Succession shows money doesn’t solve loneliness
Discretion: this article contains spoilers from the Succession finale and salty language.
He (Tom) may have become the CEO of the repulsive Swede Lukas Mattson’s tech empire at the end –something that before the acquisition of Waystar was locked, even in his dreams – but he will always be the same lonely fucker he has always been, or maybe even more.
Why do you think he let Greg the egg stay in the company after him leaking the news? Because he fucking didn’t have any friends besides Greg – if you even consider that backstabber a friend! –, and he wanted Greg to be squashed by Mattson’s hands alongside him.
Why some wealthy person like Tom can’t have real friends? Someone who he can trust? Someone to confide in?
The answer is easy: it’s not the money or success that makes confidantes.
I know people – I’m one of those – who try to not be lonely by accumulating as much success and as much money as they can. Because they think that way people come to them more. Because they think people will love them more. Yeah, they may come to you! or they may not. But those who come to you are probably someone like Greg. Right?
Talking about myself, I have to say that I’ve always been lonely. I didn’t have many friends – and writing this now, I still don’t have any friends, to be honest. I thought that losing my weight could help with that. I thought wearing good clothes could make me friends. I thought having an expensive car would surround me with people to confide in.
Truth be told, all of us are attracted by fanciness and success and we like to be around people who have the money of the Roy Family. We may try to get closer to people who are prettier, who are richer, who are more intelligent. But that closeness is transient and short-lasting. That may lead to more greetings and more respect, but that doesn’t make them friends. That didn’t make Tom friends.
The thing is friendships form through honesty, through being your true self. They form when you express your feelings for someone unabashedly. Friendship is just about uninhibited honesty.
Don’t think that by showing yourself a fancy, unreachable guy, you could make people your friends. That way you actually become unreachable like Tom.
Tom’s now more unreachable than ever. He will only have Greg, who is not even a real friend.
When I try to remember Tom through the 4 seasons, I cannot remember a person who really rooted for him. And that’s his fault. He tried to be a member of unreachable people.
They may have not shown Tom being upset about not having any real person around him, but he could for sure feel the claustrophobic bounds of loneliness to the bones.
So if you are trying to find people, show your honest self and express your honest little feelings. So you may not become like Tom.
Though from now on, he will be enjoying his power, one day that all becomes ordinary, and he would strive only for connection.
