Succession [HBO] *Spoilers*

I think a lot of people questioning Shiv's motives are neglecting to take account of her pregnancy. Not only is there pregnancy hormones there, but she desperately wants to prove her mother wrong and prove that she can be a good mother. She also wants to give the child the kind of secure home life that she and her siblings never had. That's why she threw her support behind Tom. However as we could see from that awful last scene in the car, there is such toxic hatred and resentment there, she is in fact going to bring her child into the exact same chaos that she grew up in. I feel most sorry for the baby!

Her pregnancy wasn't planned as part of the story and had to be written in when the actress became pregnant. I thought it really added to the story and her character arc. It gave extra meaning to the scene with her mother at the wedding in Italy and of course, gave extra, tragic implication to that visceral argument with Tom. I don't think her part in the final season would have worked as well without the pregnancy, it would have just been more of the same Shiv.

Its taken a few days to digest but I really enjoyed the final and think the ending was good.

Each of them got what was coming to them. None of the siblings get the power and will be traumatised by that. Except Conor who gets all that he wanted - a boat load of cash.

Tom thinks he is a winner but the taste of swedish dick will wear thin soon and he is not Machiavellian enough to take real power at Waystar.

She won, got the mansion and all to herself.

Mattson won, he got what he wanted and a donkey CEO he can control until/if he wants a good one.

Caroline is a winner too, she's clearly going to have control of her kids and she's got a business opportunity for them, which they are certain to take now, where she'll have control as well.

I really can't think of any other winners.

Yeah out of all the central characters, Tom is the one who really won. Gerri, Frank and Karl too to an extent. Even if Frank & Karl weren't being kept on by Tom, they still get their golden parachute retirement money from the sale. Gerri gets the same plus a job.

Tom, even though he'll be working for Matsson, will be running the day to day of the company as CEO. Waystar is just one part of Matsson's empire, he's not going to be issuing commands or directions to Tom all the time. Tom will be running the company, and if & when Matsson gives an order he'll follow it. But he's happy with that and under no illusion that its anything more than that.

Considering Tom sold them all up the river at the end of Season 3, we should have seen it coming. Its not a shock at all that he stabbed them in the back to take CEO

Soft and stupid….

He seems completely overwhelmed and emotionally fragile….by the end of season 4 he seemed mostly dead inside and much more capable

I think the events of 4 seasons had moulded Ken into “a serious person” by the end of season 4. I think that’s the tragedy, that he was now ready to be the King, only to have it snatched from at the last moment from a manoeuvre he could not have anticipated because it was insane…it didn’t make any sense. Shiv had expected him to fail at living plus but he didn’t, he was able to stand toe to toe with Matheson at the party…he was ready…

Tom clearly is a winner. His entire modus operandi throughout the show has been to climb the ladder by any means possible and now he is at the very top

He's just a puppet for Madsson with no guarantee that his job will last any longer than when Madsson builds his relationships with the political parties.

He's not a winner, just a donkey put in a position as a puppet. The fact he's still in a relationship with Shiv makes his position ever more untenable.

There's plenty of clear winners but he's not one of them.