Macall B. Polay/HBO
- Fans are looking for easter eggs in "Succession" protagonists' clothing and accessories.
- Apple has been said to not want on-screen villains using iPhones, sparking theories about Tom's Android.
- Fans are dissecting the tiniest details from the show for hints about how the series will end.
On the HBO show "Succession," where the fortunes of protagonists can shift every episode, fans are looking everywhere — in wardrobe choices and in accessories — for clues about their favorite characters' ultimate fates.
One visual choice drawing viewers' attention is the character Tom Wambsgans — the son-in-law of (season 4 spoiler alert) the now-deceased family patriarch, Logan Roy — apparently using a Samsung cell phone.
Perhaps it defines his outsider status to the iPhone-wielding Roys. It's not hard to imagine Tom sending the oft-maligned green texts in iMessage family group chats, assuming he hasn't been banished from them since his separation from wife Shiv Roy.
But the fact that he's not using an iPhone could be telling.
One TikTok user who posted a cut of clips showing the contrast in cell phone choice between Tom and the Roy family members, alluded to another possible interpretation, as Mashable reported. The post by the user @iwannabeonline included the caption, "IYKYK," an acronym for "If you know, you know," with one commenter decoding that as a reference to Apple's supposed efforts to control how its devices are portrayed in pop culture.
Back in 2020, film director Rian Johnson had told Vanity Fair that Apple would not let "bad guys" on screen use iPhones, sparking speculation now, years later, about what that could mean for everyone's favorite professional climber on "Succession."
Representatives for HBO and Apple also did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment on Monday morning, and it's not certain whether the Apple policy that Johnson mentioned to Vanity Fair still persists.
It perhaps also doesn't make much sense to map clear-cut narratives of "good" and "bad" onto the characters of "Succession," who perpetually reside in ethical gray areas, or flirt with being straight up irredeemable.
For one, it will take Kendall Roy a lot more than whipping out an iPhone this season to spiritually cleanse after a waiter at Shiv's wedding drowned when Kendall accidentally flew their car off a bridge at the end of Season 1.
Some "Succession" viewers on Reddit have also theorized that the characters' company phones are Androids while personal phones tend to be iPhones, adding another wrinkle to any theory about Tom's potential villainous turn in the show's final season.
The show has, however, offered more insight this season into Tom's motivations, including in a captivating scene with estranged wife Shiv in the episode "Living+" in which he admits that her wealth and status were part of why he pursued her. "I like nice things," as he put it plainly.
To fans, the moment played less like an unveiling of Tom as a textbook gold digger, and more like the peeling of another layer in the complex relationships of power brokers.
Other visual signifiers that have grabbed viewers this season were Shiv's unkempt low ponytail and all-black look at her brother Connor Roy's wedding, which has since been understood as foreshadowing of Logan Roy's death in that episode.
Fans have also been reading into Kendall's moments in water — in a bathtub, pool, or the open water — for signs of what's next for Logan's "number one boy."