Succession Series Finale

Warning. This podcast contained spoilers for the series finale of Succession on HBO. Hello, my name is Jason Concepcion and I'm Rosey Night and welcome to x ray Vision, the Crooked Media podcast where we're diving deepen to your favorite show. This episode movies, comics, and pop culture, but really just one show, the finale, the series finale of Succession.

YEP. In this episode, we've got actually kind of two finales because it's the finale of Market Moves. The Market Moves comes to an end as we talk about Succession season four, episode ten, the series finale, one of the greatest series finales of all time. I think I'm saying it's happening, and in and out we've got Joe talking about Netflix's Vulture and Legendary Defender. I'm very excited to hear that because people love that show and the fandom is very passionate.

Coming up Market Moves the finale, series finale of my series finale. Too much pain.

Here's what I say, pain sponges.

Here, you can take a break, put a sticker on your brain. I can save your space.

And I don't like eyes because they're face eggs. Clap along if you suck the biggest stick in the room, Clap along.

If you feel like a puppet for Big Luke, clap along. If you feel like your wife's slopes are filled with the juice.

Go long.

If you feel like sucking. D is for Market Moves Mackets. Let's go.

Market Move's album coming soon, Coming soon. Go.

It's the finale of Marcot Moves. Yes, oh, folks, what a show. What a finale? What an ascendance by Thomas the Quizzling whams Gans. Let's get into it. We start on deal Day, New York City. Ken arrives at waste oar HQ. He's dapping up the crew. He's saying hi to everybody. Hey, Hey, Corpy the DM everybody. Uh enter Telly, Telly, who I love, has entered into our lives kind of late in the life of the series. But Telly is and every organization needs a Telly. Telly is the person

Shit, Jason, are you saying they stashed Telly so nobody saw the tapes. They keep him away.

That's really what happened. So Ken walks in, and Telly as the truth teller, and the guy who sees clearly immediately briefs Ken on what's going on with Stewie. He just got off the phone with Stewie's guy, and Stuwie is they don't have Stewie, and Ken is like what who? What? He pulls himself together and he says, Okay, I can get Stewie on board. I'll just get a phone called with Stewie and this is a play and this is just a smoke screen, and I can get Stewie. And

She would, she definitely would say that, this absolutely fucking would.

And she, you know, she lets Lucas know in closing that Tom will suck the biggest dick in the room. So let me ask prompt number one. Is that the nicest thing that Shiv has ever said about Tom, that he will suck the best.

You know what, I will say, I believe in this moment it is probably the best thing she's ever done Tom, because I think this is the most important line in all of succession, which is fantastic. And I think this is the moment that Lucas Mattson knows Thomas his guy. Because you know what, HIV can say that to Tom's face. Tom would probably agree and add some flowery language about how good he would be at sucking the biggest dick.

Call, and it leads us into our next prompt, which we will get to shortly. But I think you're right Number one. Shiv would say this and much worse to Tom's faith. She'd say She's said lots of truly, truly awful things over the course of this series too directly to Tom's visage, including as I love to point out, asking him on his wedding night if they could have an ophoop marriage. Uh, and I agree with you. Clearly,

So the headline is really interesting because it says like, is Lucas Madison taking over the world, but then it has the puppet sh shift puppeteerium. I actually think this is Shiv's own arrogance. I think Shiv and Kelly have the same problem, which is they have so much self belief. Schiv says something really interesting late in this episode where she says like Mason believes in me, and it's like

Yeah.

I think if there was, if it was if the image had been the other way around, if it had been him puppeteering her this kind of weird, you know, caricature, he might have been more amenable to her being the puppet. But I think, really it was never gonna happen because she's a woman.

Uh, I got the other way. I think it might have happened. I certainly. Uh. The things that Lucas says about Shov later lead me to believe that, you know, he was pushing boundaries, and I think, you know, given the right circumstances, he'd love to have Shiv working for him to push those boundaries, you know, wherever he felt like it. But I also feel like, when you're right,

I think you're right. I actually think that shows how naive Shiv was in this situation, because actually that's a very easy pr message, and she could have even like if she could have just gotten over this need to be like her brothers, she could have just even acted that way to Matson in the room. She's always coming in trying to talk about like numbers and like her and he's like, you know what, one ship, you don't know what you're talking about. None of you do. You're

It does not go well. Shiv then calls Tom, and she has an interesting proposition. She says, Hey, wouldn't it be great, Uh, you know, if you were so Ameniambal to continue like maybe living this very very toxic lie of ours, wouldn't that be convenient? You know, we can lock it down right now, we can it back down and start living his husband and wife again. You know, if you're into that, what do you think?

You know?

What do you say? What's up? This is probably the smartest thing that Shiv has done in this entire series, because I think this is the thing that gives her the out that we see the end of the episode and Tom says he doesn't know.

I totally agree. Okay, mini prompt. Do you think Shiv means it? Because there is a line where she says to him, you know, we've already said the worst things you can ever say to each other, so like we're basically starting here knowing the worst things about each other.

Uh. I think that there is that, you know, it's that very it's that thing from that maybe people have experienced in toxic and or codependent relationships where it's bad, but the badness is kind of all you know, yes, and you're comfortable with the badness. I think there is something to that. I also think it's a I think it's a power move from Shiv as well, in which she is kind of, you know, just as she was saying to Lucas, like, let's project a unified from continuity.

We have a child with the roy We have.

A child with the roy name. It looks great. The Roys are continuing to run waste and it burnishes my reputation. As you know, the big Boss lady, and I think it looks good, and I think that's the play.

Play five, like maybe an inkling of something real deep down.

I think she thinks she's saving Tom. Yes she does at this point in time.

Oh the irony.

Greg, who has overheard this phone call, immediately scampers off to Ken's camp with the news of Romans location. Ken then calls Mon and confirms, and he tells his his a new assistant, New Jests, who he refers to as new Jess.

Good for Jess, I'm glad she just called the funk out of that. He doesn't even know. He doesn't my name.

Nud Jess, Nu Jess, he tells New Jess. Hey, listen, book me on the book me on the on our fastest private jet to the career. Shive arrives first in Barbados to find Roman with fresh stitches over his brow. Ken then follows as When Ken is pulling in, he finally gets in touch with Stewie, who basically assures him like, yeah, it's all good, we got it. Ken and Shive then spar on which side Roman is on in front of Roman, and Roman is like, you know, waffling back and forth.

I wan and you guys are foxed and you just need to accept it and celebrate me for fucking once.

She does like the Allen iverson fucking step over of Ken and it is it's almost you can see this everything that happens in Barbados, including this kind of beginning. And this is what's so great about this show is that you can really feel this cycle of the siblings come together. Yeah, one of them, one or several of them think they've won whatever the thing is. Now they're bickering and rubbing in each other's face. Then they have a big blow up, then they come together, and then

You know what. It's such it's such brilliant writing because in that moment, even though like Shiv is making so many bad choices throughout this show, when she says to Kendle, she's like, I won, Like, can't you just be happy for me one time? Like you just celebrate me. I actually was like, yeah, fucking yeah, because you know what,

I completely agree with you about that. It would be wonderful if the Roys were less toxic than they are and yeah, and less uh, you know, traumatized, because clearly Shiv must have done things over the course of her life that would and should garner praise from her brothers. At the same time, I look at this and I'm like, man, Shiv, you actually have to win first, and that's it. That's my deal with it.

My favorite thing about this episode is that they managed to balance these moments where you're just so invested in the characters while also always reminding you, like, these are terrible people and they're fucking idiots, Like they're really really stupid and arrogant, and that is going to be their downfall, and even that downfall comes with a cushion of billions of dollars.

We'll get to that in a moment because I can't I really can't wait to talk about that. X Ray Vision will be back, and we're back. Tom and Gregor are at a gallery opening with Lucas. Lucas has been dragging both of them around, doing this kind of like open ended vibe check that you know, it's unclear that Tom and Greg really know that's what it is, but he's been keeping them close. Tom really can't figure out how to talk about art. I forget the line, what

I think. Greg's like, shouldn't you have said together? And He's like, yeah, the colors go, well, it's fine, it's fine.

Tom is like, listen, you need to figure it out because like you're fucked, like Lucas hates you, like he's gonna cut off your fucking head and fucking cut off your dick and you're done, Like you're gonna be making like no money. You're gonna be making like forty thousand dollars a year. And Greg's like, actually he likes me, and Tom is like, no, he fucking does not like you. Prompt number three Rosie For people who don't care about art,

Okay, just say like a long word to be Like. I've gone to many gallery openings when I was a teenager in London. They would have them all the time, and we would just go in them and just rinse all the free drinks, like just trek every glass of wine, and a lot of times they want kind of scrubby looking kids in there because they feel like it makes it feel like, it makes it street, it makes it authentic, like they're they're gentrifying the neighborhood with a gallery. Let's

Oh I like that.

You can also be like, yeah, this one's really existential, just like put a long word if it begins with an e, you know, something like that. Or if you want to be like if you're trying to impress Lucas Matts and I'd just go around and be like, oh, this is a little terrible. This is shit, Yeah exactly, but you don't like it, like you know so much about that, this awe is terrible, right, I'd be like.

Let me try it. I'm standing next to Lucas. This one's shit. This one's shit, also shit, this one is powerfully erotic.

Yes, that's perfect. This is like Lucas would hire you as CEO. Goodbye, Tom. That's like he'd be like, Okay, his ten million dollars, buy me a piece of art, powerfully erotic art.

The siblings come back together at Sunset and Barbados, and here is really where I'm like, oh you can you know whatever they were arguing about, the cars, the toys, their toys, video games, whatever it was that they argued about his kids. You can see how this exact cycle played out over the course of their lives. They argue, and now they come back together somewhere on the veranda at the out and the you know, and in the woods on the edge of the property and smoking weed

I'm telling you this is why you say things as shit, because most people like that don't like things or don't want you to know that you like things. Tom compliments the food, but Lucas hates it. If Tom had come out with the I hate the food, he might have gotten a little PowerPoint. But instead he proves exactly what Lucas wants because as soon as Lucas said it's bad, Tom's like, yeah, we might have been ill advised.

This was yeah, And then he's like, I'm going to fucking kill Greg. Like Greg is dead, I'll Greg. She just like instinctively is like, let me fucking kick Greg.

And then a little bit because Greg, because.

Whatever Greg did, he did it poorly and we need to figure this out. Uh. Lucas then says, okay, Tom, you pitch yourself. Pitch yourself as the guy, pitch yourself as CEO. Tom says, listen, you know, I'll keep it simple, low costs, high margins. I will, you know, eat any kind of shit that needs eating, day or night, anytime of day that ship needs eating, I'll eat the ship. Look at what I did for cruises that was a big, huge pile of shit sandwiches, and I fucking ate it.

He didn't like it. He was gonna do it.

He was gonna eat that particular fece sandwich.

Uh.

And then you know, he's happy to fire anybody anytime. Like he will cut heads off and scoop out eyeballs in his own words, he will make Greg do that. But still, anybody that needs firing, he will fire. And then Lucas is like, what about on a hang level, you know? And then Tom was like, Man, I'm grinder. I grind because I worry. I worry about, uh, you know, my career. I worry about my personal well being. I worry about everything, and that keeps me up at night.

I think it's also like incredibly honest in a show where everybody lies. Tom's life has been absolutely fucking ruined by his job, by his anxiety, by working for ATM, by being with Shiv, Like everything he does makes his life worse, and he will just keep doing it in this pursuit of nice things, of wealth, of security, of status. And I think that is very appealing to Lucas because

He sees that turmoil. I love that term pain sponge so good. Lucas sees that turmoil, he sees the subservience of Tom, and he says, Okay, let's see how.

Yes, how.

See how just how badly you want to lay on my lap lap dog. Here's my concerns with your wife, Chivroy, My concerns about her are number one on a just business level. She has too many ideas. I don't need that. I have my own ideas. My mind's going way too fast. In fact, I probably have some sort of add kind of underlying issue, and I don't need somebody coming in and kind of like mucking up what is already chaotic thought process. I need somebody who's just gonna execute and

And I think your wife would fuck me. That's why I think you're like and I think she would fuck.

Me under the right circumstances. I really think your wife would also fuck me. Sorry if this is weird, by the way, and to which Tom replies, no, no, no, no, men, we're both men.

That's when he senses the job. That's it. He absolutely the moment that the job is his.

He ties the fucking ball on it right there, and Lucas says, you know, we get messy if I fucked your wife and again she wants it. Uh, And so I thought, why not get the guy who put the baby and the baby lady.

Lucas Madson the world's biggest misogynist, just like unbelievable.

Next prompt, what the fuck does that mean? Can this play that one to me? Okay, so what does that mean?

I think that Madson is like an old school like piece of shit misogynist, Like he is like, well, a woman doesn't get pregnant, a man gets her pregnant, right right, And rather than me hiring a woman who is stupid enough to get pregnant, like why don't I hire the guy who was clever enough to get her pregnant? Like he's I think this whole like why move by you? Good? Move by you?

Yes?

I mean, And I think the real truth is like in that moment he's going off, Tom's like we're men line, But the real truth is he just wants Tom because Tom's gonna do what he wants and be his pain sponge and he hates women. But I like the way he tries to explain it, where he's like, why not get the guy who but the baby and the baby lady? Even Tom, I feel like it's just like what the

So fucking good.

He's saw it coming, even less than anybody watching the show.

A little me just I just need to push back lately, like all Lucas did is refer to this man's wife to his face in a very coarse, sexually just normal business situation. And yeah, he sent you know, potentially gallons of his own frozen bodily fluids to uh, you know, one of his underlings. But does that make him a misogynist?

Actually?

Has he agree? Maybe he's just a very generous with his with his frozen blood.

Do you. I don't understand how strong you have to be as a man to be able to give up so many gallons of blood. So I think they make a good point. I think, you know, some people may call him a misogynist, and you know, maybe being an old school misogynist is not even a bad thing. You know, if you you hate people who have babies, cool, like, maybe that's working good for you. He seems rich. I mean, it must be going quite well. But I think I think you were right to call me in on that one.

I look at Lucas and I think, where does all the blood come from? How does he have?

So if you have so much blood, I need to be a secret.

He must be different than me. He must be a best of species. He must be better somehow, because that man just is pumping out blood. But but and I've just got a meager, regular humans amount of blood. That is a superman over there. That's what I think what I look at.

Yeah, I agree.

Greg then conveys, uh, this lightning bolt to Ken, that shive is out and that Lucas is looking at somebody else. Uh. And he does so with a promise, trying by trying to extract a promise from Ken that they could quat it up? Could he meaning add Greg to the three? And now it's four and we're quatting it up.

I just want to say Greg's tried that I have a secret thing too many times.

This isn't the second.

Also, I do want to point out here Tom I feel is actually going to be very successful in his new role, because when Greg comes to ask him what happened. Tom does not tell Greg. Tom has realized that Greg is a loose link, sink ships kind of guy, like here is the weakest link. He's gonna try and betray you. And that's just how it is. So Tom doesn't tell

Well, he Tom, I think, understands that just as he is Lucas's paint spongeg Greg is haint sponge. Greg is his pain sponge. Greg is is the man who you can uh who you can use as a foot rest in your office. Greg is the man that you can tell he's the crimes. And though he will eventually rat you out because of the crimes, that's a known quantity. There's no surprises with Greg. Greg's a fucking rat. Greg will rat to whoever he feels like he needs to

There's I think there's a momentary truth that they both consider in that silence, and I wouldn't have been surprised to see it that go that way. Honestly, they probably would have been better off. Kendall fucking sucks.

I think terrible. I think if Ken slipped into the off that little floaty platform and into the waves and was struggling and saying, hey, help me, I have a cramp, and they wouldn't. I think they would. They might move towards him with a slowness that would allow him to drown.

I think.

But they neither of them are brave enough to actually kill. Which is why I think Ken should be the CEO, because Ken can do it. We know that Ken can take a lot.

You know what, he's really good. He's really good at delivering a pitch. I can't wait to see him pitch this to the board.

Yes. After that, they go to the kitchen, where Shiv and Roman decide, Okay, well, Ken, you are the king, and so we're going to play this childhood game that clearly they had been playing meal Fit for a King, where they just take all the stuff from the kitchen and put it in a blender and blend it up and make the king drink it.

Another classic succession moment here where everything you learn about their childhood is horrific. Bite a game they played in their childhood Fit for a King where you just make people drink disgusting things. Everything is about humiliation and brutality and cruelty. But this is also one of the most heartwarming scenes in the show. It is, which is just incredible.

Because it's just wonderful to see them all getting along as Klee.

Kyt siblings in that moment, like there's no question that these are brothers and sisters.

Roman licks Peter's special cheese.

Oh no, Daddy, don't lick my cheese. Perfect one of the best Roman moments in the Hall show.

Uh Roman then pours the Fit for a King potion over Ken's head and the three of them leave Barbados together a unified, powerful voting block. And you can tell that they are together and they are unified because they arrive at the airport and they're talking strategy. You do this, and I'll talk to this person.

And here they're wearing matching black outfit.

Matching black outfits. And then they get into three different cars to go to the same location. What what what that?

What they tail?

That detail is perfect.

But also I also it's definitely it's a big time pound if you never never share a cab. Thank you. Yes.

If I'm a If I'm in a car with you, whose car is who riding it? No one knows. If I'm in my car, right, who's driver is this?

Whose driver is that? My driver? Is that my driver?

Right?

If you're the.

Driver, pull over, I need to I need to just take a shit in the middle of the street. Who is that driver? Listen?

You are going to listen to you. That's why they're going to listen to you.

And that's why you always have to ride in separate cars.

They have some really great moments like that in the show. There's a brilliant interview right now with one of the writers of Succession that's at The Guardian. It's like it's not an interview, actually's a think piece that she wrote about how the story of making Succession And one of the things she talks about is that they had a consultant for how billionaires behave And one of the things she pointed out is she said, their shoes only ever

There they don't have coats.

They don't have coats, that's a big one. They don't wear coats. They never announced that they're about to eat. That was apparently one of the ones that she got pulled up on a lot, like, you can't have Marsha coming in and saying this is you know, it's been a time or food is stuff. Billy and has don't do that. We knew that already. But they need a consultant on succession to tell them that.

They arrive separately at Connor and Willis their dad's old place. Connor has created a complicated two tiered sticker system to allocate pops belongings to whosoever has the highest priority sticker in the particular sticking circuit round depending on what tier

Of them, Jason. They're both very excited, as Connor says, for this new chapter in their life.

And we don't know much about what's going on with mencon But here is where we learned from shit, is that there has been setbacks in the court system for Mancin. So uh is Slovenia really gonna happen?

We don't know.

But Willa seems a little troubled by the fact that her husband might be living with her in her gigantic home.

I like the way that Shiv says, Oh, wouldn't you be lucky you'd have him all to yourself. Now, this, I think is actually one of the most telling Willa moments, because I think Willa has been playing an unbelievable game up until this point, and I think here her endgame is truly revealed, which was put up with him long enough, get rid of him somehow, and then live in this giant mansion which I own with never ending funds and wants.

This is so good.

It's so good, I wrote. I wrote an article ign that was called in the Succession finale, everyone gets what they deserve, and I think that is Willa's getting what she deserves. Moment is like you are even you, you thought you could play it, but even you are probably gonna have to end up living with Connor, drinking tambucha in this like horrible fucking nightmare house, just full of terrible memories.

Very sorry about it, Willa, But apparently you're going to have to actually work to cover up the affairs that I'm sure you're having right now. Yeah, she immediately.

Looks at her phone when she says that is she could.

I don't wait for Connor to leave town, because I'm sure listen, Connor, I can't even pretend that he's a nice guy, but clearly he's very devoted to whatever this relationship is. But you know, Willa has needs as a much much younger woman with sharing none of the interests of her much older husband. I'm sure that she is out in the streets doing what she needs to do. Look now, looking after some and now Will, I'm sorry

Thousand dollars a month apartment.

You're gonna have to do it. I'm sorry you're not gonna be able to bring him here because what if you get caught. That's it. It's terrible. I'm sorry to break it. To you. Prompt, I don't even I forget what number we're on. But next prompt, can you make sense of the stickering system? How does it work? Do you get yet? Tell me how it works?

So I actually rewatch this multiple times because this is this is a really wild Conner moment, one more proof that this man has too much time on his hands. We know he does nothing, but the stickering sequence also confirms one of our biggest theories here at Market Moves, which is Connor is the only one of Logan's kids who ever really got to be his kid. And we get to see that a little bit further down the line. But I think the reason he takes it so seriously

How does the second tier mourner?

So I think the idea is if I was Kerry, for example, who has been put with the second tier mourners in just continuing the constant shade.

And to be honest, is fortunate to be there in the second tiering and she's much lower.

She's probably only there because Lady Caroline let her sit in the front. That like really up to her legal standing. So if I was her, what I would do is you have to go in in a brutal stickering fashion. Anything that didn't have three stickers, I just put three sticks is on and you're just keeping it. So that's what I think. Once you're in the second tier, you have to be more strategic. But the real truth is none of them want any of it, Like they don't care.

They don't give a fuck. Tom arrives at the Great Stickering and he and Shiv chat about the fact that she's gonna be Mattson's American CEO, and Shiv woof tells him, you know, and this is what Tom was kind of poking around for, you know, sadly, No, no, no, that's

Yeah, can I say what? That's something is Tom says, maybe you should just vote it through anyway.

Yeah, Tom is the least slick play all time, like just just do it, just vote it through.

And then she's like what And he's like, I guess I should tell you it's gonna be me.

I'm missy yeah, And she's of course like what you're no, no, no, no way, and he tells, oh, no, no, no, that's yeah.

It's yeah, that's gonna be me. And right there you kind of miss it because of the meltdown ship has. But that is Tom basically soft pitching his wife to switch side. She had talked to him earlier about hey, do you want to keep the marriage together, and now Tom is without saying it, is saying you voted through and then you know, you and me, uh, and it's happening right there. Shiv then storms off to tell Kenan

You fly you did it. He's like, you fucking snatched it away from me. And now they have time to make a fucking you know, a plan, and it's like, bro, you just did it. You you actually did it?

Was you?

You?

But this is pretty like always keep your underlings guessing and always make him feel like it's their fault. This is uh, you know, textbook one on one leadership from Tom. Uh. They Tom and Greg get into it a little bit with Tom slapping Greg and then Greg showing that he's got a little bit of spiny slap Tom back. I think that's when he actually.

Secures his place in Tom's court because Tom Tom likes the fight. Him and Greg have always had this masochistic kind of flirtation. This really toxic will they won't. They think you can't.

You can't make a Tomletz without breaking some Greg exactly.

I mean, they are one of probably there's probably one of the most successful and popular toxic chips on the internet. And so I think that Greg slapping him back, that's that's a watershed moment for their relationship.

To Masen, Mason on the other side knows Madsen then gets uh, you know, on the back of his various minions and it's like, get on your phones. Let's go.

What does he want to do? Like, He's just like, I want to see phones, phones, get on your phones. Do something be on a phone. And I'm just like, well, they meant to do it the phones. I don't know, but I love it.

I think he's like, I want to see you calling the board members. Yeah, sure, make sure they are fucking on side. The sibs arrived at the board meeting again in three separate cars. Power move Ken, driven by Colin now officially his guy. Colin probably the only person in the world who knows for sure that can kill the guy m who like could testifying in court to the fact that Ken kill the guy.

Uh.

They march in, feeling confidently Shiven Ken are projecting confidence. Roman is shaky goes in his office immediately to hide Carolina then pitches Shiv as, I'm sure she's pitched everyone on. Let's get rid of Hugo. I've got this, we don't need Hugo. And honestly a Hugo opened them up to insider trading very very recently, and I agree, like yeah, I keep I keep Carolina.

Keep Carolina, and you know else as well. I like Carolina is like very fucking smart because she pitches it to Shive in a way that absolutely plays into shifts like ego, where she's like, look, yeah, She's like, if you win, She's like, we're gonna change the way the system runs here. We're gonna make a change for the good, you know, get rid of all the backstabbing, the lies.

Ken sits in Dad's chair, feet on desk to receive Stewie the you know, Shive and Roman look at this with something like revulsion, but they get it.

They're like, it's just a chat, but also yeah, uh.

And then Ken says to Stuwie, listen, we have it. Okay, we have it, Like, so come on board with us, and maybe we make you chairman of the board, you know, and it just gets you super super fucking paid. Uh, and you know, we'll run stuff. But you get to sit there and just collect Chairman of the board checks, what do you say about that? Roman then freaks out because Jerry is there, and he spirals, He completely spirals.

And he keeps pushing his head against him, even when Roman's kind of crying out it's it's really horrific.

And week Colan just takes it.

Yeah, Roman's kind of crying, calling him a motherfucker, but he doesn't fight back. And I think that we really get a glimpse into Ken fully embracing that abusive side of his dad. In the Lost episode why he told

X Ray Vision will be back, and we're back. We go to the vote.

Ken is feeling himself. He's like, let's just vote now, why are we even talking about anything else? Can we talk about this? Right? Yeah?

This man he sells himself. He's like, you saw me living, plus you saw me at the funeral. He's like to his siblings, he's like, I can pitch an idea, I can pitch a vision.

I'm gonna come into this board.

I'm gonna pitch them a vision so good that's gonna change everybody's mind. Instead, Ken walks in and he's like, you know mine aren't gonna be changed. You know me, we know how the votes are gonna land.

Let's just vote.

I was like, oh, Ohsa, your arrogance was too high on that one. This is Ken's ultimate fall. Now that I thought Ken was gonna go in and flop the pitch, but I never imagined that Ken would go in and not pitch.

Yeah. I think that first of all, one thing this show does really really well. All good shows do this really well. But Succession is kind of a masterclass at how you do this is you you know there's only Really it's hard to fool people who watch a lot of television, and so the thing you can do is you give them the thing before they think it's gonna happen.

But then they're like, how do you get that?

How do you get there? And I think this part of it Ken, how is Ken gonna self destruct? How is he gonna lose it? How is SHITV gonna blow it? How is Rome gonna blow it? All of this is so perfect. So we go to the vote and it breaks down like this, Frank of course, Yes, Sonya, Yes, don't know who she is, Diane Lou, don't know who she is, but yes, Ken, you know where I stand. No, Sandy and Sandy Yes and yes.

Which is kind of shocking because I think Ken did think he might have had them. They'd kind of talked about the Sandy's.

Dewey we don't know him. But no, here's the shocking one to me. Youwen who starts with the quotation from the hippocratic oah, first do no harm? Then he says no, he wants Ken to maintain control of the company. I guess he thinks Lucas is worst. What is his resch now here?

Absolutely baffling. I suppose maybe this is a bit of an indictment on Ewan because he still can't break out of that cycle. Or the other version of it is he is rejecting the billions that would come from this offer, and he's trying to make a statement in that way, but surely giving it to Kendall, a very non serious person, will not do no harm. I do not believe that. I think this is a bit of an indictment on Youan's hypocrisy.

Well, Ewan is, you know, of course, quite happy to criticize his brother and the poison that he put into the world through his many, many media outfits. But of course he's quite happy to live in the literal lap of luxury and security off of the money provided by those concerns of his brothers that he considers to have

Family it.

Let's keep it in the family.

Okay, let's get it. He was like really moved by speech. She was like that's for like I was feeling it.

Uh, Stuie No, and I love it. I love it. He goes no, Team Ken, baby fucking love that. Stuwie gets burned by Ken one more fucking time here. It is what like how many times he believed time?

And I'm kind of like, do it for me, man, do it because my friends like this is the one man like, we're gonna do it. The thing I really love about this scene, you know what, continue with the vote breakdown.

Before okay, Roman, he waivers.

I thought he was gonna be the one to flip it.

He waivers, but then it's a no. So we have six to six yes nos, and we go to shivet the tie break the final vote, and Shiv is like, I just needed I need a second. What, Yeah, I need a second. I need to go to this other room and just like pace around. Kenn Is like what the fuck? He and Roman follow Shive to the other room where we're a fucking shit show circus. Oh, carnival of idiocy breaks out with everyone seeing in this.

Gold everyone can hear it. I just want to say my favorite fucking thing about this. Yeah, and it plays into everything that Succession has done so well. I absolutely love that. It is just a fucking Russian roulette of where she would have sat if she wasn't the last vote. I don't believe she would have gone against it. I think if she'd have sat anywhere else in that room next to Ken, maybe what next to you? And I think she would have voted no because she didn't have

Yeah, I didn't even think about that. It really is all about where she sat.

How crazy is that?

It's so crazy. So they get into it.

And Kendall just fucking loses that.

You know, Shiv shiit. Shiv is like, is just kind of groping around for any rationale that makes sense, and she grabs one that actually does make sense, which is Ken, you can't be you. You kill the guy. Remember that, Remember when you kill the guy. I remember what in Italy when you admitted to us that you killed the guy. And Kenn's like, ah, no, no, no, no I didn't. I was I just false memory that that was like I

Exists. I know. That moment is so crazy because he's just standing in this office building and he's screaming, I am the eldest son, I am the eldest son.

What a wild thing to scream.

If they weren't already aware that you'd lost it, that's when they know. They know that you are not a serious person, just as your father said. And Kendall's screaming bloody murder about I'm the eldest son. I deserve this. Even though when they were in Barbados, they all revealed that Logan had told them at different times in their life they would be them. Of course, so they'd all been played into this same cycle.

But Ken really, Ken really feels it and believes it that that is the case. So Robin points out, well, listen, if you're gonna say that you're the bloodline just and I'm just repeating Dad's words here, you know it's not me same. This is what Dad said. And Dad would say that your kids aren't even really Roys, they were not truly as grand kids. Sophie is adopted, and Iverson is like the son of some contractor filing cabinet maker or whoever that worked on your house, right, but also

Say, Roman sprinkles in some racism here to really get Ken go in. But again Ken reacts in the most horrifically another really scary moment where he just grabs Roman's face and pushes his thumbs into the scars, and it is like so horrific.

And everybody is watching this there. Can you imagine you're sitting there trying to watching it.

The mail room guy is watching it, even watching everyone is watching, not even just like Jerry and the people who are in that room, Like everyone is watching this, and it is the most unseerious shit you've ever seen. Even if they'd gotten Shived to agree to the vote, this whole thing is proof that those three shouldn't be able to vote, and their votes would easily be able to be like null and void in some kind of boardroom takeover.

Absolutely. Shiv was like, get off of him, and then Roman is like, don't touch Shiv because she's pregnant. What the fuck? And then Shiv managed just to slip out. She gets back in the.

Room and those two just fight.

And those two just fight for another couple of seconds, and it just fucking happens. By the time Ken gets in there, it's fucking over. It's over.

He stands up and he's like after him and Roman are fighting, and he's like, we got it, we got it. Let's go to Frank, there's still a route here, there's still a part.

We could still do it, we can still do it.

And Roman's like, no, we're nothing, man like, we're's fucking done. We're bullshit. And then Ken goes in and he's like, so where are we Let's and his hairs all fucked up and everyone just seen him have the fight and he's like, he's like, where are we. Let's let's in the vote. Let's just the vote. He looks like his hair's like gelled up, like he's in a boy band. He's like, we'll just hold the vote out, just hold the vote out for a little while, like and Frank, nah, it's done.

Frank's Trent tells him it's over. It's done. Sorry. Thomas CEO. Tom walks in victorious. Uh Greg saunters up, and we get a taste of what the early regime, early days of the Tom regime will.

Be at Goajos.

At Gojo Go, he will first of all strap Carl and Frank into their golden parachutes, and honestly, like Carl made some you know, Frank was like, what do you think we're out? This is great, like awesome, and Carl was like, I don't know. Maybe run it back. You don't want to run back, go to your fucking Greek island and.

Get the truth is. This is another great example of getting what that is up. They're gonna get their golden parachutes. That's secure. The legacy is no longer secure, as Carl has now realized, because he said some mad chad mad shit to Tom ally and Season and was like, you are nothing, nobody cares, nobody trusts you. You will amount to zero. So I love the line. Frank's like, no way, like not Tom and Carl's like, yeah, we should have slit his throat in the cradle, and Frank's like yeah.

Goes without saying that we should have done that.

But they're fine. They got millions of dollars, billions of dollars and maybe billions I think billions probably from this deal. So they're gone strapped into the golden parachutes, shut out of their line. But they'll do okay, they'll land softly.

Yeah, they'll be fine. I don't don't worry too much about Frank and Carl. Jerry will stay on because, in Tom's view, she knows, she knows how this nightmare circus works, and.

She's one of the only people who actually knows how to do her job.

She knows how to fucking do her job. HUGO, sorry about it, my guy, You're out. Caroline is gonna Caroline day on. And Greg is like, what about me? What about what about myself? Where do I land in all of this? And Tom's like, well, you're fucked, man. You know you make two hundred thousand as an assistant. That's gonna come way down. It's gonna come way down. You're gonna fucking get killed on salary. You're gonna get absolutely murdered. But and then he puts a sticker, one of his

Yeah, He's like, I'm gonna save you because he owns Greg now and yes, Miles, Greg loves it. Greg wants to be involved.

He's in. And then we get these wonderful little mini scenes, wordless of the three siblings in the wake of all this. Connor, we don't care. He's fine.

He's what he's doing.

There is Roman at a bar, and you get the sense that he will be fucking fine, like mentally, of course, Like it's it's a tragedy that they've lost control of their father's empire. It is so heartbreaking and all they have to to assuage their feelings is just billions and billions of dollars that they will get for the sale. But is that really enough? No, but Roman will be okay y Psychologically, I seem cho logic.

He has reached his rock bottom, and I think it's very sad to see him alone in this moment if you ignore the fact he's terrible person.

But like the.

Route that he has gone on this season has been incredibly bleak. But I think that you're right, Roman's alone. Really, Roman was kind of always alone, so women probably be fine.

Roman is the same. Can we see walking through Battery Park looking fucking shell shocked again? It's it's very you know, a couple of dozens of billions of dollars in cash and stock. It's cold comfort when what you wanted was the company.

Yeah, he needed this, This is all he could do. What's this? He doesn't know, but he's entitled to do it. He wanted to do it, and now he can't do it.

Now he can't do it, and now all he has is like, you know, what's the sale? Price like ninety eighty something, and he's.

Going like ten billion dollars nothing, that means nothing. What's he gonna do anything?

What can you do with that?

You can't do nothing.

So he's so he's shell shocking. He's walking around and Colin is following him from ten steps behind, as he will do for the rest of his life. And we notice that, by the way, have to have to have to say when you know Ken was attempting to scoop out Roman's eyeballs in the conference room and then was turning into a scuffle. Where was Colin? Colin was out there, Colin, Colin can't wait to not take a bullet for Ken.

Yeah, Colin, I know. I was watching it. I was like, is Colin actually just gonna like push Kendall into the war? I was like, I don't think he's. Like, this is not a man who's there through loyalty. This is a man who's there through blackmail and threats. Like, I don't know how long Kendall's gonna survive.

They apparently did a scene where Ken goes over to to go over the railing and Colin pulls it back, but then went with the scene we see and then we see Tom riding off in some beautiful European luxury automobile with Shiv the power Couple ascendant. He lays his hand on the middle armrest with his palm upwards, and then she places her palm on his. Her hand. You couldn't say they were intertwined, but it's more like her hand laying openly on his. And that is the end

I think Connor from Will end up living in that house, being incredibly unhappy. I think that's the true ending of everything that is in all. I was singing about this a lot when I was writing about the show. They all end the show exactly where they began it, just exceptionally wealthy and incredibly unhappy, and I think that continues.

I think, Ken listen, Shive magnanimously offered to for no fee, just give her brothers the IP for the hundred.

You know, she was like, I'll do that for free, because a.

Love you can just have that you want, you want to have that be your little startup. I think Ken goes back to something like that. I think, whether it's the hundred or something else, you know, Logan once famously said to his kids, make your own damn pile. You know, why are you fighting over my shit? Go make your own money. And I think that Ken will eventually. I think this is obviously going to be the defining thing

He could never spend it.

He can never spend it all. He'll be fine, rom and we said, will be fine.

I want to put a prompt you. I think that this is a show where everybody, for the most part, has gotten what they deserve in like a bad way, because these are bad people. I think, if there is a true winner at succession in a non existential Tom style, you won, but you're trapped in a hell of your own making. I think it's Jerry. Because Jerry was there, I think you're to sign the Golden Parachute deal, which I'm sure she will still get because she was there

I agree with you there, and I think honestly Frank and Carl too.

They got out.

They go Carl, congratulations. Your Greek Island is on the docket. Here it comes. I want to see that anymore.

The Greek Island Summer Holiday spin off.

I think, what is so wonderfully tragic and really what makes this show so good and so high quality and so timeless feeling in the way that it, you know, evokes our emotions and allows us to ride along with these characters who fucking suck. It's that it's pure tragedy in the most definitional sense of classic tragedy.

The character.

These characters have a fatal flaw, each of them right, and there really is no there's two moves that succession has, which is the Roys try to get their dad's company and they fail. That's it. That's the cycle. And the show shows you that again and again and again and heightens the way that they lose it exponentially each time, so that it so that despite the fact that there really is this very methodical and one note kind of predictable, predictable,

And when she was bonding with Matson. As soon as he told her about Ebba, she immediately went into pr mode. How can we silence her, I'll deal with this, I can help you deal with this, don't worry about it. She constantly sell out her own morals that don't exist, that.

She pretends they exist because she thinks it helps her in the realm of like public consumption, but it doesn't. And if she has a fatal flaw, it's that she's very smart but thinks she's smarter than she is. Ken. Ken's fatal flaw is that he fucking can't close. He just can't get there and closed in Tileman and arrogance. In fact, that is something Nao Sha.

He has that exact same problem that Shiv has in Barbados, but it has plagued him throughout his whole life. He expects the wind before has happened. He can't close. He never makes the deal. He just expects the deal to come to him.

And then Roman, who I think you could argue, is maybe the most talented in terms of a social you know, in terms of the part of the job that is, in Lucas's words, vibe checks is just like hanging out and talking shit with other powerful people. I mean, you'd say Roman was weirdly the most the most able to do that. You think about the way he you know, initially before his downfall, the way he related to Makan

Do and is what makes this show so unbelievable writing. It's just such a powerful show. And I love how we had all kinds of theories and predictions and were wondering about the way that they would end this show

So let me ask you this, did shev actually win because Shiv uh, let's okay? So if she would have gotten the job that she was gunning for CEO American hand Pick CEO of Lucas Mattson's GOK, she would have been powerless, or she would have needed to be truly powerless, have no influence on Mattson's thinking, just be the cutout person, and then she'd have Tom in her pocket and not the other way around. But of course, like that was

Oh, I absolutely believe that one of my favorite I think there's two things that drove Shive in that moment. We get the great moment when she's in the room and theft fighting with the kids and she says to Kendall, she says, I fucking love you, but I cannot stomach you. And I saw a great tweet that really sums up I think the fifty percent of it. Somebody was like, you know, I such a good tweet. I need to find it to credit person. We'll try and put it

I agree, incredible series, what are close to it exactly rewatchable show, sad to see it go, But I think listening to Jesse on the kind of after show a little video FEATURETTE, I do agree with them that it logan dying, the funeral, the Gojo sale. It feels like a natural ending place, even though it does you understand that a writing team of this caliber could have come up with something excellent, but it does feel like a natural place to end.

We always talk about it. One of the hardest things, especially if you're comic book fan, if you love TV, is to end something on your own terms. The show doesn't get canceled, the comic book doesn't get given to someone else. So the fact that the team got to end it on their own terms in a way that feels really organic and natural and definitive, that's just a gift.

Well, it's been wonderful helping you build your bank roll here at Market Mouza.

You should be much richer now.

You should be so so wealthy and powerful now that you can have your own Tom. And if you're a Tom, you can have your own Greg. And if you're a Greg, you can hopefully work your way up by being a pain sponge for somebody else or a pain pig for somebody else. We wish that for you, a future of sucking up to the rich, sucking the biggest dick in the room, being the pain sponge, and riding that to the success that you deserve. Always remember, if there's someone

An important life rule for everyone from Market Market Moves, a show that has now been canceled by the network.

Yeah, up the next turnout.

In today's nerd out, will you tell us what you love and why or a theory that you're excited to share. Joe pictures us on Netflix's Vultron Legendary Defender.

Hi x ray, team and listeners, I want to share the amazing content that is Netflix's Vultron Legendary Defender. This series is a reboot of the original and on its own fantastic animated series from the nineteen eighties, and in so many ways honors the original content. The newest Vultron series leverages a variety of animation styles, from the expected traditional action animation to occasionally incorporating Japanese anime st including

Thank you, Joe. If you have theories or passions you want to share, hit us up at x ray at crooked dot com. Instructions in the show notes.

That's it for us, Rosie and he plugs plugs.

Wait here, I'm here. I'm here on xtra Vision with you, doing this cool show twice a week. I'm on letterbox, Rosie marks. You can also find my writing at places like ign, Polygon, Den of Geek. I'll have another cool Den of Geek story coming up soon and we oh yeah, and I will plug my friend Nicka Shukla, really brilliant writer.

Love to hear it. Catch the next episode of X ray Vision on Friday, June second, where we will discuss all things across the Spider Verse and along with an interview with director Kemp Powers. Cannot wait to see across the Spider Verse.

I'm ready to see it. Subscribe on YouTube, where you can watch four episodes of the show and check out our discord to meet and hang with tons of amazing fans and listeners plus me and Jason.

We're they're five star ratings, five star reviews. You know, we gotta have him, you gotta give it to us. Here is one from Still Dixie Landings to me knowledgeable, great team and lots of fun. Thank you, Still Dixie Landings. Extra Vision is a Crooked Media production. Show is produced by Chris Lord and Saul Rubin and executive produced by me Jason Simps You and Our. Editing and sound design is by Visilis Fortopoulos. Video production by Delon Villanueva and

Go on.

Hey Mike, this is his stuff from Marine.

Yeah.

I want to talk about the Gojo sale today. You know, I'm a guy. Let's just call him a sore so talk about it on background. I think your listeners might find this really interesting. I got a buddy of mine. We go to the Giants games together. We've had season tickets together for a long time. We go see the Mets all the time. He's a buddy of mine for like, we go way back. Anyways, he's let's just say he works for ken Uh And apparently in the wake of

Thank you.