HBO's Succession - Season 2 and Beyond

I saw 88 somewhere but that might have been a Mencken reference

BFI is doing a midnight screening tonight with Jesse Armstrong

This has been a fine thread, see you all on the other side

assume everyone has pre-grieved

yep pregrieved, all set, fine fine i’ll be fine

(can we hold hands)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_lflcevOdM

waaaaaaah why is this the finale i dont want it to end

hmm they’re rolling into my bad theory too early in the episode, so it’s not going to fly by the end

HUSH

Isn't this thing over yet? It's time for Barry!

How’s everyone doing?

(I haven’t seen any of the show but know this is The Big Ending.)

Damn

Kendall couldn’t just keep his mouth shut and give her a moment. Can’t escape who you are.

Shiv and Tom finding the only way to do love in this manic world right at the end is a top payoff to this series. The Roy family could never do it, could never sacrifice for one another because the trauma is too deeply ingrained. Great finale

I think if Kendall was strong and stayed in the room when Shiv left, she would have come back with a yes for team Roy

Everyone in this show is awful and I’m glad that it’s over

Would accept an invitation to Barbados from Caroline esp if she was inviting Kerri and Marcia tho

This basically ended in a way that fit the understanding of the characters I'd come to and so I found it satisfying. I don't think it's particularly sad.

This one took place over two days by the way!

In particular, I got my wish on this and am glad

What I want to happen is for the election to recede into the background for the rest of the show because, like so many other things that seemed momentarily of import, the Roys don't actually care about it. Like, there will be a couple of lines of dialogue in one of the final two episodes where somebody mentions that a court ordered a revote and Jimenez won.

What I don't want is for the show to end on Roys Realize Too Late That They Ruined America And Are Bad

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, May 16, 2023 2:23 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

It’s kind of poetic that the final scene of substance in this show had

- Kendal lying about the killing
- Roman taking potshots about adoption/sperm donors
- Shiv realizing that her gung-ho attitude was generated by her desire to be shitty to Tom

Definitely made me feel content to consign these shitheads to my mental trash folder, thank you writers!

I can't comprehend finding these characters hard to identify with!

this was the right ending despite a couple of false notes

For fun, shall we?

Winners based on how much they got what they wanted: Logan > Mattson > Tom = Shiv > Greg > Rome > Ken.

And then there's Con going to Slovakia while Willa gets her luxury condo.... maybe Willa was the winner after all?

Def implied that Mencken is gonna lose.

Just saw an article mention ken and roman's hug as a sweet brotherly embrace. Wasn't there more to it? I thought ken purposely squeezed roman's head to open up the wound to deflate roman's idea that he looked good and it could have been him.

I saw it the way you saw it.

yeah same

yeah not sure what that article was thinking

I thought Rome’s smile as he sat at the bar implied he was happy all the Waystar shit was going to be over for him and the Roys. He couldn’t vote yes to the deal himself or admit to Ken he wanted out. I think Rome was a winner. Only Ken looks devastated at the outcome.

Tremendous finale. It felt like 10 episodes; all the character arcs replayed at high speed.

Re hug - I also got a sense that Roman was deliberately mashing his injury into Ken’s shoulder, felt in keeping with his love/pain vibes

Fuck can’t believe it’s over, what a ride

Yeah, it seemed like Rome was leaning into it, not that Ken was forcing it (while obviously letting it happen)

xps yeah i do think Roman came out of this kinda okay - like obv fucked up but glad to be out of it for sure

what happened to Pearce Media in all this - weren’t they committed to buy? felt that thread just disappeared

this episode combined all the elements about the show that i loved; having it bring the siblings together, seeing them share time alone together in a fun/stupid/affectionate way; of course having them completely fracture apart publicly; plus the tom & shiv seam running through the whole center — yeah i don’t think i could have asked for a better finale to give me those deep character moments you really want

roman with Peter’s Cheese though
my god that was funny af

The scene with Tom and Shiv at the end. The way he turns his hand - it’s like a dagger. I definitely saw that as a tragic blow to Shiv

this really was a show about what bad parenting can do, even with money.

omg the non-clasping of hands was genius

her hand just rests in his open palm like a dead fish, like an offering

and she’s just there, now being “received” so passively by Tom, the king and you know how much he is going to wring out of this now, and how much this will fuel her

it felt suitably terrible & i loved it

the clip of logan at dinner was really lovely

ugh i loved that so much

What I loved about the dinner clip was clearly Connor, the kid the other three considered an also-ran to the throne, pushed aside in their quest for power, the one who felt unloved and exiled, was so comfortable and at ease with Logan at that moment, and the others didn't have that.

At least we never saw it

otm

god what a finale

roman saying “we’re all bullshit” my favorite character ever

ken ends up basically where he was at the start of the show—undermined, no one having any confidence in him at all—which feels very right

such an incredible unravelling, right before your eyes in real time

this was the right ending despite a couple of false notes

Tom “fits easily into whatever pattern is successful”. I think the ending suggests permanence but who knows, he’s shown enough desperation to push through that the siblings just didn’t have because of their inability to put their own shit aside for even five minutes.

Kendall becoming unkempt right at the death and staring out at the water with its suggestion of submerging and never returning is GREAT.

Some other things I liked:

- -Jerk dungeon and he’s been pity-spanked
- Shiv basically calling Tom an inanimate carbon rod lmao (I mean she isn’t wrong but that’s why Matsson chose him, he’s a tool and he knows it)
- Czechoslovakia it
- “You don’t like to fail a test do you Siobhan” basically all the Tom/Shiv moments in this are great
- Roman wanting Shiv but not Kendall to come to him, later on Kendall hugs Roman and literally reopens his wound while doing so, I love how they are written, what a clown car of fuckups
- 200k Greg
- The Hundred reference!
- Creamy margins & the Living + pitch, somehow this managed to only be the second funniest scene in Caroline’s place
- Roman imitating Kendall after an unsuccessful murder attempt was incredible, and yet only the second best Roy impression this episode
- Meal fit for a king
- Freeze the knobbies
- The scent of the siblings in the kitchen is great. Easily one of my favourite scenes in the whole show ever. They go from serious and contemplative in the ocean to larking around like kids and it wasn’t enough because they lost that bond between them in pursuit of fuckery. I laughed so much when Caroline came down to tell them to be quiet and when Roman was licking the cheese, it reminded me very much of me and all my own siblings when we are all in the same place at the same time and revert to kid stuff. It was one of the realest scenes in the whole show and I’m so happy we got to see it.
- Willa’s cowprint couch
- SILENCE IN THE COURTYARD - is this something kids say in America? This is a school type chant that you’d say as a child, as I learned it, we did it as:

Silence in the courtyard, silence in the street
The biggest fool in Ireland is just about to speak
Speak, fool, speak
Speak after me

Tom in control of Shiv at the end. This reminded me of the repeated hints we’ve got this season that Tom targeted Shiv in her weakest moments, even when they first got together, and that he is happiest when she’s pliable. It was ice-cold.

I will be thinking about this ending for a while. Felt narratively satisfying.

Oh and eephus you deserve a shoutout for correctly flagging exactly how the election plotline would play out. After a few episodes of the biggest picture, the show zoomed right back in again and showed us everyone’s pores and wrinkles in the highest definition. It was classic.

The misogyny towards Shiv was real in this episode.

Matsson is bothered by the puppet cartoon.
He tells Tom straight up he wants to fuck Shiv, and we already know he’s compromised himself by shitting where he eats at least once.
Kind of crazy that she ends up extremely rich but the show tells us explicitly she is subordinate to her husband, who is a guy in a suit who could be (and lbr, will be) fired at any time.

I think I wrote before I didn’t care for the whole pregnancy subplot but it made perhaps somewhat sense that she would be drawn back towards Tom because of it.

Also, Roman just casually bludgeoning Kendall with Logan’s comments about his children was incredibly cold. And I think it touched a nerve with him, because we’ve never really seen Kendall give a fuck about his children, even when their wellbeing is threatened by his own actions. Bleak!

Final shot of Roman, at a bar in a nice place with a great looking martini, bruised and bloody but still breathing. Made me think about some earlier line of Tom’s about how the Roy kids would always be ok, and that’s it.

I was only sorry Greg wasn't totally fucked, but that is, as I have pointed out before, my animosity towards the actor. Obviously it's in keeping for Greg to remain as Tom's pain sponge and so it's pain sponges all the way down.