Episode director Mark Mylod — who frequently sat behind the camera on “Succession” — thinks there’s another way that the series could have ended for Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong), and it’s basically what you’d expect.
Speaking to Vulture about what it was like to film the stunning series finale, which sees Kendall finally and definitively lose out on the Waystar Royco CEO job he so desperately wanted for the show’s entire run, Mylod said that, yes, there is a version of Kendall’s final scene that ends in real, serious tragedy. We last see Kendall gazing out at the Hudson River — and Kendall has a, let’s say, complicated relationship with bodies of water — and according to Mylod, there’s definitely a reality where he jumps.
“It’s a great question,” Mylod said, about Kendall getting off the bench past the final shot. “None of us could answer it. But there is a version where he goes and throws himself in New York harbor. I personally think it’s perhaps even worse than that and sadder to think that the character continues to live in the purgatory of the unfulfillment of what he feels is his birthright and destiny — that he just lives in the empty can of that unfulfilled promise and hope, and the emptiness of that experience is like a life sentence. I don’t feel good for any of them. It’s a truly tragic ending.”
Kendall’s ending is already tragic, but it could have been worse
Considering that Jeremy Strong revealed that in one take, he tried to jump the railing without telling his co-star Scott Nicholson — who plays his bodyman Colin — we now know for sure that there was an even more devastating ending for Kendall on “Succession.” It makes sense, too; after the series finale, Kendall, who thought he had the support of his siblings Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) in stopping the sale of Waystar Royco and naming him CEO after years of trying, Shiv changes her mind when she’s faced with the tie-breaking vote. Shiv’s abrupt heel turn makes Kendall go absolutely insane, threatening to take his own life and lying about whether or not he’s killed someone (he definitely has).
It’s a sad, bleak, and ultimately correct ending for Kendall, and Mylod agrees. “Oh, for me it’s an absolute tragedy — the tragedy of these characters being unable to escape the gravitational pull of their family,” Mylod said when asked if the show is a comedy or a tragedy when all is said and done. “They’re just haunted. I don’t see any hope for them ever escaping. Thank God it’s funny as all hell, because otherwise it would be too bleak.”
“Succession” is available to stream now on Max — and we promise, it is really funny.
