Succession had its long awaited finale on Sunday, and after years of waiting, we finally have the answer to the question presented way back in Season 1, Episode 1 — which character will ascend the throne at Waystar Royco?
Before we go any further, there are obviously some pretty major spoilers ahead, so if you’ve not caught up with the finale yet, proceed at your own caution. You have been warned!
So, in the dramatic last episode, a final twist revealed that none of Logan Roy’s children would be crowned CEO of their father’s empire, but instead, it would be Shiv’s husband: the one and only Tom Wambsgans.
In the run-up to the last episode of the fourth and final season, viewers put on their sleuth hats in hopes of correctly predicting which of the characters might come out on top.
And while many delved into pages of Shakespearean lore in hopes of stumbling upon the answers, one baby-naming expert found that the ending had been in plain sight all along.
She started with Siobhan Roy, whose nickname Shiv can also mean “knife” (which, as we all now know, wound up being pretty prophetic). She also noted that Roy “literally means ‘king.’”
Of course, this is all to say that none of the names on the show were selected by chance, which brings us to perhaps the most memorable of them all: Wambsgans.
Sophie explained that the name is of German origins, and is composed of Wambs (from “wamba”), which means big paunch, and gans, meaning goose. However, none of this is where we get our answers about the big finale.
Continuing with her theory, she noted that TV writers often give their characters common surnames on purpose, which is why it’s typically very intentional when someone in a script has a name that is significantly rare — and it seems Wambsgans is no exception.
A quick Google search of the name will take you to Bill Wambsganss, a real-life baseball player from the 1920s, who played for the Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, and the Philadelphia Athletics.
Tom’s connection with the historic athlete dates back more than 100 years to 1920, when Bill became the first and only person in World Series history to execute what is known as an unassisted triple play — this is where a defensive player takes out three players in one continuous play, without any help from their teammates.
And, as fate would have it, this is exactly what Tom pulled off in the finale: taking out Kendall, Shiv, and Roman Roy in one go by making a deal with GoJo boss Lukas Matsson and securing himself the top spot as CEO.
Positing this theory days before the finale, Sophie said in her TikTok: “It’s no coincidence that Tom shares a surname with Bill Wambsganss, so you have to wonder if Tom will complete an unassisted triple play and take out all three of the Roy siblings to become the leader of Waystar Royco in the Succession finale.”
And here we are, with a lone Wambsgans — and a Skarsgård — at the helm of the Roy family empire.
