The Roys punishment is complete.
The much harder question remains: What kind of show was this?
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Kendall cant be the CEO of Waystar Royco because hekilled someone.
Then two astonishing things follow.
First, Kendall says Which?
and sends his siblings into a tailspin of speculation about what else he might have done.
And then, incredibly, Kendall simply says no.
It did not happen.
It was a story he made up.
He was briefly experiencing a break from reality.
It was never real.
The fun, distracting bauble onSuccessions surface has always been the question of who will win.
But the deeper uncertainty is about whether the Roys will experience consequences.
Not a single repercussion has ever stuck to them.
Even their election maneuvering, the finale suggests, may end up getting washed away.
Butthis Kendalls complicity in causing a mans death.
This one thing has finally come back!
Except that it doesnt come back, not really.
When Shiv says the words aloud, its like a chasm opens up in this little conference room.
Kendall can hardly believe it.
But the cater-waiters death doesnt actually play into what happens.
Theres never even clarity among them about whether this horrible thing did, in fact, happen.
Its just the reminder of a possibility.
The question ofSuccessionand consequences can feel like a moral one.
How much does it matter that these people are awful?
Does the show need to punish them in the end?
With Open Eyes does offer some solace on that front.
The much harder question remains: What kind of show is this?
Successionhas always been an optical illusion begging to be read many different ways at once.
The series thrived in this ambiguity; every line of dialogue can be construed in multiple ways.
Every character wonders what the others mean.
All the best scenes are circuses of miscommunication, suspicion, and doubt.
Andwe have gotten to participatein that same mesmerizing game of interpretation.
This is a show that inherited the most potent path of the past quarter-century of hour-long prestige TV.
In this version ofSuccession, Kendalls killing a man in season onematters.
Its why, despite its perpetual busyness,Successionhas also been a show about nothing actually happening.
But theSuccessionfinale, miraculously, impossibly, finds a way to land without ever choosing a side.
It does not wholly abandon its sitcom instincts.
The last half hour is a building collapsing in on itself.
Roman is so distraught he can comfort himself only by opening the stitches on his forehead.
Kendall stares out at the water, reaching for oblivion in one way or another.
Its a demonstration of potential: See?
In the same breath, its all negated.
Kendall insists it never happened.
Its a comedy of manners, and they all walk away rich.
Successionloved to play in all the ambiguous spaces.
It was a show about people desperately trying to read one another and often failing.
Its brilliance lay in its ability to support many readings at once, to allow many coexisting interpretations.
No wonder we love to argue about it.
No wonder well miss it.
Its whySuccessionhas been so absolutely delicious to watch, even when it was also fucking bullshit.
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