Succession review, Episode 308: “Chiantishire”

I wrote in an earlier review that I didn’t see Kendall surviving the season, and the end of this episode seems to imply that he’s headed for a fall, if he hasn’t hit the ground already. Did he die at the end of the episode, following his sinking beer can into the pool? Is this where his path led? Was he not as strong as his father after all?

Is Kendall Roy dead on Succession?

Those final moments threaten to overshadow what was a really solid episode full of great character bits. “Chiantishire” didn’t end with Kendall officially dead — like, we didn’t see a body — which makes me think we’ve got more time with him. Then again, it’s not Succession’s way to pound home the obvious, and this would be the natural endpoint for his journey thus far. He’s been on a path of self-destruction since the first season, but it really ramped up this year as he tried and failed to drive his father out of Waystar. He shaved his head; his children may as well not even be there, which is one of the saddest notes in this dour symphony; his own mother tries to politely usher him out of her wedding; people are starting to look into the waiter who died back in the first season; and his father tells him to fuck off once and for all. I can see Kendall trying to end it all, $2 billion or not.

And I’ll note that he doesn’t show up once in the promo for the season finale next week. This might be the end of Kendall Roy, folks.

How would that affect his family? Would it? Shiv and Roman take their cues from Logan, who long ago shut himself off from all empathy and compassion, if he ever had any. Shiv and Roman seem to fighting a battle to see who can be the most like their father. Shiv admits to her own husband that she doesn’t love him, and Roman is all too happy to start stomping on people once he gets a taste of favoritism. (“Firing people is like 85% of why I get up in the morning,” he tells GoJo founder Lukas Mattson, who may have greatly overstated how interested he was in selling to Waystar.) Have they been warped by a lifetime of Logan’s narcissistic parenting? Is this just who they are? In the end it doesn’t matter; I can’t see even something as major as their brother’s suicide knocking them off the path they’re on.

As for Logan, who knows? Like I said, he’s too far gone to care, or at least too far gone to give the impression that he cares. This is a man who’s happy to use his own grandson as an unwitting taste tester lest Kendall is trying to poison him. Although it’s interesting that he still feels a need to justify his terrible life’s work to himself, telling Kendall during their one-on-one that he’s a “revolutionary.”

And that’s the template Logan has set for his children. Kendall failed the measure up and he allowed the failure to destroy him. Shiv and Roman are still striving, but it may destroy them too before the end. Maybe the series will end with Logan still alive but with no successor but Connor, the ultimate Shakespearean tragedy.

Oh, and because I don’t know where else to put it, I loved the beach-wear dress Shiv wore to her mom’s wedding.

Roman accidentally sexted his dad and it was really funny

Apart from those very serious moments, a lot of this episode was pretty hilarious. We have to start with Roman accidentally sending a dick pic to his own father, which finally gives Shiv the wedge she needs to bump her younger brother from his spot at Logan’s side. Will Roman be banished to the edges of the company? Will Gerri just be fired?

The Gerri-Roman flirtation was a weird, delightfully unexpected treat in season 2, and I love that the writers have taken something that seemed like an innocent confection (well, innocent for this show) and turned into such an important pivot point. Roman’s confidence has been increasing lately, but this took him right back to being a scared little kid nervous after upsetting daddy. And Gerri, for all her composure, broke her cardinal rule and got involved in mess, and it might sink her.

Roman wouldn’t tell Lukas Mattson any of his weaknesses, but we at home are clued in: for all he’s grown, he’s still got a man-child streak in him. He just couldn’t help indulging himself, which is all the opportunity that a re-energized Shiv needs. That said, she has her own time bombs ticking away. How much longer can she and Tom maintain their one-sided relationship? Surely someone is going to crack there.

And speaking of one-sided relationships, I laughed pretty hard at Willa giving Connor an unenthusiastic “maybe” to his marriage proposal. Just keep smiling, Connor. People are watching.

All this and we got some quality time with Caroline, the mother of Kendall, Shiv and Roman. She got off some good bon mots (“They’re both in interior design,” she said of her new husband’s daughters. “They’re unemployed.”), especially when having a heart-to-heart with Shiv. (“He’s got a very big heart.” “Well, I guess opposites attract.”) And of course, this horrifying thought about her ex-husband: “Your father never saw anything he loved that he didn’t wanna kick it just to see if it would still come back.”

Oh, Kendall. I don’t know if you were as good a man as you claim, but you were too good for Logan Roy.

Episode Grade: A

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels