Succession Series Finale: Every Question Left Unanswered
The series finale of HBO's "Succession" will righteously be remembered as one of the greatest endings to a television show in entertainment history. With careful focus and years of steady, consistent work, Jesse Armstrong, Mark Mylod, and all involved were able to send off each and every character with the fate they truly deserved.
Over the course of the feature-length episode, most of the season's central questions were answered. The three Roy children were unable to overcome their lifetime of differences to stop Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) from completing his acquisition of Waystar Royco, exiling the family from their birthright once and for all. Confronted with handing the company to either her estranged, traitorous husband, Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen), or her entitled, unstable older brother, Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv chooses the former, ending the story with gutting, nihilistic overtones perfectly summed up by Roman (Kieran Culkin) as he proclaims, "We're bulls***."
While the finale provides satisfying conclusions to every character arc, a number of plot lines remain forever unresolved. From the election controversy, to Logan's (Brian Cox) true succession plan, to the biggest unsolved mystery of all, here are the few loose ends from "Succession."
Will Mencken be President?
One of Season 4's defining events was ATN's controversial declaration of crypto-fascist Hosue Representative Jeryd Mencken (Justin Kirk) as President-Elect. The decision to call the race in his favor was made by Kendall and Roman solely to undermine Shiv's chances at pushing the GoJo deal through.
From a narrative standpoint, it seems as though Mencken's election will be overruled by the Wisconsin court proceedings if only to force Connor (Alan Ruck) and Willa (Justine Lupe) to confront the reality of their situation. That said, as noted in Looper's analysis of the episode "America Decides," Wisconsin's political leanings aren't as cut and dry as Shiv makes them out to be. It isn't unlikely that, if Shiv's desired "re-vote" were to occur, the state wouldn't turn red in favor of Mencken as they did in the real-world for the 2016 election.
It's also worth noting that it wouldn't be unheard of for a party to prevent a recount. After the 2000 Election — which saw Democratic candidate Al Gore lose to Republican candidate George W. Bush despite the popular vote results — the razor-thin margin in Florida triggered an automatic recount. Though it could've potentially overturned the original results of the election, a violent protest of Republican staffers prevented the mandatory recount and won Bush the presidency. It's possible that Mencken's highly mobilized supporters could follow suit in Wisconsin.
What happened with the PGM acquisition?
Much of Season 2 saw Logan obsessively pursuing the network, almost nabbing it with a staggering $25 billion offer. The deal went south due to the cruise disaster, as well as matriarch Nan Pierce's (Cherry Jones) realization that her own CEO Rhea Jarrell (Holly Hunter) colluded with Logan.
In the Season 4 premiere, however, negotiations seemingly opened up once more at a much lower cost. In the end, the newly disowned Roy children managed to snag it for around $10 billion. Though they claimed their intent was to turn it into their new, post-Waystar sibling project, it is implied the purchase was a petty attempt to psychologically wound their father.
Hypothetically, the three Roy children are still tied to PGM, Waystar's once most powerful rival. It's possible the deal never officially closed and will dissolve in the aftermath of the Roy's messy power-struggle following Logan's death. If not, it seems likely that PGM will simply be folded into Waystar under Tom's management.
Will Kendall reconcile with his family?
Since the series premiere, Kendall's desperation to become the next CEO of Waystar Royco has driven a wedge between him and his family. It's shown that his cocaine addiction — seemingly acquired as a consequence of his work — led to his divorce from his wife, Rava, and his quest for power paints him in an unflattering light to his young children.
When fans last heard from Rava and the kids, they're leaving the city in fear as Mencken's supporters riot in the streets. Seeing as ATN called the race, Kendall's family more or less sees him as responsible for putting an outspoken white supremacist in power.
Drunk on his proximity to CEO, Kendall tells Rava that he plans on pursuing full custody of the children. Now that he's permanently outside of the company, Kendall would admittedly have time to be a full-time dad — whether or not he'd actually want to is another question entirely. If he were somehow able to win custody, it's hard to imagine he could realistically repair his fractured relationship with his children.
Will any of the Roy family scandals come to light?
While the Roys have always been a controversial family, a few of the skeletons in their closets would tarnish their public image for good, and Kendall hides some of the most egregious transgressions. In addition to having a history of problematic drug use, he continues to hide his role in the death of a server at Shiv's wedding. It seems that secret will stay buried unless Roman or Shiv choose to leak it to the press.
Kendall also committed corporate fraud via his doctored Living+ presentation. Despite the seriousness of this act, it will likely wind up being immaterial after Matsson does away with the project.
Roman has his own share of controversies, most notably his sexual harassment of former Waystar senior counsel Gerri Kellman (J. Smith-Cameron). Though they came to a legal agreement, secrets like that only stay in the closet for so long, but at this point, it doesn't matter whether or not people trust Roman.
Who did Logan actually want to be CEO?
Logan's true heir will likely remain one of the most haunting unsolved mysteries in the history of television. Some will choose the answer arguably given to fans by the series, which is that Logan never had a clear idea of who should inherit the company, aside from the obligatory and eventually reconsidered decision to name Kendall as his successor. It can also be safely said that — at the time of his unexpected death — Roman Roy was the closest of the three children to the top job.
In reality, though, Logan had no succession plan because he couldn't accept his own mortality. Logically, Logan knew he was going to die one day, but emotionally, he couldn't envision a world without himself. That said, if he was truly planning to cash out and sell to Matsson, Logan would have let Matsson either take over as CEO or named his own CEO.
What was in Tom's infamous logistics folder?
In Season 4, Episode 3, "Connor's Wedding," one of the first things Tom does after Logan's death is call Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun) to order him to delete a file from his computer labeled "logistics." The contents of the folder are never revealed, though it could have been Logan's top-secret pre-GoJo restructuring plan, which involved the firing of Gerri and Cyd.
Perhaps Tom wanted this list destroyed to avoid making any more of Logan's enemies at a time when he could seize power by allying himself with as many executives as possible. Whatever it was, it was almost certainly something Tom was keeping at Logan's behest.
At this point, however, Tom should know better than to ask the surprisingly scrappy Greg to get rid of any documents for him. Though he doesn't bring it up as a bargaining chip in the finale, it wouldn't be all that shocking for Greg to have made his own copy of the file as insurance during a volatile time — just as he did when he first joined Waystar in Season 1.