Editor’s note: The below contains major spoilers for the Succession series finale.Succession’s finale brought aboutthe end of an era for fans of the show, as well as a surprising turn of events that saw Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) be crownedthe new CEO of Waystar Royco. But an interesting theory started making the rounds on TikTok the week prior to the HBO hit series finale, using his name to make the case for his rise to the throne, and it turned out to be spot-on. It brings not only an analysis of the name itself but also a deep but into baseball, a true home run if we ever saw one.
Tom was never taken as a serious contender in the race for the throne. Sure, his name has always been in the mix, but usually in a bundle with Shiv (Sarah Snook) or in seemingly unlikely scenarios in which none of the three Roy heirs could ascend to the throne left empty by Logan (Brian Cox) for whatever reason. Well, the stars aligned and Tom outplayed all of them, much like an MLB legend of way back, who carried all but the same last name — the one which will carry the Roy legacy while starting a new dynasty of its own.
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Tom Has a Baseball Counterpart That Managed a Very Similar Achievement
If we’re talking about names, it’s a good idea to leave it to a specialist, and the website Nameberry does the honors here.On TikTok, they shared a theory about why Tom has his last name, and how it anticipated his rise to the throne as a surprise contender, running from the sidelines until reaching the finishing line all by himself. According to this theory, his last name is inspired byBill Wambsganss, a baseball legend who became the only player to complete anunassisted triple play in a World Series match.
Wambsganss played second base for the Cleveland Indians and made history on Game 5 of the 1920 World Series facing the Brooklyn Robins. At that time, he made a leaping catch, stepped on second base, and tagged the runner who was arriving from first base. By himself, he managed to take out three players in the most important match of the baseball season - like a series finale, perhaps? According to legend, Cleveland’s League Park went dead silent as people processed what they had just witnessed Bill Wambsganss do, a historic feat by itself, much like we were left silent ourselves witnessing Tom Wambsgans take out the three Roy kids all by himself.
What’s interesting here is that Tom has the most unusual last name of all the characters inSuccession. Wambsgans is a rare surname of German origin, its roots being the German word for goose, “gans,” and “wambs” coming from the Gothic name “Wamba,” which means “big paunch” — which is also connected to the English word “womb.” So one could argue that “Wambsgans” could ultimately mean “pregnant goose,” that being a play on the fact that, by the end of the series, Tom not only wins the big prize, he also has a child on the waygiven that Shiv is pregnant.
That was a masterful use of last names bySuccessioncreatorJesse Armstrong, a very deep cut on baseball culture and German etymology. All due respect to people who have it, but Wambsgans isn’t really a surname we see very often and, in fact, Tom is the very first time most of us have ever seen it. Yours truly actually thought that it was just two random syllables put together by alliteration, a way of stating how seemingly unimportant Tom really was for Shiv and the rest of the Roy family. Well, it got me big time.
Tom’s Own Unassisted Triple Play, Explained
Much like Cleveland’s League Park in 1925, the audience was left aghast watching Tom Wambsgans outplay everyone to become the new CEO of Waystar Royco. Evenold guard dynamic duoFrank (Peter Friedman) and Karl (David Rasche) were surprised by it, but satisfied with the outcome after the Roy kids made a scene in front of the whole board shortly before.
Earlier in the episode, Tom was on duty hanging out withLukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård)and trying to secure himself a position in the new company that would result from the GoJo-Waystar acquisition deal. —any position, really, as we know he’s depended heavily on Shiv to survive. Whatever deal he could strike with Matsson would be beneficial, then. The thing is that Matsson never seemed to like Tom, to begin with, knowing him to be mostly a spineless yes man to whoever is in charge. But the Swede was bothered by his portrayal in the American media, despite saying the contrary, and felt he had already used Shiv to her fullest potential, so he betrays her and offers the American CEO position of the company to Tom. His argument is that he would need someone to do his bidding with the technical business stuff, leaving him free to do the things he likes without being pushed around as he would by Shiv — and Tom is exactly that person.
Tom surely does stumble upon the perfect deal for himself, but he’s not without merit here. His own play is telling Shiv that he would be the new CEO back at Logan’s old apartment. She’s livid at first, still angry at being betrayed by Matsson, and makes a deal with Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) to keep the company. When the board meeting comes, though, she betrays them and votes in favor of the acquisition for mainly three reasons: she’d still be close to power as Tom’s wife, selling the company had indeed been Logan’s wish, and she also knows she will eventually be sidelined by Kendall. She has the choice of breaking this vicious Roy cycle, and she takes it, following Caroline’s (Harriet Walter) advice.
At the end of the day (and the series),Tom really was the character to watch. We saw him begin in the most unimportant part of the company, which is parks, and only ascend from there. When there was a scandal in the Waystar cruise lines, he covered everything. He stood by Logan’s side when the children ganged up on him at the end of Season 3 and managed to land the role of ATN chief later, one of the company’s most prestigious positions and the only thing Logan wanted to keep out of the GoJo deal. Tom Wambsgans made a lot of clever plays on his way up; we just weren’t paying attention. His last one, though, was as historic as the one Bill Wambsganss made in the World Series in 1925.
