The Roy dynasty has reached the end of the line.
HBO’s Succession returns Sunday, March 26, with its first new episode since 2021. It’s also the Emmy-winning drama’s final first new episode, period. Creator Jesse Armstrong revealed in February that Succession will end with season four, closing out the saga of media mogul Logan Roy (Brian Cox), his adult children and all the other assorted hangers-on, like Nicholas Braun’s Cousin Greg. With only 10 episodes remaining, the final fates for Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Roman (Kieran Culkin) and Shiv (Sarah Snook) are almost at hand — and given how season three wrapped up, those fates have never felt more imbalanced.
Ahead of the final season premiere, The Hollywood Reporter rounds up everything you need to remember about Succession, from shifting alliances to serious bombs that could explode in the episodes ahead. Action stations, everyone!
All roads lead out from Logan Roy, king of the toxic empire known as Waystar Royco. Building the company with his own two hands and a litany of mysterious scars on his back, Logan sired four children along the way: the aforementioned Kendall, Roman and Shiv, as well as eldest son Connor (Alan Ruck) from his first marriage. The various siblings have different interests: Kendall shadows his father’s career with an eye on eventually succeeding Logan as Waystar CEO, Shiv lives outside the company as a political operator (an interest Connor eventually takes on in his own right as well), and Roman does … stuff? (With no disrespect intended toward his movie Doctor Honk, about the man who talks to cars.)
On his 80th birthday, Logan suffers a serious health crisis that forces quick action around the company. Kendall, Rome and Shiv immediately clash over their competing interests in Waystar, and their not-so-secret desires to win the coveted CEO title. After all, their cruel father knows no other form of love than victory, or else, “fuck off.” Logan eventually recovers, though for how long remains a major point of concern for everyone around him. His children stumble badly underneath his fading shadow: Kendall tries and fails to stage a coup against Logan, leading to a drug relapse, a waiter’s death overseas, and still more coups; Shiv becomes the next likely successor, but missteps due to a variety of factors including perceived overeagerness and plain-as-day misogyny; and Roman almost earns his father’s crown, but blunders his shot by sending Logan an accidental dick pic during a critical business meeting. (Meanwhile, Connor runs for President of the United States of America. Don’t laugh! He’s polling at almost one percent!)
As season three reaches its conclusion, Waystar is in dire straits, for so many reasons: Logan’s failing health, Kendall’s public crusades against his father, and a high-profile scandal involving Waystar covering up illegal behavior in its cruise division, just to name a few. In order to avoid colliding with the iceberg, Logan and team entertain acquiring a tech giant called GoJo, run by a brilliant but reckless Swedish innovator named Lukas Matsson (played by Alexander Skarsgård, coming into the show with big Elon Musk energy). Turns out, Matsson likes to play with his food just as much as Logan does. Matsson first indicates he wants a merger of equals between Waystar and GoJo. Then he makes his true intent known: Matsson wants to buy Waystar, wresting the family company away from the Roys, albeit for a pretty penny. For a man who has lost all faith in his children (in large part thanks to his own failures as a parent), Logan sees Matsson’s proposal as the right lifeboat at the right time, and pushes all in.
Frosted out of the dealmaking, Roman and Shiv team together with their estranged brother Kendall, healing their various rifts if only for one temporary goal: stop dad from surrendering their birthright. The Roy siblings have the right to vote against changes in company control as a supermajority, thanks to a clause in their mother Caroline’s (Harriet Walter) divorce settlement. But that clause no longer exists, thanks to Caroline reopening her divorce settlement with Logan, on her own dreamy Tuscan wedding night with new husband Peter “The Seat Sniffer” Munion (Pip Torrens). Logan derides his children for trying and failing at their one shot, mocking them, their easy life, and their complete unreadiness for the top job. How was he able to sniff out their plot in advance? It’s all thanks to another major character as yet unmentioned: Shiv’s husband Tom (Matthew Macfadyen), head of Waystar’s news division ATN. After spending three seasons feeling mistreated by Shiv and nearly winding up in prison due to the cruise scandal, Tom decides to expose Shiv’s plot to Logan to curry favor with the top dog. The season ends with Waystar’s sale to GoJo all but inevitable, the Roy siblings defeated, and Shiv especially crushed in the wake of her husband’s betrayal.
Alliances on the Board
Heading into the final season, let’s take stock of who stands in which corner:
• The Power of Three: Kendall, Roman and Shiv joined forces at the end of season three, and failed horrifically in their attempt to “kill dad.” Trailers for season four show the alliance continuing into the final stretch of episodes, but how long can it hold before their egos once again get in the way? If they can hold, there are plenty of figures they stand to pull into their corner: Kendall’s on-again-off-again buddy and business partner Stewy (Arian Moayed), Shiv’s history with left-wing presidential candidate Gil Eavis (Eric Bogosian), Ken and Shiv’s mutual association with powerful lawyer Lisa Arthur (Sanaa Lathan), not to mention Roman’s powerful connections to Mattson and likely presidential candidate Jeryd Mencken (Justin Kirk) — though the less the Roy trio leans on that small-d democrat/capital-H neo-Nazi, the better.
• The Dynamic (but Soulless) Duo: Tom and Greg were family outsiders all through Succession, but found Nero and Sporus levels of solace in one another. Now, they’re in the inner circle, thanks to Tom bringing Greg along for his “deal with the devil” known as Logan Roy. (“Who needs a soul? Boo, souls!”) The power dynamics are totally flipped heading into the final season, with Tom and Greg likely surrogates for the exiled Roy siblings.
• Conhead Nation: Alan Ruck’s Connor Roy is very serious about his bid for President, even if no one else takes him seriously. But with his nearly-one percent fanbase of “Conheads,” not to mention unlikely future First Lady Willa (Justine Lupe) at his side, Connor’s political capital could play a big role in the show’s endgame — even if that role is nothing more than pure comedic relief.
• Logan’s Minions: The list is long, but includes “Shakespeare” Frank Vernon (Peter Friedman), CFO Karl Muller (David Rasche), PR mastermind Karolina Novotney (Dagmara Dominczyk), communications weasel Hugo Baker (Fisher Stevens), and longtime Waystar General Counsel and current CEO Gerri Kellman (J. Smith-Cameron). In the latter case, Gerri has often aligned with Roman, despite his gross behavior (see again: Rome’s accidental dick pic to Logan, initially intended for Gerri), but only when it’s been in her best interests. At the moment, it’s hard to imagine why Gerri would take Roman’s side after such a clear defeat. Then again, if GoJo acquires Waystar, all of Logan’s aforementioned minions could find themselves out of the job before long.
• Logan Alone: Sure, he has company loyalists. He has his wife Marcia (Hiam Abbass), though her role in his life (and even the show) has recently diminished. He even has his assistant (and probable lover) Kerry (Zoe Winters) at his side. But at the end of the day, Logan trusts only one man’s counsel: his own. And yet, here’s a man who “never saw anything he loved that he didn’t want to kick just to see if it would still come back,” according to his ex-wife Caroline. If Logan’s children don’t return to his side after this latest kicking, a lonely Logan could be a powerful foe indeed — or a completely fangless one. Let’s see.
Worth Remembering
Jesse Armstrong and his fleet of writers have a staggering amount of narrative tools at their disposal heading into the final season. A highlight reel of some of the show’s various loose threads, big and small:
• In “Chiantishire,” Kendall learns about a podcast set to do a deep dive into “the curse of the Roys.” The podcast’s potential publication in season four could lead to more than a few bombshell reveals. Potential segments include a deep dive into Connor’s mother (whose fate is unknown to the viewer), Logan’s late sister Rose (whose death Logan apparently feels responsible for, according to his brother Ewan, played by James Cromwell), as well as another very important piece on the board…
• Kendall’s role in the death of waiter Andrew Dodds at Shiv’s wedding, and Logan’s role in covering it up. A few people know the truth about Andrew’s death, including Kendall’s siblings, who could find a way to use this against their brother should he once again go “nut-nut.” Marcia and her son also know about it, as does Logan’s intimidating security guard Colin (Scott Nicholson). But maybe the most important person who knows about it is Kendall himself, who could expose the story publicly to take down his father once and for all, even if it’s at his own expense. Kendall’s martyr complex is at the forefront of the show’s imagery and in the man’s own actions (the two things almost combined in “Too Much Birthday,” when Kendall nearly performed Billy Joel’s “Honesty” while crucified on stage), and he has previously said he needs “to pay” for his sins. If Kendall makes this move alone, it could be the nail in Logan’s coffin.
• Speaking of imagery, there’s lots of water, everywhere! The show’s central crisis has been described as sailing toward an iceberg, the literal cruises scandal, and Kendall’s role in a man’s drowning in season one and his own near-drowning in the penultimate episode of season three. In a show this dense, it’s easy to forget one more important fact about the characters’ relationship with water: Logan Roy cannot swim, as revealed in Season 1’s “Austerlitz,” which ends with him very slowly plodding through a shallow pool, his back covered in scars. Between struggling in the water and a struggle to make water (thanks to his UTI), the table is set for the proverbial “Piss Mad” King’s fateful plunge before all is said and done.
• Let’s not forget this: Logan’s “maca root” beverages, served up by Kerry. Rome, Shiv and Connor suspect Logan’s trying to have another child, a new possible successor. Not the likeliest twist on the board, but a big enough possible deal that we would be foolish to forget it heading into this last stretch.
• Everyone has ammunition on each other, so much so that we can’t possibly cover it all. Gerri knows about Kendall and Roman paying a homeless man to tattoo Kendall’s name on his forehead. Kendall has photographic evidence of Tom entertaining an offer to betray Logan. Publically liberal-leaning Shiv took a private family photo with neo-nazi Mencken, which could one day go public. On and on and on. The amount of firepower heading into the final season is ridiculous, and we can be sure some of these guns will go off.
Final Predictions
Speaking of shooting shots, let’s take some stabs at putting together an ending, shall we? We won’t get another shot at this without the final season directly informing some predictions, so let’s have at it:
• Logan will die. Easy enough. We need to answer the “succession” question, don’t we? Only one way.
• Logan’s death will make the succession question impossible to answer cleanly. He’ll die at an inopportune time, in a way that serves as a final “fuck off” to his children. Even in death, Logan will bellow from the bowels of Hell: “I fucking win!”
• Kendall will reveal his role in Andrew Dodds’ death. If he doesn’t do it himself, someone will beat him to the punch, but the “happiest” ending for Kendall Roy is coming full circle and accepting himself, manslaughter and all.
• Jeryd Mencken will win the presidency and offer Roman a role in his White House. Roman Roy, forever unclean.
• Yes, sadly, we’re predicting Connor won’t win his presidential bid. Going against the grain here, but we gotta swing big with our predictions.
• Tom will go to jail. He avoided it in season three, but the deeper he pushes into Logan’s inner circle, the more he exposes himself to future jailable offenses. At least he’s already done his research into toilet wine. Whatever sends him to prison will somehow involve one final betrayal from Shiv.
• Greg will nonetheless attain enormous power when his grandpa Ewan dies and passes his wealth down to his grandson, despite threatening to send it to Greenpeace instead. With these newfound resources, Greg will get a controlling stake in Waystar and fulfill his “Bran the Broken” destiny.
• All of this is wrong, and whatever Jesse Armstrong and friends have cooked up for the final season, we won’t see coming. Wouldn’t have it any other way.
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