(CNN) The following contains spoilers about the "Succession" season 2 finale.

"Succession" spent most of its season finale on board a massive Mediterranean yacht, which was more than a little symbolic, since the entire episode hinged on deciding who was going to get thrown overboard.

In the final moments, that decision crystallized in a manner that seemed both inevitable and perfectly logical, based on the arc that defined the first season. But then one of the key players called an audible, which was predictable in the show's scheming world but still inordinately satisfying, on what is now one of TV's preeminent dramas.

The key scene, in which media patriarch Logan Roy (Brian Cox) explained to his son Kendall (Jeremy Strong) that he would need to be the "blood sacrifice" to salvage Roy's empire, was so beautifully written and performed it was the kind of material that merits knighthoods, not just Emmys.

At the same time, as broken as Kendall has often appeared to be, you could see the wheels turning when he asked whether his dad ever thought he had the right stuff to run the company, and Logan responded, "You're not a killer. You have to be a killer."

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