'Succession' Star Explains Tom's Betrayal In Season 3 Finale

[WARNING: spoilers for Sunday’s Succession]

The season three finale of Succession, “All the Bells Say,” is a member of the 9.9 club on IMDb, an honor reserved for only the best episodes of television (as voted by randos on the internet). A major reason why it’s being hailed as an instant classic is due to the impossibly tense final 20 minutes, beginning with Kendall crumbling to the ground at his mom’s wedding and ending with — in a shocking moment — Tom’s betrayal.

Matthew Macfadyen, who plays the tomlette to Greg’s greggs, was asked by GQ when he was first made aware of the twist. “Quite early on,” he said, adding, “I had a rough idea of how it might end up but I was fully prepared for it to change.” Macfadyen also explained when he thinks Tom made the decision to stick a, well, shiv in his wife’s back.

There’s a scene [in the previous episode] with Shiv in their quarters when they’re playing a sexy game and she implies that she doesn’t love him. Something is very off there. Then the following day she talks about freezing their babies. But then maybe it’s a subconscious decision. We all have that thing ticking away in our brains and you make a decision but the decision might have been made months before, and you just don’t know it yet.

Tom probably wasn’t feeling too great when Shiv didn’t seem relieved that he wasn’t going to prison, either. “There’s a collection of incremental things that he’s noticed with Shiv that’s made him think, ‘I have to look after myself. I can’t rely on anybody. My wife doesn’t trust and believe in me,'” Macfadyen said. At least he still has Greg.