After hearing about the annual shareholder’s meeting for almost a full season, last week’s episode of Succession finally set a date for the event and as expected, it was a complete shitshow. This week’s episode is all about choices and how reluctant everyone is to make a decision when Logan is temporarily out of action. The episode serves as a kind of reset point for the season. The shareholder meeting was something that was hanging over the show’s head for a long time and it had to be resolved. This tying up of loose ends leads to a rather chaotic and mostly bland episode of Succession.
The show is at its best when it’s dealing with the interpersonal drama of the Roy family, the business side of the show is just a plot device to get these characters arguing in the same room. However, there are times where the show has to have plot-heavy episodes to reset the status quo or throw a monkey wrench into the situation for the sake of dramatic tension. So while this might not be one of the better Succession episodes, it was very necessary and it frees up a lot of space for the show to narrow its scope in the back half of the season.
The episode starts with Logan’s assistant Kerry being called away, leaving him to administer his UTI medication himself, which he does not do. Later on in the episode, his untreated UTI leads to incoherent ramblings and delusions. Roman and Tom describe this as being “Piss Mad.” Before Logan goes #pissmad he is trying to come to a deal with Stewy and Sandy to settle before the shareholder vote. Frank is sent out to vamp and buy some time, every once in a while they cut back to Frank mumbling on stage and it’s always entertaining.
Frank has always seemed like one of Logan’s oldest commandant’s but in this episode we actually hear Logan say something very kind about Frank. Mind you this was during his piss mad delirium but it still counts for something, Logan says that “I’m the only one allowed to be mean to Frank,” implying a kind of older brother relationship between the two. There are moments where we see that Logan does actually care about some of the people around him but that is buried deep deep down under a bunch of ego, stubbornness, and a desire for power. A perfect example of this is the Sandy deal, Logan is so unwilling to bow down to Sandy that he is ready to lose the entire company rather than give him what he wants. This ruthlessness has probably worked for him in the past when he was at 100% but his faculties are clearly diminishing now and his old tactics put him in increasingly compromising situations. At the start of the episode we see Logan wearing a boot on his foot, it’s unclear if that happened during his hike with Josh and Kendall last episode but it is just another sign of Logan’s weakening physical state.
On a side note: during one of the wide shots of the shareholder audience, you can clearly see Adrien Brody sitting in the conference hall. It had seemed that he would be appearing in just one episode this season but seeing him in that big crowded room makes me believe that he shot more stuff outside of what we saw on the island so don’t be surprised if we see him again.
Kendall is gearing up for the shareholder meeting too. He has adopted the nickname “Puppet master.” He clearly thinks he’s pulling all the strings but he is left completely in the dark for most of this episode. It would probably be in his best interest to sit back and wait to see how everything plays out but Kendall just can’t help himself. After storming in and berating Shiv and Roman for almost ruining the settlement with Stewy he makes his way onto the main stage and begins saying the names of all the victims of Waystar’s cruises division over the years in a masterclass of virtue signalling. This presentation of fake wokeness might be one of the cringiest things that Kendall has done on the show, and that’s including his rap in season two. It just shows how out of touch Kendall is and how he is completely incapable of getting out of his own way. He also has a minor subplot about his children’s sick rabbit, which is one of the countless reminders this season that Kendall actually has kids and a family that he completely neglects.
Shiv had a big episode this week, she was on the frontline trying to get a deal done with Stewy, Sandy, and Sandi. Shiv, Gerri, and Karl meet with Stewy, Sandy, and Sandi and we see that Sandy is himself in a compromised medical condition. It’s this interesting parallel where Sandy and Logan are these old giants that are on the brink of death but are still trying to screw each other over and their daughters are trying to keep everything afloat. I’m not really sure why they decided to make Sandy sick, I suspect it had something to do with that actor, Larry Pine’s availability but he does a really good job here acting like a vegetable who is still trying to destroy Logan.
After some back and forth, Shiv manages to strike a deal with Sandi that would see both of them have seats on the board. Logan is visibly upset with Shiv over this decision and even gives her a bit of a shove when she tries to engage with him. Shiv is a very different kind of animal to Logan, she is looking after her own interests and not so much the interest of the whole company. She tries to do what Kendall did in season 2 and be the Darth Vader to Logan’s Emperor and just do his bidding, she even gives her version of Kendall’s famous line when she says “I just do what my dad tells me” but she ends up doing the exact opposite just minutes later. Shiv is another character that just can’t get out of her own way.
We get a lot of insight into the political situation on Succession this week. Logan has ordered ATN to go after the President (aka The Raisin). They show a story questioning the President’s memory and mental capacity, which is similar to the discourse around Donald Trump and Joe Biden who are both extremely old. However, this episode makes it clear that this President is not Trump because we learn that the ATN slander is actually forcing the President to not seek reelection, much to Connor’s glee. Roman has a brilliant moment where he has to be on the phone with the President and Kieran Culkin just does a wonderful job at playing up the anxiety of that conversation. Kieran Culkin is always excellent, although I do feel he has been a bit underutilized this season. Every time Roman has to make any kind of decision we see him physically recoil like his body is rejecting having to take any decisive action.
The news about the President brings Connor’s Presidential aspirations back into focus. Earlier in the episode, Connor was trying to get Logan to give him a position as the head of European Cable but now he is back on the campaign trail. I love Alan Ruck and especially the Connor Roy for President storyline so I am thrilled that that is seemingly coming back. I hope that this means we will be seeing more of Connor and Willa in the second half of the season, they are such a great pair. Connor also had my favourite line of the show where he says “Regan had a UTI in his second term and nearly nuked Belgium.” A close second was Roman comparing the Roys giving up private jets to the Germans allowing the rise of Nazisn during World War II.
There is also a small Greg subplot in this episode where his grandfather cuts him off yet again and Kendall lets him know that he might have to sacrifice him to the DOJ. Later on we see the disdain that Greg has built for Kendall and again this is Kendall making an unforced error. Instead of keeping Greg close and buying him a watch and making him feel safe he doesn’t do anything to guarantee his loyalty and it might come back and bite him in the ass. Greg is a great character but I feel like he’s just spinning in place right now. Look for Greg to make some big moves towards the end of the season to make sure that he doesn’t get burned by Kendall. Here’s hoping that means more Greg Tom screentime in the following weeks.
This was definitely not the most exciting episode of Succession. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it is a filler episode, even the worst episodes of Succession are incredibly entertaining. But this episode had to do a lot of work at cleaning up plot threads and clearing the runway for the second half of the season. There are some contrivances and some corner cutting in this episode that makes it feel a little bit imprecise but it was a necessary episode and will hopefully open up a lot of new avenues in the weeks ahead.
