Waystar Royco officially has a new CEO. For now, anyway.
In true Succession fashion, the funeral of patriarch Logan Roy (Brian Cox) proved to be another playground for business deals and board meetings, with the Roys discovering an item that upends the playing field. Turns out that Logan’s left a paper in a safe, and on this paper is a bold sentence declaring that Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) should take over as Waystar’s CEO after Logan passes away. (After much discussion among the three siblings, Roman and Kendall decide to share the mantle of interim CEO, but we’re focusing on the paper here, people.)
From the gang’s many (many) examinations of this paper, we learn that along with Logan’s declaration are two pencil markings that are up for interpretation. One is a line underneath Kendall’s name, which could be a simple, emphatic underline — or as Shiv (Sarah Snook) aptly points out, a strikethrough. (I agree with Shiv, for the record!) The other is Cousin Greg’s (Nicholas Braun) name, followed by question marks.
The paper quickly becomes a holy grail of sorts, with all of the top players bickering over it to deny or embolden their claim to the Waystar throne. Kendall evidently finds undeniable meaning in this paper, while Shiv thinks it’s just some useless document that Logan probably was doodling on. But what really is the deal with this paper? And is its outcome something Logan would have actually wanted? Let’s dive in.
When did Logan write the paper?
Credit: David Russell/HBO
Frank (Peter Friedman) estimates that Logan might have written the paper four years ago, which means he likely wrote it during Season 1. The timeline’s perfectly aligns with Succession‘s pilot episode, when Kendall was supposed to be named CEO before Logan eventually backed out and decided not to retire. If we dig in deeper to Season 1, Logan also had his first major health scare in those first few episodes, which hints that he might have drafted the paper during that time out of fear of his declining health. But the timeline of when he came back to the paper to write on it is harder to answer.
If we were to assume that Logan wrote Greg’s name and underlined (or scratched out) Kendall’s name at the same time, then it was likely to have happened at some point between the end of Season 2 and the start of Season 3. Waystar was in the middle of its huge, stock-crashing, cruise ship scandal. Kendall was supposed to take the fall and accept the blame for the company’s massive coverup (which meant he’d be going to jail), but he backed out and instead dropped a bomb in the finale that his dad was actually responsible — which set the course for Season 3 and served as Kendall’s ultimate betrayal of his father.
Throughout the cruise ship ordeal, Greg remained a steady pillar with a go-getter attitude ready to do anything and everything for Logan — including testify before Congress. It’s possible that Logan saw some form of loyalty in Greg that could be nourished and fine-tuned to become a CEO or at least a partner of some sort, leading him to write Greg’s name on the paper as a really hard “maybe.”
What can we gather from Logan’s pencil markings?
Credit: David Russell/HBO
At the end of the episode, we watch Kendall zooming in on a picture of his name on the paper, and while it does arguably look crossed out, that doesn’t really matter. If Logan realized he didn’t want Kendall to be CEO, he surely could have just ripped up the paper and tossed it away. Why would he come back to it, write some things on it, and keep it in his safe if he was so convinced he didn’t want Kendall? From Logan’s pencil markings, we can gather that he came back to the paper at some point, and while he may have been hesitant, a part of him was still sure of his initial decision.
We can also assume that Logan knew this paper would be found at some point. If he really didn’t want the aftermath it’d trigger, he would have gotten rid of it entirely, no matter when he wrote it. But Greg’s name being on there might suggest that Logan wasn’t necessarily in the right mindset. The last person capable of running Waystar is Greg, and while it does cater to certain Cousin Greg fan theories, it’s hard to imagine Logan actually entrusting him with his life’s work. Maybe Logan saw something in Greg that audiences haven’t, or maybe this entire paper was in fact Logan’s sketchpad he’d hoped no one would find as he ruminated over his successor.
There’s no way of telling, but it’s safe to say that if Logan really never wanted this specific piece of paper to be found, he would have shredded it. He was certainly no stranger to shredding papers.
Did Logan actually want Kendall to be CEO?
Credit: Macall B. Polay/HBO
A Shakespearean betrayal is at the heart of Logan and Kendall’s relationship, but perhaps that’s precisely why Logan saw him as CEO material. There’s a clear ferociousness in Kendall that his siblings don’t harbor, and by the tone of the last words Logan speaks onscreen — “Clean out the stalls. Strategic refocus. A bit more fucking aggressive!” — he’s clearly a fan of hostility as a means to an end. And Kendall’s ready to get fucking aggressive.
By the end of episode 4, Kendall pulls a move Logan would have been impressed by, had his reputation not been its target; Kendall goes behind his siblings’ back to greenlight some shady PR moves in order to bolster his and Roman’s positions as Waystar’s interim CEOs. He justifies his choice by saying Logan would have done the same thing, and he’s right. Kendall’s ready to adopt his dad’s anger and use it to stay on top. Maybe Logan never wanted Kendall to be CEO, but his son’s stepping up regardless.
At the end of the day, the intentions behind Logan’s paper don’t really matter in the face of his kids’ reactions. Perhaps there was a part of Logan that always hoped for Kendall to be CEO, which would explain why the paper’s still in the safe. Perhaps he forgot about the paper and thought no one would ever find it, but that seems highly unlikely. All we can hope for is a flashback scene to the moment Logan wrote it for some definitive answers. Who knows? Maybe Kendall really was the lion’s favorite cub all along.
Succession is now streaming on HBO Max, with new episodes airing at 9 p.m. ET Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.
