yacht on succession season 2

Solandge, the yacht used in Succession, costs $1million a week to hire

In last night’s Succession Season 2 finale on HBO, the Roy family and their top Waystar-Royco aides spent time onboard Logan Roy’s luxurious Mediterranean yacht, ostensibly on a brief cruise vacation.  However, the Mediterranean cruise was actually intended to give Logan (Brian Cox) the opportunity to take time off to decide who should take the fall to save Waystar-Royco’s tarnished reputation following the company’s mismanagement scandal, and a congressional hearing on the matter.

Logan finally decided that his troubled son Kendall (Jeremy Strong) would be the “blood sacrifice” to save the company.

If you saw last night’s season finale and wondered about the luxurious yacht that provided the setting for the episode, here is everything you need to know about it.

The superyacht in tonight’s episode of Succession Sign up for our newsletter! Get updates on the latest posts and more from Monsters and Critics straight to your inbox. By submitting your information you agree to our T&Cs and Privacy Policy. Length: 85.1 meters Crew: 29 Cost: 1,000,000 euros to rent per week https://t.co/jaPEubbK6m — Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) October 14, 2019

@Succession_HBO is that M/Y Solandge? Used in S2E10? Nice. — Daniel B Nash Sr (@DanielBNashSr1) October 14, 2019

Solandge was the yacht used in the Succession Season 2 finale

The yacht used in last night’s episode of Succession was the famous 85.1-meter Lürssen motor yacht Solandge . Solandge is one of the world’s largest and most iconic luxurious motor superyachts available for charter.

The weekly summer and winter charter price for a Mediterranean cruise is listed as being from €1,000,000 ( currently about $1,102, 642 plus expenses ).

Solandge was first listed for sale in 2015 at an asking price of €179 million. It was finally sold in a deal brokered by the luxury yacht brokerage firm Moran Yacht & Ship in 2017. The deal, said to be the biggest yacht deal of the year in 2017, was reportedly worth €155,000,000.

Solandge was built by Lürssen in 2013. The luxurious granite, marble and wood interior of the yacht was jointly designed by Rodriguez Interiors and Dolker & Voges. The exterior was designed by Espen Øino ( Espen Oeino).

The yacht is able to sleep 12-16 guests in eight large staterooms. It is also able to accommodate a large gathering of overnight party guests in en-suite cabins. Facilities include a sauna, steam room, massage room, beauty salon, gym, sun deck, outdoor swimming pool, dance floor, bar, outdoor cinema, and nightclub.

The boat has a cruising speed of 15 knots and a top speed of 17 knots.

Solange won the Monaco Yacht Club’s La Belle Classe Superyachts award at the 2014 Monaco Yacht Show.

All you need to know about SOLANDGE, the yacht from ‘Succession’

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Written by Rachael Steele

Superyachts on film are not uncommon: The Bond series is famous for its fast cars and sleek luxury yachts, while recent Netflix film Murder Mystery was filmed aboard 60m/198ft motor yacht SARASTAR , but M/Y SOLANDGE has brought new heights of glamour to the small screen as the notable backdrop in Season Two of hit TV series Succession .

SOLANDGE top deck – star of the HBO TV series Succession

The comedy-drama centres around the Roy family as patriarchal figure Logan Roy, who owns and controls a worldwide media conglomerate, declines in health and his children are sized up for taking his place as head of the empire.

Mega yacht SOLANDGE

SOLANDGE is a yacht worthy of a media mogul, boasting an enormous amount of onboard amenities, a supply of water toys just as large and exquisite living areas from the beach-club to the bedrooms. She was refitted in 2019 to have her looking better than ever, and she’s available for charter throughout the year.

SUCCESSION VIDEO TRAILER

Construction.

Luxury yacht SOLANDGE measures 85.1m/279.2ft and was launched from the Lurssen shipyard in Germany in 2013 before going on to win the Exterior Design category at the Monaco Yacht Show Awards 2014 , as well as making it to the finals at three other awards shows that same year. Her exterior styling is the work of renowned designer Espen Oeino , while the interiors from Rodriguez Interiors transport guests to a more elegant age using classical styling, golden accents and detailed patterns of Eastern origin.

Impeccable service by the professional and highly trained crew is offered at all times

Built with a steel hull and aluminium superstructure, she provides an excellent balance between stability and power, reaching a top speed of 17.5 knots.

Logan Roy (Brian Cox) on the top deck of the yacht.Photograph by Graeme Hunter / HBO

Accommodation

The lavish on board accommodation provides for up to 12 guests in a choice of eight en-suite cabins: 1 Master suite, 1 VIP stateroom, 3 double cabins, 2 double cabins convertible to twins and 1 twin cabin.

Master suite offering the utmost in luxury and unprecedented views

The majority of the guest accommodation is placed on the main deck, where the elevated position provides better views and more natural light into the spacious and light interiors. Each has a classical appearance using light coloured wood and inlays in mother of pearl, and a subtle Middle Eastern motif in the patterns.

Master stateroom with a private deck area

The guest companionway is unique in offering hot and refrigerated drinks as well as snacks so that guests can get what they desire late at night without needing to call the crew.

Owner’s bathroom – Photo by Klaus Jordan

The Owner’s suite is a part of its own dedicated deck, which includes an office and separate his-and-hers dressing rooms and bathrooms. There is a salon more casual in appearance the opulent main deck lounge, and the bedroom itself contains hand-made Italian furniture and a stunning chandelier above the central bed. Its forward position overlooks the bow through 180-degree windows, where there is a private spa pool.

One of the best spots to enjoy the views while relaxing in the Jacuzzi

There are also 15 cabins to accommodate a professional and highly skilled crew of 29, ensuring that guests are treated to a truly indulgent experience while on board, from health and beauty treatments in the spa massage room to Scuba diving deep underwater.

Season 2 finale of Succession filmed on board Mega Yacht Solandge – Photo © HBO

Day or night, guests will be tempted outside to live under the Mediterranean sky by the choice of sumptuous seating designed for cocktail evenings while dockside or roaring parties away from the city lights. The sweeping central staircase from the lower deck to the main deck aft makes a statement by itself and is a great opportunity for a photo-shoot before heading in to view the splendour within.

Close up of the aft decks

Sunbeds, a swimming pool and stern-side seating only partially fill the spaces across each deck, leaving plenty of room for dancing the night away or yoga in the fresh morning air.

The contra-flow swimming pool

M/Y SOLANDGE can accommodate hundreds of guests for dockside events, who have plenty of choice when it comes to refreshments from the wet bars. On the Owner’s deck and the sundeck, where a forward Jacuzzi lets you wallow under the stars. The Owner has a private Jacuzzi and sunpads on the foredeck that’s perfect for lazy afternoons after a big celebration or nightcaps and stargazing before bed.

Aft deck sunbathing

The exceptional decor by Rodriguez Interiors is what has given luxury yacht SOLANDGE her character and was no doubt a deciding factor in selecting her over many other options for the superyacht in Succession: Opulence is around every corner and guests ascending the main deck aft staircase will be awestruck by the extravagant main salon where golden tones in the furnishings and light fixtures are contrasted by cool blues in the surrounding wall panelling.

Ultra-luxurious interiors with amazing attention to detail and carefully selected materials and furnishings

The Owner’s salon meanwhile has a comfortable lounge setting in front of a widescreen TV, a fireplace with armchairs and a games table for entertaining small groups on cosy nights indoors.

The most impressive of all however is the Tree of Life at the centre of the stairwell, which stretches from the lower deck all the way up to the sundeck.

Central staircase – a true work of art

Special Features

Motor yacht SOLANDGE is expensive for a reason: She lavishes upon her guests almost every modern convenience conceivable. The beach club alone contains a DJ station, a dance floor hiding a spa pool beneath, and a golden bar with 14 matching stools. Across the decks there is also a massage room and hair salon, an indoor cinema, a sauna, steam room and gym plus a helipad for getting to and from the airport in style.

Amazing beach club with shower

Water Toys and Equipment

There is an extensive collection of water toys on board to suit all ages, interests and fitness levels, and with status as an Approved RYA Water Sports Centre and a Certified PADI dive centre, guests have the opportunity to earn a jet ski and Scuba diving license during their time on board. The collection contains:

• 6 x Paddleboards
• 5 x wakeboards
• 3 x Yamaha Waverunners (2 pax)
• 3 x Seabobs (F5 model)
• 3 x inflatable kayaks
• 2 x surf boards
• 1 x Jet ski
• fishing gear
• snorkelling equipment
• Scuba diving equipment, and

Beach club set up for easy access to the toys and water

There is also a well-equipped gym and the swimming pool onboard provide guests with additional options to wear off energy during a cruise.

Charter Locations

Luxury yacht SOLANDGE is available for charter throughout the Mediterranean, from the Balearic Islands of Spain to the ancient majesty of Antalya, Turkey. The summer season is when she is most in-demand and she is most coveted for events such as the Cannes Film Festival and Monaco Grand Prix. Christmas and the New Year are also popular times for charter yachts and it is advisable to book ahead to secure her for your own special occasion.

The yacht has an amazing amount of deck space and areas to unwind and relax

Charter Price

As of winter 2019, luxury yacht  SOLANDGE is available for charter from $1,000,000 USD (€1,136,000)* per week plus expenses such as food, drinks, fuel and taxes. (*the price at the time of publication, please contact CharterWorld for up to date rates and information)

Please contact CharterWorld - the luxury yacht charter specialist - for more on superyacht news item "All you need to know about SOLANDGE, the yacht from 'Succession'".

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This Is Not for Tears

• Edit source
• 3.1 Starring
• 3.2 Recurring
• 6 References

Premise [ ]

On the Roys' grand Mediterranean yacht, Logan weighs whether a member of the family, or a top lieutenant, will need to be sacrificed to salvage the company's tarnished reputation. Roman shares his hesitations about a new source of financing, as Kendall suggests a familiar alternative. Shiv proposes taking her open marriage with Tom to another level. [1]

Plot synopsis [ ]

Greg takes the stand

Greg is called to testify before Congress regarding the sexual misconduct on Waystar's cruise-lines . He fumbles his way through the testimony, seemingly nervous in front of Senator Gil Eavis . In the car, Logan watches the testimony with Hugo as they discuss who will be the scapegoat following the scandal. Logan then receives a call from a high-profile shareholder of Waystar's, who suggests that Logan take responsibility for the crimes.

Following the testimony, the Roys decide to vacation on their yacht. Connor and Willa , who is upset that her play has been panned by critics, are first to arrive. Shiv arrives with Tom and suggests that the two of them to have a threesome with a female yacht employee, though Tom is clearly uncomfortable with the idea. Tom sees that Gerri and Frank have followed them on board, and starts to think that this may be more than a "family holiday." Kendall soon arrives with Greg and girlfriend Naomi Pierce .

Connor and Willa are scrolling through the reviews of her play when Willa, frustrated upon seeing that they're mostly very negative, tosses Connor's tablet into the sea. Roman , Karl , and Laird arrive via helicopter, after returning from Turkey where they had been held for being potentially dangerous foreigners. The men seem a bit shaken up, but Laird says that Roman did good in terms of handling the deal, and that Asgarov will allow them to go private. Laird reminds the others of the consequences of Waystar remaining public, and leaves the yacht so that they may discuss amongst themselves. Connor then asks Logan for money, admitting that his campaign is robbing him and he can't cover the loss of Willa's play. Logan agrees, so long as Connor suspend his presidential campaign. Logan then asks Kendall to make Naomi leave, claiming that she enables his drug abuse. Naomi is disappointed that Kendall won't leave with her, but complies.

Logan is disappointed to wake up to no sign of Marcia , as he was hoping she'd join them on the yacht. At breakfast, Logan nonchalantly offers himself as the scapegoat, but the others deny and begin debating other options, relieving Logan. Ken suggests Gerri, Roman suggests Frank, and Frank suggests Karl. Karl suggests Gerri as well, but Roman defends her, saying that Tom is the logical choice due to his previous involvement with the cruise-line. Roman also adds that Greg could be sacrificed as well. Several others, including Shiv, agree that Tom is the most viable option, although Kendall adds that he might not be "big enough". Connor volunteers, asking for cash in return, which amuses Logan and he thanks Connor for the gesture. Logan then leaves to reflect, before he and Kendall travel to a Greek island in attempt to enlist financial aid from Stewy , who denies them. [Notes 1]

While relaxing on a beach, Tom confesses to Shiv that he is unhappy in their marriage. He confesses that he's not sure it was ever a good idea, but wishes to salvage it. Shiv, taken aback but feeling guilty, wishes to salvage it as well. Back at the yacht, Tom eats some of Logan's food in front of him, just to spite him. Shiv then goes to speak with her father. She does not initially reveal her intentions of speaking to him, but soon begins begging him not to get rid of Tom. Shiv is then asked to choose between her husband and her brother Kendall, and although pained by it, motions for Kendall to speak with their father.

Logan breaks the news to Kendall

Logan informs Kendall that he will be the blood sacrifice. Kendall suggests that he deserves punishment for what happened to Andrew Dodds , which Logan dismisses as a case of "No Real Person Involved", but not this. [Notes 2] Kendall, disappointed, asks if he was ever considered for the position of CEO. Logan admits that he wasn't, saying "You're not a killer. You have to be a killer." Kendall kisses Logan on the cheek and the two leave to inform the others of the decision. [Notes 3] Roman is appointed to COO and Frank will be responsible for cleanup.

Logan hearing Kendall's speech

The next morning, Kendall and Greg leave for a press conference back in New York, Jess and Karolina joining them upon arrival. Logan watches the conference from the yacht, Shiv by his side. Kendall, in front of the press, begins to explain his role as scapegoat, but suddenly deviates and begins blaming Logan. He states that his father is a "malignant presence, a bully, and a liar" and has been aware of the events for many years but made efforts to cover them up. Additionally, he informs the reporters that he has brought documents proving his father's guilt, which Greg seemingly has on hand. The speech shocks the reporters, Karolina, and the rest of the Roy family except for Logan, who bears a faint smile.

• ↑ Logan offers Stewy three board seats, including Kendall's, and a say in their next appointment of CEO.
• ↑ NRPI is likely based on the real-world phrase "No Human Involved", which is most often used by police officers to describe crimes involving victims of color, female victims who are sex workers, and drug addicts. In Andrew Dodds' case, Logan dehumanizes him due to his drug problems.
• ↑ Although Logan doesn't know it yet, he has received the "kiss of Judas" (or "kiss of death") from Kendall, forewarning betrayal.

• Logan Roy: You know me and Marcia would read things. I'd read her history, Spengler, Gibbon, the big boys. The Incas, in times of terrible crisis, they would sacrifice a child, to the sun. I said to her they were fucking savages. Her thing was, what could you possibly kill, that you loved so much, it might make the sun rise again?
• Tom Wambsgans [to Shiv Roy]: I think a lot of the time, I'm really pretty unhappy. I wonder if the sad I'd be without you would be less than the sad I get from being with you.
• Kendall Roy: The truth is that my father is a malignant presence, a bully, and a liar, and he was fully personally aware of these events for many years and made efforts to hide and cover up. He had a twisted sense of loyalty to bad actors like Lester McClintock. And a disregard for the safety of migrant workers, non-union and union workers, and for vulnerable performers and guests. My father keeps a watchful eye over every inch of his whole empire, and the notion that he would have allowed millions of dollars in settlements and compensation to be paid without his explicit approval is utterly fanciful.
• Armstrong stated that he chose to play the Roy family on a yacht because of the history surrounding real-life media moguls, such as Robert Maxwell, having important family meetings on yachts. Mark Mylod noted that the yacht also, given the context, played on the metaphor of "throwing someone overboard." [6]
• The episode was nominated for several Primetime Emmy, Primetime Creative Arts Emmy, and Directors Guild of America Awards. [7] [8] Jeremy Strong [9] , Nicholas Braun [10] , and Matthew Macfadyen [11] all submitted the episode to support their nominations.

References [ ]

• ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Succession Ep 10: This Is Not for Tears | Official Website for the HBO Series | HBO.com
• ↑ Shows A-Z - succession on hbo | TheFutonCritic.com
• ↑ 3.0 3.1 Succession : Season 2 , Episode 10: " This Is Not for Tears "
• ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Succession | Official Website for the HBO Series | HBO.com
• ↑ ‘Succession’ Showrunner Talks Season 2 Finale Twist – The Hollywood Reporter
• ↑ 2020 Emmy Nominations: Nominees For 72nd Annual Awards – Deadline
• ↑ DGA Announces 2019 Awards Nominees for: Dramatic Series; Comedy Series; and Variety/Talk/News/Sports (dga.org)
• ↑ Jeremy Strong (‘Succession’): Emmys 2020 episode submission revealed - GoldDerby
• ↑ Nicholas Braun (‘Succession’): Emmys 2020 episode submission revealed - GoldDerby
• ↑ Matthew Macfadyen (‘Succession’): Emmys 2020 episode submission - GoldDerby

• 1 Greg Hirsch
• 2 Logan Roy
• 3 Kendall Roy

‘It Hurts, But It Plays’: How ‘Succession’ Executed a Near-Perfect Season 2

By David Fear

You always love the ones you hurt.

History will tell whether Succession is a genuinely great, canon-worthy HBO show or merely the most compelling flaming-Maybach-wreck-in-progress on TV right now. But there are a few things we can more or less agree on. Jesse Armstrong’s lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-toxic drama started slow in Season One and eventually built to a strong finish. Its second season was leagues better, finally discovering the show it wanted to be; it was less a course correction than locating the proper curve of the Roys’ collective instability and leaning in to it. And, now that Round 2 is said and done, this sophomore season may not be remembered primarily for “boar on the floor!,” the L to O.G. rap ( viva Ken.W.A! ), the art-imitates-life-imitates-headlines of the Vaulter dismantling , hyperdecanting, or even an iPad angrily tossed into the sea. It may come down to a single word, uttered with such emphasis you can practically see the italics, in the finale. It ends not with a bang but with a “ But …”.

[Spoilers. Spoilers. Spoilers. ]

Succession kicked off Season 2 with Kendall Roy making a zombified TV appearance, pushed in front of a camera and blankly mouthing soundbites his handlers have provided him, all the better to calm the stockholders. “Dad’s plan was better,” he intoned, almost able to muster a weak smile as a few more ounces of his soul leaked out. It concludes with “Ken Doll” once again staring into a lens, once again given a script to read, once again trying to assure the board that everything is going to be fine. And then, the No. 1 Boy announces that though he’s been picked to be the fall guy, everything from the cover-up of cruise-ship deaths to the corporate malfeasance — it’s all Logan’s fault. For someone who micromanages every aspect of his company, the notion that the patriarch behind it all not be aware of these crimes is ludicrous, Kendall suggests. “My father’s reign ends today,” he says. Dad’s plan, apparently, was not better this time.

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Whether you believe this whole turn of events was part of Logan’s ultimate plan or not, however, depends on just how Machiavellian and omnipotent you think this media titan is. This whole season has revolved largely around the paterfamilias engaging in his favorite pastime, i.e. gathering together his children, their significant others and various key lackeys in a location (a Hungarian hunting lodge, the Roys’ summer home, a pre-celebration toast in Scotland) and letting them tear each other apart. The sheer viciousness of the backbiting, not to mention the choice one-liners  — “You can’t make a Tomelette without breaking some Gregs”; the writing team has outdone themselves this season — have kept these Darwinian set pieces from becoming nothing but humiliate, blame, grovel, repeat. In the finale, the battle royale octagon of choice is a yacht in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea; no word on whether they’re anchored in international waters, but Logan’s Law rules regardless.

Everyone knows heads are going to roll after that disastrous hearing, in which numerous folks shat various beds. After a helicopter drops Logan off at the boat, he announces that everyone should have a great time tonight. Tomorrow, they’ll get together “and have a chat” about what happens now. (The fact that judgment regarding who’s going to take the blame for deaths on a cruise ship will be rendered on a gigantic floating playground is a nice touch.) Attempts to go private have failed. The shareholders have already suggested that Logan resigning is the only solution they 100-percent approve of. The next morning, he casually introduces the idea and gets the requisite “no way,” “we need the appearance of stability,” etc. So whose head gets put on the spike?, Logan asks. And then the screaming starts.

The round robin of finger-pointing that follows is fairly predictable. Family members suggest Gerri, Francis and Karl — longtime loyalists but not blood relations. The idea of a bundled sacrifice is floated; maybe Gerri and Tom, “with some Greg sprinkles”? Still not “a big enough skull” for the bloodthirsty board. Each of the Roys, including Connor, put themselves forward as the one to go and then methodically walk their own suggestion back, looking at Dad to make sure he notices their willingness to take the hit. Shiv suggests Tom, which proves to be the final nail in the already hammered-down coffin that is their marriage. (Side note to the couple’s ongoing matrimonial death rattle: We hope the sales of Sally Rooney novels will go through the roof. ) There’s a lot of “I fucking love you, man, but…” preambles before a new sacrificial lamb is prepped for slaughter.

Brian Cox: The 'Succession' Star on the Art of Playing Bastards

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There’s a part of you, the viewer, that just inherently knows whose head will eventually be on the chopping block — the same one we saw floating, almost disembodied, out of an Icelandic hot spring way back in the season premiere. “It hurts, but it plays,” Logan admits when Shiv mentions the family fuck-up is a prime candidate for a killing. A broken, mumbling man-shaped ruin, Kendall has spent nine episodes wallowing in guilt over accidentally killing a civilian, relapsing, wooing an actress (then thoughtlessly wrecking her career), dismissing his new girlfriend whenever Logan casts a disapproving look and generally skulking about. Season One was about him trying unsuccessfully to grab what he felt was rightfully his, by hook, crook or hostile takeover. Season Two appeared, on the surface, to be about his penance while everybody else took their shot. His siblings played the game of thrones. He opted to sit on the bench.

So when Shiv silently whispers something to Tom after meeting with her father, then pivots toward her brother, we see where this is going. Sorry, lad, says Logan. It’s got to be you. I deserve this, Kendall replies, then asks: But could I have been a good head honcho? Pops hems and haws. Then he focuses his gaze on his son: “You’re not a killer.” Kendall nods. He embraces Dad. Then, one Fredo kiss later, he leaves to fulfill his duties and his destiny. I would fall on my sword for my family. But … .

Which brings us back to Logan’s endgame, and whether, by telling Kendall that he had no killer instinct, he’s inherently gifted him with one. If you go back and view the episode again, knowing where everything is headed, you can see how Armstrong and Co. have laid the groundwork. And should you rewatch what has been a near-perfect second season of a show, which we highly recommend, what strikes you is how everything really does seem to have been leading up to that shot of Kendall staring, Big Brother-like, from a flat screen; that one loaded conjunction; and the tiny smile that curls on Logan’s lips. The past 10 episodes have been an abundance of beautiful bitchery and 1-percent-behaving-badly — not just the “boar on the floor” incident, but the Oedipal dirty talk, the Conn-head memes, every single scene in which Holly Hunter spits venom through a lockjaw grin. They’ve also reminded you that it doesn’t matter whether the Roys are avatars for the Murdochs, the Redstones or our current first family; the rich are unlike you and me, but they are the same type of bastards. Whoever wins, we all lose…including the Roys. (Older shows about the rich and powerful acted as escapism. Never mind the fancy estates and luxury excursions; Succession makes being part of the modern aristocracy look fucking miserable.)

Yet to see that smile break across Logan’s face introduces a whole level of complexity into the second season — the idea that he was not looking for a successor so much as the perfect executioner. He maneuvered Kendall, or perhaps backed him into a corner, to the point where patricide was the only path forward. For a show about legacy, it makes complete sense — and turns this second season from the sum of its gleefully ghoulish parts into one thrilling whole. The No. 1 Boy has become the No. 1 Roy. Whatever happens next, we’ve leveled up to an entirely new category of Prestige TV shitshow.

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Succession Season Two Recap: Who Is the Last Roy Standing?

Two years is a long time to have gone without the hit HBO show—get up to speed here.

Everyone’s favorite messy rich family is back. Succession ’s third season premieres on October 17 after a long two years—and creator Jesse Armstrong has a lot of explaining to do. We left the terrible billionaires on a yacht in the Mediterranean—well, most of them. Kendall was pawned off to combat scandal and act as the Roy’s sacrificial lamb, only to turn on his father in a shocking, live press conference.

Confused? We get it. It feels like an eternity has passed since we last saw the Roys and we’re here to catch you up. Below, refresh your memory on where we left each of the Succession characters before tuning in to season three.

Kendall Roy

The latter half of Succession ’s second season revolved around the now-public controversy in Waystar Royco’s cruise division, resulting in congressional hearings, tanking stock, and general chaos. After a few disastrous testimonies (thanks, Tom), Logan decided that the public needed a “blood sacrifice,” someone high up in the company who could take the fall, staving off frightened shareholders.

In the season finale, Logan decides that Kendall, his issue-riddled, hyper-ambitious son, will take the fall. This comes after a number of smaller incidents between the pair during the finale. Logan advises (i.e. forces) Kendall to send home Naomi Pierce, a woman with whom Kendall’s formed a bond over the past few episodes. There’s also a failed deal with Kendall’s friend Stewy, who notes that shareholders simply care about profit margins, and less about keeping the business in the family.

Kendall acquiesces to Logan’s plan, or seems to, with his father telling him that he’s “not a killer.” The prodigal son returns to New York for a press conference, where he is set to admit to wrongdoing, thus throwing himself under a bus (or cruise ship, if you will) to save his father and the family business. However, in a move that makes all the more sense in the context of Kendall’s prior treachery (season one’s vote of no confidence in Logan and the attempted takeover at Shiv’s wedding), he changes course.

Live on camera, as his family watches from their yacht, Kendall reveals his father’s involvement in the cruise scandal and goes on to condemn Logan in a number of ways. He calls the patriarch “a malignant presence, a bully and a liar.” “I think this is the day his reign ends,” Kendall says.

As Kendall spirals, Roman has been trying to earn his father’s trust, taking a more prominent role in the family business. He seems to have succeeded, saving himself from the cruise scandal chopping block. In episode nine, Roman was almost killed trying to take the company private with a source of independent wealth, which he attempted to secure in eastern Europe. He was held at gunpoint, but received a semblance of a deal. However, despite differing feelings from Logan’s advisors, Roman advocates against taking the money, noting that the deal seemed like too much trouble and too sketchy. As a reward, Logan offers Roman the COO position when Kendall is axed.

Meanwhile, Roman’s intriguing relationship with Gerri, Waystar’s general counsel, continues. He defends her from being sacrificed (“Haven’t we killed enough woman already?”) and the pair continue their sexually explicit (though lacking in touch) trysts. A poster for season three certainly fueled speculation about the continuation of this arrangement.

Shiv is clearly her father’s favorite, though continues to say the wrong thing at the wrong time. She began season two with an offer to succeed her father as CEO, a proposition she lost after advocating for a “dinosaur cull” at the company. Logan fluctuates between feeling proud of his daughter and being, well, sexist. It’s uncertain whether Shiv has done enough (leaving her job in politics, witness intimidation in a congressional trial) to place herself back in the running, but she’s certainly trying. She even offers up her husband, Tom, as the “blood sacrifice,” much to his dismay.

In terms of Tom, the season ends with Shiv’s marriage on the rocks. Tom is finally able to confront his wife about their “arrangement” for an open marriage, which she proposed on their wedding night. As the pair get some alone time in a cove, Tom tells Shiv, “I wonder, if the sad I’d be without you would be less than the sad I’d be being with you.”

Arguably, the Roy child the most off his rocker, Connor continues to act as comic relief. He’s hemorrhaging money from his paid escort-turned girlfriend Willa’s Broadway show and attempts to run for president in a distinctly Trumpy manner. Connor needs money and asks Logan for a loan—just, you know, $100 million. Logan concedes, provided that Connor abandons his presidential ambitions.

Cousin Greg

Greg Hirsch (aka Cousin Greg aka Greg the Egg) spent season two strategizing which side in the family war he should take. All the while, he gives up his own inheritance, fully buying into his future in Waystar. Greg was also involved in the cruise ship scandal early on, as Tom ordered him to destroy documents detailing the events. For his own security, Greg kept a few crucial pages, which he parlayed into Roy family capital on various occasions. However, Greg also becomes embroiled in the scandal, testifying (hilariously) before Congress; Roman also nominates him to take some of the blame (did someone say “Greg sprinkles?”).

Though he doesn’t end up getting axed, Greg sides with Kendall, giving him access to the incriminating documents. It is these papers that give Kendall the ammunition he needs to take the shot at his father. Kendall drives away from the presser, Greg in tow.

Of course, there’s still Logan. And, if two seasons of Succession have taught us anything, it’s that he is not to be underestimated. However, after helicoptering onto the yacht to run his version of Survivor , Logan can't make the decision on his own and asks his family and advisors to make the hard choice for him. Of course, his own suggestion to step down is purely performative. When he eventually picks Kendall (mind you, at Shiv’s suggestion), it’s all just seems a tad too easy.

Logan’s relationship is also strained. After he names Rhea (with whom he had an affair) successor to the CEO seat, Logan’s marriage with his third wife, Marcia, fractures. Even after the deal with Rhea explodes, Marcia is nowhere to be found and Logan sleeps alone in the finale.

Season two ended with Logan and the rest of the Roys watching Kendall’s press conference. As Kendall betrays him, Logan watches the scene unfold, wearing a slight smile that just, almost, looks a little like pride.

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What happened in the 'Succession' season 2 finale?

Let's recap all the drama from the 'Succession' season 2 finale before you start those new episodes

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Our favorite dysfunctional billionaires are back! Succession season 3 kicked off on October 17, but before you click play on those fresh-from-the-oven episodes, let's catch up with the Roys and everything that happened in that drama-filled Succession season 2 finale, which aired a whopping two years ago due to COVID-related delays. 

Could you believe what Kendall did during that press conference? Or how bumbling Cousin Greg has turned into a veritable power player? What do you think is going to happen with Tom and Shiv's marriage? 

From the core Roys to the schemers that encircle them, here's a complete refresher on how did season 2 of Succession end, just in time for new episodes to hit HBO Max .

*Warning: It goes without saying but there are major spoilers ahead, people!*

• Is Succession on Netflix ? How to watch the hit series
• How many seasons of Succession will there be? Inside season four and beyond
• Succession filming locations : Enter the world of Waystar Royco
• What is Succession based on ? Behind the show's real-life inspiration

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'Succession' season 2 finale: What went down?

Season two of Succession simultaneously dealt both with the rise of Logan Roy's successor—would it be Kendall, Siobhan, Roman or, LOL, Connor?—and with the potential downfall of the media empire that he ruthlessly built over the years, as rumor has it that the company's cruise ship division has been acting as a major cover-up for serious crimes, including murder and sexual assault. 

The Succession season 2 finale, entitled "This is Not for Tears," finds the Roy family and its Waystar Royco cohorts on a—what else?—luxury yacht strategizing which member of the clan would be offered up as a "blood sacrifice" to take the fall for the cruise scandal ahead of the shareholders' meeting. 

Would it be Logan himself, like the investors suggest? Unlikely. How about Tom, Shiv's husband and the head of Waystar Royco’s amusement park and cruise division, with "some Greg sprinkles"? Maybe Roman, who's "widely known as a terrible person"?

In the end, they decide on middle son Kendall Roy, who had already spent the better part of season two acting as his dad's punching bag. According to the plan, Kendall would take the blame for the cruise division crisis and announce his resignation from Waystar Royco during a news conference. Instead, Kendall pulls a total 180 and publicly betrays his father, revealing to the press that he has hard evidence—remember those damning documents that Cousin Greg filched before Tom could destroy them?—that Logan not only knew about the criminal cruise cover-ups, but he personally signed off on them. 

"The truth is that my father is a malignant presence, a bully and a liar...this is the day his reign ends," Kendall tells the press, ripping up the pre-approved statement Logan wanted him to read, as the rest of the Roy dynasty watches the televised report in shock. The final shot of Succession season 2? A close-up of Logan Roy with a hint of a Mona Lisa smile on his face, whether out of being stunned or impressed, we don't know.

Backstabbing, boardroom drama, big-ass boats—what more could you want from a Succession finale? You'll have to watch season three to find out how that epic cliffhanger plays out.

Succession airs Sunday nights at 9pm ET/PT on HBO and HBO Max in the US, and on Monday nights at 9pm on Sky Atlantic in the UK.

Christina Izzo is the Deputy Editor of My Imperfect Life. 

More generally, she is a writer-editor covering food and drink, travel, lifestyle and culture in New York City. She was previously the Features Editor at Rachael Ray In Season and Reveal , as well as the Food & Drink Editor and chief restaurant critic at Time Out New York . 

When she’s not doing all that, she can probably be found eating cheese somewhere. 

As a self-proclaimed blush connoisseur, I swear by ILIA's cheek and lip stick and hopefully, when my work is done, you will too.

By Naomi Jamieson Published 28 September 23

If you've been looking for a new, signature hair look for fall, Emma Chamberlain may have just come *through* for you...

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Why Season 2 of Succession Was So Extraordinary

The HBO show had teased a “blood sacrifice” in its thrilling season finale, and it didn’t disappoint.

This article contains spoilers through the finale of Succession Season 2 .

Water is never a good omen on Succession . In the Season 1 episode “Austerlitz,” the ill-fated infinity pool in the New Mexico desert led to a tweedy psychotherapist losing his front teeth; at the close of the episode, as Logan Roy (played by Brian Cox) swam a few laps, viewers were able to see for a moment the scars that cover his back. In the Season 1 finale, “Nobody Is Ever Missing,” a chipper cater-waiter trying to facilitate a drug buy for Kendall (Jeremy Strong) drowned in a lake on the way back to Shiv’s wedding. And in “This Is Not for Tears,” last night’s conclusion to the show’s superlative second season, the Roy family and its associates basked in the azure incandescence of the Mediterranean before being led, one by one, to try on the metaphorical noose Logan was readying for a scapegoat.

Harbingers aside, “This Is Not for Tears” was, thanks to its aquatic setting, the most gorgeous episode Succession has had to date. Directed by Mark Mylod ( Game of Thrones ), it had the visual poetry and the psychosexual familial tension of a late Bertolucci movie, or one by Luca Guadagnino. A disconsolate Roman (Kieran Culkin) lounged in a blue linen shirt against a pile of turquoise pillows. Shiv (Sarah Snook) insulated herself from the sun with a giant straw hat and a pair of aviators. Kendall floated on his back in the yacht’s plunge pool, shot from overhead to contrast against the darker blue ocean. His bobbing body, with arms splayed, looked for a moment like a corpse, or like Christ on the cross. In retrospect, it makes sense— Succession has been readying him to be the sacrificial lamb since he was dragged, dripping, from the Icelandic rehab center’s pool at the beginning of the season.

Read: Why ‘Succession’ works so well as horror

Succession is a show about business empires, and about family, and especially about the peculiar toxicity and dysfunction that occur when the two intersect. Since the show debuted, it has presented a question: Which one of these three children (with apologies to Connor, but let’s be real) will inherit Logan’s kingdom? But there are also other kinds of bequests in the ether, as the scars on Logan’s back—paid forward as psychological wounds to his children and grandchildren—made clear. And so the question gets an extra dimension: Which of his children is Logan’s emotional heir, hungry and empty enough inside to meet his standards for an acceptable successor?

In Season 1, the obvious candidate was Kendall, with his Forbes covers, his desperate need to prove himself, and his multiple boardroom-coup efforts against his father. “I’m just concerned you might be soft,” Logan told Kendall early on, noting that business was essentially “a big-dick competition”; his son, cosseted by luxury his entire life, couldn’t measure up. “The only way he’ll respect you is if you try to destroy him,” Roman told Kendall midway through the first season. “Because, in your position, that is exactly what he’d try to do.” That same episode, a frustrated Logan physically lashed out at Kendall’s son, as if to remind Kendall that aspiring to be more like his father would come with obvious costs. In the end, Kendall’s own frailty gave his father a winning hand, and led to Kendall trudging wearily in Logan’s wake for most of Season 2.

At the same time, Shiv’s stock was rising. There’s no doubt at this point that Shiv is the Roy child most closely akin to her father—the most ambitious sibling, the most manipulative, and the least troubled by the little things, like empathy or guilt. (“This class-war shit—don’t you find it a little jejune?” is up there with “Let them eat cake” as a succinct encapsulation of personal callousness.) “My philosophy is, I literally don’t give a fuck,” Shiv told Nate (Ashley Zukerman) in bed while he was browsing his wedding registry; the personal motto applies to table napkins and china patterns, but also to the world at large. In Season 1, Shiv conspired with a senator who wanted to burn her father’s news empire to the ground. In Season 2, as Logan dangled the throne in front of her like a cat toy, Shiv was made newly vulnerable by the prospect of getting something she actually really wanted. Initially thrown off course, she was back at Logan’s side by “Dundee.” There, Shiv set up Rhea (Holly Hunter) to fail in a way that would facilitate Shiv’s path to the top job, and sweet-talked a woman victimized by Waystar into backing down.

Read: The ‘Succession’ kids finally understand their power

Last night, on board the Roy yacht, a craft as sharp and black as a kitchen knife, Logan let his children and consiglieres fight it out to see which one should suffer the sins of the company. It was a classic Roy reunion—there were no actual shouts of “Boar on the floor,” but the internecine conflicts and poisonous power struggles were the same. Roman, newly chastened by his brush with political kidnapping, couldn’t begin to compete: Having recently pleaded with his siblings to “talk to each other? Normally?” and opened up about how frightened he was in Turkey, he was far too tenderhearted to do more than defend Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron) and implicate Tom. Shiv, Tom’s own wife, agreed that Tom was a logical choice, leading him to lambaste her as they lay sunbathing in a private cove. “If I think about it, a lot of the time I’m pretty unhappy,” Tom said. “I wonder if the sad I’d be without you would be less than the sad I get from being with you.”

That equation, when applied to Logan, has always seemed simple. When Kendall was offered half a billion dollars by Stewy (Arian Moayed) for his Waystar stock in Season 1, I yearned for him to just take it and escape this life, these people. Naomi Pierce (Annabelle Dexter-Jones), as she was evicted off Logan’s yacht last night, similarly asked Kendall to come with her and abandon the life he’d been piecing together so carefully that he couldn’t see its cracks. But Kendall stayed, and as the episode proceeded, it became more and more obvious that he was being readied for slaughter. Shiv, who only episodes ago had been momentarily stunned by the sight of her broken brother weeping, told her father to save Tom and sacrifice Kendall—further anointing herself as Logan’s true successor. Logan, cheered by a family member bold enough to go right for the heart, agreed. “It hurts,” he told Shiv, “but it plays.”

That the backstabbing and betrayal played out against such an idyllic backdrop seemed fitting. One of the things that have made Season 2 of Succession so strong is its constant shift in locations—a mountain resort for billionaires here, a Hungarian hunting ground there. At home, the family members find comfort in familiar settings and coping mechanisms: the boardroom for Logan, politics for Shiv, irony for Roman, drugs for Kendall. But in new spaces, they’re forced into closer proximity with one another while their armor is taken away, making their damage harder to disguise. These are the kinds of situational setups that lead to riveting television, but also to glimpses of the characters as vulnerable human beings rather than comic archetypes. Tom, for example,  is infinitely more compelling when he’s baring his soul to his wife than he is embracing plutocracy by eating songbirds and actual gold.

And Kendall, tragic prince that he is, has always been Succession ’s heart. Having clung to the fragments of his father he could hero-worship for much of Season 2, Kendall was spurred by Logan’s betrayal to save himself. He gave his father a Corleone kiss. He agreed to take the fall. And then he turned on Logan in a stunning press conference volte-face, armed with Greg’s Chekhovian cruise documents and his own legitimate anger. “The truth is that my father is a malignant presence, a bully and a liar,” he said. My colleague Megan Garber has written about pestilence on Succession and how, despite themselves, the Roys can’t escape the symbolic manifestations of the corruption they sow in the world. In calling out his father as a cancer, Kendall was taking the first steps toward recovery. It was the closest thing to a happy ending anyone could have expected Succession to offer.

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Let’s Talk About the Yacht Clothes on “Succession”

In January, 1973, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times flew to Nice, France, to interview the director Herbert Ross about “The Last of Sheila,” a mystery picture that he was shooting on the Côte d’Azur, much of which took place on a luxurious, hundred-and-sixty-five-foot yacht called H.M.S. Malahne. The gilded ship, which was built in England in 1937 and once helped evacuate soldiers from Dunkirk, became something of a Hollywood fixture in the nineteen-sixties and seventies: it served as the floating production office for “Lawrence of Arabia” in Jordan, was a regular Mediterranean clubhouse for Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra, and popped up in “The Last of Sheila,” as the watery summer home of a sinister film producer played by James Coburn. (There was a kernel of truth buried in this fiction: at the time of filming, H.M.S. Malahne was the property of a womanizing film producer named Sam Spiegel, who was allegedly so handsy with actresses that Billy Wilder once said that he had “velvet octopus arms.”) Dark things can happen out at sea, when people feel unmoored from both the shoreline and a landlocked sense of morality. “The Last of Sheila,” written by Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim—who used to host infamous mystery parties together in New York—pushes this idea to murderous excess. A group of glamorous strangers (including Raquel Welch, Ian McShane, and Dyan Cannon) set sail, people start dying, and it’s up to the viewer to discover whodunnit. In his Los Angeles Times interview, Ross acknowledged the inherent creepiness of floating stories: “If you have a group of people on a ship,” he said, “the ship becomes a metaphor for existence, you can’t help it. . . . it’s about civilization and barbarism.”

I could not stop thinking about “The Last of Sheila” while watching the Season 2 finale of “Succession,” which traps the Roy family and their closest remora on a superyacht in the Adriatic. Like H.M.S. Malahne, which would look like a dinghy beside the Roys’ “boat” (rich people never say “yacht”), their sea vessel is also the setting for a kind of murder mystery. After a series of scandals involving Waystar Royco’s cruise division (dark things happen at sea!), the company’s board demands a “blood sacrifice,” a scapegoat that they can tie up in litigation while the empire sails on, more or less unscathed. Each person who boards the ship knows that they could end up as the one overboard.

And yet they look fabulous. Relaxed. Expensive. Carefree. Cool in Top-Siders and floral maxidresses and gossamer pareos. Like Cannon in “Sheila,” who wore oversized tinted glasses and a circus of colorful caftans and straw hats, even as she was fearing for her life, the Roys, in resort wear, are engaging in high-stakes high fashion, on the high seas.

When I wrote about the fashion on “Succession” earlier this fall, I argued that the Roys are a family of “little pleasure or sparkle,” that, in spite of their money, they are tasteful to a fault, dressing protectively in uniforms of beige cashmere rather than in eccentric couture. I spoke to the show’s costume designer, Michelle Matland, who told me that this was accurate—but that she could not wait for me to see the finale, where we would get to see a different side of the Roy dress code. “I shouldn’t even be telling you this,” she said, at the time. “But they go on a yacht. We get to see them at play.”

Even with this tip-off, the Roys’ maritime peacocking came as a thrilling visual surprise. At last, here was the family in private, dressing only for each other. “Sails out, nails out, bro,” as Kendall instructed Cousin Greg . And while their fashion choices are more adventurous at sea—Tom’s pink linen Ralph Lauren jacket, Shiv’s flowy white Hobbs jumpsuit with an oversized waist sash, Willa’s floral Equipment dress, which she likely bought after seeing it on Kate Middleton—there is still a sense of gloom that seeps through the pastels. I spoke to J. Smith-Cameron, who plays Gerri, Waystar Royco’s general counsel, who did her best Sue Mengers impression in a series of Cynthia Rowley caftans. Smith-Cameron told me that she wanted to look like she was seasick with stress, even in spangles. “We see these people on this plush boat on the Adriatic with delicious food, and there’s a pool and a slide and Jet Skis,” she said. “But everyone is filled with dread. So it was actually meant to be jarring: beautiful surroundings with long faces and furtive glances, not people enjoying themselves. So all of our resort wear is meant to look nice but at the same time be amusingly counter.”

Matland echoed this sentiment. Tom, for example, is coming off his disastrous performance at the congressional hearings on Waystar Royco’s crimes and is “highly agitated,” she said. “His clothing, which was a lot of Ralph Lauren linen suits, is there to belie the fact that he is on the edge of a breakdown. He is constantly trying to look as if he is comfortable—pink linens say honeymoon, vacation, enjoyment—but it is there to cover for the fact that he is unhinged.”

Matland’s goal with the episode was to telegraph the shared anxiety that each character feels while laundering this panic through the resort-wear section of Bergdorf Goodman. Kendall (Jeremy Strong), who quietly slumps around, wears a tiny Paul Stuart trilby hat (Strong’s idea), which Matland says serves as both a security blanket and as a sign that he is feeling deeply insecure. “The hat was crumpled, if you’ll notice,” she said. “It was purposefully imperfect.”

In the final twist, when Kendall turns saboteur, he is back in his city armor: a sharp, fitted Tom Ford suit that almost shines like sharkshin. He sheds the earth tones that he has been wearing all season and dons the color black—a mournful color, but also one that marks him as an assassin, capable of patricide. He’s lost his blingy Oliver Peoples sunglasses, the typical eyewear of rich scions who have a trust fund and personal shoppers who run errands to SoHo; he is at last seeing clearly.

Sunglasses were crucial to this episode, Matland told me, when it came to winking at subtle differences between characters. Shiv, for example, wears traditional Ray-Bans, a sign that she wants to traffic in old-money rituals rather than in flashy ostentation. (“It was significant that she did not wear Gucci or Prada,” Matland said.) Tom’s sunglasses in his much memed chicken-stealing moment , right after he breaks down about his unhappy marriage, are Persol, an old-world Italian brand favored by worldly celebrities, most notably by Anthony Bourdain, who wore his pair all over the globe. His shades are as close to representing rebelliousness as one can get in the Roys’ world. Tom is past his breaking point; he’s having his Brando moment.

Logan never lets his guard down, even in the sun—his sun hat is wool, from Walker Slater, a tweedy, posh haberdasher from Scotland. Nor does Roman, who, despite being the most feckless character, may also be the most authentic, in that he almost never changes his costume. “He has a uniform he’s super-comfortable in,” Matland said. “Blue oxford button-ups. Always.”

As for Shiv, most of her boat wear, including her cream pinstripe suits, is Ralph Lauren Purple Label, a sign that she arrived on the ship most prepared for professional ruthlessness. She wants the top job, she’s dressed for it, and she’s willing to throw her husband under the bus for it, save for a rare moment of weakness in front of her father. Her one whimsical touch is an oversized straw hat with a black ribbon, from the Brooklyn brand Lola, which makes her look pampered and pastoral, like an extra from “ Anne of Green Gables .” Even with her sharp, new-ish bob and architectural wardrobe, Shiv is still a spoiled, priggish little girl who throws tantrums if she can’t get her way, and her accessories betray her true nature. (As a side note, Smith-Cameron told me that she was so taken with Shiv’s hat that she went out and bought one for herself after the episode wrapped.)

In “Succession,” no detail is out of place. Like a classic whodunnit, it is the kind of show that begs rewatching, studying, squinting at with a gimlet eye. If you run the finale back, you might wonder when exactly Cousin Greg decided to betray Logan and give Kendall the incriminating documents that he stole. Was it while shirtless and in baggy swim trunks, drinking a mediocre rosé, or was it while he was wearing a navy Lacoste polo on the Roys’ private jet? When Greg first boards the yacht, in a striped French blue sweater and tailored khaki shorts, he looks suspiciously like Tom Ripley, a sleek interloper in the world of luxury who is willing to kill to survive. Perhaps even then Greg was eager to turn traitorous. Matland, who worked on the film “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” understands more than most how to make summer attire appear instantly malevolent. She creates a world of sunny poplins and ivory linens and breathable cottons, but, in the end, we are the ones left holding our breath.

Den of Geek

Succession Season 2 Episode 10 Review: This Is Not For Tears

Of course it was going to end this way!

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This Succession review contains spoilers.

Succession Season 2, Episode 10

At the end of last week’s “DC,” two things happened that should have immediately clued audiences to what was going to happen in Succession ’s season two finale, “This Is Not For Tears.” First, Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) delivered a fiery defense of his father Logan (Brian Cox) and the Waystar Royco brand during his congressional testimony regarding the company’s problematic cruise line and the sexual harassment allegations against its head.

And second? Moments before the closing credits began, Logan told his daughter Shiv (Sarah Snook) that someone from their inner circle had to be sacrificed to the media, the government and their shareholders to finally fix the cruise mess. Not just anyone, though, but a “blood sacrifice.” In other words, one of the series’ preeminent Roy kids — Kendall, Shiv or Roman (Kieran Culkin) — was going to bite the proverbial bullet by the time this season came to a close.

read more: Kendall Roy Proves He Was a Killer All Along

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Of course, it was going to be Kendall. It was always going to be Kendall.

Then again, for all the effort series creator Jesse Armstrong and the Succession writers put into laying the groundwork for Logan’s inevitable decision regarding his own son, they’ve also been planting an entirely different set of crops alongside these initial seeds. Much of the show’s first season was just as much about who Logan was going to pick to succeed him as it was about Kendall’s efforts to oust his father in a hostile takeover.

And though the vehicular manslaughter he caused at the end of season one, and Logan’s engineered coverup of it in the second season premiere ultimately tanked these efforts, Kendall never really could have forgotten what his original intentions were. Sure, much of this season has been about portraying Kendall’s transformation into a soulless shell of a human being who is more than willing to do anything his father tells him . But does this mindless devotion extend to self-flagellation on such a massive scale? Yes and no.

Logan and the aforementioned Roy kids, along with eldest son Connor (Alan Ruck), cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun), Shiv’s cuckold husband Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) and the rest of the Waystar Royco legal and public relations teams meet off-and-on aboard the family’s massive yacht in the Mediterranean to discuss options. Many, including the always-willing-to-speak Roman, think Greg and Tom — who actually did try to cover up the cruise scandal (under orders, of course) and totally botched their respective congressional testimonies — should take the hit. It’s “half an idea” per Logan’s estimation, but he and almost everyone else there know it’s not enough. Especially Shiv, who goes to her father amid a brewing personal crisis with Tom to make sure he knows this.

read more: Succession Season 2 Episode 9 Review

“Why not what he discussed?” she reminds him. “Ken hurts,” her father admits in turn. “He was across the whole thing. It hurts. It plays, obviously.”

So, when Logan finally tells Kendall — albeit in a roundabout way, at first — of his decision to lay the blame on him, it actually does seem to hurt the otherwise emotionally distant Roy patriarch. The camera even goes in and out of focus on occasion, becoming blurry and clear again, almost as if a tear or two are breaking the episode title’s explicit rule against mournful emotions.

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“It’s okay dad,” Kendall tells his father once he realizes what’s happening. “It’s okay.”

“Thank you, son,” Logan responds. “The hearings, you did so well. But now you’re the face. You were across the cleanup. The optics make sense. And, what’s more, I trust you. I trust you in case it turns and gets nasty.”

Like with the dissolution of the digital media company Vaulter in this season’s second episode, along with plenty of other examples, Kendall immediately agrees with his father’s decision and goes along with it, though he does ask him if he ever thought he could do it. If he ever thought he was good enough to succeed him and lead Waystar Royco into the future. “You’re not a killer,” Logan tells him. And that’s the moment when those who have been paying complete attention to Kendall’s scheming, its implosion and his continuously downward spiral should have known what would happen in the episode’s final moments. Yes, he goes before the press to supposedly admit his wrongdoing regarding the cruise scandal. After all, is father is watching. Instead, Kendall plunges the dagger meant for himself into Logan, Waystar Royco and pretty much everyone else we could consider his flesh and blood.

read more: Succession Season 3 Confirmed

“I have been asked to explain my own role in the managing of illegality at the firm and associated coverups, and it has been suggested I would be a suitable figure to absorb the anger and concern,” he begins before going off-script. “But the truth is, my father is a malignant presence, a bully and a liar. He was fully personally aware of these events for many years and made efforts to hide and cover-up. He had a twisted sense of loyalty to bad actors like Lester McClintock.”

“This is the day his reign ends,” Kendall concludes as the room erupts in a flurry of shouted questions from the gathered press.

Cue Succession ’s Emmy Award-winning theme music and an amazingly calm Logan, watching the press conference aboard his yacht with a bewildered Shiv and Roman. They cannot believe what they’re watching, but according to the slow smile spreading across Logan’s face, it’s not all that fanciful. It turns out, he was completely wrong about Kendall. He is a killer.

Succession airs on HBO.

Andrew Husband

Andrew Husband is an entertainment and culture writer based in Boston, where he lives with Cosmo's real-world counterpart, Molly the Labrador. When he's not too busy…

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Which yacht stars in the TV series 'Succession'?

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By Katia Damborsky   29 October 2019

The 279ft (85m)  charter yacht SOLANDGE is the yacht in HBO’s  Succession. Hitting TV screens in 2019, the season finale of season 2 gives viewers an inside glimpse into life on board the Lurssen luxury yacht in the Mediterranean .

The curtain closed on season 2 of hit HBO show Succession earlier this month, after a dramatic season finale filmed on board SOLANDGE cruising the Mediterranean .

The series gives viewers a peak inside the six-deck superyacht, which can be rented from €1,000,000 (approximately $1,136,000) per week plus expenses.

While the yacht is fictitiously owned by the Roy family in the series, Succession showcases the type of lifestyle you can expect when chartering million-dollar megayachts ; from stylish helicopter departures to zipping between islands on a luxury tender.

The finale of Succession Season 2 is filmed on board superyacht SOLANDGE

Succession is an award-winning comedy-drama which centres around the life of the uber-wealthy and highly dysfunctional Roy family.

At the helm of the family is patriarch Logan Roy, a media titan who heads up and controls an international media conglomerate. After his health takes a turn for the worst, his adult children must each face the prospect of becoming heir to the family business. 

Rife with power struggles, backstabbing betrayals and family loyalty, Succession offers a fresh take on abuse, media and wealth in contemporary America.  

Succession showcases the type of lifestyle you can expect when chartering million-dollar megayachts.

The dramatic end to season 2 of Succession premiered in October 2019, with the finale to Succession filmed on board the motor yacht SOLANDGE.

This glamorous setting gave us plenty of scandal; Logan disingenuously suggesting stepping down as CEO, Connor's iPad getting thrown overboard and of course, the shocking final moments where we see Kendall blowing the whistle on his father.

How much does it cost to rent the yacht in Succession?

The cost of renting luxury yacht SOLANDGE is upwards of 1 million euros (or 1.136 million dollars) per week plus expenses during both the winter and summer. This price does not include the cost of food, drink, fuel dockage, VAT and tips.

SOLANDGE features in our article, the world’s most expensive charter yachts which cost over $1 million to rent per week .

What does the yacht from Succession look like inside?

With her Lurssen pedigree, innovative design and stunning selection of amenities,  SOLANDGE is recognised as one of the world’s most iconic superyachts.

She is home to all the facilities you would expect on a yacht of this calibre, including a sleek swimming pool with jet-stream technology and a cutting-edge chromotherapy spa with Hamman and treatment room which both integrate light therapy. 

Her main deck plays host to the expansive owners’ suite, which enjoys his and hers en suites with adjoining dressing rooms, a private lounge-cum-office and a private deck area with dip pool and intimate seating areas. 

While chartering her, guests can make use out of a fully-stocked wine cellar and an elevator with the capacity for nine.

Inside superyacht SOLANDGE

SOLANDGE features ornate interiors from Florida-based studio Rodriguez Interiors. A palatial theme is reflected in plush fabrics, a rich colour palette and a selection of semi-precious stones, including amethyst, honey onyx, gold leaf and rose quartz.

The design team behind SOLANDGE has also sourced plenty of glass fixtures from Murano, an island near Venice famed for its rich history of glass-making. 

Her opulent finish is evident in the main salon, which is flanked by two walls of LED backlit amethyst that imbue the room with a soft lilac glow.

An elaborate focal point, the walls have been created by slicing a piece of amethyst into tiny segments with diamond wire and gluing them to a glass sheet, before then being covered by a panel of Plexiglass studded with LED lights.

Another talking point aboard the charter yacht is the floating central staircase, which features a sculpted ‘Tree of Life’ statue ascending the full height of the yacht.

In total, 1,423 points of light illuminate the space with a warm glow. Themes of nature continue in the owner’s suite, where backlit mullions depict the Garden of Eden. 

In total, around 25 wood veneers have been used throughout luxury yacht SOLANDGE. On the lower decks, where there is typically less light, the yacht features darker, ebony finishes; higher up, lighter blondewood and caramel finishes are more prevalent.

This delicate mix of traditional opulence and contemporary punches of colour and texture lend SOLANDGE an atmosphere quite unlike any yacht.

A motor yacht of her calibre makes the perfect backdrop for Succession, and it’s hoped we’ll see SOLANDGE return to reprise her role as the Roy family’s luxury yacht in season 3.

If you’d like to learn more about chartering M/Y SOLANDGE, please get in touch with your preferred yacht charter broker .

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85m Lurssen 2013 / 2022

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Succession Season 2 Finale Recap: Who Did Logan Throw Overboard?

Dave nemetz, west coast bureau chief.

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Succession ‘s Roy family wrapped up Season 2 by hashing out their issues aboard a luxury yacht… and one key character went down with the ship.

Sunday’s finale starts back in D.C., with a bewildered Cousin Greg withering under the glaring spotlight of a tough Congressional inquiry, while Logan takes a call from a big-time shareholder, warning him that someone needs to take the fall for the cruise ship scandal… and “we feel that probably it should be you.” Logan doesn’t love that idea, of course, and gathers his brood in Venice for a stay aboard his decadent mega-yacht. (It’s almost like a Below Deck Med crossover episode.) There’s plenty of drama afoot: Willa’s play got hammered by bad reviews, Kendall brought Naomi Pierce along… and Tom is very flustered about Shiv planning a threesome with him and an old female friend.

Logan is a bit shellshocked when confiding in Kendall, but he says no to bringing in Stewie again, and the mood is grim. (Even Tom knows there’s going to be “a head on a spike.”) Connor comes begging to Logan for one of his newspapers to cook up some good reviews for Willa’s play… and oh, a loan of “a little hundred mill” (!). Logan says yes — but only if he gives up his silly presidential bid. Then he invites everyone to drink up tonight… because tomorrow, they’ll have to come up with a plan together. Roman gleefully starts taking bets on who’s getting canned, and Logan raises some alarms about Naomi joining Kendall on the boat. “I just don’t want you f–ked on drugs,” he bluntly tells his son, and a compliant Kendall sends her away the next morning. Plus, Tom finds a way to ruin the threesome before it even starts, concluding he’s just not feeling that “naughty.” (Not a shock, to be honest.)

Kendall thinks Tom isn’t a big enough skull, though, and Roman recommends they spice his sacrifice up with “some Greg sprinkles.” (Greg: “I object.” Roman: “Who cares?”) Connor volunteers himself, in hopes of grabbing a golden parachute, but Logan walks away from the table, thinking they have “half an idea” and they’ll finish up later. He and Kendall take an emergency meeting with Stewy, offering to accept the hostile takeover on certain terms… but Stewy flatly says no. He shrugs off Kendall’s anger, thinking he and Sandy have the shareholders on their side. Meanwhile, Shiv and Tom share a private beachside picnic, and Tom fumes about how she threw him under the bus — and how she sprung an open marriage on him on their wedding night. (“I am not a hippie!”) He confesses he’s been “pretty unhappy” with her, and works up the nerve to talk to Shiv’s dad. Actually, though, he just sits down next to Logan and takes an awkward bite of his chicken before fleeing.

Shiv huddles with Logan, and he promises if Tom is the victim, “I’ll take care of him.” Then he drops a bombshell: “Ken works… it hurts.” But “it plays,” too, he thinks. He turns to his daughter and asks her what she thinks, noting that this is a job for a future CEO. Shiv hesitates, but then tells her dad: “Just not Tom… Please. For me.” Later, she calls in Kendall to see Logan… and Kendall sees the writing on the wall. Logan says Tom and Greg won’t work, and the shareholders won’t accept him stepping down himself. (Which is a lie, but anyway.) An ashen-faced Kendall assures him it’s OK, as Logan prepares him to confess: He knew everything about the cruise troubles, and will take the fall.

Alright, it’s your turn: Give tonight’s finale a grade in our poll below, and then hit the comments to share your thoughts.

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Just add in the slow burning grin by Logan as he watches his favorite son Kendall throwing his bastard Father to the wolves, the realization that he raised Kendall to be the heir to his throne. Logan knew all along he had to be the one, and what a way to go.

What a finale! This is the best show on TV and best thing on air since Mad Men… this episode showed why. I cannot wait until next year to see how it plays out.

Kendall gave his dad a Judas kiss at the end of their meeting. A tip-off. Tom wondering if he would be less unhappy without Shiv as opposed to how unhappy he is with her was genuinely moving.

Sheesh what a finale. Maybe it was just me but it looked like Logan was proud of how that played out. I’ve been saying all season that Kendall is a killer and he showed it.

Exactly what I said. He told him he wasn’t a killer, Kendall proved him wrong… or perhaps, Logan knew this was going to happen?

Logan setting his kid up for success

Kendall has been a lion in the tall grass all season.

That was amazing! Amazing! I can’t wait for next season

This show is one of my favorites and it just gets better and better! I can’t wait for next season!

Watching Kendall accepting to be the “sacrifice” had me in tears, however, his father taught him one more lesson when he said:”you’re not a killer”. Kendall showed dad!! In fact, I think Logan was proud of his son for the first time!!

That little smile playing on Logan’s lips in the last scene says it all. He set the whole thing up to save his baby…the company. He started hatching the plan the minute he got the “hard phone call” from the biggest shareholder. Can’t wait for next season.

That was one of the best episodes of television that I have ever seen.

I watched the episode twice tonight. When Kendall was seeing Naomi off at the speedboat she said something to Kendall that made him stare into space. I could not decipher what she said about how Logan loved Kendall. Anybody know?

She said Logan loves the broken Kendall, and Kendall looked absolutely stricken when she said that.

WOW! WOW! WOW! Truly the best show on television. I was blown away by the finale. Can’t wait for season 3.

So Id like opinions here, was this Logans master plan all along? The family manipulation is evil, but did he craft Kendall the entire time? Telling him he is not a killer, knowing that would challenge him? Telling him prior to that his current girlfriend was a part of his drug problem? Evil genius?

I know some people think Logan wanted Ken to do this all along, but I don’t think so. Why would he put himself through the public humiliation of his son’s betrayal, when he could have stepped down and satisfied the shareholders that way? I know he’s constantly testing his children, and I do believe he was actually a little proud of how hard Kendall punched back, but I truly don’t think he expected Kendall to throw him under the bus and then back over it

He maybe thought exposing himself would be a sign of weakness, like only someone with strong morals and real consciense is capable of admitting that he did wrong, of showing regret. It is showing that one is human, has weaknesses and is capable of changeing for the better, of apologizing. I think he has a reputation to maintain as someone cold, calculating, an old school businessman, a KILLER. And killers dont admit they have done something wrong. They refuse to give up power and control. They prefer to make it seem like they have been betrayed…I think it was all calculated from the moment on he received THE phone call..He is a master of manipulation. He knows exactly which buttons to push when it comes down to his children…telling Ken hes not a killer was a deliberate provocation…and it was a win-win for him and Ken…that way Ken gained back his dignity and his much needed self confidence…his power…it was almost a gift to Ken…and I think Ken will be CEO…I think it has always been Ken…just my humble opinion…another point of view.

Would not surprise me if Jesse Armstrong wins another Emmy next year for writing for this episode

I absolutely knew that this was going to happen. I think that Logan and Kendal manufactured this to make Logan the sacrificial lamb and get Kendall the top job, identifying him as a herl

I agree with you, I think it was Logans final master move. It was no coincidence. Hes so intelligent it scares me.

I just wish the kids would all talk like humans, particularly Kendall and Shiv who both appear to be androids. I don’t think they even blink, has anyone seen them blink?.

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Well, the Succession Season 2 Finale Exceeded Expectations

How the best and buzziest show on television is avoiding the game of thrones trap..

For a prestige TV season finale, there’s nothing harder to clear than high expectations. But Succession finished up its sterling second season as the best and buzziest show on television—maybe there’s some juice left in the whole, Paleolithic air-one-episode-a-week method— with an ending that was as satisfying as it was unexpected. At the end of Succession Season 2, the Roys gathered on a yacht larger than an apartment complex, kicked off their shoes, and took a few joyrides down a giant inflatable slide, all a decadent warmup for shanking one another in the front—only for the episode to end with a gloriously placed knife in the back.

The season-long pressure on Waystar-Royco came to a head in last week’s congressional hearings, when it became apparent that some kind of “blood sacrifice” would be necessary in order for the family to convey to the public and the shareholders that the Roys understood the extent of their corporate malfeasance. (Even though they don’t really.) This week, the family and their apparatchiks meet in a ludicrously outsize pleasure boat to feign relaxation as they putter around the Mediterranean sipping Burgundy and Champagne while scheming about who should take the fall. As culture editor Adam Sternbergh noted on Twitter , it was an Agatha Christie setup where no one dies, but everyone wants to be a murderer.

The pretend vacation culminates in a bravura scene at the breakfast table that’s a traffic jam worth rubbernecking: Everyone gets tossed under the bus. Everyone gets something delicious to do and say—“Greg Sprinkles”—even as the sequence makes a joke of everything they are doing and saying: The conversation is a farce. None of the blood Roys are ever seriously considered for sacrifice. Logan Roy (Brian Cox) begins the conversation by “suggesting” it should be him who takes the blame, which no one can do more than half-heartedly pooh-pooh, because it’s a half-hearted suggestion.* Instead, as in all meetings with Logan Roy, everyone is triangulating. The non-family members of the team run one another down first, but none of them are bold enough to point fingers at actual Roys. Pathetic Connor (Alan Ruck) offers to sacrifice himself but has no takers. The group ultimately gangs up on heinous buffoon Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen), who is almost family, but not quite family, as his wife, Shiv (Sarah Snook), notes, and so is the perfect consensus fall guy, even to Shiv. To protect himself, Tom will later eat a piece of Logan’s chicken, a territory-pissing announcement of his unhinged nature that Logan sees as some gauche breach of decorum—way weirder and worse than, you know, gathering people in paradise for a show trial.

There’s always been the dangerous possibility that Succession could fall into a kind of Game of Thrones trap, where the audience becomes fixated on who will “win” the throne. But creator Jesse Armstrong and his staff have made assiduously clear that the Waystar-Royco “throne” is a porcelain crapper. Every single person on the show would be better off if they walked away, and their inability to do so is a moral indictment of them and the crusty pull of obscene wealth and power.

Though she went into Season 2 as the crowd favorite, one of this season’s major storylines has been the degradation of Shiv for exactly this reason: She keeps walking closer. Formerly the sane-ish, decent-ish Roy, she flushed her strategic skills and vague vestige of morality down the toilet by reversing her lifelong course of distancing herself from her father. After committing a series of strategic errors because she wanted Logan’s public approval (in the shape of the CEO chair) so desperately, she also tampered with a witness because—best-case scenario—she delusionally believed in her own future power. She ended the season by betraying her brother Kendall, and being so cruel to her husband that she made him—the deranged gas bag Tom, the guy who uses other people as a footstool—look emotionally sensitive. He’s “not a hippie” looking for three-ways with his wife and, you know, it is pretty janky to spring an open marriage as a fait accompli on your wedding night. At least he loves her. Maybe Season 3 will be Shiv’s redemption arc.

Meanwhile, Roman (Kieran Culkin), the adolescent cutup, finally stops being a smart aleck and tries being grown. He tells his dad the truth about a questionable deal. He asks his siblings if they could have a normal adult relationship. (They make funny voices in response, because, no, they can’t.) Like Shiv, he doesn’t want to announce his emotional affiliations to anyone, but unlike Shiv, he’s willing to stand up for the people he cares about: Gerri, who he romantically defends during the breakfast table scene, and then Kendall, in a moment that is the flip side of the brotherly bond we saw when Kendall instinctively defended Roman after Logan smacked him in the face a few episodes back. Roman’s now COO of a company that the Roys probably won’t hold onto for much longer, but, hey, kid brother came a long way.

And then there’s Kendall (Jeremy Strong). The finale is a kind of mirror image of last season’s: Both orbit around Kendall’s rapidly reversing fortunes. In the previous finale, Kendall accidentally killed a man just as he was about to take the company from his father. Logan pounced on this horrible accident as a strategic advantage. Kendall’s decision to act for himself went so badly, resulted in such tragedy, that he seemed to decide to stop doing it. For this entire season, at times tearful, at times suicidal, at times bed-crapping, Kendall has let go and let Logan run him. He has been his father’s mercenary, his unfeeling lieutenant, slicing and dicing Vaulter, screaming at whoever needs to hear it in the back of the plane, and crushing at the congressional hearings. He’s a person who no longer makes decisions of his own. He’s Logan’s killer.

But in the waning minutes of the finale, the use of that actual term “killer” seems to jolt Kendall out of his season-long stupor. (Or maybe it was before: When Kendall actually turned against Logan is a good one to chew over in the off-season.) Logan explains to Kendall that he has to be the blood sacrifice. Kendall is gracious. He accepts it. He gives his father a Fredo kiss. And then he asks: Did you ever think I really could have run this company? Logan hems and haws, but then says, no, because to do so “you have to be a killer.” Logan is speaking metaphorically, but Kendall is a killer, and it has been haunting him for months. That’s instantly where his mind goes: Maybe being the blood sacrifice is what he deserves, he says, for the accident. Logan reassures him that’s not true: The guy he killed, he wasn’t even a “real person.”

So Kendall, seemingly at his most pathetic, heads to a press conference where it appears he will take the fall for all that has gone wrong at his family’s business. He will say that he knew about everything, and that no one above him knew anything. And then he says the opposite.

At the press conference, Kendall betrays Logan, with an assist from that lanky, benign fungus Cousin Greg, good old Greg Sprinkles. In an immensely satisfying, surprising turn of events, Kendall is, actually, a killer in the way his father meant it. Or is he? Is Logan’s smile in the final minutes one of pride or one of collaboration? Is that smirk because this was the plan all along or because Logan finally sees what he’s been waiting for: a true successor? It’s a wonderfully rousing ending that, this being Succession, I’m willing to bet by the end of next season, will no longer seem quite like a happy one.

Correction, Oct. 14, 2019: This post originally misspelled Brian Cox’s first name.

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Succession recaps

Roy, oh roy: that 'succession' finale was a trip.

Linda Holmes

Jeremy Strong as Kendall Roy and Brian Cox as Logan Roy in the season finale of HBO's Succession . Graeme Hunter/HBO hide caption

Jeremy Strong as Kendall Roy and Brian Cox as Logan Roy in the season finale of HBO's Succession .

It is hopefully clear that a review and discussion of the Succession season two finale is not suitable for people who do not want to be spoiled regarding the Succession season two finale. If it is not clear: You will know what happened on this episode by the time you're finished reading this piece. Choose wisely.

We began this season of Succession with Kendall Roy half-submerged in what was supposed to be a relaxing spa soak but was more like a very wet metaphor. And he didn't get his head above water until the last 30 seconds of the second-season finale.

There were times when this season looked like it might be about Kendall's sister, Shiv (Sarah Snook) — her father, Logan (Brian Cox), dangled the "top job" at the company, as he calls it, in front of her face, then refused to give it to her. Shiv's restlessness seemed like perhaps it was the biggest threat to Logan.

There were times when it seemed like it might be about Kendall smoothly transitioning into being his father's traumatized but functional right hand. After ending last season in the weakest possible position , needing to be rescued from the father he had been trying to overthrow, Kendall became unfailingly loyal. When he put on a good performance at the congressional hearings, it suggested we could be headed for a conclusion where Kendall finally became his father's favorite — something he wants so desperately that it drips from Jeremy Strong's performance almost as much as sweat so often seems to.

But no. No, Logan decided it was time for a "blood sacrifice," as he put it — someone who could be thrown to the wolves and blamed for the devastating revelations about Waystar Royco's cruise division. Someone who would satisfy the shareholders that the problem was being taken seriously; someone who would give those shareholders, as one told Logan on the phone, "cover." So Logan gathered the family and the top lieutenants — Kendall, Shiv and Tom, Roman (Kieran Culkin), even Greg — on the Roy yacht and watched each one try to respectfully, gently argue that the person sacrificed should emphatically not be them, no offense to whomever they suggested it should be.

The obvious answer was Tom (Matthew Macfadyen), Shiv's husband. He had been in charge of cruises; he had a logical connection to the crimes committed, even if they predated his leadership. After all, one of the things someone needed to take responsibility for was the cover-up, and Tom carried out key elements of the cover-up. He wouldn't even have been just a figurehead. Tom had the advantage of being both largely expendable to the family and actually guilty , not that they would care. Particularly if they threw in poor dopey cousin Greg, Tom's assistant, they thought maybe that would be enough.

Sarah Snook brought out Shiv's shocking shrug-it-off energy in the scene — let's just call it the Roy Family Murder Breakfast — in which she seemed to agree with the group that the blood sacrifice should be Tom. Her husband! Her own husband! Sure, why not? Tom was kinda like family, she explained, without actually being family. Which you can translate as "he's close enough for the shareholders to think it really means something for us to hand him over to be sacrificed, when in fact, eh ."

But it was not to be Tom, because once he and Shiv were in private and he made clear how devastated he was by her betrayal — and once that opened other wounds in their marriage to the point where he questioned its status as a going concern — Shiv shifted gears. She went to her father and said it could not be Tom. By then, it appeared that it was likely to be either Tom or Kendall who would suffer, and Shiv took the coward's way out: She chose while refusing to choose, saying she couldn't make the decision ... but it couldn't be Tom. (The degree to which Shiv truly loves Tom has always been an intriguing element of their marriage. Her saving him is a data point, but so was her initially being prepared not to.)

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'succession': back to the pit of vipers for another season of discontent.

'Succession': Mogul Money, Mogul Problems

And so Logan chose Kendall to be sacrificed, breaking the news gently — or what passes for gently in a man whose idea of bedside manner would be leaving you one-third of your ice chips while you're in the hospital and he's at your bedside feeling thirsty. Kendall would have to make a statement that he had known about the misconduct in the cruise division, he had engineered the cover-up, he had done it all, and in Logan's words, it had gone "no higher." Kendall would sacrifice himself to save his father, and ultimately to save the company.

So when did Kendall decide ... not to? When did Kendall decide that instead of falling on his sword, he would stroll into that press conference, whip out a set of note cards and call his father "a malignant presence, a bully and a liar"? When did he decide that even knowing his father could ruin him with the story of the waiter who died after Kendall drove off a bridge, it was over? When did he decide that instead of reciting "I saw their plan; my dad's plan was better" over and over as he did in the first episode of this season, and instead of saying "my dad told me to" the way he did when he destroyed Vaulter, he would not only sacrifice his father as the mover behind the cruises debacle but reveal his father's deceitful, vicious personality?

My money is on the moment in which, referring to the death of the waiter, Logan repeated an abbreviation that came out of the cruise division, used when a migrant worker or a sex worker died on a ship: NRPI. No Real Person Involved . It is shorthand, really, for the idea that only some people matter.

Logan believes in NRPI. Roman believes in it. Shiv just NRPI'd her own husband until he specifically asked her not to. But Kendall is, perhaps ironically given the protection he accepted from his father, not an NRPI kind of person. He agonized over that accident. He hated himself for shutting down Vaulter — an act he proved he could carry out in an NRPI-style manner, provided he didn't pay too much attention to feeling his skin go gray and clammy.

Kendall had already been reminded during the trip that his father doesn't care about his feelings: Logan had forced Kendall to send his girlfriend away in the middle of the trip, a fresh humiliation that increased Kendall's isolation. Things built up. Logan's callous conducting of the Family Murder Breakfast and his announcement that he needed a "skull to wave" showed Kendall how ready his father was to throw away his kids, not to mention faithful lieutenants like Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron), Karl (David Rasche) and Frank (Peter Friedman).

When Logan told Kendall that his was the skull that would be waved, a resigned Kendall asked him a question. Had Logan ever believed that Kendall could do the top job? After the profound cruelty of acting like he'd never really thought about it, Logan came around to an answer: "You're not a killer," he said. "You have to be a killer." Jeremy Strong's performance in this critical scene with Cox looks very different on second viewing. What originally played as agonized resignation to his situation and an understanding that he'd have to be the skull, as it were, looks now like agonized resignation to the fact that he will never have his father's love and approval this way. He'll never get there by trying to be good and loyal and perfect; that's what he was doing all season, and he's still the skull. This family only respects killers. Not the kind who accidentally cause the deaths of waiters, either. Only the kind who kill with ice-cold calculation.

So that's what Kendall did.

Because Kendall, after learning the bad news, wound up on a plane back home with Greg (Nicholas Braun). This was extraordinarily bad luck for Logan, who had no way of knowing Greg had first saved some of the troublesome records Tom told him to get rid of. He had no way of knowing that when Tom found out and insisted on burning what was left, Greg once again reserved a few in case he ever needed them. Greg spent this entire season being Chekhov's knucklehead, and ultimately, like all the things metaphorically rendered unto Chekhov, he mattered a great deal.

In order to preserve the suspense of the ending, in order to create the gasp when Kendall goes to the press conference and says "BUT" between what sounds like it will be an admission of guilt and what becomes a blast of accusations against his father, we didn't see what happened on the plane home. We saw Greg gently tell Kendall he felt bad that Kendall had to be the blood sacrifice. And we've seen a friendship growing between Greg and Kendall, the only family member who's ever shown the kid any kindness.

Presumably, at some point during that flight, they talked. Greg revealed that he was holding on to the evidence Kendall needed to make accusations against Logan stick. Or Kendall opened up about being unable to get his father's love. Or both. The key to Kendall's ability to finally carry out the fully public attack on his father that's been brewing since season one episode one, the key to Kendall's escape from his father's "protection" that's been brewing since season two episode one? It turned out to be Greg. Greg, who saved his secret papers in a folder labeled "SECRET."

HBO's 'Succession' Focuses On Corrosive Weight Of Inherited Wealth

Holly hunter on hbo's 'succession,' she plays rhea jarrell.

This was a season that was enjoyable to watch as it proceeded but that looks far more impressive in light of the finale. It looked at times like they had flattened Kendall's affect too much; perhaps he was too much changed by the accident after Shiv's wedding, too devastated and defanged to maintain the powerful dynamic between himself and his father that drove the first season. The character of Rhea Jarrell never entirely jelled, despite the reliable presence of Holly Hunter. The strange sexual connection between Roman and Gerri was picked up and put down a little abruptly, although the notion that they share some sort of bond flared during the Family Murder Breakfast when Roman rose to her defense. Shiv's waffling about whether she was really prepared to do battle with her father — spoiler alert: She was not — makes more sense as a prelude to her weakness in the finale. It is Shiv, perhaps, who is not a killer.

And now, Kendall's dead eyes all season make narrative sense. The story was going here , to this place where the torment and the misery accumulated, to where Kendall was willing to blow up his family because it was better than all the other choices. Even the embarrassing tribute rap at Logan's party is now, in context, just one of the last gasps of his desperate attempt to earn his father's approval. Now, that rap is just more evidence that Kendall may have looked cold in the old peepers, but in fact he was doing everything he could think of. He played a relatively non-flashy role in the now-infamous "Boar on the Floor" sequence in the episode "Hunting," precisely because he was keeping out of as much of the drama as he could. In fact, his role in "Hunting" and at several other points during the season was to do his father's dirty work without complaint — to inform, to obey, to expose. He was the good son.

The last bit of business to deal with is Logan's tiny hint of a smile as he watches his son accuse him of being a monster. Is he a little impressed that Kendall is more of a killer than he thought? Does he enjoy a fight? Did he somehow intend for this to happen, so that he himself would wind up being the skull and the company would live on? (That last theory was raised with me by a reader on Twitter, and I must say: I hadn't thought of it, but I don't think Logan would gamble that hard with his company.)

My vote is for some combination of all of it. Logan doesn't mind a fight, and he hates weakness even more than aggressive attack. Some part of him only respects people who come for him. That's not to say he won't attempt to crush them like bugs as I can only assume he will do with Kendall.

There are so many lessons to take away from this episode: It is futile to seek an immoral person's approval if you're not prepared to be immoral yourself. Even if your husband is a goober, you're going to feel bad if you offer to let your father destroy him. When you burn a clutch of secret papers, make sure you see them all go. Don't alienate the tall oddball; you never know what secrets he may be hiding.

And finally: If someone writes you a rap, at least try to look grateful.

Succession: Season 2

10 EPISODES | TV-MA

A bitingly funny drama series exploring themes of power and family through the eyes of an aging media mogul and his four grown children.

1 . The Summer Palace

Kendall tries to make amends with his dad. Logan receives stark advice from his banker.

2 . Vaulter

Roman and Kendall compete to "fix" Vaulter in their own unique ways. Greg wonders if ATN is the right fit. Shiv brings Tom in the loop.

3 . Hunting

Logan makes an unpopular decision to acquire a rival news company. Connor's presidential announcement video irks the Roys.

4 . Safe Room

Roman starts a management training program with the "normals" in the Parks division.

5 . Tern Haven

Logan tries to keep his family in line as they woo the owners of a venerable news media brand. Kendall makes his case to Naomi Pierce.

6 . Argestes

Logan's deal with the Pierces is threatened. Kendall, Shiv and Roman differ on damage control strategies.

A trip to the UK finds the Roy kids negotiating with their mother. Logan turns to Rhea for advice.

Logan reflects on his past and future upon returning to his hometown of Dundee, Scotland. Shiv conspires to take down Rhea.

Logan, Kendall, Gerri and Tom testify before Congress. Shiv is candid with a key witness. Roman’s business pitch takes a scary turn.

10 . This Is Not for Tears

The Roys vacation on their Mediterranean yacht, where Logan and the inner circle ponder who should be sacrificed to save the company.