With the final episode of Succession season three airing on Sunday, most of us fans have watched it and have agreed it was a fitting end to a masterful season. It sets us up season four with tensions just as high as the ending of season two, with many variables and plot lines at play.
One of the best qualities of Succession, and one that is present in most great tv shows, is its foreshadowing. In the season’s finale there was plenty of it at play, and we take a look at some aspects you may have missed.
Nero and Sporus
In the fourth episode of the current season we were treated to what seemed at the time like some rather bizarre words from Tom to Greg.
It was the Nero and Sporus story, and at that moment we were all Greg, bewildered and left to believe that it was just Tom being unusually weird.
i’m never getting over it #succession pic.twitter.com/j735uhyE1W
— yazzy 🌈 (@yazzysdiary) December 13, 2021
Of course, we should have known that the metaphor would come full circle as it did at the end of the finale when Tom betrays Shiv (pushing his wife down the stairs) and allied again with Greg (or Sporus who he has chosen to castrate and marry).
When Tom is propositioning Greg, he asks him, “do you want a deal with the devil”, to which Greg. responds with “well who needs a soul anyway?”, another nod to his/Sporus' castration.
Kendall and Roman in Succession
This example is less of a foreshadow and more of a parallel.
When Kendall breaks down in front of his two siblings over his personal struggles, namely his role in the death of the waiter in season one, Roman comforts him.
It is not a full on hug or release of sympathy from Roman. But given his character, any type of emotion or love shown by him towards his siblings is meaningful, and Kendall knows this.
Roman still worships at the feet of his father Logan, but Kendall has already been beaten down enough and seems to have made peace with his relationship with his Dad.
When Roman experiences a similar experience of being beaten down by their father at the end of the finale, it is Kendall who goes to comfort him.
the way roman and kendall comfort each other in the same way no one speak to me #Succession pic.twitter.com/Moc3Gv2oYa
— mckenna (@atjfilms) December 13, 2021
Logan and Tom in Succession
It has always appeared that Logan never thought much of Tom, and that any expression of gratitude or love towards him was done in a condescending manner, or when Logan was not even in his right state of mind.
Logan thanked Tom for offering himself as a sacrificial lamb during their legal issues, but Logan’s reaction had an air of insincerity to it.
In one of the funnier situations that has arisen in Succession, Tom finds himself helping Logan while he is going to the toilet, and Logan refers to him as ‘son’.
A sweet moment, but only to an extent because Logan had not taken his pills for his urinary tract infection and had gone, in Roman’s words, ‘piss mad’.
Fast forward to the season finale when Tom shows up to the villa after betraying Shiv to Logan. Logan goes out of his way to greet Tom with a smile, and places an arm on his shoulder in what is a truly genuine moment.
Shiv and Tom in Succession
“You’re marrying a man who fathoms beneath you because you don’t want to risk being betrayed. You’re a fucking coward.”
These are the prophetic words thrown at Shiv from her father in season one.
Logan, despite his numerous and horrible flaws, is nearly always right.
Shiv has consistently worn Tom down, and the phone call she made to him in the finale where she is unable guarantee him a position in Waystar, is the final straw.
While Tom wears Greg down, he throws him a bone from time to time, enough to keep him on side. Logan wears down nearly everybody in his life down but also strings them along just enough to keep them in tow. Logan is also king, and his power casts a spell over others that Shiv is incapable of doing.
It is a testament to her treatment of Tom throughout Succession that there was little sympathy cast her way when Tom betrays her.
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