Summary: Kendall delivers a letter to Logan about the bear hug. Logan is furious and knows he's in a bad position. Logan informs his children, who all meet with Kendall and pressure him. Leaving the meeting, Kendall is stressed and wants to do some coke, but Stewy tells him he has none. At the wedding, Roman watches the satellite launch, but it explodes at the launch pad. Roman is terrified, but relieved when he learns that nobody died. After "winning a debate" with Gil, Connor decides that he wants to run for President. Shiv and Tom head to the bedroom and Shiv admits that she has been cheating and doesn't want a monogamous marriage. Tom is uncomfortable but accepts it. Later, with Shiv's permission, he kicks Nate out from the wedding. Kendall goes looking for coke and runs into Greg who tells him about cruise documents he has copies, and Kendall is impressed. Kendall finds a waiter who was fired by Logan and drives him to a place where he says he can find coke. However, a deer causes the car to crash in a river. Kendall escapes, but the waiter dies. Horrified, Kendall walks back to the wedding, cleans himself up, and makes appearances. The next day, Logan summons him and says he will clean everything up, but Kendall has to opt out of the bear hug. Crying, Kendall embraces his father.
The Good: Kendall has been the star of this first season, and he takes center stage in this episode too. This bear hug is a big move, and unlike the vote of no confidence where Kendall can hide behind his father's health, this is a clear betrayal of his family and Kendall has to cope with that. The confrontations with everyone are terrific. Kendall does his best to not waver and keep his calm, but the pressure is telling. Logan is as frightening as ever, and watching Kendall struggle to form words as he reverts to a childlike level of fear when facing Logan's wrath is superb stuff. The family argument later in the episode is also terrific. Logan telling his children what happened as an "advantage" to get into Kendall's head is pretty ruthless, and it led to a tense and exciting scene (that also happened to have a great joke as Connor announces his Presidential ambitions). But credit to Kendall, he kept his cool and stuck to his guns in this power play, forcing himself to make it happen. But because it's Kendall, something had to go wrong. The plan was sloppy as usual, and the opening scene hilariously shows how little was thought out. The letter being printed in the wrong place, there being no organization about who gives the letter to Logan, and Kendall yelling at his son on accident is all hysterical incompetence that's joyful to watch, and it's setting up a much bigger error from Kendall later in the episode. Kendall managed to keep his cool through all of the familial confrontations, but he needs some drugs to help cope with it all. And there's Kendall's fatal flaw creeping up again. His need for coke leads to him tracking down a poor waiter who was scolded by Logan, and a series of bad decisions later ends with Kendall crashing the waiter's car into a river, killing the waiter. This event may seem out of place at first glance, but Kendall's actions directly led to it, and the event was pivotal in the episode. The first 45 minutes were nonstop discussions that advanced the plot and satisfied character conflicts, but everything after the crash happens in near silence, carried by Jeremy Strong's superb acting. This was a tragedy, but Kendall is ultimately to blame for what happened, and this will certainly destroy his career if it gets out, similar to what the Chappaquiddick Incident did to Ted Kennedy. As such, Kendall is freaked out by the whole thing, and I absolutely love that "Succession" was so willing to slow the pace down and allow so much time for Kendall to process exactly what had happened, showing us that he understands the consequences and is horrified by them. Seeing Kendall so traumatized while trying to cover his tracks is heartbreaking, and his fear and stress while communicating with everyone afterwards is heartbreaking, especially during the dance scene with his family. I felt so bad for him, and the sheer weight of the situation allowed for me to fully empathize with a character who I've struggled to fully connect with all season. The conclusion to this episode works perfectly as a conclusion to Kendall's overall story this season. Kendall's been trying to prove himself all season as capable enough to take over from his father, but we've been shown time and time again that he's just not cut out for this. Unfortunately, it is as Logan says. Kendall is spoiled, Kendall doesn't have the experience necessary to do this job, and Kendall isn't the type of man who can handle the emotional fallout of the tough decisions that have to be made. This car crash is the ultimate example of these character flaws, and Logan is able to exploit what happened to ensure his victory over Kendall's latest, and probably final, attempt to gain power. Kendall is shellshocked after what happened, and the fear follows him. There's a marvelous shot where one of Logan's men comes to get Kendall and Kendall stands there frozen, looking like a little kid who has just been caught doing something wrong. He's shut down, and he's scared, and he doesn't know what will happen next. Logan uses this to his advantage and in a fantastic final scene he manipulates Kendall into rejoining the family and moving on together with his father. It's unclear how much of this is genuine and how much of this is manipulation on Logan's part, but what's important is that Kendall believes what is said, and the simple act of his father offering an embrace is all it takes for Kendall to revert to tears, letting out all of the pain he currently feels. These tears have been waiting all season, not just from the tragedy in this episode, and this is Kendall finally recognizing the fact that he just isn't cut out for this and that he needs his father's help to get out of the mess he's made for himself. It's so heartbreaking, so powerful, and so well told. The other characters don't hit this same level of phenomenal storytelling, but their stories are all very entertaining and impactful. Shiv and Tom finally get to clear the air and have that emotional conversation they've been long overdue. Setting it up are some great scenes at their wedding as everyone gives sappy speeches, but the tension of Shiv's affair remains. And as Tom and Shiv prepare for their wedding night, the tension finally breaks and Shiv reveals her desire to be non-monogamous. It has been sitting there in plain sight all season, and now finally Shiv talks about it, and Tom has to contend with if he can handle this reality. The performances in this scene are terrific, and both characters effectively express the complexity of emotions that one would feel in this situation. And we arrive at the sensible conclusion too. And by sensible, I don't mean the ideal conclusion for the characters, but the realistic one. Tom and Shiv should probably be finished after this, but because Tom so desperately wants this to work, he works with Shiv and conforms to her will. It's sad, it's real, and it's brilliantly executed. At least the episode doesn't end on the sad aspect of this conclusion, as we get a fantastic follow-up scene where Tom finally shows some spine by kicking Nate out of the wedding. That scene is fantastic, and something I never knew I needed. Nate has been so scummy, so it's delightful to see Tom take full control over him, using his power to force Nate out. I loved the scene, and I appreciate the little nod of respect between Greg and Tom afterwards. Greg did not get as much screen-time as I expected in this episode, but his big scene with Kendall made a lasting impact. I've been suspecting that Greg is more calculating than we expected, and this episode absolutely confirmed that. I completely missed Greg copying documents back in "I Went to Market", but he did, and now he's using it to his advantage to try to make his way upwards in the company. Much like Kendall, I was impressed by Greg's unexpected power play. Greg has no enemies, nobody takes him seriously, and he has every chance to continue his rise. Roman didn't have a major role in this episode, but he had what may have been the funniest storyline in the entire season. I've barely mentioned it in previous episodes because it was never relevant, but Roman just could not shut up about how he was in charge of the satellite launch in Japan, and how he was accelerating the release date. He bragged about it at every turn, and it was clear that this was the one actual job he was doing at Waystar Royco. So what happens? In an incredible moment of black comedy, we watch as Roman watches the launch alone in the bathroom only for the rocket to dramatically explode, his one job ending in a colossal failure. The moment is absolutely hilarious, and made better by Roman figuratively and literally washing his hands of the whole incident immediately after. Roman is silent afterwards, and it's so funny to see him go from bragging to avoiding all discussion on the topic, ignoring the issue, knowing that he's screwed. And to add on to Roman's stupidity, there are plenty of emails tracing back to his negligence, and it doesn't help that he's told absolutely everyone what he's done, destroying any shot at plausible deniability. Man, watching this family be completely incompetent at everything never gets old. Luckily for Roman, things work out for him, and his story ends with a fantastic line as Roman gives the incredible line "guess who didn't kill anybody but maybe just lost a couple of thumbs; this guy!". Comedy at its finest. Connor remains in a background role, which is where he's been all season. But that's fine when he's so incredibly funny whenever he's on screen. Connor is so delusional and lives in his own reality, and never is that more clear than when he claims that he wants to run for President of the Untied States. His entire thought process, his "debate" with Gil, and pretty much every conversation he gets into is really funny, and Connor has been perhaps the most reliable source of comic relief throughout the first season. He's hardly been important to the main plot, but the entertainment value he provides is enormous. The Bad: I found the conversation between Shiv and Nate to be confusing, and I'm not sure what exactly they were talking about. Even after rewatch, I couldn't figure out what was going on. I might be missing something, but I still think that the dialogue could have, and probably should have, given us more context as to what was happening. The Unknown: Is Connor actually going to run for President? I can only imagine the laughs that would bring, so I hope he goes through with it! Will Greg's important copies come into play later? How will he get utility out of them? Is Greg allied with Kendall now? Kendall was quite impressed with Greg's plays. Shiv tells Tom that she was a mess when they hooked up. Why? What happened to her before? How did this relationship start exactly? Will Kendall ever oppose his father again? How will Stewy and Sandy react to Kendall backing out? What will be their next move? Will Kendall ever face consequences for the car accident? How much of Logan's compassion at the episode's end was real? Did he genuinely feel fatherly protective instinct for his son, or did he just manipulate Kendall entirely only to mitigate the threat he posed? Best Moment: We're spoiled for choice, but I have to give it to the sheer emotional release of Kendall crying in his father's embrace, a culmination of 10 episodes of storytelling. That it's unclear how much, if any, of this emotion from Logan is real just adds to the brilliance of the scene. Character of the Episode: Kendall. Conclusion: A lot came together for "Succession" in this season finale. Not only is this the best episode of the season, but it's where the show finally sunk its hooks into me. I've become invested in the character dynamics at play, and I was fascinated by so much of what went on in this episode. This was a big success of a season finale. Season 1 of "Succession" was rough going for a decent amount of its run, but by the end it definitely won me over. Starting a TV show strong with an engaging hook and compelling characters is an art that I find is often overlooked in modern TV shows. So many shows nowadays don't put in effort to suck in viewers in the first episode, and "Succession" is one such show. And it's a real shame, because with where season 1 went, this actually looks like it's going to be a great show if handled correctly. The first five episodes struggled a lot to engage me, and I found myself being tired out by how horrible everyone was, especially since I didn't know much about these people. But starting with episode 6, I started to get more into the series, and as we learned more about the characters, I got more interested in what was going on. It all culminated in this excellent season finale, and now I can safely say that I'm invested in the show. It's just a shame to me that so many people will likely stop watching the show due to the weak first few episodes, missing the good stuff that comes in the back half of the season. Every Roy character ultimately won me over. I still despise them all, and I'm impressed by the ambition to run a TV show with zero likeable characters, but I find these characters to be very interesting and compelling now. Logan is a monster, but his complicated relationship with his children is so fascinating to watch. Kendall, Shiv, Roman, and Connor are all awful people, but they deal with unique struggles, and I enjoy seeing their bad choices completely blow up the world around them. Then there's Tom and Greg, the standouts of the season. They definitely aren't good people, but they are so funny and entertaining to watch that you can't help but root for them. Overall, I enjoyed this first season. It took time to get going, especially due to the show's struggle with introducing the story and characters in an interesting way, but it found its way in the end. Score: 73
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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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