Spoilers for the Succession finale below.
Like all great TV, Succession has hardly been a stranger to a big end-of-season twist — think back to season one, when Kendall (Jeremy Strong) inadvertently killed (or didn't; it was a false memory, guys) that poor waiter at Shiv's wedding, or season two, when Kendall tried to murder once more, this time his father, declaring a major scandal at Waystar to be the day that his “reign ends.” (It didn't really go to plan.) Then there was the Tom-foolery of season three's end cap, The Wambsgans betraying the Roy kids in favour of Logan, because he always had this acute nose for where power truly lay.
From season-to-season, those big final twists functioned largely as juicy cliffhangers, ensnaring us and ensuring our ravenous continued viewership. But with season four, the final season, it was all the more simple: a gut punch without a promise, a slap to the face in a cramped bathroom, a heart attack on a private plane. There would be no more story to come from Succession season 4, but you'd damn well be sure that Jesse Armstrong and his writing team would leave us with a devastating parting gift.
So, in the final ever episode of Succession, which will no doubt top best-of surveys for decades to come like Seinfeld, The Sopranos and Breaking Bad before it, Shiv (Sarah Snook) made a decision. In the prior eighty minutes of narrative, she discovered Lukas Matsson's (Alexander Skarsgård) planned betrayal — to drop her from the promised position of Waystar CEO following the GoJo deal — and reconciled, less than enthusiastically, with her brothers, combining their familial weight to block the acquisition from going through.
But they needed a new, palatable sovereign: Roman (Kieran Culkin) was disqualified by his ineptitude (and, y'know, he didn't really want it), and Shiv by her betrayal (no one would buy her about-face). So Ken was declared CEO-elect. He drank his meal of blended bread stubs, spit and Branston pickle, fit for a king. And then they got to the board meeting. Ken stood up, telling the assembled suits that the deal was no longer acceptable, that Waystar Royco would fare better under the stewardship of blood, not some Swede.
And Shiv just couldn't handle it. Following some bloody head-squeezing and the bellicose exchange of home truths we've come to expect from the Roys, she voted for the deal, against her brother's ascension, relegating them all to the terrible fate of billion-billion dollar retirements.
But why? Well, with no more Succession to come (unless the AI-loving tech bros get their way, which seems unlikely), the internet has been alight with theorising, as the internet so often is.
Theory one: Shiv, the benevolent sister
The first theory, which seems to be a Twitter go-to for those who believe in Hollywood-happy endings stripped of conflict and nuance, is that Shiv was acting out of a place of kindness. She knew, you see, how Ken's reign would go: behind his edifice of laid-back business prowess was sheer incompetence, which would be laid to bear in front of the entire world with any protracted time in the spinny throne previously inhabited by their father, humiliating him. He'd probably end up killing himself, you can imagine Shiv thought.
This all struck her at some point between taking her seat in the boardroom and her dramatic 180. Maybe it was something in Ken's puppydog face eggs? Perhaps she was filled with the regret and sorrow she felt when laying eyes on their dad — that brute of a man, reduced to villainy by a job that saw him die on the shitter, thirty-seven thousand feet in the sky. She couldn't let her brother become that, could she, that inevitable fate flashing before her eyes.
Hmmm. Yeah, probably not.
Theory two: Reverting to the safe option (Tom)
More feasible is the idea that Shiv, confronted with the actuality of Ken's ascent, realised that she'd be once again left out in the cold by her brothers — just look, after all, at how she was treated by Ken and Roman in their stint as interim managers. All that matters in Succession is power, and how much one can gluttonously cultivate, like a hungry holidaymaker at an all-inclusive buffet pooling together piles of bacon and pastries. So, in that moment, Shiv realised that power starts at home — home sort of still being Tom. And with her malleable husband in the hot seat, power would at least come to her through osmosis.
Then there's an argument that she still loves him or something which is less feasible, but sure. We can kind of see this.
The correct, third theory: Shiv can't stomach seeing Ken win
Here's the truth: everyone on Succession is a despicable, self-interested arsehole, with the solitary goal of acquiring as much power and influence as they can, be it over Presidents and elections or indeed their alleged loved ones. Girlboss politics to one side, Shiv is a compelling anti-hero because she's a conflicted, awful person, like her brothers, like her dad, like her mum, like the Waystar lackies and alt-right airhead Jared Mencken (Justin Kirk).
But at its core Succession has always centrally been a family drama, with squabbles and in-fighting that just so happen to have macro societal consequences. (There is no greater demonstration of this than episode seven of this season, “America Decides,” in which Ken agrees to elevate a Proud Boy to POTUS just to get back at his libtard sister.)
This twist was beautiful, and so prototypically Succession, because it encapsulates everything the show has always been about: the inability for these contemptuous rich losers to see the other succeed, not least to their own power-grabbing detriment. At the end of it all, Shiv can't bear to watch Ken play with his toys, and she'd rather throw them out of the corporate pram. If you don't believe us, take it from Jeremy Strong and Matthew Macfadyen, who both share our thoughts. (Thanks, boys.)
“I don't think it was anything to do with helping Tom,” Macfadyen told Variety of Shiv's betrayal. “I don't know, because it's Sarah [Snook]'s thing, but I think it's just that she can't stomach her brother. […] There's something in her that snaps, or that sort of curdles, when she sees him stand up — her brother as CEO — and makes that speech. And she can't do it.”
Strong, for his part, suggested on HBO's Succession Podcast that Shiv ultimately votes against Ken because she and Roman “just can't tolerate seeing Kendall win, in a sense. I think what they perceive as his sort of grandiosity and self-importance, and putting his feet up on dad's desk, they can't stomach it. It's what Shiv says.”
There you have it, folks. Shiv just couldn't watch Ken head off into the corporate sunset with the spoils.
