This weekend, HBO’s “Succession” will finally draw to close after five years and four seasons, and many of the show’s viewers (cough, me) are freaking out and clutching our ludicrously capacious totes for comfort. The show will culminate in a 90-minute finale on Sunday, May 29 at 9pm.
Since 2018, the award-winning television series has developed a loyal fanbase for its deliciously hate-able characters, stellar acting, suspenseful plots, and beautiful score — and, of course, its cynical writing peppered with top-notch insults.
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Jesse Armstrong’s dark comedy-drama focuses on the Roy children as they fight with one another for control of their father Logan’s multi-billion dollar media conglomerate, Waystar RoyCo. The characters are loosely based on the Murdoch family, who owns Fox Corporation, in addition to several other powerful media mogul families.
But even though we’ll be bidding goodbye to our favorite worst billionaires this weekend, the Waystar Royco empire will continue to live on in the Twitter memes, Reddit threads, and Tiktok videos that immortalize some of the show’s most memorable moments. Every new episode premiere has resulted in a flood of internet jokes on Sunday nights, and if you’re not in on it, it’s hard not to notice when your feed is full of references to barnacle meat and wasabi.
So without further ado, here is my best attempt to round-up some of those quintessential internet jokes to help us move past this loss come Sunday.
Let’s start with the man of the hour, Mr. Logan Roy. Played by Brian Cox, Logan’s character is the main point of conflict in the show, often two steps ahead of everyone around him, including his family, much to their chagrin. He is the show’s main antagonist, having built Waystar Royco from the ground up, and his character is brutal. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that his children, and much of the people who surround him, are similarly horrible.
Which is probably why it’s so funny to turn their storylines into ridiculously absurd memes, like this one that stitches Kendall Roy’s never-ending meltdown into a cute Hannah Montana music video:
Or perhaps this one that references Roman’s overwhelming grief at seeing his father’s casket:
Or maybe this one, which recognizes one of the show’s dynamic duos, Karl and Frank. As Logan’s two henchmen, they’ve been in his inner circle since before cable in the ’90s.
Speaking of side characters (there’s too many to name for the length of this article), Gerri Kellman was another fan favorite. In the first season, she began as Logan’s right-hand person. But as we near the end, she’s distanced herself from him and the Roys, especially his son, Roman.
Portrayed by J. Smith-Cameron, she hasn’t gotten much screen time this season, and yet every time she appears on screen, her reactions to all the chaos around her instantly steal the show.
But let’s get back to the Roys. Connor, Kendall, Roman, and Siobhan “Shiv” are Logan’s children, and they’ve taken on more characteristics of their infamous father than they’d like to admit. Since the show’s pilot in June 2018, there has been one question on every audience member’s mind that has yet to be answered: Who will take over the company?
Throughout the series, there have been multiple grabs for power among the siblings, both for Waystar and for their father’s approval.
We all know it won’t be Connor, the eldest son. As the child of a previous marriage, Connor excused himself from the battle for company control early-on, and prefers to stay out of the family chaos as much as possible. As the most aloof and out-of-touch sibling, it is ironic that Connor is the only Roy child with a healthy-ish (ISH!) marriage and some clarity of his father’s manipulation.
Next on the chopping block, we have Kendall. As the second son of Logan, Kendall has his own world of issues that are far too messy to get into in this article. Anyway, I’m still waiting on this Animorph collaboration, as pointed out by Hunter Harris on Twitter:
His younger siblings aren’t doing much better than him, though. Just take a look at Shiv, who married Tom Wambsgans, who is more loyal to her father and to her distant cousin, Greg.
Here’s a beautiful compilation video honoring Tom and Greg’s bromance, otherwise dubbed “The Disgusting Brothers.” (It should be noted that the top comment in this video is, “This is more culturally significant than Quentin Tarantino’s filmography,” and I wholeheartedly agree).
Portrayed by Matthew Macfadyen Tom is a snake, but I don’t know what the show would be without him. Oh, how he would have thrived in Regina George’s clique.
Last but not least, we’re giving an honorable mention to Greg. His grandfather, Logan’s brother, gave away his inheritance to Greenpeace. Although he began the show as a disgraced amusement park employee, he might just finish the show as one of the most successful. (If you can count selling your soul to Waystar as a success.)
Finally, we’d be remiss not to include this mind-blowing finale prediction, for all the Twilight stans out there … Happy watching!
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Source: Hyperallergic.com