Endings are tricky. Any author or screenwriter can tell you that. Endings for a TV series like Succession which engaged millions of viewers are especially tricky. Jesse Armstrong, the head writer of the 4-season drama series about a media conglomerate run by a Rupert Murdoch-type billionaire knows that only too well.
After last Sunday’s finale, hundreds of viewers and reviewers weighed in about that series ending, voicing their opinions and criticisms in the mainstream media as well as on entertainment websites and blogs.
Authors of novels are perhaps more fortunate in that millions of readers are not usually specifically primed for the ending of their book in the same way that viewers are primed for the finale of a wildly popular TV series like Succession or The Sopranos or Game of Thrones. Which doesn’t mean authors don’t struggle to come up with the perfect ending. Especially in mysteries and thrillers which often depend on a jaw-dropping revelation. I know. I struggled with the ending of my thriller, Fool Her Once.
Fool Her Once Original Ending
More on book endings below including my offer of making my original ending available as two freebie, bonus chapters. These are the last two chapters of FHO which were deleted and re-written upon my editor’s advice. You may scroll down to the end of this blog for details on how to access those original FHO deleted chapters. But first:
Was Succession Finale A Perfect Ending?
Spoiler Alert for those who have not yet viewed the finale: There were predictions and guesses flying around the week before the finale aired as to who would emerge as the successor to Logan Roy; who would end up running his media conglomerate, Waystar Royco?
Would it be one of his four ( “not serious”) children, or would it be an outsider? My son, Dan and Adrienne, his partner, predicted correctly that it would be Tom –husband of Logan’s only daughter, Shiv — with cousin Greg continuing to bask in Tom’s orbit as his fawning acolyte. It made sense.
Tom was the striver who had come from nothing; the worker bee; the one who had shown the greatest loyalty to the company and Logan Roy. He deserved it. If you were rooting for Tom, the ending was more than satisfying. It was near-perfect.
I, on the other hand, was rooting for Shiv. Yes, solely because of her gender and not because I thought she was smarter or more competent. I didn’t. But I felt that the show should, at least, give a nod to the idea of a boss girl. And, in a sly way, I think it did.
For one, it was Shiv who had the deciding vote at the final boardroom meeting where she changed her mind about voting with her brothers and instead threw in her lot with Matsson and GoJo. The future of Waystar Royco in that moment was entirely in her hands. And she exercised that power to her advantage.
I Would Have Done The Same Thing
Like Shiv, I would have calculated that (1) I already had an “in” with Matsson, as a confidant, an object of his lust – and at one stage his pick for the top job at Waystar Royco when he took over the company. I could see Shiv using her past with Matsson to worm her way back into the #1 spot as soon as Tom falls out of favor –which he is almost certain to do with the mercurial Matsson
Also (2) her decision to stay with Tom was, I think, driven by the same motive, and not because she’d been left diminished and without any other choice. She returned with Tom to their apartment/home, because she knew that would put her in the best possible position to influence events and decisions in the company.
Shiv has always been able to intimidate Tom and keep him off balance and to use his feelings for her to her advantage. Her exit with Tom in his car was, in fact, the perfect ending because it also showed that Tom was very aware that his fate would be in Shiv’s hands, again, one day.
The finale did what a perfect ending has to do. It doesn’t have to be happy but it has to be satisfying. Loose ends have to be tied; plot points have to be resolved; the protagonists and antagonists must come face to face for a final showdown. Also, the writer/writers must provide enough foreshadowing to give the viewer a sense of : Oh, yes, now I get it. I should have seen that coming.
Scorpion Foreshadowing
In Succession, there was significant foreshadowing in the scene where Tom gifted Shiv with a glass scorpion paperweight, and told her she was the scorpion. Their final scene together in the car unmistakably references the fable of the scorpion and the frog when Tom offers Shiv his hand, palm up, and she covers it with her hand.
Never mind the Neil Diamond’s lyrics that spring to mind about Tom (“did you every read about the frog who dreamed of being a king,”) the fable is about a scorpion who hitches a ride across a river on a frog’s back. As they’re nearing the opposite bank, the scorpion stings the frog. As the frog is dying and the scorpion is sinking with him, the frog asks why? The scorpion replies : Because it’s my nature and you knew that when you offered to give me the ride. It really doesn’t get more obvious than that — unless you’ve forgotten the fables from your childhood.
In The Writers’ Room
Jesse Armstrong, creator and head writer talked about the show’s finale after the last episode aired last Sunday. He said he’d “known for a while” that Tom would emerge as the successor in the end. He did not explain how he’d decided on that finale, or if there had been much discussion about it with the show’s other writers.
But he has also spoken recently about the advantages of collaboration in writing a show like Succession: “Working together in a writers’ room had one big advantage in fixing problems,” he said at the BBC Comedy Festival. “If you’re on your own, it can take a week, whereas if you’ve got a room, hopefully, for six people who are downcast there’s one person who sees a way through.”
Different For Authors
That’s not quite how it works for authors of novels. An author generally labors over the ending on his/her own. Reportedly, Ernest Hemingway re-wrote the ending of Farewell To Arms 39 times before he was ready to show it to his editor.
Other times, an author will produce an entire outline or synopsis including the ending for his/her agent or editor. A re-work might happen at this point if an agent or editor has other ideas.
Or an author may complete the manuscript and be set on having a specific ending which an agent/editor may not like, or may not think it’s the right ending for the book. British author, Lisa Jewell has written about the major change she had to make to Then She Was Gone after her editor contacted her and told her the book couldn’t have a happy ending. Her psychological thriller went on to become a major bestseller.
Fool Her Once: My Original Ending
In the case of my thriller, FHO, I had a pretty strong idea about how to end it. I knew the antagonist had to be punished, in fact, that he had to die. What he had done to protagonist Jenna was far too devious and evil to be overlooked or forgiven. Hence, in my original ending, it was Jenna who decided to take matters into her own hands to punish him. I wanted Jenna to consciously decide and execute her plan for the antagonist’s sorry end.
Once my manuscript was in the hands of my publisher and editor, however, different ideas emerged. I touched on why I had to change my ending in an earlier blog. My editor’s main objection was that the antagonist was too smart to fall for protagonist’s scheme to entrap and destroy him. Once, that idea was planted in my head, I agreed to revise.
In the revised ending, therefore, Jenna’s final act against the antagonist was, in effect, a reaction to antagonist’s one last attempt to silence her rather than an act of her own agency. But, I think it was as powerful as the original ending, if not a tad more so!
If you’ve read FHO and would like to read my original two-chapter ending — or even if you haven’t read it yet but it’s on your TBR list —all you have to do to get the bonus freebie chapters is to email me using the contact form below.
Write: Password Please as the subject line and I will then email you the password for the protected blog where I’ve reprinted my original two final chapters. Please circle back to me to let me now what you think.
Happy Reading.