The connection between ‘Succession’ and John Berryman’s poetry
HBO’s Emmy award-winning Succession is filled to the brim with cultural references. From Shakespeare to Machiavelli to the Murdochs, Jesse Armstrong and his team of writers have drawn inspiration from across the political, cultural and literary climate to create a collage of contemporary culture.
Though the show follows four siblings through their desperate attempts to gain their father’s love and consequently, the family company, one in particular, always seems to be at the heart of the show. Whether it begins in the writing room or follows from Jeremy Strong’s committed method acting, the tragedy of Kendall Roy often takes centre stage. Logan Roy’s ‘failson’ is a troubled businessman who never quite reaches the reputation or gravitas of his father. Separated from his ex-wife and children, struggling with addiction, and plagued by guilt, his turmoil is palpable.
He’s a classic tragic literary figure, not unlike the protagonist of American confessional poet John Berryman’s Dream Song 29. The poem tells the story of protagonist Henry and his unshakeable guilt in the mirror image of Kendall. Berryman charts his depression and disturbed state of mind across three stanzas. But the connection between the poem and the show is more than coincidental.
Each season finale of the HBO show borrows its title from a line from the poem. The first, ‘Nobody Is Ever Missing’, is an explosive episode which sees Kendall’s drug problems lead to the untimely death of a character known primarily to us as a waiter at Shiv’s wedding. This event spurs his arc in the following seasons, leading his state of mind to become akin to Henry’s.
The episode title comes from Henry’s affirmation in the poem – the protagonist, who struggles with a murderous guilt despite no evidence of any wrongdoing, has to reassure himself that “nobody’s missing”. On the contrary, in Kendall’s case, someone is missing. While Henry’s guilt comes from uncertainty, it is Kendall’s knowledge of this fact that causes his unshakeable guilt.
The title also echoes Logan’s response to Kendall’s concerns regarding the murder, which he dismissed with the corporate phrase: “No real person involved”. One of the most disturbing refrains of the series, Waystar Royco used the phrase to cover up crimes committed on their cruises.
The title of the second season finale, ‘This Is Not For Tears’, references an earlier line in the poem. In the episode, Kendall turns his killer instinct against his father and betrays him in a live press conference. It is perhaps Logan’s use of the phrase “no real person involved” that spurs Kendall into action and leads to his disloyalty. The phrase informs Kendall that his father was involved in the cover-ups and goes directly against the intense emotion he’s been struggling with for the boy he killed. The title, quoting the line, “This is not for tears; thinking”, reflects Kendall’s final push into action at the end of a season full of self-pitiful tears.
Following the pattern again, the season three finale was titled ‘All The Bells Say.’ The episode saw Kendall admit his crime to Shiv and Roman as well as the first, albeit unsuccessful, unification of the siblings against their father. The finale title borrows from the line “All the bells say: too late.” Perhaps it was Kendall’s confession that came too late or the decision of the siblings to work together against their father. Or perhaps it was always too late for the Roys to escape the cycles of abuse that plague them and that they uphold.
This follows the series finale, ‘With Open Eyes’, which aired this weekend. True to Kendall’s development across the four seasons, the last episode concludes his story with a failed Waystar takeover and a monumental breakdown that leaves him alone and aimless. The episode borrows from the line, “Ghastly, with open eyes, he attends, blind.” Despite the title choice, Kendall has never seemed more blind.
He takes on the role of his father, literally opening Roman’s wounds and declaring to his siblings that he lied about killing the boy; nobody was ever missing. It’s unclear as to whether Kendall’s words are a desperate final play or if he’s slipped so far into delusion that even he believes what he’s saying. In the end, his killer instinct pushes him irremovably into loneliness. He wanders through the park with bodyguard Colin as his father once did before sitting on a bench to stare out at the water, looking ghastly and broken.
Writer Jesse Armstrong leaves Kendall’s conclusion open-ended, leaving audiences to wonder if Kendall has opened his eyes or if nothing remains for him. If it’s ‘Dream Song 29’ that we’re to go off, it’s safe to assume that Kendall’s fate is the latter. As Berryman writes, “There sat down, once, a thing on Henry’s heart so heavy if he had a hundred years… Henry could not make good.” No matter how hard Kendall tried, he could not “make good” his mistakes, and he could not escape the fate set by his father.
On HBO’s Succession Podcast, Jeremy Strong himself shared his own take on this part of the poem as reflecting Kendall’s end. He suggests that “Those eyes are not Kendall’s eyes, those eyes, in the poem, are the eyes of this reproachful face in his mind that is staring back at him. It’s all the things he’s done, the cater waiter that he killed. It’s all the people that he has betrayed. I can’t answer who that face is staring back at him, ghastly with open eyes, but it’s all of it.”
