On the official Succession Podcast, actor Jeremy Strong spoke about his emotional farewell to Kendall Roy. “He lost everything: his father, his morals, his soul, his brothers, his children, love and he lost his ambition which was all he had”, he summarized.

For Jeremy, Kendall’s ending was tragic. And the poetry of John Berryman, which gives the title to the final episode, sums up the feeling of the sad and toxic relationship of the Roy family. “There is no going back for him”, argues the actor who even recorded a sequence where it is clearer that he tries to take his own life. It wasn’t the end we saw, but for him, it was implied. After all, John Berryman himself died by suicide, jumping into the frozen river.

All the signs that the poetry written by John Berryman would lead to a tragic conclusion were there. The American poet published his most famous work, The Dreams, in the 1960s. He abused alcohol and struggled with depression until his suicide in 1972. The scene of Kendall contemplating death looking out over the Hudson River drew this parallel. “Sat, once, a thing in Henry’s heart so heavy, if he were a hundred years old and more, and crying, sleepless, all them time“, quoted Jeremy comparing the text to Kendall, “Henry could not make good“.

Another passage that fits the feeling of the character is the one that refers to the eyes of people judging and disapproving of him. In poetry it’s metaphorical, in Kendall’s case it’s real, with everyone witnessing her greatest defeat. “This is the end for me. I, as the actor who played him for seven years, felt at that moment that all hope was gone and there was nowhere to go,” Jeremy commented in an interview with Vanity Fair.

All season finale episodes of Succession were titled after poetry from The Dreams. Number 29 is about guilt and how what ‘Henry’ feels is so powerful that it’s impossible to help him in any way. The big difference is that while Henry thinks he committed murder – but he didn’t – we know that Kendall did.

An exciting, well-drawn, and perfect ending. “For me, what happens in the council vote is an extinction-level event for that character. There’s no going back from that. But what I love about the way Jesse [Armstrong] chose to end, is a much stronger ending philosophically and has more integrity than Jesse’s very dark overall view of humanity – which is fundamental, people really don’t change. They don’t do spectacular and dramatic things. Instead, there’s a kind of destruction loop that we’re all trapped in, and Kendall is trapped in this kind of silent screaming with Colin there as bodyguard and jailer.”

Succession will be missed.

Dream Song 29

There sat down, once, a thing on Henry’s heart
só heavy, if he had a hundred years
& more, & weeping, sleepless, in all them time
Henry could not make good.
Starts again always in Henry’s ears
the little cough somewhere, an odour, a chime.

And there is another thing he has in mind
like a grave Sienese face a thousand years
would fail to blur the still profiled reproach of. Ghastly,
with open eyes, he attends, blind.
All the bells say: too late. This is not for tears;
thinking.

But never did Henry, as he thought he did,
end anyone and hacks her body up
and hide the pieces, where they may be found.
He knows: he went over everyone, & nobody’s missing.
Often he reckons, in the dawn, them up.
Nobody is ever missing.

From The Dream Songs by John Berryman

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