HBO's Succession - Season 2 and Beyond

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

The new CEO?

Shiv and Tom's baby.

The final scene will be a flash forward, and it will set the stage for a now grown Iverson and Shiv’s child to fight each other for CEO of Waystar—which has now been reduced to just an legacy IP brand name.

If I had to make a prediction (which I know, it’s not that kind of show), I think perhaps Menken will insist that Ken be the CEO. Ken will accept because he hopes he can kill the deal but keep the position, but he will fail and it goes through. Thus, after all this plotting, he will have “won” by becoming CEO, but still have someone above him wielding the real power—i.e., reducing him to the same position he was in during the first season, when Logan decided to stay at the helm. Would fit the "nothing changes" thread going through the show.

(The PGN deal hasn’t been mentioned in a bit, I wonder if that is kaputt—would they still be willing to sell to the siblings now that they openly cast their lot with a fascist?)

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.

Agreed.

I still can't watch this show without singing that parody version of the theme by the EWF September video guy where he sings "which one's going to get a kiss from daddy?" over the credits.

Kendall - def Hey Ma
Shiv - Fast As You Can
Roman - he’d be the guy that does Tequila so that he doesn’t have to sing
Connor - Honesty
Tom - Mr Jones
Greg - Shots

Pointless as it is to speculate seeing as we’ll all know in a few days, but the PGN deal going totally silent has been sus to me, I did wonder if Matsson could back them to purchase Waystar as a proxy and control both companies, but that’s probably bollocks. As long as everyone is miserable I’ll be happy.

xxxp the other funny ending would be that a PGN exec takes over ATN and Mencken welcomes it because a media property treating the president as an adversary is more useful for his needs than a news org repping for his administration

that was where Trump's whole crooked media thing was kind of useless, any small slight from Fox and they were the worst thing ever even when that was the media voice of much of his base, leading to other, more right-wing and pro-admin channels coming into play. if you are nominally against the president, it's a win-win

We already know Ken's song, it's Honesty

Looking forward to the spinoff series where Kendall starts Rawkus Records

group song..cat's in the cradle.

quick what is each character's karaoke song

― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, May 24, 2023 12:14 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

didn't kendall rehearse a billy joel song before his bday that he wound up scrapping?

"honesty"

orrr what dan m said

Looking forward to the spinoff series where Kendall starts Rawkus Records

lol otm

I get the reference, but there is no way Kendall's label would ever get even an eighth of the critical respect that Rawkus got.

Feel like it's gonna be a Line Of Duty type ending. I want good things for Gerri, though.

my mother is coming to stay next Monday!! I can't work out when mr kinder and I are going to watch it in peace!!