The series finale of HBO’s hit drama Succession ran the length of a feature film, back when they made movies that were only 90 minutes long. It wrapped up the story of the Roy family in ways both great and terrible. I’m not really entirely sure what to say about it all.

Everyone took part in predicting the ending. Who would succeed? Who would be the successor? What shape would this succession story take? These were the questions we were all asking from the very first episode of the show until now. The answer to these questions may please some and infuriate others. Such is the nature of the beast. I was right and wrong in my predictions, and I have things to say about that.

Spoilers and all that rot, follow.

We’ll get it right out of the way: Nobody actually takes the throne at the end of this episode other than Lukas Mattson. Everyone was predicting that Tom would become CEO and yes, Tom becomes CEO and it means nothing. “I don’t want a partner,” Lukas tells him. “I want a pain sponge.” Tom is a figurehead. Tom is just the useful idiot by the end of this, slapping one of Connor’s stickers onto Greg’s forehead and telling him he has “just enough capital” to keep him employed.

The Roy kids are all out. Kendall is devastated. Shiv is betrayed but still “can’t stomach” Kendall enough to allow him to become CEO. Roman is relieved. It’s over for Logan’s bloodline—a bloodline he himself despised because Kendall and Rava’s kids are adopted.

“I am the eldest boy!” Kendall shouts when Shiv decides she can’t, in good faith, support his move to retain control of Waystar RoyCo, regardless of whether or not Mattson betrayed her. It’s so pathetic, so absurd, so Kendall.

I jotted down so many notes watching this episode. I would share them but I keep this space vulgarity-free and most of my notes include quotations of the Roy kids and their hangers-on swearing up a storm. But some series finale highlights include:

“It’s all nothing,” Roman tells Kendall, when the jig is up. “We are bullshit.” Kendall won’t hear it. He denies everything. When Shiv tells him that he can’t be CEO because he killed someone—a brief moment of morality over ego—he lies and denies it, calling it a “forced memory.” Truly, he’s carpe-ing the diem. “It’s bits of glue and bits of shadow,” Roman says.

Later, when it’s all said and done, and Mattson and GoJo win, as Tom walks in triumphant, Karl and Frank stand watching, grim, talking golden parachutes and their alternatives.

“We should have slit his throat in the cradle,” Frank says.

Maybe so. But it’s too late now.

Logan is dead. So are his kids.

Long live the king.

I predicted that Mattson would win and install someone other than Shiv as CEO. On both those counts, I was right. I was wrong because I thought he’d install someone else entirely. Tom got the top job instead, which I think was a little on the nose, but fine in the big scheme of things. It works dramatically, but doesn’t make that much sense from Mattson’s point of view. Surely someone so successful and savvy would have figureheads and stooges lined up already. No matter. It ticked off some dramatic boxes that I don’t mind seeing ticked.

This was a really powerful, overwhelming episode of TV, wrapping up one of the best episodes of any show I’ve ever seen in a profoundly satisfying way. I am honestly a bit overwhelmed at the moment. I could probably write 20 separate posts about this finale, yet at the same time I struggle to put into words exactly what it makes me feel in this lonely review. I will leave it at that for now.

I’ll just say this: Succession’s series finale was a pregnant cello, a meal fit for a king, the worst smoothie ever invented, and watching Greg bitch-slap Tom back made me laugh out loud. “Teamwork makes the dream work.”

“I love you but I cannot stomach you.”

“I am the eldest boy!”

What did you think? Let me know on Twitter or Facebook.