Succession was the show everyone raved about this summer, with stellar reviews following every episode of the corporate family drama. Season 2 introduced more twists and turns to the titular succession crisis, which saw the four Roy children fighting to take over Waystar Royco when their father, Logan Roy, retires. Just when it seemed like the show was about to tie up this major plotline, another twist showed us the writers have far more intrigue up their sleeves...and we can't wait to see what they have in store for Season 3.
With the succession question far from resolved, here are each of the younger Roys and their strengths and weaknesses in their pursuit of the coveted CEO position.
Kendall Strength: His Killer Instinct
Cutting right to the chase: Season 2 ends with Kendall accusing his family of monstrous deeds, turning the tables in a shocking press conference. The scene ends with a closeup of Logan watching the proceedings with the barest hint of a smile.
Just a few hours before, Logan had told his second-oldest son that he could never take over the company because he wasn't a killer. While the smile is open to interpretation for now, it could be that Logan was happy to be proven wrong. For Kendall, going off-script to turn against his family publically was a considerable risk, and it may very well pay off in Season 3.
Kendall Weakness: A Numbers Guy
With an undergraduate degree from Harvard and an MBA from Columbia Business School, Kendall certainly has the pedigree and the connections to run Waystar. However, his real-world experience leaves much to be desired. Leaving aside how he gutted Vaulter, his overvaluation of the company showed that his judgments aren't always correct.
When Logan asked for reasons to keep Vaulter in operation, Kendall listed numbers and figures trying to prove its financial viability, all of which Roman countered with information gleaned from an employee happy hour.
Kendall Weakness: Addiction
Kendall's drug use already cost him a huge opportunity for a hostile takeover of Waystar Royco with Stewy. It also led to the events in England, when Kendall drove a car into a lake and managed to escape in time...but his companion, a waiter working at Shiv's wedding, didn't.
The fallout from the car accident and resulting coverup affected Kendall's mental health greatly, leaving him powerless and gutted for most of Season 2. Given Succession's record of bringing up plot points a whole season later, we can only expect that the accident -- and the addiction that drove it -- will come back to haunt him in the future.
Siobhan Strength: The Smartest
The only one of the Roy kids to make a living for herself outside of the company, Shiv Roy may be the smartest and most successful member of the family. It's no wonder Logan has been trying to bring her into the company for years.
Shiv is a sharp Democratic operative and known power-player in Washington DC, having the gall to work for her father's political enemy, the progressive politician Gil Eavis. Her career in Washington makes her an attractive choice to succeed her father; even the rival Pierce family agreed to a buyout if Logan named Shiv as his successor.
Siobhan Weakness: Her Marriage
All of the Roys are morally ambiguous at best, if not morally reprehensible. The Roys treat people outside of the 1 percent as expendable; it's why the NRPI (no real person involved) policy exists. But it's one thing to lay-off employees and double-cross business partners; it's another to alienate the people who are close to you personally.
Yet this is what Shiv does, mixing business with pleasure. She tells her husband that she wants an open marriage on their wedding night, then exploits the arrangement to maintain the upper hand in their relationship. Because Tom is involved in the company, who knows what intrigue the tensions in their relationship will bring in Season 3.
Siobhan Weakness: Inexperience
Shiv may be the most successful of the Roys, but all of her experience is in politics. She barely knows the Roy business, which is why Logan asked her to wait three and a half years before taking over as CEO. In the meantime, she would have to start at the bottom.
If Shiv had been more involved in company operations, she might have understood the importance of learning the business. She could also have worked more closely with her father and foreseen that declaring herself to be next in line in front of the Pierce family would effectively ruin her chances for CEO.
Roman Strength: Dumb, But Smart
Flippant and careless, Roman might seem like the least suitable candidate to succeed Logan, but he does have a few saving graces. For one, he seems to understand people genuinely. He uses his high EQ to reassure Vaulter after the no-confidence vote, and again when he takes out the Vaulter staffers for drinks, where he learns about their plans to unionize.
Roman also has a vision for the company that he can articulate. His knack for seeing the big picture helped him generate a successful pitch for his management training class, and it would certainly aid him in a CEO role.
Roman Weakness: A Horrible Person
As Cousin Greg noted in the Season 2 finale, Roman Roy is widely known as a horrible person. He did promise a million dollars to a kid in the pilot episode before ripping up the check in the kid's face. And who knows what skeletons Gerri found in her opposition research.
Roman's reaction to the SpaceX disaster at the end of Season 1 also supports Greg's assessment of him. Though there were only a few injuries and no deaths, it was a high profile mistake Roman could have avoided if he had paid more attention to overseeing the launch. Instead, he was ecstatic that there were no fatalities.
Connor Strength: The Dark Horse
We don't know much about Connor except that, relative to his half-siblings, he is uninterested in the drama at Waystar Royco, preferring the freedom of the New Mexico desert over stuffy New York City. He ends the season asking Logan for a hefty sum of money to make up for the financial loss of Willa's play, which critics panned.
Will Connor show himself to be a serious contender next season, or will he continue to be more of a supporting act to his Machiavellian siblings? One thing is for sure: he plans to run for President of the United States. Aside from that, anything could happen.
Connor Weakness: The First Pancake
Although Connor is Logan's oldest son, the family often overlooks him in favor of his younger siblings. In the Season 2 finale, Gerri almost calls Kendall the firstborn son before remembering that it was Connor who holds the title. It could be that Connor hasn't done much with his advantages in life; he's not involved in the company's operations like Kendall and Roman, and he hasn't made a career for himself in another industry like Shiv.
He lives in a ranch far away from the rest of the family, and at this point, it's hard to see how he is relevant enough to be a serious candidate for succession.