Warning: If you wake up in the middle of the night sweating profusely it’s because there be spoilers here. Cheering from the sidelines of Entertainment Weekly, Succesion’s creator Jesse Armstrong finds a new, more optimistic future for Roman Roy in the belly of a martini glass at a New York bar. Kieran Culkin doesn’t agree. Is Roman flooding his woes or will he end up caroling over his newfound freedom at the end of the night?
“That’s not saying very much, is it?” Culkin said about Armstrong’s (Fresh Meat, Downhill) interpretation that Roy may have had the kindest ending out of the brood. “None of the siblings are in a particularly good place at the end.” Shiv, played by Sarah Snook (Run Rabbit Run, Koala Man), locks fingers with someone she doesn’t love, her husband, while Kendall, whose behind-the-lens-persona is Jeremy Strong (Armageddon Time, The Trial of the Chicago 7), ruminates on a grueling loss.
“[Jesse Armstrong] has said that he thinks it’s more of like, ‘Roman has gone back to where he was at the beginning,'” explained Culkin (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Igby Goes Down). “What’s really sad about that was all of this was for nothing. It’s been a waste of his time. Like, what’s the point? What did he learn? What did he gain?”
Culkin said it was a “cool interpretation,” then added, “I had my own idea.” He pointed out that “People inevitably do grow when they go through experiences like this. I think he has evolved as a person. I don’t think he’s gained nothing from this. I think there’s something he must have taken away from it, whether or not that’s for better or for worse.”
The series’s last succession concludes on a pretty stark banknote for the most miserable family on TV, who finally lost control over Waystar Royco.
Culkin’s read on the final chapter of Succession felt awfully sad when it came to the relationship between Roman and the rest of his siblings, made perpetually worse once they all turned on each other in those last moments.
“I think he not only just genuinely loves his family, I think he needs them,” said Culkin. “Now that it’s done, and he’s out, and they’re all out: When is he going to see them again? Who does he have? He has f—ing nobody. That’s it. And [his] siblings are out there, somewhere. And it’s not like we’re gonna get together for a beer. He’s very much alone. Have you ever seen Roman with a friend?”
Is there any possibility that the siblings will reconnect? Culkin said, “Roman would be very much up for that.” But he honestly doesn’t know if the relationship is salvageable.
“I love that there are different interpretations of it, and different theories,” Culkin stated about the last and final episode. “I love that, because all these things can exist at once — that’s why I think it’s great that it ended where it did. It feels very much like the end, but there could be more. Because there really could be!”
Some have lassoed onto Roman’s choice of drink as a smoking gun in his last scene. His martini is former mentor Gerri’s, tailored by J. Smith Cameron (Waco: The Aftermath, Vengeance), monogram. Although they heated up the Sahara with their incessant flirting, the pair’s latest collaboration was more like syrup poured over a glacier with Roman ousting her from Waystar Royco two separate times.
Under the heels of the finale, Cameron said that it’s “too bad” Gerri didn’t join Roman for one last drink in the final scene. “I feel Roman really considered it a romantic relationship,” Cameron added about their complicated relationship, “but I’m not sure that Jesse ever did, and I don’t know what Gerri [thought]… But I do think that over time Roman really got under her skin and she had a real true affection for him. That’s why it hurt so bad to feel betrayed with the horrible, horrible firing scene in season four.”