‘Succession’ Season 4 ending explained: Who’s the new CEO?

A vote, a smoothie from hell, and one last round of backstabbings closed out the fourth and final season of HBO’s Succession.

“With Open Eyes,” the show’s finale, was a beast of a closer, taking Succession‘s combination of dramatic family infighting and dark humor to morbid new heights… and crushing new lows. Yes, by the end of “With Open Eyes,” Waystar Royco officially has a new CEO — something many audience members and the show’s characters themselves view as “winning.” But the journey to get to there is one full of devastating betrayals that fracture relationships beyond any repair. It’s an episode full of burned bridges, scorched earth sibling rivalries, all leading to the inevitable: choosing Logan’s (Brian Cox) successor. For real this time. Let’s break down how we got there.

Kendall and Shiv square off to get Roman’s vote.

Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, and Kieran Culkin in “Succession.”
Credit: Sarah Shatz/HBO

By the end of Succession‘s penultimate episode, battle lines were clearly drawn in the fight for who gets to control Waystar. In one corner, we have Kendall (Jeremy Strong), who hopes to keep Waystar in the family. In the other, we have Shiv (Sarah Snook), who has allied herself with GoJo CEO Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) in an attempt to acquire the company. As “With Open Eyes” begins, Kendall and Shiv are vying to secure votes from Waystar’s board members before the board meeting. One key vote is up in the air, though: Roman (Kieran Culkin), who’s gone missing after breaking down at Logan’s funeral.

As both Kendall and Shiv quickly find out, Roman isn’t really missing. He’s in the Caribbean with their mother Caroline (Harriet Walter), who wants the two to come down and speak to him. They do — not to comfort him, but to discuss business. Roman is in no place to do so, having been injured and shaken by a run-in with people protesting the presidential election. (Speaking of the election, the Wisconsin votes are subject to a court case, so Mencken may not be the winner after all.) Still, his siblings have no trouble treating him as a “human fucking vote,” in his own words.

Matsson considers different CEO options.

Alexander Skarsgård in “Succession.”
Credit: Macall B. Polay/HBO

As the board vote grows nearer, Matsson wavers on his and Shiv’s agreement to make her the American CEO of Waystar. He claims he’s not fazed by a caricature depicting her as his puppetmaster, but between that and his admitted desire to sleep with her, Matsson has opted to go in a different direction. He admits as much to Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen), on one of their many cringeworthy “hangs.” Tom thinks he’s on the chopping block, but Matsson suggests something else: CEO. The offer is less one of power, and more one of being Matsson’s personal “pain sponge.” Nevertheless, Tom accepts.

The scene echoes one of Succession‘s Season 3 finale’s most iconic scenes: when Tom asks Greg (Nicholas Braun) if he wants to make a deal with the devil not long before betraying Shiv and her brothers. Here, though, Tom is in Greg’s position (what is Greg, if not a “pain sponge”?), and Matsson takes on Tom’s role. Both scenes end the same way though: with Tom screwing Shiv over.

But we can’t count Greg out just yet. Tom’s lackey uses a translating app to decipher Matsson’s Swedish discussions and inform Kendall of Matsson’s choice. Of course, he asks for something in return for the intel — always trying to make “the quad” happen, that Greg! Meanwhile, Kendall passes the news on to an understandably mad-as-hell Shiv. And just like that, the Roy siblings are a united front again. Kind of.

Kendall, Shiv, and Roman decide which of them should be CEO.

Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, and Kieran Culkin in “Succession.”
Credit: Sarah Shatz/HBO

As the clock ticks down to the board meeting, Kendall, Shiv, and Roman repeat one of their favorite arguments: Who did Logan want to be CEO? Who among them would have gotten the kiss from daddy(opens in a new tab)? The arguments range from Roman’s claim that he was Logan’s most recent choice to Kendall’s reminder that Logan promised him his empire at age seven. (No pressure.) After much arguing, Shiv and Roman tell Kendall it should be him.

What follows is one of Succession‘s funniest scenes ever, where the trio make Kendall “a meal fit for a king,” aka the world’s most disgusting smoothie. (Tabasco, eggs, and bread nubbies all make the cut, along with some Shiv spit.) Kendall bravely gives it a chug before Roman dumps it all over his head. Ceremoniously, of course.

Between the anointment-by-smoothie and Roman and Shiv coming to their decision while Kendall floats on a platform in the ocean, “With Open Eyes” continues Succession‘s motif of associating Kendall with water. Earlier this season, after his successful presentation on Living+, Kendall took a swim in the Pacific Ocean. It was a moment of rebirth for him, as well as a kind of thematic baptism of him as the more powerful of the “CE-Bros.” However, Kendall’s association with water has not always been so positive. In the Season 1 finale, he and waiter Andrew Dodds crashed into a lake, where Andrew drowned. Towards the end of Season 3, Kendall falls off a pool floatie and attempts to drown in a particularly despairing moment. In both cases, Kendall plus water spells out rock bottom. Does his floating on the ocean in “With Open Eyes” correspond more to his rebirth or “anointment” as future CEO? Or will it spell doom for him?

The tables turn before the board meeting.

Justine Lupe and Alan Ruck in “Succession.”
Credit: Macall B. Polay/HBO

Tensions are high before the board meeting, but that doesn’t stop Connor (Alan Ruck) and Willa (Justine Lupe) from hosting a gathering where people can claim the items in Logan’s apartment through a “sticker perambulation circuit system.” (Connor has also created tiers of grievers to determine who gets precedent.) As the Roys claim their items, they stumble on a video of Logan having dinner with Connor, Frank (Peter Friedman), Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron), Karl (David Rasche), and Kerry (Zoe Winters). As it plays out, the Roys get a moment to bond with their father from beyond the grave — one where he isn’t berating them, but is rather enjoying Connor’s impression of him performing “I’m A Little Teapot.”

But the fun and games end when Tom tells Shiv he’s going to be CEO. From that point on, both sides rally the troops in a last-ditch effort to get the votes they need. Tom also discovers that Greg leaked Matsson’s choice to Kendall, giving us the definitive TomGreg scene of the season: the two of them slap fighting it out in a bathroom.

Shiv throws a wrench into the Waystar vote, and a new CEO is crowned.

The ensemble of “Succession.”
Credit: David Russell/HBO

The board vote proceeds, with six members voting for Kendall, and six voting for GoJo. Shiv has the deciding vote, but at the last second, she has doubts. And as she tells Kendall it shouldn’t be him, his smarmy, assured business persona melts away into pure desperation. “I am like a cog built to fit one machine… It’s the one thing I know how to do,” he pleads.

But it’s all too easy for Shiv to shut him down: “You can’t be CEO because you killed someone.”

Kendall enters crisis spin mode, but it’s too late. If he agrees that he killed Andrew, he’s admitting he’s a killer. If he claims he made the death up (which he does), he looks manipulative and loses his siblings’ trust. Is it rich for Shiv to use this against him after being so blasé about it back in Season 3? Absolutely. But does it make for a brutal blow to Kendall’s CEO candidacy? Without a doubt.

The Roys aren’t done knifing each other though. Roman needles Kendall for his kids not being part of the Roy “bloodline,” as they are not his biological children. This is the last straw for Kendall, who attacks Roman while Shiv casts her deciding vote. In what has felt inevitable this entire season, GoJo acquires Waystar. In a twist, Tom actually does become CEO.

With Tom becoming CEO, where does that leave the rest of our characters?

Matthew Macfadyen and Sarah Snook in “Succession.”
Credit: Courtesy of HBO

As Tom and Matsson officially take over Waystar, it’s clear changes are afoot. Tom seems to want to keep Gerri and Karolina (Dagmara Dominczyk) onboard, but wants to axe Hugo (Fisher Stevens), Karl, and Frank. (To be fair, those last two don’t seem particularly keen about staying on.) Tom also plans to keep Greg with him, even though he “fucked it.” He seals the deal by pasting one of Connor’s stickers to Greg’s forehead. One last hurrah for the Disgusting Brothers, everyone!

And as for the other Roy siblings? Shiv did ask Tom earlier in the episode if we was “interested in a real relationship,” and by the looks of her riding out of Waystar with him, it appears like they may be giving that a try. She even takes his hand after he offers it to her on their car ride! Granted, it’s less of a hand hold and more of a “rest my hand in yours” situation, so it’s clear their intimacy and trust aren’t entirely back. (Can you blame them? More importantly, can we pray for their child’s upbringing?)

After Roman signs Waystar over to a gloating Matsson, he heads to a bar and has a drink alone. His final scene is just as ambiguous as Shiv’s, as he gives a smirk and then a frown, stuck somewhere between joy and sadness. Does he feel freedom at no longer being tethered to Waystar? Or does he regret destroying his relationship with Matsson and not pushing harder to be CEO? Either way (or perhaps a mix of both), it’s a quiet farewell to one of Succession‘s wildest, most bombastic characters.

Succession closes with the tragedy of Kendall Roy.

Jeremy Strong in “Succession.”
Credit: Courtesy of HBO

When we first met Kendall Roy, way back in Season 1, he was on top of the world: rapping along to the Beastie Boys, hoping to close a deal to acquire Vaulter, and next in line for Logan’s CEO throne. The Kendall we part ways with in Season 4 is absolutely broken: His final scene with Shiv and Roman cut him deep, and with the sale of Waystar, he has lost the one thing in life he fought so hard for. His position at Succession‘s end recalls the aftermath of Season 1’s vote of no-confidence against Logan — only here, he’s further at rock bottom, and likely has no salvageable personal relationships left.

When telling Shiv and Roman about how being CEO is the one thing he’d know how to do, he tells them, “I might die” if the vote doesn’t go his way. And for a moment, it seems as if Succession is going in that direction. In Succession‘s last scene ever, Kendall walks through Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan. As he heads towards the railing bordering the river, it seems for a moment that he could be ready to throw himself in. But Succession does not go that route.

Instead, Kendall pulls away from the railing and sits, still gazing out at the water, with his father’s old bodyguard (Scott Nicholson) looking on. Colin’s presence is certainly a reminder of Logan and of Kendall’s ambitions to be like him, and in that way, he’s also a reminder of Kendall’s failure. At this point, he’s the last person Kendall has left.

But the greater focus of this scene is once again the pairing of Kendall and water. Succession leaves Kendall’s actions open-ended as he contemplates the river. He could still choose to jump, an action that would play into the despair-linked water motif we’ve seen before in scenes involving Andrew and the Tuscan pool. Or could he be considering a rebirth, like we saw in his Pacific Ocean and Caribbean swims?

If that rebirth involves Kendall starting his own venture and jumping back into the business world, that would be a tragedy in itself. He would continue to perpetuate the harm his father and he and his siblings wrought on the world, and he would never break free of the box he’s placed himself in. Like Shiv staying with Tom now that he’s CEO, Kendall really only knows one way of life. Maybe the cycle continues after all. Maybe the poison continues to drip through.

All episodes of Succession are now streaming on Max.(opens in a new tab)