Succession season 3, episode 8 cliffhanger: What happened to Kendall?

Folks gathering in wonderful sunshine to make their family members as depressing as attainable… who would not love a marriage? HBO’s Succession has all the time been a research of rich wretchedness, and season 3’s penultimate episode spares nobody in its bleak juxtaposition of untold opulence and insufferable emotional agony — together with one of many present’s foremost characters in a riveting cliffhanger that has viewers on edge earlier than Sunday’s finale. 

That includes the long-simmering father-son showdown between Kendall and Logan, episode 8, titled Chiantishire, is streaming now on HBO Max. Spoilers forward!

A battle for a knife within the mud

Life is a quantity on a bit of paper. It is a battle for a knife within the mud. That is Logan Roy’s philosophy, beamed into each home in America. 

Logan had a tough life, born right into a working-class surroundings, despatched away from his mom and abused by his uncle. He needed to claw himself out of harsh circumstances. However wealth and success have not lightened or enlightened him. They’ve solely hardened his world view. Nonetheless hewn from granite, he stews in an aggressively misanthropic view of the world and the individuals in it.

The issue is, Logan forces his poisonous world view on the world. Via his media operation, he poisons international discourse with this assertion that life is a battle, that different individuals will screw you and you need to screw them first. He thinks he is aware of how the world works. However he’d additionally somewhat poison his grandson than present his son even a scintilla of conciliation. To Kendall, he is evil.

Kendall’s complete disinheritance

Head shaved and clad in delicate earth tones (however nonetheless sporting his medallion), a melancholy Kendall is the ghost on the feast. Besides he is more and more haunted by the child who died at Shiv’s marriage ceremony, now the topic of renewed press scrutiny and on high of that a possibility for Logan to twist the knife.  

Amid the gorgeous surroundings, Kendall has by no means been so sad. He and his fellow elite have all the luxurious and privilege they might need, and it is not what they want. Wealth is just a weapon to be wielded, a bolster to an overweening sense of superiority that does not match their all too human insecurities.

By the top of the episode, Kendall’s face down in a swimming pool, presumably lifeless drunk… and likewise probably lifeless lifeless? Because the digicam swims under him and his beer bottle gently bobs into the depths of the luxurious pool, some viewers took this to imply Kendall could have drowned. I admit that on first watch I rewound these last moments a few instances, however that was to fulfill myself that certainly he could not be lifeless. For me, Succession is not the type of present to deal in something as melodramatic as a cliffhanger right here. 

The scene feels extra to me like symbolism, Kendall adrift in a second paying homage to Logan’s merciless taunt a few lifeless boy “sucking water.” And he is principally the principle character! The lack of Jeremy Robust’s intense efficiency because the fulcrum of the present would certainly deflate the deliberate season 4.

And but it is also a merciless present. What could possibly be extra merciless than Kendall’s demise, tawdry and pointless with no decision between him and his father? They’d their showdown nevertheless it solely made clear to Kendall that his entire campaign has been for nothing. 

In the meantime, off display, the timing curiously traces up with a gloriously scathing New Yorker profile of Robust, by which creator Jesse Armstrong and Robust’s his fellow actors are deliciously candid about their colleague’s histrionic performing methods. It is definitely obtained individuals speaking forward of the finale. 

What occurs in Intercourse Vegas

The episode begins with Shiv in her comfies at residence whereas the large deal goes via. However Roman’s continuous dismissiveness galvanizes her, to not point out a heart-to-heart with Woman Caroline. Ducking out of the bachelorette social gathering (she presumably could not carry herself to name it the right Britishism, a “hen do”), Shiv’s mom exhibits a vulnerability and honesty not often seen within the Roy clan.

However even when her mom vulnerably tries to unpush Shiv’s buttons, a Roy can solely take that as mashing down tougher on the button in query. Woman Caroline mentions her mom would flip in her grave, evoking a line of generations of chilly moms. And as Shiv races to start out a household, she’s one other dysfunctional potential mother or father planting the seed of one other technology. God assist the poor youngsters.

To not point out Tom, who feels somewhat uncooked after an evening of spicy pillow discuss strays into the realm of emotional cruelty.

Chiantishire

The episode’s title, Chiantishire, is a nickname for part of scenic Tuscany in Italy fashionable with posh Britons (chianti is a neighborhood wine, and -shire is a standard identify for an English county). That is the picturesque setting for Woman Caroline Collingwood’s lavish marriage ceremony to slime badger Peter Munion. However followers hoping for extra brutal tongue-lashings from the waspish Woman Caroline shall be dissatisfied, as even the acerbic aristocrat is mortified by Logan’s petty feud with Kendall. 

In the meantime, middle-class bridezilla and serial bankrupt Munion is a shameless social climber currying favor with Logan. He is additionally within the care home-based business, which is a telling element. The UK care sector has been plunged into disaster by the dual blow of COVID and Brexit. In fact a person like that wishes to snuffle his snout into the trough of presidency.

Feeling fortunate

“Going to Macau. Feeling fortunate.” These 5 phrases throw the backyard social gathering right into a spiral of confusion as eccentric tech massive shot Lucas Mattson fires off scattershot tweets. These oddball social media posts are paying homage to Tesla founder Elon Musk and his continuously combative on-line stream of consciousness.

Is he a visionary businessman shrewdly exploiting fashionable expertise to advance his place, or only a dick? LOL, as if these issues are totally different.

However Mattson can be desperately sad. He is sleeping miserably on the ground till he can correctly analysis the very best mattress. It appears that evidently being extraordinarily on-line could be simply as isolating and terrible as being extraordinarily rich.

However as we barrel into subsequent week’s finale, Mattson lobs a progress bomb beneath the deal. Now the highest brass understand that for WayStar to outlive they could face a boardroom massacre. 

Is Kendall lifeless? Can Logan and Mattson save WayStar? Will Shiv knife Roman? All shall be revealed (type of, most likely) on this week’s season finale. Season 3, episode 9: All of the Bells Say, airs Sunday, Dec. 12. 

Successive ideas

• Simply because the press sniff round Willa’s previous, Connor proposes to the lady he met when she was an escort. What a wonderful second. Aaaand she’ll give it some thought.
• Are you able to consider we first met Greg getting excessive and spewing out of a theme park animal go well with? That child would not know what to do with Comfrey, however now he is trying previous her at a Contessa on the subsequent rung of the date ladder.
• Roman could have lastly screwed Gerri, and never in the best way he is been craving. Which provides Shiv a possibility, even when it means coldly disregarding the sisterhood.