This text accommodates spoilers by way of the Season 4 finale of Succession.

“The journey we went on with the amniocentesis after what the blood check confirmed us—the whole lot seems wholesome.” With these understated phrases uttered by a physician over the telephone, we realized in of Succession’s ultimate season that Shiv Roy (performed superbly by Sarah Snook) was pregnant. However within the episodes that adopted, the present hardly acknowledged her impending motherhood. When her husband, Tom (Matthew Macfadyen), lastly heard the information, sputtering, “Is that even true? Is {that a} new place or a tactic or what?,” his confusion mirrored my very own. What was this being pregnant?

It’s a well-documented trope in tv that feminine characters in late seasons grow to be unexpectedly pregnant. Contemplate Hannah in Women, or Rachel in Mates. Motherhood is probably the most dramatic endgame possible for a lady, these reveals appear to say. Can a mom retain her sense of self? Will she develop out of her childishness? In Women, Hannah is pressured to give up her flippancy about cash and her promiscuity; she matures into somebody who faces her issues head on. But Succession was by no means in regards to the private development of its characters—if something, it showcased the inevitable resurfacing of their worst qualities. I questioned whether or not Shiv’s growth was a dramatic wrench to intensify the stress between her and Tom . Possibly it was only a easy solution to accommodate Snook’s personal being pregnant. However after the present’s finale aired on Sunday, I noticed that it did a lot extra. Shiv’s imminent parenthood defined the collection’ elementary themes—and supplied its ultimate tragedy.

Towards the top of the final episode, the siblings Roman (Kieran Culkin), Kendall (Jeremy Sturdy), and Shiv argue one final time about who ought to lead Waystar Royco, the corporate their father based. Kendall insists that he’s probably the most certified individual to meet their father’s want—which, based on Kendall, is that the household continues to personal the agency. Roman responds by saying that Shiv is the true bearer of the household’s bloodline. He calls Kendall’s youngsters—an adopted daughter and, Roman hints, a son presumably conceived by way of sperm donor—a “pair of randos.” Roman’s implication is that they aren’t actual Roys. The one one who might maintain the corporate within the household for the subsequent technology is the just lately pregnant Shiv.

On reflection, it is sensible that the present would use Shiv to convey its ultimate tragic word. Shiv’s expertise as Logan’s daughter has all the time been totally different from that of Logan’s sons. After we are launched to her within the first episode of Season 1, she hasn’t labored within the household agency: She is aware of she should discover her profession worth elsewhere as a result of the company’s misogyny signifies that nobody inside it’ll see her as a possible inheritor. As a result of she’s a lady, she will be able to by no means absolutely have interaction in her brothers’ shared delusions of being the subsequent iteration of their father. However this similar high quality—her gender, her standing as a mother-to-be who carries Logan’s grandchild—retains her tethered to the corporate, even after her brothers have been lower out. Within the , Tom is topped the brand new CEO of Waystar Royco, and Shiv is carrying their child.

That is the true perform of Shiv’s being pregnant in Succession. To not launch her into being a greater model of herself—she continues to be hampered by her womanhood, in the end discounted by Waystar Royco’s new proprietor Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) and her personal brothers. Quite, her being pregnant alerts that distress—the true birthright of the Roy youngsters—can be inherited by the subsequent technology.

You possibly can see this in Shiv’s ultimate scene, the place she’s sitting subsequent to Tom in a darkened automotive as he holds his hand out for hers. She stoically complies. Shiv might need facilitated Tom’s ascent, however she is—deliberately or not—repeating historical past, simply because the little one she’s carrying will. At its core, Succession is a tragedy. Every character ends their journey simply as sad as they’ve all the time been. However the present can also be in regards to the legacy of tragedy. It’s not sufficient for Logan’s youngsters to really feel sorrow; they have to additionally lengthen the household’s curse into the longer term.