With a turn of the screw and instructions to “fuck off,” another season of Succession has come to an end.
On Sunday night, HBO aired the explosive Season 3 finale of its Emmy Award-winning satirical drama about a morally bankrupt media empire and the billionaire family who owns it. Titled “All the Bells Say,” this episode is one of the most momentous to date — packed wall to wall with major plot developments and some of the best acting the series has ever seen. That the wedding at the finale’s center (one between Logan’s former wife Caroline Collingwood and her new beau Peter Munion) barely gets seen speaks volumes to just how much happens during and around it.
This sensational hour of TV is worth watching sans spoilers. So if you’re running behind, try to cue it up on HBO Max before someone gives it away. But if you’re already caught up and wondering about next season, then you’ve come to the right place for theorizing. Here’s a sampling of the many, many questions we have after that unbelievable cliffhanger; plus, a healthy dose of speculation about what Succession Season 4 might bring.
What’s next for Kendall after his big admission to Shiv and Roman?
Credit: HBO
Kendall’s fate hung in the balance at the start of the episode, with fans worried an ominous shot of him face-down in a swimming pool signaled his untimely death last week. The finale mercifully wasted no time revealing Kendall survived the near-drowning. (“Too many limoncellos,” he says.) But the former CEO and estranged son is still far from OK.
During the finale, in a fever pitch of emotion, Kendall collapses on the streets of Tuscany. He then admits to Roman and Shiv that he was responsible for the death of Andrew Dodds, the waiter whose accidental drowning concluded Season 1.
“I was high and I was looking to score and I was drunk and I was fucked up and I drove,” Kendall recalls. “And [the kid] saw something and snatched at the wheel and we went into the water. And then I left him there and ran.”
The siblings’ reaction is subdued, bordering on glib. “I’ve killed a kid, haven’t you?” Roman asks his sister, whose affirmative response we can only hope is also a joke. It’s a macabre moment of bonding for the siblings, eerily reminiscent of the jokey time they shared the night before Shiv got married — and Andrew died.
Regardless of how calmly Roman and Shiv took Kendall’s admission of guilt, their knowing comes with serious implications. Not only does it put Kendall one step closer to landing in prison for his crimes (loose lips, etc.), but it also threatens to reveal Logan’s complicity and role in the subsequent cover-up.
Of course, Roman and Shiv are also implicated if they don’t immediately inform the police of what they’ve just learned. So, it’s a bit of a fuck pie — if you’ll pardon the show’s unique expression — with nebulous outcomes yet to be determined.
What does the WayStar RoyCo and GoJo merger mean?
Credit: HBO
That said, now isn’t a great time for Logan’s kids to have such damning information on him. After all, he did just burn them worse than they’ve ever been burned, effectively removing Kendall, Shiv, and Roman from WayStar RoyCo control and jeopardizing their financial futures.
Season 3’s biggest development came in its final moments, with Logan announcing his plans to sell WayStar RoyCo to streaming company GoJo. Recall that the merger had been a plot point in past episodes, but always with the intention of GoJo being sold to WayStar RoyCo and not the other way around.
In selling the company for $5 billion — chump change to the omnipresent CEO, as he admits — Logan is permanently distancing his kids from the company and effectively handing power to GoJo CEO Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård).
“This is an opportunity for you kids to get an education in real life,” Logan reassures them, before not so sweetly telling them to fuck off.
The kids’ short-lived maneuver to prevent this transfer of power, we learn, was undermined by their mother Caroline. Mere minutes before Kendall, Shiv, and Roman attempted to confront their father about the sale, Caroline agreed to restructure her and Logan’s divorce agreement.
“Peter is so excited,” she says, indicating the deal considerably benefits her new husband.
The specifics of how exactly the kids got screwed over here are a bit murky, but it seemingly removes any leverage they would have had by combining the strength of their board seats. What this means practically for their roles within WayStar RoyCo hasn’t been spelled out, but Shiv summed it up tidily when she said: “We just walked in on Mom and Dad fucking us.”
Who sold out Kendall, Shiv, and Roman — and why was it definitely Tom?
Credit: HBO
The steady unraveling of Tom Wambsgans was a major source of entertainment this season as he narrowly avoided going to prison for the cruises scandal. Headed into Season 4, the would-be sacrificial lamb is back in power thanks to some shifty deal-making that screwed over his wife.
After learning that Caroline sold out her kids, Shiv wonders aloud how news got back to Logan so quickly after she, Kendall, and Roman made their plan to intercede in the sale. Some heavy narrative suggestion indicates it was probably Tom who told Logan about their plan. But more concrete than Logan and Tom’s long hello in that shadowy hallway (or the Roman myth Tom shared with Greg a few episodes back) is the gem of info Caroline nonchalantly drops during Logan’s massive reveal.
“Rex Hendon is dealing with it all,” the back-stabbing mom says of the changes to her children’s stake in the company. It’s a name we’ve heard before — when Tom called that same mysterious, high-powered lawyer in Season 3, episode 3.
How Rex fits into the dethroning of WayStar RoyCo’s crown princes and princess will take a lot of explaining (and actually casting a Rex.) But for now, we know the pivotal player has adequately propped up Tom such that he’s not in prison, back in Logan’s good graces, and maybe even headed towards some success of his own. Still, Tom and Shiv may not be Tom and Shiv for much longer. And you know what they say about a woman scorned.
Is Logan really trying to have a kid with Kerry?
Credit: HBO
Finally, there’s the big wild card of the season: That weird-ass smoothie root.
With Logan’s heirs apparent in the doghouse, the question of the tyrannical titan’s legacy looms large. Connor suspects his dad might be scheming to have another child with his executive assistant Kerry. (Remember, Logan and his current wife Marcia are barely speaking.) But short of a supposedly sperm-multiplying ingredient Connor finds going into one of Logan’s smoothies, we don’t have a lot to substantiate that.
It’s a fascinating dangler in a finale full of things to mull over. Is Logan really so done with his kids that he wants to try again with a new baby? Because if so, they won’t take that well — and, based on Logan’s track record, the baby won’t do so hot either.
