Summary: The Roys and Tom's family arrive in England for Tom and Shiv's wedding. Shiv is trying to get information from Tom about the cruise to use against Logan. Kendall meets with Stewy about their alliance and is worried he is going to be cut out. Kendall confides with Frank for advice. Tom meets Nate and becomes suspicious of Shiv. He pulls her aside and they open up to each other. Shiv says she is not cheating and Tom tells her about the cruise. Logan decides to come to the wedding and arrives late. Shiv threatens to release the cruise information unless Logan stops bringing up Gil's wife. Logan and Gil end up making a deal. Sandy phones in to talk with Kendall and says that they have been contacted by a reporter, likely because of Frank. He urges Kendall to accelerate the plan to that weekend at Shiv's wedding.
The Good: This is a good concept for an episode. Much like "Austerlitz", this benefits from assembling the entire cast at one location, setting up dynamic and exciting character interactions and exploring the characters in unique ways. The wedding setting is an engaging set-up for secrets and schemes to come out, and there is some suspense created by Logan's impending arrival. While not the most intense or exciting episode, this is a good setting for an episode filled with dealings and machinations. The tension between Shiv and Tom is the definite highlight here, providing a meaningful emotional crux to structure the episode around. Poor Tom is being completely abused by Shiv here. Shiv is cheating on him and going to every length to hide this from him, lying openly to his face and manipulating his good-heartedness. Tom even asks her if they should call off the wedding, but Shiv refuses that too. Tom gives her every out in the event that she needs it, but her persistence convinces the poor guy that she's still all-in on this relationship. It's devastatingly sad to see Tom buy into this and in the name of "trust", divulge sensitive information that Shiv has been trying to manipulate him into giving up to her so she can use it for her own means, ignoring the risk that it will pose to Tom's career. This is awful from Shiv, who spends the day before her wedding scheming and plotting instead of preparing for what should be the biggest moment of her life. Tom is excited to be married and spends the day agonizing over his relationship with Shiv, while Shiv spends her day making moves in her career by blackmailing her father and Gerri to get what she wants, while fending off Nate's advances (he's still amusingly the absolute worst). There's some extra disgust created by Sarah Snook's acting as it's clear that Shiv is also fighting off her own temptation to cheat at her own wedding. This is ruthless and horrible from Shiv, and it contrasts in a very sad way with poor Tom, who just wants to focus on the wedding. The real kicker comes at the end of the episode when Greg comes to Tom with further proof of Shiv's cheating, and Tom is too scared to even hear him out because he doesn't want to believe that Shiv would use him like that (see: Best Moment). These two seem to be on route to disaster in their relationship, and it is quite sad to see. This episode has a surprisingly tragic aspect to it. Kendall is currently plotting against his family, and by the episode he learns that he's going to have to betray everybody at the wedding, which could potentially destroy his relationship with everyone. The episode brilliantly utilizes this opportunity to have a moment of family closeness between Kendall, Shiv, and Roman, highlighting that despite their character flaws, this family has a genuine bond between them that is continually put on the line by each character's attempts at pursuing power. This added an unexpected air of tragedy, and I wonder if the show will play into this aspect in the season finale. The rest of Kendall's story is quite good. He is still doing drugs, and this leads into a brilliant scene where Kendall lashes out at Rava, after she offers support to him knowing that he's doing drugs again. Kendall is far gone from his family at this point, and it's clear that his outburst is the frustration coming out, frustration at his failing family life and frustration over the betrayal that he's going to have to do soon. Kendall is still Kendall of course; he agonizes over the idea of this betrayal, and he continues to make rookie mistakes that make his life difficult, like confiding in Frank for no real reason. There are plenty of other interactions that consist of the rest of the episode and offer some entertainment. Logan's arrival leads to some very good moments of dialogue. Logan and Gil's verbal sparring is quite fun to watch and they have a couple of nice scenes together. It's clear that Logan is much more experienced in this department, and he always comes off as the man with greater control over the situation. Shiv's machinations lead to some great confrontations with Marcia and Gerri, two very well written and well acted scenes. Greg continues to bring the laughs whenever he is around, and I liked his interactions with Caroline, who calls him "Greg egg". Caroline doesn't make a huge impression in this episode in terms of political plays, but she's amusing and politely vicious in a way similar to Olenna from "Game of Thrones", asking everybody how long she thinks the marriage will last. The Bad: Nothing I would call outright bad. This episode is mostly table-setting for the season finale outside of the Shiv/Tom stuff, so it gets hurt by being a set-up episode. The Unknown: Did Frank leak what he learned from Kendall to Gerri? Kendall's very naive to think that Frank is purely sticking by him. What did he tell her, and what did Gerri do? Will Kendall be able to go through with the takeover at Shiv's wedding? This will surely damage his relationship with his family badly, possibly even permanently. Will Logan honour the deal with Gil? Shiv appears to have outmanoeuvred him completely, and Logan isn't the kind of man to simply take that. Will he somehow blow this all up in Shiv's face? Is Tom going to turn a blind eye on Shiv's cheating? Can he live with this? Is the knowledge going to eat away at him? Will this ruin their relationship? Is Shiv going to keep seeing Nate? Why did Logan give Kendall a job offer? What is his angle? Roman isn't having sex with Tabitha either. Is he asexual? Best Moment: Greg tells Tom what he saw, but Tom is absolutely not hearing it. Poor Tom just really wants this relationship to work, and is terrified to think that Shiv would lie to him so convincingly. Tom goes to every extent to not hear what Greg has to say and is neck-deep in denial by this point. It's so sad to see, and beautifully acted by Matthew Macfayden. Character of the Episode: Tom. Conclusion: Another solid episode of dealings and character interactions. "Succession" hasn't fully captured my interest yet, but it has started to produce fairly consistent television. Score: 66
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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