Contains spoilers
It’s been three seasons Heir for the scheming and scheming Roy children to find their way to a new and completely unfamiliar place: brotherhood. What brought them to a common commitment to destroy their father.
The Sunday night season finale rewarded viewers with the sources of wisdom from the elite media and the trading world that the show so beautifully portrayed: dull souls. And: the monster wins. It also pays off fans’ patience in the early episodes of the season, when the casual, mean dance between a trio of siblings vying for control of the Waystar RoyCo empire and their father’s affections, Logan Roy, did feel a bit familiar. In fact, it’s just the showrunners setting their traps and putting stress on all that’s to come.
The biggest question on Sunday night is whether Kendall Roy will live or die. A week earlier, he slipped off the inflatable pool mattress at the end of the episode and was crushed by his father. Kendall’s life can be a disappointment for some actors, who made it clear in a recent New Yorker profile of their displeasure at the extreme version of the acting method. used by the actor who plays Kendall, Jeremy Strong. Then again, it must have been a relief in some quarters of the Murdoch family, that it was noted that the Roys bore more of a resemblance.
Even before the finale, Kendall’s 40th birthday party for me ranked as one of the great portrayals of human decadence and suffering. It alone could have made the season completely worthwhile. (If Strong had to excite everyone near to put together such a performance, so be it.) Further note, the fact that Kendall lives in a posh penthouse at the Hudson Yards development in Manhattan makes I view as one of the more smelly product positions. Does anyone really want to live like the formidable Kendall, a murdered, entitled drug addict who raps and banker talks and ignores his kids? And then I thought: Hudson Yards!
This season is haunted by the idea of death. There were Logan’s flashes of light on that winding coast walk. And now the death of his empire. Big Tech is going strong and Logan knows it. As the episode begins, he seems poised to sell Waystar RoyCo to upstart GoJo, a deal that will eventually allow him to cash in but will leave his children in limbo. Come to think of it, maybe that last bit was part of the appeal for Logan?
In the end, that’s what prompted the failed Kendall, goofy Shiv and perverted Romans to forge a pact in a pivotal scene on a dusty Tuscany street, terrain where families and families War city-states have had their ups and downs for millennia. It’s a completely unprecedented moment of sublimation in a show built around their acid plan to destroy each other, and who knows how long it will last? They seem to have been motivated at least by fear of losing their birthright and having to prove themselves in the real world.
The finale offers another gift for devoted fans: a cheeky play by Tom Wambsgans, who is actor Matthew Macfadyen’s creepy, horny, and hilarious gift to the world. Forget the unexpected warmth and sibling harmony: Wambsgans, a third-rate sadist and supreme toad, understands very well the important virtues of the throat world, beyond mere shame that the Roys live in – a world we obviously enjoy seeing.
★★★★ ☆
Streaming on HBO Max in the US and Now in the UK
