Following an incredibly toxic wedding and (and Emmy-worthy) dinner date between Daddy Roy and the once heir apparent, Kendall, the latter found himself face first, passed out, drunk, in a pool at the end of Succession’s penultimate episode of season 3. As the beer bottle floats away, his breathing appears to stop, and the screen went black. It was all very reminiscent of BoJack Horseman.
https://twitter.com/aherman2006/status/1467733084040675329?s=20
Now, everyone is eagle-eyeing the promo for Succession’s season finale hoping to see Jeremy Strong somewhere in the frame. But, of course, they can’t. While Jesse Armstrong’s dramedy certainly doesn’t provoke the kind of speculation associated with the MCU (mostly because there’s no telling what will happen: who thought Roman would end up sending Logan a dick pic?), we’re going to take 3 major guesses as to Sunday’s surprising ending for this season—from Kendall’s fate to the future of Waystar Royco.
Cover Photo: HBO
Visit the Mandatory Shop for great deals on your very own Mandatory merch.
Follow Mandatory on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Succession season 3 finale
-
Kendall Roy will live...for now.
If Succession really is a Shakespearean tragedy akin to King Lear, Edmund (Kendall) is fucked, and the series has been teasing his demise for years. Ever since he drove off a bridge from Shive and Tom’s wedding, he’s been regularly seen in bathtubs, sprawled out like Christ, and figuratively drowning. If his “ready to die” party or the subsequent ledge-looking wasn’t on the nose enough, the penultimate episode saw him drown...kind of.
Most likely this was a fake-out—Kendall still has a role to play in Succession. Smart money is on him surviving, maybe going to the hospital, and definitely going to rehab. Not only would this allow Kendall to confront his addiction and depression but it’d hit the reset button for him going into Season 4. Either he’ll take a step towards being that “good” person he thinks he is or embraces the darkness and go full Logan.
And Logan definitely isn’t making it to the end of this series either.
-
Gerri will leave Waystar.
No means no Roman, and you sent that dick pic anyway. After Roman accidentally sends a dick pic to his father instead of Gerri—who told him to stop doing that—Logan berates Roman before calling Gerri “a million years old.” Then, Logan immediately ponders the idea of firing Gerri to protect his son:
“I'm not a radical feminist, dad,” said Roman, “but I think perhaps we should not fire her for receiving pictures of my dick?”
Not Long after, Shive talks to Gerri about her filing a sexual harassment complaint against Roman, which she likely won’t do. However, we can’t shake the feeling that Gerri is going to get the short end of the stick here (and that’s not an innuendo). It’s not hard to imagine a future where Gerri poses a threat to the empire.
-
Lukas Matsson & GoJo will change the hierarchy of power.
Last week Alexander Skarsgard’s Lukas Matsson offered up a very interesting soliloquy on failure: he’s seen and knows so much success that failure is now what interests him. This is perhaps why he is interested in Waystar. Originally, Roman’s goal was to buy GoJo from Matsson and become a streaming giant. However, this was before Matsson revealed himself to be much more than just a guy who enjoys pissing on apps.
After some drugged-up tweets inflated GoJo’s value, Matsson has revealed his interest in a merger. In short: Matsson is about to own the Roys. More than that, the pending deal between GoJo and Waystar will completely restructure the latter—people will lose their jobs and, if the Roys don’t end up losing control of their company in the finale, Matsson will at least have as much power as Logan.
-
Bonus (Endgame Guess): Greg will win.
Yes, Greg will win Succession and become CEO. No idea how this will happen but it’ll be some last-minute, “Bran the Broken” shit. In the short term, he’s becoming aware of how poorly everyone treats him and will do much more than climb the dating ladder in retaliation.
