As season four of HBO’s hit drama series ‘Succession’ comes to an end, there is a lot to digest as the series finale rolls near.
They gave us nothing out of the ordinary for the Roy family. From family betrayal and taking down each other to the point of hopelessness, we go through the dysfunctional Roy family’s ups and downs (mostly downs.)
The first episode of season four opened where season three left off. Waystar is just out from the final acquisition stages with the booming tech company GoJo, founded by Lukas Mattson.
Logan’s kids are now out to take down their father after changes in their mother’s divorce clause that deprives the children of future control of the company.
Kendall, Roman and Shiv skip their father’s 80th birthday to propose their own media start-up to investors. After finding out that their father is trying to buy PGM, his kids decide to put up a rival bid. They persuade the PGM owners with a $10 billion offer that grabs their attention, overshadowing their father.
Board members Sandi and Stewy are against Waystar’s GoJo acquisition and plan to veto the deal at the next board meeting to talk about a price increase in the deal. Mattson tells Kendall he will back out of the deal if they increase the price, which immediately strikes his interest in Sandi and Stewy’s plan. Logan tries to make peace with his kids, but Kendall and Shiv refuse.
Logan looks to Roman, who has always had his dads back, and asks for assistance in negotiating with Mattson, to which he does.
As Connor’s wedding rolls around, Logan decides to fly to Sweden where he and his team plan to negotiate with Mattson.
His kids are in attendance at the wedding when they get a call from Tom, Shiv’s ex-husband (maybe), that their father is unconscious. Minutes roll by as they attempt chess compressions while his kids are saying what will come to be their last words to him.
Frank, part of Logan’s senior management, finds a document that has Kendall named as his successor after his death, but the original succession plans called for the COO to take over, which is currently held by Roman. They decide to run the company as co-CEO’s.
They promise to keep Shiv involved in all company operations, but she can not help but feel left out.
They fly out to Norway to attend GoJo’s retreat with hopes to finalize their deal with Mattson at $144 per share. However, Mattson wants to try and get control of ATN, which the brothers immediately turn down.
Mattson bypasses the brothers putting up a $192 per share offer to everyone on the board except Gerri, Karolina and Tom.
They plan to launch “Living+,” an assisted living community that Logan had planned to announce before his passing. Mattson does not like the idea and calls Shiv privately to tell her she needs to convince Kendall and Roman to call off the idea. Mattson tries to sabotage the plan, but Kendall delivers it well to the panel.
The family has their traditional tailgate party the night before the presidential election. As Kendall and Roman are not interested in the deal with GoJo, Shiv still likes the idea and invites Mattson to the party. The siblings find that Mattson had inflated numbers of GoJo subscribers in India that could lead the company to public scandal.
Kendall confides with Frank privately, proposing that Waystar buys GoJo, but only with Kendall as CEO.
As election night rolls around, the siblings are divided between candidates. Roman and Connor side with the republican candidate Mencken, while Kendall and Shiv are with democratic candidate Jimenez for their own personal reasons.
They find out a voting station in Milwaukee was firebombed, burning thousands of ballots that could possibly help Jimenez to win Wisconsin. Roman tries to get Tom to get ATN to call prematurely for Mencken as the winner.
As Kendall is siding with Jimenez for the sake of his family, he finds out from their cousin Greg that Shiv is working with Mattson behind their backs. Angered, he tells Tom to call it, making Mencken the winner of the election.
Protests rise in the streets over the win as they get ready for their fathers funeral. Shiv attempts to broker a deal between Mattson and Mencken to allow the GoJo deal to go through in exchange for an American CEO that she hopes to be her. Kendall though plans to enlist Roman and Hugo, senior management, to go against Shiv in the acquisition.
As the series gets ready for its hour and a half long finale, it all comes down to see what the future of Waystar and the Roys hold, but seeing the breakdown of the season, anything can happen.
I think the most shocking end could be Greg walking away with everything. Greg has played his cards with everyone right to get on everyone’s side. His silence speaks loud with the information he has attained and the relationships he has made.
As Mattson said he wanted to name an American CEO, he was in talks with Greg about the deal with Waystar, becoming a piece in Mattson’s chance of joining Waystar. It is possible with the hopes for an American CEO that it can become Greg’s spot.
Greg has gotten the Roys to tear each other down, and time can only tell what will happen and how it will pay off in the end.
But I think Kendall is going to get the title of CEO. The show started with him wanting the title of CEO, his spiral into dark places with himself and with his family, to him stepping up in the place of his father.
Episode 9 is where we see Kendall as Logan 2.0. Kendall steps up and shows that he has the capability of taking control, just as he did taking control of Roman’s speech that he could not even finish.
As Kendall finishes the speech, he ends it saying “that magnificent, awful force of him, but, my God, I hope it’s in me.” He hopes that he can be just like his dad in the future, but scares Ewan, who has seen the evil his brother has done and worries it has carried over to Kendall.
Kendall exemplifies the attitude and way of running things that his father always had. Kendall walked into that church scared of the future to walking out with the attitude that his father always had, and hopes that he will be the future leader of Waystar.
Since the show started with Kendall, it is going to finish with him.
