HBO's Succession - Season 2 and Beyond

https://time.com/6281792/greg-succession-finale-theory/

Greg coming out on top would be a Game of Thrones level bungle

trying to resist tapping the sign but FUCK GREG LET HIM DIE

I don’t even hate Greg the way a lot of other folks do, but I just think I’m terms of writing—given how crisp and smart and nuanced this show can be—Greg anointed at the end seems really hollow and cheap. As commentary on our current culture, it’s not terribly sharp satire to end by saying “the dumb cousin is in charge”.

People are fucking obsessed with debating who will win in this show like it’s GoT idk man

greg is not going to come out on top, this is not that kind of show

Yeah I don't actually care who succeeds, it's just something to idly speculate about this week. The Tom (with Greg gregging for him) theory is more plausible.

no matter who wins mankind is the loser amirite

Tom having talked to Matsson makes sense, he dropped the entire baby thing into the conversation to cement his status as Roy-adjacent to alleviate fears that he's losing the connection via Shiv, he's got no blurb in the paper regarding the calling of the election and Darwin takes the heat, and he's a long-term relatively-stable fixture in the company with no real political beliefs at all

i agree they’ve been teasing some kind of greg/matsson subterfuge in the margins but i can’t see it amounting to much. from the moment greg appeared in season one i think everyone thought to themselves “what if the hapless, guileless guy gets it!!!” but he has.. revealed himself to be not very hapless or guileless at all, if he ever was. everything you need to know about greg is in the way he answered the question “how is your mother doing”: “debt-free! solvent!” he is sifting through these ensnared power relationships looking for whoever or whatever will secure him and serve his needs in the moment, and i think his approach is as bound for failure as any of the siblings’

greg on top is the ending of a dumber show, otm. i think the closest we could potentially get there is greg firing tom, idk how that would happen logistically but it is what i want from their relationship

i reckon it might end just before it's clear who's 'won', with us all awaiting the crying of lot 49

if one of the siblings ends up on top it will break my heart, i prefer not to think about it

it's also very possible that there's some Matsson/Mencken back alley deal that shoves someone we either haven't seen before or would not suspect into the role as some deus ex machina

stewie re-emerges at the final moment & fucks the whole thing

belligerent zucchini walks away w victory

fin

Greg emerging as the puppet-CEO would be a very Bran Stark denouement, like the resolution has to justify how much he has been a part of the plotting

That said I do think it's kinda implausible. In the event that Mencken's presidency is accepted, I'd guess it's far more likely that Matsson gives it to Tom, or one of the greys, or convinces Mencken to accept a non-US CEO and gives it to Oskar or Ebba, or just throws out the entire puppet-CEO idea entirely.

A part of me thinks that what is a possible endgame scenario, though, is Kendall coming-through with his plan as he proposed to Frank: capitalising on "India" to turn around and acquire GoJo himself. Considering how shaky all these alliances are at this point (as well as Mencken's presumptive victory), it does seem in some way plausible?

Considering Kendall's idea hasn't been discussed since he first floated it to frank makes me think the other shoe has gotta drop.

Wanted to add i really loved his brief conversation with Colin, who saw right through him so easily.

Just on trajectory, it's pointing to Roman dying in the riots, spooking the family to seek shelter in the Petco mausoleum and getting entombed alive.

good grief it's not going to be greg

Guys I'm really going to miss Soup & Succession Sundays.

(sometimes Sandwich & Succession Sundays)

I also think a lot of speculation I've read assumes Armstrong etc want to see a bleak ending for everyone when I think they have sympathy for the characters, again I don't think it's a breaking bad scenario where the characters are frequently just cannon fodder for audience shock moments. There's probably a realistic ending coming which doesn't feel completely heartless.

stewie re-emerges at the final moment & fucks the whole thing

i was bummed not to see him at the funeral

I also think a lot of speculation I've read assumes Armstrong etc want to see a bleak ending for everyone when I think they have sympathy for the characters, again I don't think it's a breaking bad scenario where the characters are frequently just cannon fodder for audience shock moments. There's probably a realistic ending coming which doesn't feel completely heartless.

. . . so, Marcia

they've done a great job of making a whole lot of scenarios possible and even plausible without any of them feeling obvious, and now the trick will be to make whatever actually transpires feel inevitable

It’ll just be the sibs and Tom and Greg back in the karaoke room, each doing a song in full.

The new CEO?

Shiv and Tom's baby.

quick what is each character's karaoke song

Tom--I Love You Just The Way You Are

Greg--Break Stuff

Connor's is already perfect--tho I would love to hear him do Desperado

I also think a lot of speculation I've read assumes Armstrong etc want to see a bleak ending for everyone when I think they have sympathy for the characters, again I don't think it's a breaking bad scenario where the characters are frequently just cannon fodder for audience shock moments. There's probably a realistic ending coming which doesn't feel completely heartless.

I'm trying to imagine anyone having sympathy for these characters at this point.

Shiv--My Old Man
Kendall--Wind Beneath My Wings

I'm trying to imagine anyone having sympathy for these characters at this point.

― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Wednesday, May 24, 2023 10:20 AM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this conversation is doomed to repeat itself itt forever or at least until the show ends but i do care about what happens to the roy siblings, and the only happy ending for me would be if they all just do something else instead of deepening their dadtrauma by vying for control over the stupid company. idk is this sympathy? roman is my favorite character btw and him being a fascist steamroller in the election episode did not dim my love of him one bit

Shiv - One Way or Another
Kendall - Hey Ma

ok yes absolutely kendall would do "hey ma" and he'd do a great job

this conversation is doomed to repeat itself itt forever or at least until the show ends but i do care about what happens to the roy siblings, and the only happy ending for me would be if they all just do something else instead of deepening their dadtrauma by vying for control over the stupid company. idk is this sympathy? roman is my favorite character btw and him being a fascist steamroller in the election episode did not dim my love of him one bit

I can see this a little bit, but they are a bunch of monsters who can't take their money and fuck off to Europe and eat a bunch of bread and drink wine, nooooo they gotta be Like Daddy.

Barry reminded me of this a little bit this week--he's got VR goggles on and is tied to a chair and is being psychologically tortured by Moss. . . so as a fellow human, you want him to break out of that situation, but he's still a murderer and a hit man.

so I mean I care about them as humans but I don't think good things are going to happen to them

they have to be like daddy bc daddy traumatized them into thinking the only real path is to be like daddy! i know they're monsters. the show is good bc i can have these thoughts at the same time

and yeah i think the finale is going to make me feel bad

thank god. best show ever. hurts my feelings

uuuuuggghh wish I quit reading before the Barry spoilers itt, dammit.

I have a whiff of sympathy for Roman. Lots for Rava. None for anyone else, really.

uuuuuggghh wish I quit reading before the Barry spoilers itt, dammit.

― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, May 24, 2023 6:37 PM (six seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

Sorry I should have hidden, my bad.

to be fair, it takes place within the first five minutes of the episode and there's so much more in that episode, but again my bad

thanks, I was just purposely avoiding the Barry thread since we are still behind on that one, but I guess a minor spoiler isn't too big of a deal

They are horrible people and if they were in real life or their last name were Murdoch most people here would want to see them die in a fire.

I enjoy the show and the stock market salivation at who is up or down each episode but thinking about them as people after four seasons is like being concerned that Seinfeld hurt Crazy Joe Davola's feelings.

the stock market salivation at who is up or down each episode

oh ok this is not the wavelength on which i enjoy the show at all. godspeed i guess. thank god this is a fictional show btw!

The whole reason the show is great and not an empty binge watch is the depth of feeling for complicated occasionally monstrous characters. It would be very easy to just have it be a vacuous race for the waystar chip but they're presented as real vv flawed human beings and not chess pieces

otm

I don’t even hate Greg the way a lot of other folks do,

I know it's very basic of me, but the stuff that has come out about Nicholas Braun has made me hate Greg rather than finding him amusing.

I have a whiff of sympathy for Roman.

I thought I had sympathy for Roman, until I saw him berating ordinary people for protesting and then getting his head kicked in, and I thought, good. He deserves that. Like, he has no business directly interacting with real people. We don't need his type actually wandering about on the streets.

Think you can feel sympathy for a character clearly broken before even reaching adulthood but still want them to feel consequences of their actions once they get there. Like channeling your family drama into electing a fascist is not it