Let’s Break Down That Massive Succession Cliffhanger

Spoilers ahead for Succession Season 3, Episode 8. With only one episode left in Season 3, Succession threw fans a doozy of a cliffhanger: Kendall Roy face down in a pool as the credits rolled. But surely our number one boy is not actually dead...right?

Frankly, it could go either way. Season 3, Episode 8 was particularly bleak for Kendall, who has spent the entirety of the show battling for the top spot at Waystar Royco. After confronting his father once again about betraying him in the Season 2 finale, Kendall finally reaches his limit and asks Logan to buy out his shares and let him leave the company. He’s hoping his father will relent and let him bow out with at least some shred of dignity, but Logan being Logan, he refuses, instead forcing Kendall into a more mortifying position: being forced to stay under his thumb after admitting defeat in their family game of tug of war. If Kendall hadn’t already hit rock bottom, this is certainly it.

By the end of the episode, Kendall is facedown on a pool float in despair, dipping his head underwater. He drops his beer bottle in the water and the bubbles around his face intensify. Will he drown? Or is he merely testing himself to see what it feels like? After all, Logan did taunt him earlier in the episode by reminding him about the waiter he killed when they swerved off the road and into a lake in an ill-advised search for drugs at Shiv’s wedding in the Season 1 finale.

Though Logan assured Kendall that the problem would be taken care of — so far, the waiter’s death has been deemed a suicide, though Comfry’s off-handed mention this episode that a podcast is investigating the death change that — the guilt consumed Kendall in Season 2, and Logan didn’t hesitate to capitalize on it. Logan even dragged Kendall on a trip to visit the employee’s family, and Kendall couldn’t even bring himself to look at them. If Logan is effectively holding Kendall hostage in the company by hanging the drowning over his head, Kendall dying via drowning is perhaps fitting.

The clues that Kendall could die by suicide have been subtle but apparent throughout Succession’s run so far. As far back as Season 1, Kendall has been on a self-destructive path, and the show has mirrored that in visuals: at least two notable scenes have placed him on the roof of a building, leaving the viewer with an uneasy feeling that while he may be contemplating his kingdom below, he also could be thinking about jumping. It also doesn’t help that the New Yorker published an exhaustive profile of Jeremy Strong, who plays Kendall, mere hours before the episode — if that’s not a fitting goodbye to the character, what is?

And yet, if Kendall is alive, the recent history of some of his real-life counterparts could provide more fruitful storylines. It’s not hard to imagine a Season 3 finale where Kendall almost drowns but survives, and the near-death experience is enough for Logan to relent and let him out of the deal. That would leave the door open for Kendall to follow in the footsteps of James Murdoch, who resigned from the board of directors of his father Rupert’s company NewsCorp in 2020 over public disagreements about the company’s editorial direction, in Season 4 of Succession.

If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741. You can also reach out to the Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860 or the Trevor Lifeline at 1-866-488-7386, or to your local suicide crisis center.