Why Succession's Final Episode is so Perfect

come on man but and I don't mean to be insulting but having been around a bit my hunch is that you're going to get [ __ ] because I've seen you get [ __ ] a lot and I've never seen Logan get [ __ ] once hopefully I can do this all tonight so I don't have to stretch out the recording so a spoiler warning here since I'll be discussing the final episode of succession in detail there will obviously be spoilers I'm assuming if you're here you've watched the full series already so I won't be wasting any time on recap or explaining the story of the previous seasons episode 10 of season 4 of HBO succession aired March 28th and is brought to a close what I would consider to be the greatest television show currently airing as much as I love Barry and the boys succession's got to take the cake for me thank you Greg now with the finale finally here a lot of people are upset that the show didn't end the way they wanted to and a lot of their little fan theories didn't come true no Jerry didn't use her Insider knowledge to threaten and destroy the company unless her they made her CEO no Greg doesn't play his way to the top and complete his art by firing Tom no Logan didn't fake his death and made a surprise return to the finale to show that the entire situation has been a test for the kids what and no Kendall doesn't become CEO and look into the camera and smile and say I guess this was really my succession as hell to the OG begins to play and the camera zooms out and Kendall's sitting in the North Tower of the World Trade Center the date the September 11th myself and most people expected the show to end in a more predictable way where the siblings band together against Gojo prevent Madison from buying the company and instill Kendall as CEO once and for all where afterward maybe he suffers from success or abuses his power to push everyone else out of the company or something I don't know kind of like Godfather Part 2's ending now this ending would have been fine it's safe it's obvious it's the safest route any Regular Show would have taken if I asked chat GTP to generate a succession series finale this would probably be it and this is exactly what the episode seemed like it was building towards up until its final moments where it completely pulls the rug out from under you the siblings have finally reconnected and shiv decides to double cross Matson after hearing word of him betraying her deal they agree to make Kendall CEO they rekindle their lost childhoods together they band together and go into the vote all agreeing to take down Matson yada yada but before you could say [ __ ] off shiv gets cold feet turns the table on the brothers and votes to sell the company boom Kendall's out Romans out Franks out Carl's out Matson owns the company Tom CEO shifts trapped in a Loveless marriage and turns out everyone was in the North Tower on September 11th I'm kidding about the last part but Greg's safe and that's all that matters with such an unexpected and [ __ ] devastatingly tragic turn of events it's very easy to see the mixed reception this finale is getting with some even claiming it's just as bad as Game of Thrones finale let me tell you as Logan Roy would say the people making these claims are not serious because nothing is as bad as Game of Thrones finale who has a better story than brand the broken successions finale is not a happy ending which is why a lot of people aren't liking it despite how perfectly it really is it's a Shakespearean tragedy and the perfect encapsulation of the entire series and the key to understanding it is to realize what succession's really about succession has always been a family drama first and the company or fight for who becomes CEO came second the Roy's are horrible broken people who came from cold and unloving households who are constantly [ __ ] each other over for a chance to get an ounce of Praise from their two radical father I'm sure she'll be in touch cons you know what it's fine really yeah it's a good thing about having a family that doesn't love you is you learn to live without it what car you're not chasing after Dad saying oh love me please love me I need love I need attention well I think that's the opposite of what just happened your needy love sponges and I'm a plant that grows on rocks and lives off insects that die inside of me Jesus Christ come on talking to me the goat the goat they have no idea how to love others or be loved they can open up talk to each other about anything or put their differences aside for the greater good of the company or even the country for a moment even hugging each other feels like an alien and unnatural act because they're constant lust for power and control of the company insurmountably surpasses any basic human emotion they would feel towards each other we've seen this time and time again in a hundred different times over the show their sibling rivalry is so deep that of course they would never band together even when they needed to the most let's say in the finale if they did finally all band together in a heroic moment and instill Kendall a CEO to save everyone that would feel way more like a betrayal of the characters and an unnatural turn of Fate than what ended up happening you saw how reluctant they were to give the position up to Kendall the night before do you really think after four seasons of them constantly blocking Kendall from becoming CEO despite him objectively being the best choice out of the three that in one night they would just give it to him every single time Kendall has come close to being CEO it's been blocked by them even when they have it on straight up paper in Logan's will they still manage to invalidate it and since he said I mean I mean he has said I mean Ken sure man I get it but like this this thing is old and you've tried to put him in jail like 12 times since then so I wonder what would the you know the underlying or the crossing out and the unknown age of the document isn't essentially moot you know it's impossible to decipher well it sure as [ __ ] [ __ ] doesn't say shiv of course when he's the closest he's ever gone to CEO shiv and even Roman would have a change of heart last minute because that's just the type of people they are even after they seemingly all reconnected as siblings for the one time in their life in that beautiful kitchen scene earlier in the episode which is why Kendall's complete breakdown and shedding of all professionalism in the total Act of desperation is so heart-wrenching to watch you see not to just let me now I mean it's it's stupid we we all get something here I mean you're voting against yourself you realize listen please I beg you listen I can do this I don't think you'd be good at it for [ __ ] sake shiv this doesn't make like logic where's the logic no I just don't think you'd be good at it I feel like if I don't get to do this I I feel like that's it like I might like I might die please please the company is all he has and becoming CEO is all he has ever wanted in life and now just seconds before that was going to be a reality it's ripped from him and he loses everything and as a side note Jeremy Strong's performance in this scene is simply unreal this of course all goes back to the core themes of the show being tied in family drama rather than just business after his primary goal in life and ownership of his dad's company evaporated within a second Kendall's left with nothing to live for maybe he'll start a new business down the road and try to build himself back up or maybe he's going to throw himself off that ledge and kill himself who knows it's a brutal end to his character Arc as Logan says these are not serious people they're entitled nepo babies who think they're entitled to Logan's entire self-made company and Fortune just on name alone we are [ __ ] we are not [ __ ] we are [ __ ] you are [ __ ] you're [ __ ] [ __ ] man I'm [ __ ] [ __ ] she's [ __ ] it's all [ __ ] nothing and I'm telling you this because I I know it okay we're nothing shiv's decision to sell way started Gojo has instantly turned a fan favorite character into one of the most hated characters in television history but this decision doesn't come out of nowhere like a lot of people are saying it does throughout this entire show shiv has to struggle with being a woman in this suffocatingly testosterone-dominated business in order to get anything done she has to be conniving and brutal without any remorse well if you can't handle it then [ __ ] off who are you I'm sure [ __ ] annoy and I'm gonna have two very grateful people the next president in my father the whole purpose of siding with Matt synagogue Gojo to buy waystar was to plant her as CEO because it's the only way she'll ever be able to get that position and Matson literally betrays the deal they had together because she was too strong for him and he didn't like it Dad you want to do it yes yes of course I would be interested if it's real this is real yes of course dad I can do it shiv realizes if Kendall becomes CEO it'll be the same [ __ ] as with the rest of the series constantly sidelined and not taken seriously by him in Rome so she chooses to be the wife of the CEO instead which ultimately might give her and Tom's kid a chance at CEO in the future it's a stretch but better than the current situation she has with her brothers [Music] as for Tom becoming CEO this genuinely was an insane twist I did not see coming but in a good way not like stupid [ __ ] brand the broken becoming king of Westeros throughout this entire season Tom has changed radically from a bumbling fun punching bag for the other siblings who once in a while will make a serious business decision usually to the detriment of the company I know sir that was the only two hour period in which you did not send an email to Mr Hirsch with the title you can't make a tomlet without breaking some Greg's you sent the same email to him 67 times in one evening I guess it was a joke right to a nervous hate-filled husk of his former self Tom's relationship with shiv and camaraderie with Logan was all he had to keep him up in the very high position he had at waystar he had that security and safety net so he could be a bumbling doofus and get away with it but in season four his marriage was shiv has pretty much been disintegrated and Logan drops dead in episode three both of his safety nets are gone and with the Gojo acquisition on the horizon and Matson threatening to fire him he's in serious trouble the stress of losing his job his relationship failing and being in charge of ATN as well is destroying him Matson essentially pushes him into a corner so that he can easily Bend him to his will Tom will do whatever it takes to please Madison to keep his job and Matson needs an American CEO to serve as his puppet for the company it's a genius play for Matson and fits perfectly with Tom's regular method of conducting business which is kissing the asses of the most powerful people and climbing the corporate ladder that way Tom becoming CEO is the perfect encapsulation of both Matson and Tom's characters because the Matson it's just another smart business move to have an easily manipulatable puppet at the top and Tom because his ass kissing has finally gotten into the very top of the ladder shiv reluctantly decides to continue being Tom's wife after directly being the cause of everything falling apart fulfilling the tragic cycle of waystar CEO's wives being trapped and broken Loveless marriages doing her to be just as emotionless and incapable of love as her mother was after a whole season of scheming to get Madison to buy the company and become CEO it completely blew up in her face and she became the person she hates most because of it outside of Matson and his team Tom Connor and Greg seems like the only person to really gets somewhat of a happy ending here is Roman in a lot of ways Roman was the worst off out of the three being the youngest and last in line for everything being so emotionally stunted and holding so much resentment towards the other siblings for being mistreated as a child okay I get it no you're gonna like big brother at right now that's what you're gonna do no like what oh like when you know if you want roast chicken and I wanted steak we always had chicken because you you freak out you tantrum so they thought I the [ __ ] tantrum because I never had a [ __ ] steak well I think they got scared if you know if you tantrum then you'd think you'd won so they couldn't let you I never won it was always [ __ ] chickens come on dad what are you sorry for sorry for hitting Rome when he was a kid oh no I mean everyone hit me I'm [ __ ] annoying he's created such a toxic and unrealistic character of a witty doesn't give two shits know-it-all Persona to try and boost his image in the company when in reality he's an incredibly emotional and insecure person and there's something about him being into humiliation for a bit there's a lot to unpack with Roman but for now he's free of the company and fighting for the role of CEO a position he never really wanted and just acted like he wanted he's finally free to be himself he seems so relieved at the end and his brief reluctance to vote against the sale of the company might mean that he wouldn't have even minded if he lost the company in the first place Roman [Music] uh nope that's [ __ ] right for once in his life his future is left up to him and he can do whatever he wants with his life now now that he's free from waystar and the succession battle it's a little glimmer of hope at the end that at least one of the three main Roy's has the opportunity to better himself and change his former ways after escaping the company I mean just look how good Connor ended up maybe Roman will be just like him successions finale marks the end of waystar royco and the total changing of the tides of America as a whole the patriarch is dead there's a new Ultra far-right president leading the country that Kendall and Roy mistakenly helped get elected the family-runway star warco has been bought out by a foreign tech company and an egotistical Yuppie who doesn't give a [ __ ] about them and the senior staff and siblings are all no longer in charge of the company their father built Romans finally free of the toxic Persona he created Kendall's left without any purpose in life anymore and shiv's destined to become her mother a happy ending was so close to happening but the toxic patterns these terrible people constantly perpetuate that they never learn from reared their ugly head again and everything was ruined [Music] the Counterpoint to that was the lovely scene we called male Fit For A King that sense of recaptured Innocence kids just being kids no matter what their income everything seemed possible and yet wear your crown sir [Music] my understanding of the show has always been that it's a tragedy and therefore every moment of Hope like that is so cruel because you're just waiting for that shoe to drop waiting for their essential Natures to be exposed and to break your heart again it's not a happy ending because these people don't deserve one they're greedy heartless scum with daddy issues and the worst personifications of the people capitalist America creates they were incapable of change and that was their tragedy it's [ __ ] devastating but God damn it it's the perfect ending this outstanding show deserves foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] oh man I'm gonna miss this show but my man Connor made it out without any harm [ __ ] yeah baby where my con heads at to see if you're better New York is cold but I like where I'm living

Channel: Hakeem Pierstorff

Views: 331,206

Keywords: Succession, HBO, Kendall Roy, Roman Roy, Siobhan Shiv Roy, Connor Roy, Logan Roy, Video Essay, Television

Id: 9TD882PmlLA

Length: 18min 31sec (1111 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 02 2023