Succession's final season: These are the six questions we want answered
Brian Cox as Logan Roy in Succession
Not since the heyday of Game Of Thrones had TV witnessed so much back-stabbing, brutality and black magic. When Succession dropped onto the schedules in 2018, it painted a gory profile of life with the one-percenters. Here was a world where family loyalty was conditional, money could buy everything except happiness, and people lived in real terror of those further up the corporate food-chain.
Now the series is back for a much-anticipated final season, with the first episode landing in the US on Sunday, March 26 – and airing on Sky Atlantic the following evening.
At one level the story that is to be concluded is perfectly straightforward. Logan Roy, the Rupert Murdoch-esque God Emperor of a media conglomerate (Brian Cox), is coming to the end of his decades’ long reign. Which of his squabbling brood will succeed him?
However, beyond those bare bones, this is a nuanced and stark exploration of sibling rivalry, legacy and the viciousness to which seemingly civilised people will stoop to get ahead. In other words, it isn’t just about the mega-rich. Succession is a study of ambition and familial discontent that can speak to “ordinary’ people too. As we look ahead to the final run, here are six questions we need answering.
The big shock at the end of series three came as Logan’s lickspittle son-in-law (Matthew Macfadyen) betrayed his own wife, Shiv (Sarah Snook), who wanted to undercut Logan’s deal with evil start-up whizkid Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård). Shiv and her siblings were ready to take down their father and stop the deal with Matsson. But Tom quietly tipped off Logan – shivving Shiv and revealing that, in corporate skulduggery as in life, it’s the quiet ones you need to watch.
But where does that leave him in regard to Logan? Is he a new power player? Or just a useful idiot whom Logan has seduced and can now cast aside?
Kendall (Jeremy Strong) was Logan’s chosen one until he tried to oust his father. But he has also lived with the terrible secret about the waiter who died in his company during Shiv and Tom’s wedding at the end of season one. He confessed to Shiv and Roman that he had blood on his hands when he broke down in the finale of series three. But will this arrest his decline – and is he going to topple Logan and prevent the deal with the ghastly Mattson?
Talk about Daddy's issues. Shiv’s love-hate relationship with Logan has poisoned her marriage to Tom. She wants her father’s respect – though she knows he will never see her as an equal to his sons, no matter that she is by far the most capable of the kids. One consequence is that in her marriage, she has been unable to commit to Tom – even though there is a glimmer of real love buried somewhere at the heart of their relationship.
He has taken it all with as much good grace as he can muster – even after her infidelity – to the point where he has sometimes appeared passive. But now we know he was planning his revenge all along and that by winning the approval of Logan he has the one thing Shiv has never been able to obtain. What happens to the blasted heath of their marriage remains to be seen.
Connor’s girlfriend has never made any secret about being in the relationship for the money and the prestige. Even she seemed surprised when she accepted the marriage proposal from Logan’s eldest offspring (Alan Ruck) at the end of series three. Meanwhile, Connor still dreams of running for President – and he’s even got his “Conhead” fan club pushing him all the way. And while he can seem to be on the periphery of the knife fight over the future of Waystar Royco, he will surely have a part to play before the drama is done.
Succession loves to put its terrible characters in absurd situations And that is the impasse facing the youngest Roy offspring Roman (Kieran Culkin). He’s been having secret liaisons with corporate bulldog and Waystar Royco general counsel Gerri (appointed interim CEO by Logan in series three). But the fall-out over the Mattson deal has placed them on opposite sides. However the dynamic plays out, rest assured it’s going to be messy.
“You can’t make a Tomlette without breaking some Gregs,” Tom famously told the seemingly naive Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun). But now Tom, the great betrayer, and the nebbish Greg are apparently joined at the hip, with Tom promising the sidekick his own “team of Gregs” if he stays on his team. Greg has already demonstrated he’s a Roy at heart when he threatened to sue Greenpeace after his grandfather (Logan’s brother) donated “his” inheritance to the organisation. There’s sure to be plenty of backstabbing in the finale – don’t be surprised if one of the blades is wielded by Greg.
