The Succession Finale Is A Reminder That The Roy Kids Are, And Always Were, Damaged Children
This article contains spoilers for the series finale of "Succession." It also contains references to child physical and sexual abuse.
"You are not serious people."
These are the five words patriarch Logan Roy (Brian Cox) used to devastate his children, but he was definitely on the money. Each of the Roy kids has serious emotional damage from a lifetime of growing up Roy, enduring abuse and neglect at the hands of their parents. They were all forced to grow up too early in one way or another: eldest child Connor (Alan Ruck) had an angry father and mentally disturbed mother and watched the latter get taken away to an asylum; prodigal son Kendall (Jeremy Strong) was held to impossible standards by Logan starting when he was barely out of diapers; Siobhan (Sarah Snook) had a father who treated her like an object and a mother who resented her; and Roman (Kieran Culkin) was definitely verbally and physically abused by Logan (and his siblings) and was likely molested, possibly by "Uncle Mo."
As a result of being forced to grow up too fast (combined with their riches and privilege), the Roy kids are all still mostly children in the way they think and act. They've never been able to fully mature past their most childish impulses, and are at their worst when they're around one another. Their shared trauma brings out the absolute best and worst in each other, and the "Succession" series finale contained two incredible scenes that showed just how childish Ken, Shiv, and Roman really are.
Enfants terrible
The Roy siblings are forever bound by their shared trauma, because no one else on the planet could possibly understand what it's like to be the child of Lady Caroline Collingwood (Harriet Walter) and Logan Roy. There's a lot of bitterness between them because of decades of backstabbing, but they've also been there for one another in times of crisis. One of the series' most powerful moments came at the end of season 3, when Ken finally confesses about accidentally killing the waiter, and his siblings helped him cope with the moment. In the series finale, the trio meet at their mother's place to talk about the GoJo sale and how to potentially keep the company. Shiv and Roman finally give in to support Ken as the CEO, and then head into the kitchen to do what seems like an old ritual from childhood, creating a disgusting meal for Ken to eat and calling it "a meal fit for a king." The moment is incredibly sweet (for "Succession" anyway) and reminds us why we care about these characters even though they're all monsters — they're deeply damaged people who once were innocent and decent, and occasionally we get to see that shine through.
"Succession" has always been a "King Lear" story at its core, following the siblings as they vie for their father's crown. It's a Shakespearean tragedy for the ages, and the joyous but destructive celebration of "meal fit for a king" is right in line with the Bard. They are acting the fool, crowning the king of fools with a blender full of expired food and licking their stepfather's expensive cheese. They're destructive, petulant, spoiled children, but it's so good to see them happy for once because they never seem to get the chance.
A meal fit for a king
In the post-episode featurette on the Max streaming service, the finale's director, Mark Mylod, explained his conflicting emotions while filming the powerful "meal fit for a king" sequence:
"That sense of recaptured innocence. Kids being kids, no matter what their income. Everything seemed possible and yet... my understanding of the show is that it's always been a tragedy, and therefore any moment of hope like that is so cruel because you're just waiting for that shoe to drop and waiting for their essential natures to be exposed and to break your heart again."
Their natures do win out, of course, as Roman starts questioning everything and getting cold feet, Shiv's resentment toward Kendall finally overrides her desire to screw over Lukas Mattson, and Kendall turns into a violent bully like his father, crushing Roman's wounded eyebrow against his shoulder until the stitches pop. They are all going to give into their worst sides because no one has ever shown them how to be better, and it's likely that no one ever will. When everything finally comes to a head in the Waystar-Royco offices during the vote on whether or not to sell to Mattson, Roman and Kendall start duking it out like a pair of schoolchildren, rolling around and punching one another in their Armani suits. They are not serious people — they're just overgrown children.
The kids will never be alright
In the end, Waystar-Royco is sold to GoJo and Mattson appoints Shiv's semi-estranged husband Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfayden) as the new CEO of the whole company. The Roy kids have some investments and holdings of their own, but were shut out of the will and can't really go "home" again, as the home of their youth now belongs to Connor and he doesn't seem keen on regular reunions. Each of them is really on their own now — Kendall is completely lost, Shiv ran to the arms of the devil she knows and went back to Tom, and Roman seems happy to be free. Can any of them ever heal from all they've endured? After all, they can probably afford some seriously good therapy.
The Roy kids may have had a lot of things handed to them, and they may have led privileged lives that many of us could not even begin to imagine, but they were still just kids who were treated horrifically, forever shaping them as broken adults. Unless they actually face all that they've been through and acknowledge their faults, they're never going to get better. That's the biggest tragedy of "Succession," really. The Roy siblings could have always had one another and leaned on each other to recover and grow, but their selfishness and greed ruined any chance of happiness.