Why Did Shiv Change Her Mind in Succession? She ‘Couldn’t Stomach’ Ken

EXTREME Spoilers for the last episode of Succession: Read at your own risk. The twist of all twists. If you saw the jaw-dropping finale of HBO’s award-winning and critically acclaimed primetime show, you might be wondering: why did Shiv change her mind in Succession?

As a last-minute decision towards the last thirty minutes of the episode, Shiv (played by Sarah Snook) holds up the last vote for the Waystar RoyCo and GoJo deal. The Roy siblings Roman (played by Kieran Culkin) and Kendall (played by Jeremy Strong) chase after Shiv and confront her on why she didn’t pursue the original plan to place Kendall as CEO of the company after their father Logan (played by Logan Roy) died. Shiv ends up siding with Lukas Mattson (played by Alexander Skarsgard) and Gojo in making her husband Tom Wasbasgans (played by Matthew MacFadyen) as new CEO of WayStar RoyCo.

After 90 minutes of drama and poignant remembrance of Logan’s legacy, the ending brought up a lot of questions that are probably going to be left unanswered (until we have the spinoffs). But here’s what we think about why Shiv changed her mind in Succession.

Why did Shiv change her mind in Succession?

Why did Shiv change her mind in Succession? There are quite likely multiple reasons why Shiv changed her mind about who should be CEO during the last episode of Succession. It dwindles down to her trust in her brother running the company. When Kendall sat in Logan’s chair, Shiv’s mood changed drastically.

In the heat of the conversation of confrontation, Shiv asks Kendall if he killed anybody, which is a reference to the death of a waiter Ken covered up in season one. Kendall goes back and forth with denying it but also admits that, yes, he did accidentally cause the young man’s death. She goes on to say “I can’t stomach you.” It’s likely that Shiv just couldn’t see her brother as fit for running the company and being like their father. Quite a contrast from the scene where they crowned Kendall as the King with the nasty smoothie that the Roy siblings made at their mother’s house—as well, she may be still reeling in with how Matson betrayed her by rescinding the decision that she would be made CEO.

Many Twitter users also made conspiracies that Shiv was looking out for her future with her new baby with Tom being CEO. One Twitter user tweeted, “Shiv’s final decision is so interesting. She secured her children’s future but she’s doomed to see Tom live the life she wanted.  She’s repeating her mom’s unhappy life married to a CEO, unsure if she wanted to have children to begin with, and be reduced to eye candy for Matsson.”

Other theories popped up with sites like British GQ and Twitter users that Shiv just couldn’t stand to see her brother win. “in my interpretation, Shiv chose Tom over Kendall because she couldn’t stand seeing Kendall win over herself,” one user tweeted. “like, something primal and childish – as in, winning the firm means winning dad’s love and if she couldn’t have it, neither could Kendall.”

To Succession mega fan and writer Hunter Harris, Shiv’s actions were propped up by family ties and her relationship with Tom. “It’s a move out of jealousy, and maybe self-preservation (she can be more powerful if Tom is sole CEO than trying to divvy up the company with her brothers), but she’s right,” Harris wrote in her newsletter. “Kendall can’t do it, he’ll forget his lines and crash and burn. (As Roman said in season three, “Kendall will self-destruct because that’s his favorite.”) He is cosplaying Logan, and that’s it.”

After the finale, Matthew Macfayden opened up about Shiv’s decision to be on the side of his character to Time. “The truth is, I don’t know, but I never thought that she chose Tom. I thought she had not chosen her brother. I don’t think she knows she’s going to do that until she’s in the boardroom and they’re going around the room asking for people’s votes. It’s not like a rational decision, I think it’s just sort of visceral. “I can’t stomach Kendall.” It’s such a big thing to do, especially after Matsson has dumped her quite appallingly, you know?”

On his own character, Jeremy Strong told Vanity Fair about how the twist was fated upon the siblings. “It’s devastating. He flew really close to the sun, and he almost got there. And then the fall is complete. And Shiv—remember that moment in Of Mice and Men, where he loves these animals but he also has to hurt them? He crushes the thing that he loves. That scene in the, in the glass room after the vote—as an actor, it was unbearable. Because it’s right there. And then [Shiv and Roman] have the power to end his life in a sentence. It’s primal. There’s an almost gloating quality in her eyes because she has that power over him.”

Sarah Snook talked to Hype about her character’s connection to Logan. “She’s very similar to Logan in a lot of ways. One of those ways is that Logan’s come from a background of feeling like he was the underdog. He had to fight for what he got, he had to work his way up, and scrap and get to the top in the way that he did. Because he had something to fight against.” She continued, “Shiv, in a similar way, has that to fight against in her family dynamic. She’s got her father, and her brothers. And being the only woman in a male dominated industry [means] circumstances are against her. And she has ambitions above that, so she has to fight against all those.”

She also clarified that the last scene she shot together with her fictional siblings was the lighter Meal Fit For A King scene. “So the final scene that we shot on the last day of shooting was one that was quite playful and fun. It was in a kitchen. It may not make the cut, but it was something that was really– It was the right thing to end on. Because there was a silliness to it, I guess. So, at the end, it didn’t feel like the stakes were as high as they would be with a scene that might have ended with us needing to cry or anything like that. Because once the camera wrapped, once they called cut, everyone was crying anyway! You can’t escape the reality once it’s right there in front of you. It was very sad.”

Director Mark Myleod discussed Shiv and Tom’s future in the Succession podcast. “I think it’s an optimistic moment… they’re having a kid and I genuinely think it will work. And there will be underlying tensions and resentments, as there is in any lifelong relationship, but I genuinely feel optimistic for them.”