Succession: ‘With Open Eyes’ & Dream Song 29 explained
HBOThe Succession Season 4 finale is titled ‘With Open Eyes’, taken from John Berryman’s poem Dream Song 29 – here’s what it might mean as the show draws to a close.
Tonight, after four seasons of extraordinary television, HBO’s prestige-defining series comes to an end. Who will thrive, and what will be left of them? You can check out our predictions for the last episode here.
In keeping with the show’s literary tradition, the finale follows its predecessors with another line from Berryman’s (rather depressing) poem: Season 1 had ‘Nobody Is Ever Missing’, Season 2 had ‘This Is Not For Tears’, and Season 3 had ‘All The Bells Say’.
In just a few hours, we’ll all go “full f*cking beast” and experience the ending of Succession together – so, amid rife speculation and theorizing online, here’s a quick breakdown of the meaning behind Dream Song 29 and why ‘With Open Eyes’ may have been chosen for the grand conclusion.
Succession: What is Dream Song 29?
Dream Song 29 is a poem written by John Berryman, taken from his 1964 collection 77 Dream Songs, for which he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. You can read the full poem below:
The poem is open to interpretation, but the simplest possible reading is this: Henry is struggling with guilt, so much so that even a mere cough, smell, or “chime” reminds him of it. Those emotions are personified in his head by a “grave” face, and it’s “too late” for anything to change.
However, it does have a somewhat upbeat ending: whatever Henry thinks he did – perhaps he believes he killed someone – he didn’t actually do it. He always checks to make sure everyone’s safe, and “nobody is ever missing” – but his soul is tortured by the chance that they could be, one day.
Berryman had a traumatic life: he found his dad after he killed himself, and he took his own life at age 57. Paul Mariani, a Boston College poet and academic who wrote 1990’s Dream Song: The Life of John Berryman, told CBS News that his first wife, Eileen, is the inspiration for the poem.
“He’d been unfaithful to her, had left her when she needed him because of illness, and finally, she looked into Berryman’s eyes – he tells us – and he knew from that look that the marriage was over. And really because of him and his treatment of her,” he said.
“The thing is, he could not shake what he knew he had done. And even if he closes his eyes and tries to blind himself to what he’s done, there are still the bells, reminding him that it’s too late.”
How is Succession connected to Dream Song 29?
Succession has two major thematic connections to Dream Song 29: Berryman’s work echoes his grief over his father, just as the Roy siblings war, pine and mourn over their own dad; and more explicitly, Kendall’s guilt over the death of the waiter at Shiv’s wedding.
In the Season 1 finale, Kendall prepares to take on his father when everything goes Pete Tong: he tries to buy drugs from a waiter, only for them both to drive off and crash into a lake. The next morning, Logan tidied up his mess so – at least in everyone else’s eyes – “nobody’s missing.”
At the end of Season 2, Kendall finally has the gumption to be “the killer” and betray his father at the Waystar press conference. For him, it wasn’t the time for “tears”, but “thinking” – he had to let go of the guilt and not crumble into his dad’s arms like he did in the previous finale.
HBOIn a 2019 interview with Vulture, Armstrong said he was “a bit averse to doing too much analysis because I want people to have their own reaction to the show. The show is the best expression of the show. Forgive me if I’m reluctant to over-explicate or make things plain.”
However, he said it was “true about that poem… it has a terrifying sense of that feeling Kendall has at the end of the last season, wondering if something could have happened. In Berryman’s poem’s case, in the end, [a death] hasn’t happened. But it has happened to Kendall. When I was looking at possibilities, that line struck me as pertinent to this episode as well.”
The Season 3 finale, ‘All The Bells Say’, is the most obvious: Kendall confesses to his siblings, and insists he’s “not a good person” – but they offer him comfort and tell him he’s not to blame. This inspires a united front and Hail Mary directed straight at their dad: they try to veto the GoJo sale.
But, as the bells said, it’s “too late”, and Logan had already cut them out via some sneaky, backdoor negotiations with their mother Caroline.
Succession: Why ‘With Open Eyes’ for the finale?
The optimist in us says Kendall’s eyes will be opened to his father’s ways and how he cannot live up to his corrupt, abusive legacy. Or, there’s the more realistic outcome: Kendall and his siblings completely give into their worst selves ‘with open eyes’ and clarity of how terrible they are.
There’s also the suggestion that Kendall’s vehicular manslaughter may be revealed to the public, a common prediction among fans for the finale.
One Reddit user wrote: “‘With Open Eyes’… to me, that points to Kendall’s incident with the cater waiter becoming public knowledge, and also his acceptance of the fact that he isn’t a good person after all, or can’t be if he’s ultimately going to get what he wants. It suggests he finally gives in to the dark side deliberately and ‘with open eyes’.”
Another wrote: “In the poem it’s about how Henry can’t see what’s ahead of him but only the judgmental face of the person he thinks he killed. So perhaps Kendall only sees the faces of those he betrayed and not the prize he won i.e. the company?”
A third also commented: “This would be a great ending shot for the series… the camera pans to Kendall from behind, sitting at the head of the empty boardroom table. No one to celebrate with, and no one to call who would actually answer the phone. He scrolls past all of them in his phone maybe, one by one debating if he should call them, wanting to call them, but deciding not to. And that’s it. Just him… victorious, powerful, and alone. Eyes wide open to what he’s lost, but blind to what he’s won.”
We won’t know why ‘With Open Eyes’ was chosen for the finale until after Succession airs, so we’ll update this space once we know more.
Succession Season 4 Episodes 1-9 are streaming on HBO and Sky now. Episode 10 will be available to watch on May 28 in the US and May 29 in the UK. Check out our other coverage below:
Season 4 cast | Season 4 release schedule | Season 4 runtimes | Is Succession based on a real family? | What time does Succession drop? | Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | Episode 5 | Episode 6 | Episode 7 | Episode 8 | Episode 9