As was hinted at during last week’s episode, this week’s episode of Succession centers around Kendall’s 40th birthday and it goes about as well as you would expect. This episode is notable for Roman’s complete turn to the dark side, or at least the darker side since all of these people are firmly on the dark side.
We see Logan for only a brief scene at the beginning of the episode where we learn a few pieces of important information. Firstly, Logan is still having an affair with his assistant Kerry and she is beginning to become more and more vocal during business meetings. I can’t see this ending well for her. We also learn that the DOJ is dropping its investigation against Waystar because of Kendall’s lack of substantial evidence. This means that Tom is not going to prison after all but Logan assures him that he will not forget the sacrifice that Tom was willing to make. And lastly, we find out that Logan is moving forward with buying a streaming platform called GoJo but the head of Gojo, Lucas Madsen (played by guest star Alexander Skarsgård) is giving him the runaround. Shiv and Roman decide to come to Kendall’s birthday hoping that they can get a face to face with Madsen and Roman brings with him a card for Kendall from Logan.
The episode actually starts with Kndall’s truly awful rendition of Billy Joel’s “Honesty,” and from that opening you think that this will be something of a parallel to the rap Kendall did in season 2, however; the birthday ends up being a much more somber affair. It is interetsing to note that in this opening scene we hear that Kendall is still using Logan terminology, he says “let’s go full fucking boar.” We have seen this at several times during the season, Kendall has adopted some of Logan’s sayings and mannerisms in an attempt to imitate his father and hopefully experience the same success but it hasn’t been very effective.
My favourite part of Succession is the Tom Greg relationship, I think it is the most interesting thing on TV at the moment and these two actors, Matthew Macfadyen and Nicholas Braun have unbelievable chemistry. Tom goes into Greg’s office after he learns that they will not be going to jail and the look on Macfadyen’s face is so nuanced. He is obviously overjoyed that he isn’t going to jail but he looks at Greg with such tenderness and you can see that he’s happy that his friend, or more than friend, isn’t going away either. Tom’s ellation culminates in him flipping over Greg’s desk and trashing his office and leads to a very gentle kiss on the forehead.
There have been several hints this season that there is a romantic and even sexual element of the Tom Greg relationship but so far that was mostly coming from Tom’s side. This is the first episode where we see Greg reciprocating those feelings or at least a hint in that direction. Greg tells Tom his plan to ask out Kendall’s PR person Comfry and Tom shuts him down telling him that she is way out of his lead, which in and of itself seems like Tom just being jealous that Greg is interested in someone else. Greg goes back at Tom and asks how he got Shiv because she is also way out of his lead, to which Tom explains that he has a huge penis and “fucks like a bullet train.” This is an amazing line and made me laugh out loud but what was really fascinating is how Greg responded. Greg tells Tom to “prove it” and the two walk away together, seemingly so that Tom can show Greg his dick? This interaction is never expanded upon even when they meet up later in the complement tunnel and Greg tells Tom that he has a date with Comfry and Tom is visibly put off by this. While I couldn’t care less about the Greg Comfry dynamic, I really hope we don’t go too deep into their relationship because I think those two actors have no chemistry, but I think that it could lead to a very fascinating Greg Tom Comfry love triangle.
Moving on from Tom and Greg to Kendall’s birthday party. We see that all of the guests walk through Kendall’s mother’s vigina, something that Roman can’t seem to stop talking about, in order to be reborn into the world of Kendall Roy. There are so many little easter eggs sprinkled around Kendall’s birthday but my personal favourite is that the entrance of the venue says “The Notorious K.E.N. Ready to Die,” one of many hip hop references in this episode. The other great reference is to the Tiny Wu Tang Clan, a group of kids that do Wu Tang covers. I was really disappointed we didn’t get a chance to see them.
Shiv and Roman arrive at the party, via their mother’s vigina, and are met by Connor and Willa. Connor has a cast from taking a tumble after seeing some especially exciting polling data. This was a pretty great Connor episode. He refuses to remove his coat at the party, much to Kendall’s dismay. Connor also gets very upset when he sees a screen making fun of his Presidential run and the fact that he shit in his sleeping bag during a camping trip when they were kids. This moment actually revealed something significant about the Roy children’s relationship. We learn that Connor took Kendall and Roman to that camping trip because Logan refused to. This is not the first time this season that we have heard about Connor being something of a surrogate father for his siblings, especially his younger brothers. This makes sense as to why the other siblings seem to care more when they hurt Connor’s feelings. We also get a scene where we see Willa stepping up and defending Connor. I still don’t think we’ve seen enough Willa this season but it’s nice to see her and Connor’s relationship develop.
Despite the insults that Shiv and Roman hurl at Kendall, he seems genuinely touched that his siblings came to his birthday, of course they came with ulterior motives, which he later finds out. Roman gives Kendall Logan’s gift for him, which is a Share Purchase Proposal offering to buy Kendall out of the company. While discussing this with Naomi we learn that Kendall’s stack would be worth two billion dollars.
Shiv has seemed at odds with her father for a few episodes and after the end of last week’s episode and the photo with Menken she seems out of the loop altogether.She wasn’t aware of the purchase proposal and what makes her even more furious is that Roman was in on it with Logan and even had his name on the paper. Roman has been racking up wins episode after episode and he has seemingly gotten into Logan’s good graces. Last week, he had a bathroom negotiation with Menken and this week he has another bathroom negotiation with Madsen where he allows Madsen to pee on his phone while it’s loading the Waystar Royco app, StarGo.
This is a good place to talk about Alexander Skarsgård’s inclusion in the show. He is playing an odd character, he’s clearly a tech bro who recently obtained his fortune and doesn’t really give a crap about all the trappings that Kendall is offering and absolutely wants nothing to do with Logan. Right off the bat I’m not too intrigued by this character but hopefully they do more with him, he will be on the show for several episodes unlikel Adrien Brody who was a one shot. Despite his reserved demeanour, Madsen still somehow gets caught in the Roman Roy charm trap. Roman is a skilled negotiator, he’s a people person we’ve seen time and time again with Lawrence in season 1, with Eduard in season 2 (go Hearts! Or was it Hibs?), and finally last week with Menken. Roman’s steady climb up has put him in a great position and Logan is showering him with attention and affection, as much affection as Logan is willing to give. All of this is clearly going to Roman’s head, we see the culmination of this at the end of the episode where Shiv, Kendall, and Roman have their big confrontation.
Shiv is mortified when she learns that Roman and Logan have been spying on Kendall’s kinds. A part of her frustration could be that she has once again been left out of the loop but it really seems like Shiv is reaching a breaking point where she is realizing just how awful her family truly are and she’s wondering if she wants to be a part of that. Of all the Roy children, I feel like Shiv is best set up for a redemption arc but who knows, if Logan gives her an inkling that she could get the CEO spot, she would do whatever it took to capitalize on that.
And then Roman sets his sights on Kendall and goes at him very hard. At that moment of the episode Kendall has already gone through a bit of a mental breakdown trying desperately to find the present that his kids made for him in a massive pile of lavish gifts. He eventually breaks down in Naomi’s arms and he seems like a broken man. Roman, probably sensing this breakdown, pokes Kendall on his way out and actually shoves him to the ground. We’ve seen Logan physically attack Roman and we know that as kids Kendall would torture Roman and lock him up in a dog cage and Kendall even shoulder checks Roman in season 1. Roman, having experienced the most physical abuse on the show, strikes back and physically dominates Kendall, which brings him endless amounts of joy.
At the end of the episode we see Roman gloating to Logan about how he closed the Gojo deal and he tells Logan that he loves him. Roman believes that he is Logan’s golden boy now but the truth is that Logan only cares about what he can get out of people, what they can do for him. The second that Roman makes a mistake or ceases to be useful, Logan will strike him down and dispose of him. I imagine that Roman is heading for a massive fall before the season is through.
This episode was not what I expected it to be. I thought that this would be equivalent to the Prague episode in season 1 where we see how depoucorous the uber rich really are but instead a lot of this episode was just sad. Kendall is still the same broken guy that he was in season 2 and in some way the broken guy he’s always been. Shiv is coming to the realization that she might not have the stomach to be a part of Waystar Royco but she’s still holding out hope that she can take over and make a change, but that dream seems extremely unlikely. I don’t know if Shiv will fully turn on Logan but if she does, that puts Tom in a precarious position. And in the end, it turns out that this season has actually put Roman more in the spotlight, however; instead of leaning into his more sensitive and caring attributes, it seems that Roman has gone “full boar” and has become the true villain of this story. Or at least the true villain’s vindictive henchman.
