'Succession' Finale: Mourning the Meme Account That's Kept Us Laughing

When 33-year-old Anna Golez started her No Context Succession Twitter account in July 2019, she was filling a void in her own interest and fandom. An avid TV fan, Golez turned her eye toward Succession after her other favorite HBO series, Veep, ended in May 2019 and she "wanted something to fill the Veep-shaped hole in my heart." She knew that Succession creator Jesse Armstrong wrote for Veep and she also saw people tweeting a lot about the show, prompting her to give it a shot.

Golez, who followed other "no context"-themed social media accounts, says she was inspired to create her Twitter leading up to the premiere of Season Two because she thought the writing and content on Succession would make for good reaction memes. 

"I just love the show and I thought it would be funny to make a meme account out of prestige television and I guess people also liked that idea," Golez tells Rolling Stone. "I was looking for other no context Succession accounts and when I couldn't find any I decided I might as well just start one myself."

Golez started sharing screenshots of scenes and dialogue between the fictional Roy family — Logan (Brian Cox), Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook), Roman (Kieran Culkin), and of course cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun). At first, she felt like she was just posting the memes for herself and a handful of fans. But now the Twitter account boasts nearly 300,000 followers and has become a destination point for viewers following each episode of the season.

"It's been really wild to see how popular the show has become and it's cool to also see that account get a lot of attention," she says. "It's still kind of surreal." 

Over the past five seasons, Succession has become appointment viewing on Sunday nights at 9:00 pm ET. Golez lives in the Philippines so she watches the show when it airs in her time zone on Monday mornings. She says she watches each episode twice: Once for herself, and then a second time to take screenshots and post them to Twitter. 

Editor's picks

"With Succession, the dialogue and the language that the writers use is so unique and the insults are so colorful," Golez says. "Those are really unique lines and I gravitate toward those."

With the final season airing, Golez says she feels more pressure now than she typically has in seasons past to share the best phrases from the account in a timely manner. Luckily for her, the show gives her a plethora of options to choose from. This season alone, she's tweeted screenshots of Connor (Alan Ruck)'s character saying, "He never even liked me," when talking about his dad; Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) asking his estranged wife Shiv, "You're scheduling your grief?; and Shiv saying, "I'm hot shit and I'm ready to go, okay?"

Golez says she thinks the dialogue on Succession sets the show apart from others, and she also pays attention to what people are quoting and discussing on Twitter as a way to determine what people care about.

"In a way, it sounds a bit Shakespearean. Even though the characters say a lot of really terrible shit all the time, it's very poetic," Golez says. "It's really interesting how they use language to show the characters' arcs. Recently, Kendall's been echoing Logan a lot, like how he says everything he does is for his kids. That's something Logan used to say all the time."

The No Context Succession community is meaningful to Golez because she says she doesn't have friends nearby who are also fans of the series. She appreciates the Twitter accounts' followers because they help her not feel alone in her obsession. 

Related

"When I'm able to check my mentions, it's fun to see people arguing about the characters and where they think their stories on the show are going," Golez says. "Much like the show itself, it's a very colorful fandom."

After Logan unexpectedly passed away in the third episode of this season, Kendall, Shiv, and Roman have ebbed and flowed in competing for the coveted role as CEO of Waystar Royco. With only one episode left in the series, the siblings are continuing to fight it out and navigate what a post-Logan world looks like for their company.

When it's all said and done following the 90-minute series finale on Sunday, May 28, Golez says she's going to take a break from posting online. Golez says even though she's sad about the show coming to a close, she's been enjoying Succession's final season. While she's bracing herself for anything, she says she's confident the show will end in a way that she and other fans are happy with.

"Of course I'm disappointed that it's ending," she says. "But at the same time I trust the writers, they know what they're doing. I trust that the writers are going to land the plane."

Trending

As far as Golez is concerned, she thinks Kendall is going to end up on top "but in a way that doesn't feel like a real victory." Out of all the other siblings to possibly fill Logan's shoes, he's showing the most similarities to his dad. Golez says Kendall especially reminded her of Logan in the last scene of last week's episode when he's alone in the backseat of his car and talking to his driver, akin to how Logan confided in Colin his bodyguard at the end of his life. After all, one of the last sentiments Logan says to his children before he dies is, "You're such fucking dopes. You are not serious figures. I love you but you are not serious people." (Golez even memed the latter half of the quote.)

"There's no one around [Kendall] anymore that he can talk to. His siblings are out, his ex-wife and his kids are out, he can't talk to them anymore," she says. "I think Kendall is always going to go 'full Logan' in the way that he's going to be the head guy but he's not going to have the relationships that he wants with his family. Kendall wants to have his cake and eat it too. I have a feeling that whatever happens, Kendall is going to sort of win in some way but it's going to be lonely at the top for him."