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After I completed watching a screener of “Chiantishire,” the penultimate episode of Succession’s third season, I figured the day-after chatter in regards to the episode can be about how Roman Roy had unintentionally despatched a photograph of his penis to his father.
He meant to ship it to Waystar-Royco interim CEO Gerri Kelman (with whom Roman has a longstanding will-they/gained’t-they), however mistakenly messaged his father as an alternative. That second was so memorable and so completely on level regarding the sequence’ distinctive mix of darkish comedy and company skullduggery that I figured it could be all any of us might discuss. (And the implications that Gerri might be the one to see her downfall resulting from Roman’s impropriety may provide an entire extra method to discuss in regards to the present’s unhappy, reasonable depiction of office misogyny.)
I used to be kind of proper. Roman’s mis-text was a subject of a lot delight and amusement on Twitter Dot Com and different social media websites the day after the episode aired. For example, think about my favourite tweet on the matter and this positively excellent sloppy Photoshop, each of which seize Roman’s emotional journey all through the scene.
However Succession stans had been far more animated a few very completely different matter as soon as the episode ended: Did the ultimate shot of “Chiantishire” show {that a} sure character was useless?
Spoilers comply with!
Why that closing shot may counsel any person’s useless
Okay, however severely, in case you don’t need to be spoiled on the ultimate shot of “Chiantishire,” please exit the premises now, as a result of I’m about to only present you that closing shot.
Kendall lets a bottle of beer float to the underside of the pool.
HBO
So that is Kendall Roy, as soon as the household golden boy and now the punching bag. He’s having a beer within the pool, floating within the Italian solar. His youngsters have excused themselves from sitting poolside, and Kendall is … not having a good time of it.
Director Mark Mylod cuts to a shot of this second that shoots up from the underside of the pool. Kendall sticks his face within the water, releasing the beer bottle so it floats down towards the digital camera, however the other way up, giving every part a curious, weightless really feel. Quickly, we see bubbles streaming from Kendall’s nostril, because the digital camera slowly rotates round him in a counter-clockwise path. Reduce to black.
So, uh, Kendall’s useless, proper? He simply drowned himself?
There’s no less than considerably compelling proof all through the run of the present. Kendall very continuously submerges himself in water throughout the primary three seasons, and the primary episode of season three options Kendall, absolutely clothed, entering into an empty bathtub when he must decompress for a couple of minutes. Succession loves its foreshadowing, and all of that water imagery may need been resulting in this very second.
Much more very important to this argument, nevertheless, is that within the season one finale, Kendall crashed a automotive he was driving right into a pond whereas excessive on ketamine. He escaped, however the younger waiter within the automotive with him drowned. Logan helped cowl up Kendall’s involvement within the accident, thereby drawing Kendall additional into his clutches. Kendall, distraught about this, has spent many of the subsequent two seasons looking for a method to escape that darkish and horrible second, first by way of utter despair (most of season two), then by way of attempting in useless to topple his father whereas conserving his father’s empire for himself (most of season three).
The demise of the waiter comes up in “Chiantishire” as properly. It’s first invoked by publicist Comfry, who tells Kendall he has an invite to go on a podcast that’s digging into the numerous Roy scandals, together with the waiter’s demise. It’s later invoked by Logan in a scene the place he and Kendall have a final supper of kinds. Kendall is attempting to flee his household and the household enterprise for good, providing Logan a deal that may basically enable Kendall to develop into “a ghost” (his personal phrases!). Logan rejects this deal and taunts Kendall with the truth that the waiter’s demise will perpetually imply Kendall is sure, no less than considerably, to him.
“How lengthy was that child alive earlier than he began sucking in water?” Logan says. Possibly the episode’s closing shot depicts Kendall testing his father’s idea as soon as and for all, in a means that may scar his youngsters. If Logan gained’t let Kendall go, then Kendall may do one thing horrible and drastic with a purpose to obtain that finish.
Lastly, Kendall is an addict, however for many of seasons two and three, the sequence has depicted him as somebody who’s no less than attempting to remain sober. He has relapsed (particularly when his girlfriend Naomi is round), however he has principally stayed away from medication. And but right here he’s consuming a beer, in what might be a delicate indication of a fall off the wagon. Whether or not Kendall is utilizing this season has been a subject of dialogue within the Succession fan areas I’m in, however that beer bottle (which calls again to different scenes of him consuming all through the season) seems like a delicate tip of the hat to the concept that, yeah, Kendall hasn’t been sober for no less than a bit now.
Lastly, when it comes to “this positive looks like the sort of factor publicists place within the New Yorker shortly earlier than a personality in a present has a memorable sendoff,” a large profile of actor Jeremy Robust (who performs Kendall) appeared within the New Yorker simply hours earlier than “Chiantishire” aired. What’s extra, that profile made Robust appear … uh, very intense and perhaps not essentially the most enjoyable to work with? Actors have been kicked off of TV exhibits for much less.
In order that’s proof, proper? That profile? All that foreshadowing? All these invocations of the waiter’s demise? That spinning shot of a person sticking his face into the water and exhaling his closing breath? That descending beer bottle?
Effectively …
Why that closing shot may not counsel any person’s useless
Kendall appears so comfortable to be at his mom’s wedding ceremony, don’t you suppose?
Graeme Hunter/HBO
The obvious argument that Kendall remains to be alive is that any person discovered a number of stray pictures of him in a “developing on Succession” trailer from a number of weeks in the past. These pictures might be decoys utilized by HBO to throw followers off the scent of Kendall’s demise, however that seems like a really elaborate method to attempt to idiot a handful of people that may return and piece by way of trailers launched a number of weeks in the past.
So is that this proof constructive of Kendall’s survival? Not essentially. Stuff will get lower from TV exhibits on a regular basis. You simply by no means know!
The opposite essential argument in opposition to Kendall’s demise is that, properly, it’s actually, actually laborious to drown your self, particularly whenever you’re mendacity on a pool float like Kendall is and particularly in case you’re an grownup (like Kendall is). Yeah, if he intentionally tries to inhale water, he’ll most likely accomplish one thing, however his physique could be very shortly going to show in opposition to him, as a result of your physique doesn’t wish to inhale water. The almost definitely consequence is that Kendall would play at drowning himself, solely to wind up coughing out liquid.
Now, the almost definitely method to die by drowning in a pool is to overdose on some kind of substance, and if Kendall is utilizing once more, perhaps that’s what’s occurring right here. Possibly we’re a BoJack Horseman kinda state of affairs. (BoJack, for the document, lived. It’s actually laborious to die by drowning, even whenever you’ve overdosed.) However as I’ve argued repeatedly, Succession is just not actually a present that does reveals. If one thing is necessary to the story, the present depicts it, and the handful of mysteries the present retains from viewers (particularly with reference to Logan’s useless sister Rose) are additionally mysteries stored from many of the characters. Kendall is without doubt one of the present’s essential point-of-view characters. If he had been utilizing once more, it could lower in opposition to the present’s M.O. to maintain that hidden from the viewers.
What’s extra, you should utilize the concept that Kendall is testing simply the way it felt for that waiter to drown as an indication that he’s ready to do no less than yet another deed on this planet: Go on the aforementioned Roy scandals podcast to inform the true story of what occurred to the waiter. The ultimate second of “Chiantishire,” then, is an outline of a decisive second the place he decides to take himself out of the headspace of a Roy and put himself within the headspace of the waiter. It’s a symbolic gesture of defective redemption, which is one thing Kendall does on a regular basis.
Succession all the time has a watch on what’s humorous about its characters, besides in a few circumstances. Its depiction of familial abuse is handled with grave seriousness, as I’ve argued. However its depiction of Kendall’s psychological well being can also be handled with a stark realism that doesn’t sugarcoat the instances when the character is both extremely manic or deeply depressive. So having Kendall die by suicide in a way that’s extremely troublesome to drag off, whereas maybe poetically apt, would additionally lower in opposition to the present’s standard M.O.
You may make an argument that Kendall will die this season (a.okay.a. within the finale) however hasn’t simply but. It’s an argument I’m sympathetic to, given simply how highly effective the foreshadowing of Kendall being trapped indirectly has been all season. However I’m additionally not going to make any predic — (Kendall provides an interview to the podcast group that reveals he was there when the waiter drowned, then implicates his father within the cover-up. He then dies by suicide at a marriage that’s closely attended by the paparazzi, who will certainly make it into an excellent better spectacle. Season 4 is all in regards to the Roy household attempting to suppress the podcast, a really actual textual expression of the subtextual concept that the one factor the Roys can’t cease is the inevitability of their enterprise mannequin’s demise by the hands of the decentralized information-gathering instruments of the web.) — tions.
In order that’s it, proper? You’ll be able to’t argue with pictures of Kendall from an episode that hasn’t aired but! He’s going to be again, and it could be actually bizarre if the sequence instantly changed into Six Toes Below or Dexter and had a Kendall ghost lurking round to hang-out everybody. We did it! We proved Kendall is alive!
Or …
Is Kendall alive or useless? The reply is: He will be each.
I gained’t faux that Succession (or no less than the HBO advertising group) isn’t attempting to tease the “is he or isn’t he?” nature of that closing shot. The hypothesis by followers of the present isn’t being discouraged by the present’s PR group, on the very least. The “subsequent week on Succession” preview that aired after “Chiantishire” doesn’t function Kendall in any respect, which is a fairly basic method to protect suspense as as to if a personality is alive or useless. The HBO PR group, no less than, knew we had been going to be speaking about that second.
I feel that goosing this explicit dialogue is a mistake on the a part of these entrepreneurs, truthfully. This can be a binary query, and we’ll shortly know, subsequent week, whether or not Kendall lived or died. What’s extra, as with so many binary questions on TV exhibits that air week to week, strains will probably be drawn and viewers who had been very a lot satisfied Kendall was useless will most likely find yourself dissatisfied if he’s alive and vice versa, just because it’s pure to need to be proper. Turning a fabulous, ambiguous shot right into a guessing sport cheapens the shot.
However look past the advertising and what’s occurring here’s what all the time occurs with Succession when it does something slightly ambiguous (and when it does something fully unambiguous, to be sincere): Persons are freaking out about what the reply within the shot is, as an alternative of what the that means of the shot is. We’re so het up about whether or not Kendall is alive or useless that we miss that, throughout the shot, he’s sort of each.
Give it some thought. This shot depicts one more absolute nadir for this man whose household treats him like a rock they drop right into a deep pit to see how lengthy it takes him to hit backside. He’s alive, however he may as properly be useless. He tried the entire resurrection factor when he went in opposition to his dad, however he misplaced fairly conclusively. Now, mendacity on this pool float within the Italian solar, all he needs is for every part to only … cease.
That learn of the shot is true no matter whether or not Kendall is alive or useless. After we see him, he’s each bodily alive and spiritually useless. How he navigates the huge gulf between these two states of being would be the work of the remainder of his life, whether or not that’s a number of extra minutes or a number of extra many years.
“Bodily alive however spiritually useless” additionally describes an HBO character in a famously ambiguous closing shot that will or might not depict the second of that character’s demise: Tony Soprano in The Sopranos’ sequence finale. The purpose of that present was all the time that Tony and his households (skilled and private) had been perpetually sure by their self-centered, narcissistic decisions and the psychological baggage they refused to unpack. We watched your entire present ready for Tony to understand any of the methods he had screwed himself up, even slightly bit, and the sequence finale was an extended rationalization of why he couldn’t change and by no means would. It doesn’t matter if he dies within the sequence’ closing shot as a result of he’s incapable of change and subsequently already spiritually useless.
However Kendall isn’t Tony Soprano. He has many different paths he might take. He’s realized how deep his father’s rot goes, and he’s realized that he can’t defeat him simply by attempting to have a greater PR and/or authorized technique. The answer is perhaps to come clean with what he’s carried out and search redemption, or it is perhaps to only slink off and stay a lifetime of luxurious, slowly sliding into obsolescence. And, sure, if he bodily dies, all of that will probably be inconceivable to do. But when he confronts his utter despair head on, if he confronts his household’s function in no matter psychological well being points he faces, if he accepts the hurt that he has carried out on this planet and tries to atone for it, then he may determine a method to carve out a significant life for himself.
In contrast to The Sopranos, which was steeped in Catholic dread, Succession is just not a very non secular present. However submersion and emergence from water is a potent image of rebirth in a number of completely different non secular traditions. (You may realize it as “baptism” throughout the Christian custom.) Don’t consider “Chiantishire’s” closing shot as a easy binary between life and demise; consider it, as an alternative, as a personality on the precipice of a second when every part may change.
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