David M. Russell/HBO
A lineup of Waystar executives lined up for a boardroom photo.
You're peeking, aren't you. We're just going to say this is from season 4 episode 10 of HBO's 'Succession'.
For those of you who are fans of the HBO series Succession and have not yet watched the final episode, flee now. Spoilers will follow.
For those of you who haven't watched the program at all, you probably have been pummeled with so much Succession talk by your friends and relatives that you know the basic plot line even against your will. The running question of the series has been: who will succeed Logan Roy atop the family media empire?
The leading candidates have been three of Roy's children: Kendall, Siobhan aka "Shiv" and Roman. Oldest brother Connor is a non-factor. Outside shots included three of Waystar’s top brass who were long-time confidants to Logan Roy as well as Shiv's husband, Tom Wambsgans, head of the fictional Fox-like news outlet, ATN.
And the winner was? Tom. It was a plausible and yet surprising and brilliant outcome. It also kind of restores your faith in America. Really. It does.
First off, you might ask why I loved Succession to begin with. After all, the series didn't have a single sympathetic character. Everyone was awful. Logan's kids were entitled, ruthless, socially inept, self-centered and just not all that bright. (One of them also killed a guy, but it was an accident.) And none of the supporting characters was much better.
But that's what I loved about the show. I finished each episode feeling so good about myself. Whatever I've done in my life at least I'm not like those people.
Even in the final episode, just when you think the three siblings have finally come together, there’s one final betrayal at the board meeting that was set to install Kendall as the new top dog. Did Shiv go back on her promise to vote for him because she really couldn’t bear to see him in her father’s chair or did she see a better chance to claw her way back to power in her chilly ruin of a marriage with Tom?
But in that pit of vipers Tom was the most likable and relatable snake. He was less entitled, having married into the family, and he was from the Midwest — St. Paul, to be exact. (It wouldn't have been as good if he had been from snobby Minneapolis.) And he was honest about being a striver, being ambitious. In a scene that should win an Emmy for both actors, Tom and Shiv have a brutally honest conversation about their marriage and their contempt for each other.
"You're a hick. A conservative hick," Shiv tells Tom. "Your whole family is striving and parochial." In an earlier episode this season Tom admits, "I like nice things. I do."
So, if any of these people had to succeed Logan Roy, I like that it was Tom. He wasn't born on third base. He worked (and married) his way up. He's ambitious, He's a striver. He's honest about being materialistic. He might not be all that admirable, but he knows who he is, which is more than you can say for his wife and her brothers.
And he's practical. In his pitch to the soon-to-be new owner of Waystar Royco, he says he sees ATN as a cash cow that he won't change. If his conservative viewers want red meat, he "won't give them dietary advice." In short, he's the most American of all the candidates.
In a field of horrible candidates for the top job, Tom was the least horrible. Out of a group of the entitled, Tom earned it more than the rest. In a crowd of people, none of whom we could cheer for, Tom earned the least jeers. For once the (relatively) nice guy didn't finish last.
This gets us in the proper mood for next year's elections, don’t you think?.
Dave Cieslewicz is a Madison- and Upper Peninsula-based writer who served as mayor of Madison from 2003 to 2011. Both his reporting and his opinion writing have been recognized by the Milwaukee Press Club. You can read more of his work at Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos.
