The ending of “Succession” is upon us. So the way to finish this bitter masterpiece?
Do they shoot ahead in time, stealing a web page from the legendary finale of “Six Toes Beneath”? Perhaps provide a glimpse of the longer term with that good-looking sociopath and potential president they’ve put in energy? Or simply lower to black earlier than somebody assassinates Kendall? (I’m somebody who really favored the ending of “The Sopranos.”)
Attainable however not possible. None of these choices really feel fairly proper.
That’s the factor a few good ending: It needs to be each ineffable and natural. And sadly, a wrong-footed ending can nearly destroy an in any other case sensible piece of artwork. The greatness of the astonishing “Recreation of Thrones” was severely undercut by too many missteps in its closing episodes. Jaime goes again to Cersei and a home falls on them? The elegant and beloved Daenerys goes bonkers and burns down King’s Touchdown? Bran will get the throne? What we would like from an ending is a grand “amen,” reminiscent of we bought from “Breaking Unhealthy.” However “Recreation of Thrones” was extra of a “huh?”
I’ve thought of endings quite a bit as a result of I’ve to write down them. Whereas I normally have a imprecise concept of an ending once I begin writing a play, I don’t need every little thing set in stone. In the event you don’t map the story out too ruthlessly, it should reveal itself to you within the writing — and there may be typically a secret topic, one thing each stunning and inevitable that your thoughts was holding on to, that in the end presents itself. One thing good, like an angel crashing by the ceiling. Or “I’ve all the time relied on the kindness of strangers.” Or the truth that there actually is a cabal of satan worshipers dwelling within the Dakota on the Higher West Facet. These are nice endings.
The ending ought to develop out of every little thing that got here earlier than, but in addition be completely different from every little thing that got here earlier than. An excellent ending may be about transformation, during which our central character escapes, or finds real love, or discovers a profound fact and achieves interior knowledge (as in “Mad Males,” besides the profound fact was about Coca-Cola). Or it may be about justice, which rains down on those that deserve it and ruins those that don’t. (See each superhero film.) Or its reverse, the concept justice has deserted everybody. (See “The Godfather.”) A very good ending can contain a delicate, mournful lack of hope. (See Chekhov.) It could actually have a good time the restored and renewed order {that a} marriage can present to a disordered world. (See Shakespeare.) Or it may well resolve with the notion that marriage is definitely not going to resolve something. (Once more, see Shakespeare.)
At its greatest, a sublimely written ending will elevate every little thing that got here earlier than into the realm of timeless knowledge: “So we beat on, boats towards the present, borne again ceaselessly into the previous,” because the narrator of “The Nice Gatsby” concludes.
Tv affords completely different challenges — and never simply because the viewers will sit and stew for every week (or extra) obsessing about the way it all may finish. Tv is constructed otherwise from other forms of drama, so naturally it ends otherwise, too.
You begin with a pilot episode, which can or could not make it to air, and you then inchworm your self by a primary season. At that time the ending is to this point off it’s arduous to take the concept of it critically. In spite of everything, if nobody watches, you’ll simply be canceled anyway. So that you’re not making an attempt to think about the ending — you’re making an attempt to keep away from it.
That’s why really nice endings are particularly arduous to come back by in tv. TV exhibits aren’t about the ending; they’re concerning the center. They’re about how lengthy you’ll be able to maintain that present on the air. When you might have successful, usually nobody is in a giant hurry to get to the ending, which is why phrases like “bounce the shark” have entered the lexicon. The center is the place tv thrives.
For me, the ending of Season 2 of “Succession,” when Kendall betrayed his father, Logan, to the world and threatened to carry the entire home of playing cards down on everybody’s head, was maybe the sequence’s most spectacular second. That whisper of a smile from Logan as he watched the disaster was mysterious, wonderful and human. Did he secretly need Kendall to seize the reins? Maybe so. It was undeniably nice tv. Then Logan went forward and destroyed Kendall once more in Season 3. And the present went again to the beginning gate. There’s a sort of circularity in TV that’s inherent within the kind. For this reason so many exhibits finish in what can solely be known as “the group hug.” “Mary Tyler Moore” did it; “The Workplace” did it; “Seinfeld” did an incarcerated model of it.
I think that we’re not getting a gaggle hug out of “Succession.”
As endings go, “Succession” is a particular case, and never simply because the creator Jesse Armstrong selected not solely the way to finish the present, but in addition when. (He’s mentioned it has “been sort of current” in his thoughts from the very starting.) With “Succession,” the ending has all the time been constructed proper into the title.
My daring prediction? I can let you know what gained’t occur: Logan gained’t come again to life. The kids gained’t promote the corporate to somebody who exhibits up all of a sudden from China with a greater provide. It gained’t activate a deus ex machina that exhibits up as a result of no one knew the way to land the rattling aircraft so they only introduced in one thing from nowhere and that’s the top.
As for what will occur, I really feel assured in promising this: The ending of “Succession” will fulfill the story and never betray the spirit of what has come earlier than. Its creators have proved over 4 seasons that they’re higher than that.
That’s why I’ll be tuning in. I can’t wait to see the way it ends.
Theresa Rebeck is a playwright, tv author and novelist. Her most up-to-date play on Broadway was “Bernhardt/Hamlet,” and he or she is the creator of the TV present “Smash.”
