After the results of last week’s shareholders meeting, Logan has returned to a position of power. The next step, pick a new President. The Roys take a trip to Virginia to the “Future Freedom Summit,” a Republican convention where a series of candidates vie for Logan’s stamp of approval. Meanwhile, Kendall strikes out with the DOJ and we find out that his damning papers are actually worthless.
This episode marks a clear turning point in the season. Logan is feeling strong again and he channels that success into a sexual relationship with his assistant Kerry. This is coming at around the same time as his fling with Rhea (Holly Hunter) last season. While Logan is riding high, Kendall has once again lost everything and is seemingly out of options, he even desperately goes to Tom trying to get him to flip on the family. However, Kendall might not be dead yet. At the end of the episode, we see Shiv is openly repulsed by the direction that the company is going. Now this reaction could be because her chances at CEO are getting slimmer by the day but it also might be a moment of genuine self-reflection. If Shiv does decide that enough is enough, we could see a Kendall Shiv team up by the end of the season.
The majority of the episode takes place at the conservative summit in Virginia where the Roys, along with a few other important donors, have come together to decide who the new President is going to be, after “The Raisin ” has decided not to run for another term. There are four main candidates:
- Dave Boyer- the current VP. He is the safest choice but seems unwilling to help Logan combat the large tech companies plus he has a bad habit of licking his lips too much. When describing Boyer, Shiv says, “there is nothing more dangerous than a second rate individual that sees his chance.” I think that this statement could be in reference to several characters on this show, including Shiv herself.
- Rick Solgotto- speaking of Shiv, this is her choice. Solgotto promises Shiv that if she gets him elected that he will put her dad in jail and guarantee that she is made CEO of Waystar Royco. Shiv fights pretty hard for Solgotto, although she is also trying to push the Roys to change parties to the Democrats, an idea that is quickly laughed off. Shiv has created an identity for herself as the most liberal and progressively minded Roy. This whole political situation puts that identity into question.
- Jared Mankin- Roman’s choice and possible future love interest? Mankin is positioned as a far-right wackjob that has the most extreme views but more importantly doesn’t kiss Logan Roy’s ass, at least not as blatantly as the other candidates. Logan responds to people that challenge him but don’t challenge him too much. Mankin is basically a fascist that plans to introduce concentration camps to the United States, believes that Hilter had some good ideas, and is more than likely a legitimate sociopath. But Roman seems enamoured by him, and at times seemingly aroused by him. Roman’s sexuality has always been up in the air so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Roman is sexually attrached to this wild guy who’s telling his dad to fuck off. Logan eventually decides to go with Mankin because he would be the best for ratings at ATN, a clear Trump/Fox News parallel.
- Connor Roy- last but certainly not least, the eldest Roy child has thrown his hat in the ring officially after nearly two seasons of hinting at it. I am proud to say that I am a Conhead. Alan Ruck is gold anytime he is on the show and I am desperate to see more of Connor’s campaign. If there would ever be a spin off of Succession, a Veep style sitcom following President Connor Roy would definitely be it. Logan humours Connor for a second, comparing himself to Joe Kennedy but like always, he dismisses Connor out of hand. I don’t think this is the last we’ve seen of Connor’s political asspirations though and I really hope they better incorporate Willa into the storyline because this week she really felt aimless- she was literally on her phone for most of her screen time.
Logan ultimately chooses Mankin as the Republican candidate much to Shiv’s chagrin. The episode ends with the family having a photoshoot with Mankin and Shiv initially refuses to be in it but then quickly bends to Logan’s will and joins the rest of the family. Sarah Snook was amazing in this scene, you can really see how divided Shiv is here. She really wants to be this morally upright person but that would require breaking away from her dad and giving up her chance at being CEO.
Shiv is in a very similar position to Kendall. Kendall wants to play the role of social justice warrior but he still wants to overthrow his dad. If his intentions were true, he would commit to dismantling Waystar but that would mean giving up that dream of power. Shiv is the exact same way. A less disciplined show would have Shiv and Kendall show character growth and come to the realization that none of them will ever get the chair and that the right thing to do would be to work together to take down their dad. That would be a pretty satisfying conclusion to the Succession but it would feel disingenuous to the story that showrunner Jesse Armstrong has been crafting so far. These are not good people, they don’t grow, they don’t learn, they don’t sacrifice, and they don’t face any consequences. Kendall displays this when his lawyer Lisa Arthur (Sanaa Lathan) calls him out on all of his bullshit and instead of hearing her criticisms and trying to do better, he just fires her and gets busy planning his 40th birthday, which should be coming up in next week’s episode.
Let’s pivot to Tom “Christmas Tree” Wambsgans. Tom was the MVP of the episode, he had some of the most interesting character moments and some all-time great lines. When Shiv tries to have sex with him, he refuses and says that as long as she’s on contraception it would be like “throwing cake batter at a brick wall.” Then when he’s lying awake in bed with his wife, he is called out by his true love Greg to a local dinner. It was hinted at a few episodes ago, but there is clearly an unspoken romantic/sexual element to the Tom Greg relationship that I feel needs to be resolved at some point this season or in season 4.
Tom and Greg discuss their respective prison destinies. Here is where we find out that people have been pinning their crimes on Tom like ornaments leading to the nickname Christmas tree. Tom actually agrees to take the fall for Greg with no strings attached in a moment that was more tender than any moment shared between Shiv and Tom. During this same sit down Tom reveals that he has a reverse Shawshank Redemption approach to jail time. Whereas Andy Dufferain relied on hope to pull him through his incarceration, Tom explains that he “eradicates hope, they can’t get you if you got no hope.” Tom is one of the most interesting TV characters of all-time and Matthew Macfadyen plays him beautifully. There is something so broken about Tom yet he retains this weird sense of loyalty not only to Greg but to Logan and the Roys too. In his meeting with Kendall, where Kendall tries to convince Tom to turn on Logan, Tom refuses and explains that he’s seen Kendall get fucked plenty of times but has never seen Logan get fucked once. It will be interesting to see what Tom decides to do in the coming weeks, especially if Shiv decides to turn on Logan.
I think this was definitely a step up from last week’s episode. The best Succession episodes are the ones based around an event or a dinner where all the characters are mingling and throwing jabs at one another. There were a handful of minor elements that were interesting. We find out that Caroline is getting remarried and hasn’t told any of her children. Logan seems fine with it but Roman is understandably upset given his mommy issues. This was a strong Roman episode, Kieran Culkin was firing on all cylinders especially in his bathroom scene with Mankin where he is laying out his plans for ATN, which were frankly horrifying. I think this season will eventually end up with Logan and Roman vs. Shiv and Kendall.
Stephen Root makes a guest appearance as Ron Petkiss, a big GOP donor. I imagine we will see him again in future episodes given he’s a well known actor. We also see Maxum Pierce again for the first time, the Pierce family was a big part of Season 2 and Naomi will most likely be in the next episode, so I wonder if they will have some action in the coming weeks. They mention buying GoJo again this week. Kendall mentioned it to Josh two episodes ago so I imagine the acquisition of this tech company will come into play some time in the future.
This week felt like Succession really finding it’s stride for the season. Logan is feeling strong and virile, Kendall is in a pit of despair, Shiv is having an internal struggle, and Roman is ascending in the company. As for the political satire, I don’t think that Succession has ever handled politics particularly well, it’s an aspect of the show that has always seemed muddied and imprecise but maybe it feels that way because that’s how mega rich people view politics. It’s not the utmost authority in the nation but rather a tool, something that can be easily bent and manipulated for their own gains and so in that sense, this episode was incredibly poignant. It’s also somewhat depressing because these kinds of conventions do exist and the political process is probably heavily controlled just like this. Next week’s episode is set to be an all time great as several plotlines come to a head at Kendall’s 40th, the shit is gonna slap.
