But as the haunting score rises and the camera continues to linger on Kendall , it becomes clear that what’s happening might not be so simple.
It’s very clear to me that in the final moments of Succession season three’s absolutely gangbusters eighth episode—the penultimate installment of the third season—that Kendall is about to reach the end of his story.
At this point in his journey, Kendall is at rock bottom—he’s effectively lost his battle against daddy Logan and has told him that he wants out of the company, only to be given a swift and fierce “fuck you” in response.
The final moments of this episode would make for a gorgeous death—the elegant score, the unbelievably beautiful cinematography, the sun setting on the doomed man one last time.
And Kendall perishing the same way that his victim perished at the end of season one would make for a devastating yet darkly-fitting end for the doomed prince of the Waystar Royco family.
As Adam Mckay said in that incredible New Yorker profile, Strong—and, by extension, Kendall—isn’t playing this like it’s a comedy: “He’s playing it like it’s Hamlet.” And what, pray tell, happens to Hamlet at the end of the play? Real Shakespeare nerds also know that Succession is inspired by King Lear, and you’d be hard-pressed to argue that Kendall did not begin the series as the Cordelia of the family.
In the Gospel of Matthew, after betraying Jesus Judas Iscariot attempted to return the money he had been paid for his betrayal to the chief priests and ultimately ends up committed suicide by hanging.
Desta: Let me channel Logan Roy for a moment and say, how dare you demote him to Christ when he is obviously God? When it comes to biblical comparisons, I’m sure I’m not alone in seeing Kendall as more of the perennial Prodigal Son, dramatically leaving the fold and frittering away his money only to come crawling back to daddy.
But sure, I agree that if he’s still alive, the end of the episode makes it impossible for Kendall to stay in the Roy family as is.
Murphy: You’re absolutely right about Kendall as the consummate prodigal son—but hasn’t he already played out that arc? He’s gone to rehab; he’s left the fold and come back.
If his idol is the fiercely private Daniel Day-Lewis, then why would he be opening up and giving an interview if he were to continue playing this character? I can’t see how he continues as Kendall Roy for another season or two after giving us this peek behind the curtain—and the producers have said that the show will only last one or two more seasons.
For me, they’re clearly an allusion to Logan’s brutal “sucking in water” comment about the man Kendall killed—the greatest sin he’s ever committed—and I can absolutely see Armstrong giving poor Kendall the same end.
The ambiguity of the “death” scene still feels more like a brilliant cliffhanger, a way to gin up extra drama in the episode’s final moments, only to bring Kendall back in the next turn.
Still, we both agree that the end of this episode might finally kill all the hand-wringing over the show itself, silencing concerns that Succession was ever losing steam.
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