:21And the reaction from everyone present is a strangely stiff performance that apparently

01:05:26seeks to reassure everyone that Logan hasn't ever been physically abusive.

01:05:30Or not really.

01:05:32Yet it's a little more fuzzy, exactly to what extent Logan may have physically hurt his kids.

01:05:37In addition to emotionally destroying him, when Kendall subjugates Roman with the stitches,

01:05:42he's saying I'm your daddy now.

01:05:44And it works.

01:05:45Roman?

01:05:46Uh, nope.

01:05:48That's fucking right.

01:05:49The masochist in Roman kind of wants, as director Mike Milod said,

01:05:53for Kendall to relieve him of any responsibility to try to be CEO.

01:05:58But Roman knows how to find Kendall's vulnerable spots emotionally, later hitting Kendall's weak point.

01:06:03Dad's view was yours weren't real.

01:06:05They are a pair of randos.

01:06:08One is a buy-in.

01:06:09The other is half robber, half some filing cabinet guy.

01:06:12To spur Kendall to even more extreme violence.

01:06:18There are two key scenes with the three central siblings in the finale.

01:06:22One in their mom's kitchen as they goof off while pretending to anoint Kendall as the new king.

01:06:27And one in the boardroom as Shiv changes her mind and a brawl breaks out as Kendall attempts to force her in line.

01:06:33The scenes are linked in key ways.

01:06:35The kids making a gross smoothie for Kendall to drink and Shiv saying she can't stomach Kendall.

01:06:41Roman licking his mother's husband's cheese and later getting at Kendall about his kids not being his biological offspring.

01:06:47Whether they're at their mom's or in the boardroom, it's the same constant contest.

01:06:52Playing out their childhood squabbles and traumas and inability to let the other win.

01:06:57Throughout the show, the siblings come together in key moments.

01:07:01And if only they could unite, keep up healthy communication and share power.

01:07:05It would help all of them, professionally and personally.

01:07:08But they just can't do it.

01:07:10Because the second it looks like any of them is going to win the crown,

01:07:14they revert to kids who insist that the other can't have the shiny toy.

01:07:18Even if destroying their siblings means they lose out too.

01:07:22It's important that, amidst all the carnage, all the characters in this episode are thinking about the bloodline.

01:07:28Because as Shiv gets ready to bring a new Roy into the world, fathered by the CEO of Waystar RoyCo,

01:07:34it's clear that so much of this toxic drama will repeat.

01:07:41Meanwhile, the finale sees Greg playing both sides.

01:07:44Greg, throughout the show, has had an aspect of embodying the banality of evil.

01:07:49He seems to be not that bad, or just neutral. Yet he's always there helping carry out the dirtiest work.

01:07:55And in the last episode, Greg makes his big play to become part of the quad.

01:07:59In a way, it shows how far Greg has come toward being a big player.

01:08:03He's live translating Mattson at the bar, going out on a limb to betray his closest ally, and seize his moment.

01:08:09And could I quad it up? Like full quad?

01:08:12Take your shot, buddy. Just take your shot. Come on.

01:08:15Okay. Buckle up.

01:08:17This is probably Greg trying to escape his dynamic with Tom.

01:08:21Where he always has to be the punching bag, the support, the unfailingly loyal servant.

01:08:26A role that Tom just calls Greg, or as a verb, Gregging.

01:08:30I want you Gregging for me! You're busted back down to Greg tonight!

01:08:34No!

01:08:35And it's interesting that, while Tom can't forgive Shiv, or still summon any love for her after all they've done to hurt each other,

01:08:42he quickly forgives Greg, and still does clearly love Greg more than anyone else.

01:08:47In fact, it's his dream because after this betrayal, Greg is now, always and forever, his.

01:08:53His object to own and mistreat however he so desires.

01:08:58He makes that point by putting one of the stickers

01:09:00from the process to claim Logan's possessions onto Greg's forehead.

01:09:04Greg's then called out by Lucas as the Judas to Tom's Pontius Pilate.

01:09:08And it's clear that Greg's back to square one.

01:09:11He'll get to remain a top insider in this world and reap all its rewards, but he'll never escape being the Greg.

01:09:17I can take a lot in terms of psychological pain, so.

01:09:23When Kendall is in denial of his loss, the nihilist Roman tells him.

01:09:28It's bits of glue and broken shows, f**king phony news.

01:09:32F**k. Come on. We are bulls**t. It's all f**king nothing.

01:09:36All along, we've gotten hints of the unsoundness of the business.

01:09:40There's a huge debt problem.

01:09:42What are you... no?

01:09:45Yes. Three billion.

01:09:47DOJ is going to likely hit us with an historic fine.

01:09:51Gojo's market cap has overtaken ours.

01:09:53Yet as people vie for the control of it, this recedes into the background like it doesn't matter.

01:09:58And maybe it doesn't.

01:10:00Lucas Mattson's Gojo is also apparently bulls**t, given his fake India numbers.

01:10:05Just the new bulls**t.

01:10:07But Roman is also right that this is all sort of nothing.

01:10:10The siblings are fighting over a crown that means everything to them

01:10:14because they've been raised to fight over this birthright.

01:10:17But none of them really stands for anything more than wanting to win.

01:10:20So whether or not they win doesn't really matter to anyone else or make any difference to the world.

01:10:26Ironically, Logan maybe didn't even care that much which or whether his kids

01:10:31took the crown in the end since he didn't really believe in anyone besides himself.

01:10:36Who do you think dad actually wanted to give it to?

01:10:38I don't think dad gave a f**k about anything more than putting one foot in front of the other.

01:10:43Yeah, I don't think he wanted to give it to any of us.

01:10:45Succession was the best TV show in a long time, surpassing the rest both in gravity and in levity.

01:10:51So yeah, that's how I'm trying to sue Greenpeace.

01:10:54And it was ultimately about how difficult it is for adults to escape deeply ingrained childhood dynamics.

01:11:00Even if, maybe especially if, they're in high-powered, successful environments.

01:11:05Getting ahead in the world often demands of us to be our most immature, combative,

01:11:10unevolved, childish selves.

01:11:13But while the kids view themselves as in this great Shakespearean succession drama,

01:11:17no one really cares what they do.

01:11:20And instead of chasing these phantoms, they could have just taken all that money,

01:11:24left this misery behind, and sought a fresh slate.

01:11:28That's the take!

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Succession: Why Shiv, Roman & Kendall Could Never Really "Win", Explained | Compilation

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