By Christopher James
Some episodes of TV are above and beyond the show’s they’re housed in. Season four, episode three of Succession raised an already strong show to new heights. A twist early enough in the episode sets the final season in a new direction and gives Emmy-ready tapes for its crew of actors.
In full honesty, I was working on an article about Succession jumping the shark. A once dynamic series which captivated audiences and critics was just spinning its wheels tossing business jargon and curses into an incomprehensible word salad. Much of season three featured the Roy clan rehashing more of the same. However, episode three of the new season is flooring.
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It’s a perfect example of the power of weekly television. Death doesn’t always telegraph itself. Our lives don’t fit into a neat bow. While on a boat for Connor (Alan Ruck) and Willa’s (Justine Lupe) wedding, the Roy children get a frantic phone call from Tom (Matthew Macfadyen). Their Father, Logan (Brian Cox), went to a bathroom and had a health incident that ended up taking his life. What follows is an emotionally resonant hour of television brought to life by the fantastic sibling chemistry of Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin, Jeremy Strong and Ruck.
Shiv (Sarah Snook) doesn’t answer her phone, since Tom and her are in the middle of divorce. When Tom calls Roman, he answers with a pithy response that he’s the “fucky sucky brigade.” This chuckle gets cut short when Tom tells Roman that Logan is “very very sick.” This diagnosis becomes dire very quickly, with Tom not sure if Logan is actually alive. Roman and Kendall (Jeremy Strong), who is standing nearby, are offered the opportunity to say their goodbyes via phone while Logan “hopefully” hears “if he’s still with us.” Up first is Roman, who expresses his love without reservation. There’s a hearty helping of regret, as he remembers a foul-mouthed message he left for Logan moments before after being forced to fire Gerri (J. Smith Cameron).
Roman hands the phone off to Kendall. If he can throw the hot potato, he can distract from the current state of his Father. Kendall isn’t as baldly sentimental, but expresses love for Logan that he seems even surprised by. The boys are still processing this information before remembering that Shiv doesn’t know that her Dad is dying. They rush to get her elsewhere in the wedding, all but blurting out the information once they get her alone. Sarah Snook does her best work of the series receiving the news. She stutters out some last words to her Father, unable to comprehend what’s happening even as his time dwindles on. Complicating matters further is that she’s exposing this vulnerability to her soon-to-be ex-husband. The three siblings cry and grieve together, even as they bicker over next steps. All are taken aback and they realize no one can understand their plight better than each other.
What’s so powerful about the episode is how it takes the characters by surprise, just like the audience. We’ve known that Logan was old and likely not in the best of health throughout the whole series, but this specific moment couldn’t have been predicted. What Snook, Culkin and Strong do so well is dramatize the disbelief in the moments after learning a parent has died. Roman is deep in denial, insisting that their Father “hasn’t even seen a real doctor.” Meanwhile, Shiv has registered what is happening and is dealing with a splitting migraine and an inability to think straight. Babbling as he gets his thoughts together, Kendall gathers the siblings together while also pondering the next steps for the funeral and the company. Some people plan to move forward to the next moment. Others retreat to their emotions. There are also those who deny what they cannot face. We can’t quite know who we are until we reach that critical juncture in our lives. The one constant, everyone is flailing. They know why it happened, they just can’t believe it and they can’t sort out their feelings to figure it out. Kendall makes the astute observation that whatever they decide to do, it is “the thing we are doing when our Dad died.” These little moments are the things their memories, not to mention the public, will remember when they think back to this day.
It’s not all bad news following Logan’s death. The winner of the season has been Alan Ruck’s Connor, the sad sack eldest Roy child. His Presidential election campaign has stalled, as he’s only scraped together 1% of the primary vote. Yet, Ruck has been blessed with more material, opening up to his siblings about being hated by their Father and left out of the company. In many ways, dying on Connor’s birthday is just one last slap in the face. To add insult to injury, his three siblings all speak to Tom on the phone and have some sort of "potential" closure. Connor is told after the fact (almost 15 minutes after, based on Vulture's sleuthing). This is no surprise, even to Connor. He remarks that “Dad never loved him,” retracting it shortly after, but conveying that he meant it. He follows it up with an open conversation with Willa - is it really all about the money? She says what we all, including Connor, have known (yes, it sorta is). Additionally, she adds that she's been happy with him on top of all that. This strange pair have become the most rootable pair, largely due to Connor's Charlie Brown energy, always seeming to have love and respect dangled and pulled away from him at every corner. He gets a happy ending, with the two deciding to get married all along.
While all of the children’s reactions were interesting, many of the other Waystar Royco stakeholders had unexpected reactions. Karl (David Rasche), the CFO, gets to step up, finally leveling with Kendall by telling him that Logan is dead. The company’s PR team, led by Karolina (Dagmara Domińczyk), goes straight to writing Logan’s obituary, worrying how the markets will react. Comms director Hugo (Fisher Stevens) is on the ground with the kids, setting strategy. Fan-favorite Gerri (J. Smith Cameron) has the most puzzling reaction. Before any rumblings of Logan’s death, Roman fires Gerri based on Logan’s direction. Cameron manages to keep Gerri’s confidence intact after being betrayed. She curses Logan, the company and the family that she’s given her professional life for. Yet, once Logan is pronounced dead, she’s back in the fold. Though she gives Roman the cold shoulder, she seems content to be back with the company. In the past, Cameron has been one of the strongest performers on the show, charting how Gerri can set aside her dignity serving the needs of the petulant Roy family in a quest for power. While that’s likely still affecting her decision making, it didn’t feel as strongly dramatized in this otherwise barn-burner of an episode.
As great as this episode is on its own, it sets a high bar for the rest of the season. Yes, Succession has been an Emmy favorite, winning Best Drama Series twice. The pitch of “King Lear meets Murdoch family” is an enticing premise that the show doesn’t always successfully fulfill. Succession delights in its characters’ bad behavior, but doesn’t always offer the barbed critique it believes it is communicating. Logan Roy was both a man and a monster, a felon and a Father. One of the best moments from Brian Cox was in the first episode of this season, when he dines with his bodyguard, searching for some sort of companionship. There’s been some humanization of this terrorizing mogul in this season, but to what end? His death took his children by surprise. Despite their feuds with him, it forced them to confront their true feelings for him, no matter how complicated they may be. Yet, he leaves behind a terrifying legacy, with Waystar acting as a Fox News stand-in. How will the show square this up in its final episodes? Let this episode be a strong course correction for the premiere streaming drama on air right now.
What did you think of the latest episode of Succession? Where will the show go now that Logan Roy is dead? Let us know your predictions and reactions in the comments below.