Anyone want to predict how Succession will end?

I haven't heard anyone else talk about it so I'm sure I'm way off. But after it became clear during the yacht trip that Logan wasn't picking Tom, Tom strangely ate off Logan's plate and seemed like he felt betrayed. I thought that Tom may have been responsible for Logan's death - perhaps by poison. Further interesting that everyone blamed the death on Mattson for making Logan travel. I believe Tom was the first to respond to Logan when Logan collapsed (at least that's what he told Shiv). Tom purportedly didn't want to go to the funeral because he was working. Tom also said a couple things on that flight that gave me suspicions but I'd have to go back to remember.

Was Tom really being loyal to Logan because he always defers to the boss? I'm not sure. Tom is a good front man but lots of darkness there I think even beyond the rest of them (contrast with Ken breaking down over an accidental death). Tom was so power-hungry that he was unmoved by Mattson talking about wanting to shiv Shiv. I get that their marriage was one of convenience, but Tom was a very creepy dude who was always making long term plays but obviously had an impulsive streak in him at times.

 

They just dropped the second part. By the way, Jeremy Strong is a great actor, but that was a weird interview.

 

But it lives on in our hearts, and in fanfiction about Tom and Shiv

 

Not to mention skipping Connor and Willa's wedding, but look where that got him. By the way, this tweet cracked me up when I thought about it.

 

I think it was Kendall's to lose from the beginning, but his dad knew he wasn't ready if he ever would be. Kendall was an impulsive drug addict who likely tried to kill himself in the pool with his kids around. He perjured himself on live tv and then threw his dad under the bus in a desperate 180. The way he tried to throw that half-witted takeover together was amateur hour. He didn't even have a relationship with the older man who was really behind the money. I know they have to compress things for tv, but that never seemed credible.

Roman was a really fun character but a super weird pervert who really didn't seem to want the job even towards the end. He was also a poor public speaker, which would make it hard for him to lead. By the end, I feel like he seemed a peace. Ironically, he's probably going to be the most content of the three going forward.

Shiv was the most emotionally stable although just as power hungry. She didn't know the business as well but was a quick learner and had pretty good instincts even if her politics didn't line up with the brand. Her key flaw may have been that she was too trusting of the men around her (her dad, brothers, and Mattson at least) and thought that by keeping her nose clean and being a good diplomat that she could win by default. On top of her being power hungry and jealous, the way Kendall acted in the short times he was going to be the CEO - pushing shiv out, throwing his feet up on the desk, evidencing a bad temper, lying, etc. also made her mad. Some of that is also on Kendall. He was so self centered that he couldn't let his siblings share in his apparent success.

 

Well analyzed

 

I don't know the interviewer and didn't look her up, but I thought the first interview with Skarsgard was also a little weird. She really seemed to want him to tie the Mattson character to Elon Musk, which seemed forced, and he kept seeming to want to get away from that, saying it was based upon an array of people. In both interviews, the interviewer referenced her own knowledge about or work with the type of people portrayed. I kinda felt like she was trying to make it about herself a little bit.

 

You're not wrong. That's Kara Swisher. She's a great journalist, but she's been on the tech beat covering guys like Elon forever and she's maybe the only journalist that has enough independent gravitas to take that angle. She can be a bit obnoxious and self aggrandizing but she's indispensable in situations like that. It did feel a bit forced with Skarsgaard, although I'm not sure he had much to say. He's a good actor, but he didn't seem to have much insight. A little, but not much.

In the second round, she's interviewing the director. Listening now.

Edited to add: This has been a continuing dialogue with her throughout the podcast and she has been somewhat validated by Jesse Armstrong in that viewpoint

 

What happened to the $10B purchase of Pierce? Was that deal scutttled?

 

Doesn’t matter. The show was about the succession of Waystar Roy Co, not about Pierce, the presidential election, what was the deal with Roman’s sexual dysfunction, or whoever was the real father of Kendall’s children (by the way, did we know before this episode that Kendall wasn’t his son’s biological father?). And the succession occurred.

 

It's fitting that yet again Kendall got so close to taking over and botched it. It's just par for his character.

Also I'll leave this here:

kris on TikTok

 

Great tiktok

 

I get that, but they spent so much time on that story line and then <poof> the whole thing disappeared.

 

I didn’t want this question to get buried in my previous post. Was this episode the first indication that Iverson was not Kendall’s biological child, or has that come up before?

 

I hear you. I’m pretty sure it was by design.

 

Don’t recall that coming up before the last episode

 

That would certainly explain some of the family behavior. I mean, they’re all awful people anyway, but if in their hearts they didn’t really think of those kids as really Kendall’s, then that might be why Logan, for instance, was so contemptuously dismissive of them and why the siblings never seem to try to be uncles or an aunt to them.

Next conspiracy theory: Iverson was not the product of artificial insemination (cover story) but of an affair. Rava certainly had motive, means, and opportunity to cheat on someone like Kendall, who would be too self-absorbed to notice. And mental problems like Iverson demonstrates would most likely be filtered out of the donor pool.