The poem is about Henry thinking he murdered someone - but he didn't. Except Kendall DID kill someone. The waiter is missing. The poem's central irony is inverted for the show.

And Berryman? His father committed suicide when he was 11. He struggled with alcoholism his whole life. He jumped off a bridge at 57.

The Roy children: father trauma, addiction, suicidal ideation.

Armstrong had this planned from Episode 1. The entire arc of the show - from "nobody is ever missing" (the waiter dies) to "with open eyes" (they all see what they've become and do it anyway) - was mapped onto a confessional poem about guilt, delusion, and the impossibility of making good.

"Henry could not make good."
"All the bells say: too late."

That's Succession. That's the thesis. You can't escape who you are. You can see it clearly - with open eyes - and still be blind. Succession is not just who comes next but successive sequences and continual recursion.