In one of the final scenes of the series successionfrom HBO, Shiv (Sarah Snooke) look at the outstretched hand of Tom (Matthew Macfadyen). It is not clear if he just betrayed his brothers Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Roman (Kieran Culkin). Much less, if you have acted to ensure the future of the child that has not yet been born. The truth is that the character, after going through a tough emotional journey throughout the last chapter of the series, makes an apparently inexplicable decision.
By changing your vote on the board of directors of Waystar Royco at the last moment, it delivers a coup that upsets the plot’s precarious balance of power. It not only allows the sinister lukas matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) takes over the company.
She also keeps her brothers out of control and manages to gain a share of influence through her husband. It is never revealed if the strange determination of Shiv is due to belated retaliation or a conscious attempt to prevent Kendall lead the family corporation. So that succession he says goodbye on a bitter, realistic and raw note.
Succession is only available on HBO Max
The fall of a giant
the empire of Logan (Brian Cox) collapses and slips out of the hands of his heirs. After the consortium managed to change the political tide and installed Jerryd Mencken (Justin Kirk) as President of North America. A twist that allowed the far-right Republican to prevail over a close result.
In the end, the maneuver Roman in the previous chapter of succession had little value compared to the strings that move within Waystar Royco. The series ends with a harsh close-up of Kendall, which touched the pinnacle of ambition, but collapsed when making a false step. Trust Shiv? Assume his allegiance immediately? succession does not answer the questions and insists on what has been the central point of his argument: the harsh relationship between the family Roy.
The final defeat in succession
During the four seasons of succession, creator Jesse Armstrong explores the vices of power. He also proposes characters that move away from role models or redemption aspirations. A notable exception to multiple arguments in which moral degradation always leads to a sobering punishment.
But the production goes a step further and builds a scenario in which greed becomes the driving force for all kinds of mean behavior. In addition, it delves into a group of protagonists without ethics, protected by the privileges of their fortune or political influence. All of them aware of that capacity and without fear of using it for their own benefit.
Kendall, Shiv, Roman and, to a lesser extent, Connor (Alan Ruck) are constantly fighting each other for control of Waystar Royco. The family business, under the iron fist of the patriarch Logan Roy, becomes the center of intrigues and manipulations. But, beyond that, it is also a legacy that each of the brothers considers their own and that they seek to obtain at all costs.
a broken family
In his fourth installment, succession has gone further. After the death of Roy, his sons’ battle to inherit the massive consortium turns ruthless. Also, a perspective about their traumas, pains and wounds to be resolved between corrosive and pernicious emotional ties. Each of the protagonists discovers in a different way that the sudden loss of the visible head of the family is more than a financial and public reputation blow.
Odd as it may seem, the last season of succession it is based, more than on financial dilemmas, on exploring suffering and uprooting. Neither of the Roy heirs is ultimately capable enough to defeat the other. Nor to take a path independent of his illustrious name.
Thus, the need for recognition in the midst of a history of nepotism becomes a merciless fight against the loss of identity. Kendallwho depended on the search for parental approval, finds himself in a desolate scenario that puts his poor strategy skills to the test.
To the other side, Roman embodies a clumsy version of Logan. Connor with little skill he moves his few pieces on a larger board which, once again, curtails his ambitions. Shiv deals with the loss of his father by dealing with the breakdown of his marriage to Tom. In parallel, he tries to survive the probable disintegration of the family corporation in the midst of imminent and dangerous political changes.
Corruption at the heart of succession
the last chapter of successionin fact, emphasizes the nature of sibling bonds Roy. In one of the most unique sequences of the plot, Kendall, Shiv and Roman they laugh in the kitchen of their mother’s house. What happens after dealing with their mutual differences and reaching a precarious emergency agreement to prevent them from Mattson take the family corporation by storm. It is an intimate moment, almost tender. One that changes the tone of the relationship of the protagonists in what seems like a peculiar oasis of calm.
Which causes the betrayal of Shiv be even harder to accept and understand. Did the character make the decision when her siblings placed their complete trust in her? Was it a maneuver of real mistrust towards kendallhe? With the latest handshake between Roy Logan’s daughter and her husband, what becomes clear is that the two are a grudging team acting in concert. Something that gives a gloomy sense to the final recapitulation that ends up changing the history of succession.
A questionable decision that changes everything
for your farewell, succession it focuses all the mocking and satirical attention of its script on the subplot of the opulent world it shows. Beyond the questionable —and sometimes illegal— decisions of its characters, the series also brings interest to its internal rupture. Each of the Roy sons walks away from hopeful redemption or exemplary punishment. Their respective positions lead them to a moral debacle. Likewise, to succumb to the fissures of a reality that does not finish supporting the weight of failure and final defeat.
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With the company lost, the sense of purpose broken, and the brothers orphaned of father and patrimony, the end of succession it’s bleak. Also, consistent with the way the production has always raised the sense of betrayal and ruthless manipulation. In the end, Roy Logan becomes a ghost, his company a memory and his children people far from the spheres of power. One last piece in a twisted puzzle that will go down in entertainment history for its toughness and murky sense of privilege.