As quickly as Succession became one of TV’s most essential and entertaining dramas, it’s now leaving us. This coming Sunday night marks the Season 1 finale, the last time we’ll be able to be repulsed by the Roys and declare our love for bumbling Cousin Greg until next year. However, there’s still plenty of scheming to be done and resolutions to be had before we broach the hiatus. Here are the biggest questions we have heading into Sunday’s finale.
Will Tom Go Through With the Wedding?
As much as he wants to, Tom can’t escape the fact that his wedding with Shiv is on shaky ground. In “Pre-Nuptial,” the poor guy poured his heart out to her (and also, conveniently, spilled the beans on the whole cruise-line sexual-assault scandal that could tank Waystar Royco) and Shiv promised that nothing was going on with her colleague and ex-boyfriend Nate, which … is not true.
Tom isn’t ready to deal with the reality of this situation, though. He’d rather push Cousin Greg to the ground and run away from his problems than listen to him talk about Nate tenderly touching the small of Shiv’s back at the rehearsal dinner. We’re approaching the point of no return, however. Tom ignoring his fiance’s infidelity less than 24 hours before their wedding is a temporary salve.
It’s hard to imagine him maintaining this illusion for much longer—though at what cost? While Shiv is using the cruise-line fiasco as leverage against her father, Tom is still collateral by virtue of being in charge of that division of the company. He’s in a bind; his choices are to marry someone he knows is cheating on him, or to face facts and likely lose his career and potentially his freedom. It’s almost like marrying someone whose nickname is Shiv has its drawbacks.
Can Kendall Execute the Waystar Takeover?
Technically, Kendall’s already made a mess of the Waystar takeover by expediting the process. He told Frank what was going to happen; Frank presumably told other people, and now the Sandy-Stewy takeover has to happen the weekend of the wedding before it gets leaked and Logan is apprised of his son’s betrayal. Knowing that poor Kendall can’t seem to do anything without stepping on his own feet, how should we feel about the hijacking of Waystar?
The odds feel quite slim that this is going to work out in Kendall’s favor. His Sisyphean journey climbing the corporate ladder and trying to prove his worth before failing and relapsing with cocaine is a major theme in Succession. He, sadly, just isn’t a character who will win in the long term. Knowing Kendall, Logan will get some kind of leverage—while also shattering the last remaining vestiges of his son’s ego.
Is Roman Really Launching a Rocket?
On Sunday night, Roman was fixated on executing a rocket launch that would not only be great PR for Waystar, but would also be an epic moment tied to his sister’s wedding. On most shows, launching a rocket into space would feel like an important plot point! But as Succession has weaved its many threads together, the whole Discount SpaceX thing has felt a bit thrown to the wayside.
Like Kendall’s prospects, there is a small chance that Roman will supervise a rocket launch without anything going horribly wrong. I wouldn’t trust this guy to pick up my laundry, let alone oversee a multimillion-dollar enterprise that could make or break a company’s stock. (Rocket fails are that big.) It’s not hard to imagine a link between the rocket launch and Kendall’s attempted takeover, and the unintended consequences of them imploding Waystar before it can even switch hands.
Can Cousin Greg Get a New Nickname?
The important Cousin Greg news of the week: When he was a child, he was nicknamed “Greg the Egg” because he had a misshapen head. Hence, he is called Greg the Egg quite frequently in the penultimate episode, and not exactly in an endearing manner. Spiritually—and perhaps aesthetically—he really is the show’s Humpty Dumpty.
As a Cousin Greg superfan, I have convinced myself that Succession is about Cousin Greg’s slow ascendance into becoming the next Rupert Murdoch. Perhaps his asymmetrical dome is absorbing all the atrocities of the Roy family like a sponge, so that they can be weaponized in the near future to fit his interests. That, or, he’s just a doofus. Whatever. Cousin Greg forever.
Will Anyone Die?
Succession began with the near-death of the Roy patriarch, and it feels like the show could drop the other shoe at any moment—be it another health relapse for Logan or the death of another character tangential to the Roy’s perpetual scheming.
Like in Billions—a show spiritually aligned with Succession in a few key ways, including a fondness for Ortolan—death isn’t thrown around as haphazardly as, say, Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead, where it feels like a daily occurrence. However, it’s hard to picture a more fitting consequence for all the characters’ amoral decision-making than a life-altering—or life-ending—moment of mortality. For the sake of the show’s narrative heading into Season 2, a big finale death might be the most compelling course of action. As long as it doesn’t involve Cousin Greg, of course.
Disclosure: HBO is an initial investor in The Ringer.
