The following contains spoilers for Succession Season 4, Episode 10, "With Open Eyes," which premiered Sunday, May 28 on HBO.
One of the most fascinating aspects of HBO's Succession has always been Kendall Roy's temperament. As much as Logan Roy (played by Brian Cox) considered Roman and Shiv for the job, he seemed to lean more towards the ambitious Kendall as his successor. However, Kendall's impatience and selfish ways often cost him as he tried to land the Waystar RoyCo throne.
Kendall's drug addiction did leave the toxic Logan wondering if his son's flaws were weakness that would hurt their image. While a large portion of the fanbase did root for Kendall and viewed him as a wholesome choice, he kept shooting himself in the foot. It's why Season 4 stirred up the debate again with Logan's will, where it was vague if he crossed Kendall's name off, or if he underlined it as his next in line. One of Kendall's mistakes Logan tried to patch up returned to play a major role in the finale, confirming Logan's concerns were right all along.
Succession's Waiter Arc Destroys Kendall Roy's Power Grab
At first, it seems like Kendall has his siblings behind him to take the vote that would keep GoJo's Lukas Matsson from buying them out. However, when Shiv uses her deciding vote against Kendall, chaos ensues. Shiv questions Kendall's capabilities, which leads to the waiter he killed at her wedding being brought up. Fans would remember Kendall and a waiter got high, only for Kendall to crash into a lake during a trip to score more drugs in Season 2.
Season 3 had Kendall revealing the truth and how Logan covered it all up. In the Season 4 finale, Shiv uses this truth as corporate ammo, citing Kendall's wreck of a personal life. When Roman chimes in, Kendall downplays it as if he lied just to get their sympathy in a power move. This doesn't help his cause, which leads Roman to insult Kendall's adopted child. He rationalizes that the bloodline should be pure like with Shiv's baby. After Kendall gets violent with his brother, Shiv casts the vote which sends the company over to Matsson, breaking Kendall. Given Succession has no spinoffs planned, the decision is indeed definitive.
For some time, fans wondered if the waiter arc would be made public, but the siblings kept it secret to protect their alliance. But similar to how Logan weaponized the waiter incident to threaten Kendall into backing off in Season 3, Shiv uses it to remind her brother of his failures. It's less aggressive, but it has major ramifications, even after Logan Roy's death. The irony as well is how freely Kendall gave his siblings his secret, not knowing it would facilitate his losing the Waystar RoyCo throne. Even more so when he was on the cusp of getting the company in an emotional Succession finale.
Succession Uses Kendall's Toxic Masculinity to Reiterate Logan's Point
While Logan was unquestionably a misogynist, he also knew how to keep things in house. He understood optics, but Kendall had a habit of indulging in vices in public. Kendall also didn't listen about working on his addictions, which created the waiter mess. Logan kept warning his children about this problem and its consequences. He also criticized them for not being "serious people."
With all this previous buildup in place, seeing Kendall swearing and going after Roman in full view of the board is the nail in the coffin. The fact he keeps trying to manipulate Shiv about the waiter further reiterates he can't pivot and improvise the way Logan did. On top of that, there's a dark parallel to how Kendall got physical with Roman, as Logan did that to Roman in the past in private. Unfortunately, Kendall -- despite wanting to be better than Logan -- makes many mistakes in the open after the waiter incident is brought up.
Kendall lacks the tact Logan had when keeping problems behind closed doors, which is made even more harrowing by the fact "Logan" is his middle name. All Kendall wanted to do was live up to that title, but like Logan reiterated, his son would never do well in pressure situations. As such, a depressed Kendall leaves the building near tears, realizing he didn't play Succession's game right. Ultimately, the egotistical, aggressive Kendall implodes in the worms way. Had he ignored the waiter jab and tried to bring Shiv's eyes back on the prize, the family would still be running the business, and would not have sold it to Matsson.
All four seasons of Succession are available on HBO Max.