Summary: The Roys go to Argestes, hoping that the Pierce deal will be finalized. Shiv stays behind and she and Frank learn that information about cruises is going to leak. The Roys discuss how to handle it and Logan decides to strong-arm the publishers, while also calling Shiv to come to Argestes. Shiv is hesitant but agrees. Tom is hosting a panel but is in a panic when Greg tells him he has to change the ATN tagline. Nan and Rhea arrive to meet with Logan and Kendall, but the cruises piece is posted during the meeting. The Roys all isolate and discuss a strategy. It is decided that Roman and Kendall will do a panel for the Roys as Shiv takes herself out of the equation. Shiv ends up meeting with Rhea who says that the Pierces may still agree to the deal and that Shiv should do the panel. Last-minute, all three of the Roys go to the panel. It goes well but Shiv mentions a "dinosaur cull" which upsets Logan and others. Logan gets frustrated and ends up hitting Roman. The conference ends with a roast and Nan walks out after the Roys are roasted. Logan and Rhea try to stop her but fail. Nan refuses the deal and fires Rhea, who she learns was hustling her.
The Good: I love the idea to explore how a company scandal gets handled from within. The cruises situation is a horrible look for Waystar Royco, and it's a lot of fun watching the characters navigate the chaos. True to form with these things, the concern is never on the victims, their families, and the wrong that has been done. The focus is always on damage control, and the main concern is how the leak of this information endangers the Pierce deal. It's funny to see this accurate take on how little the rich care about the morality of their actions, they are simply blindsided by their own desires. This episode felt very important because the cruises storyline has been building since early in season 1, and to finally see it pay off is enormously satisfying. We understand how big of a deal this leak could be, and that is could be disastrous for the Pierce deal. After spending a whole episode where the Roys acquired the Pierce deal, there is an enormous sense of consequences if things end up falling through. The significance of all of this ensures that I'm emotionally engaged in what's going on, and every scene is elevated as a result. I'm enthralled when everyone is discussing whether they should delay or if they should try to intimidate the publishers. I'm at the edge of my seat when Logan meets with Nan with Kendall constantly refreshing his phone to see if the story has dropped yet. The moment when it appears ratchets up the tension significantly, and I absolutely loved it. The story then comes to an excellent climax with the Roy panel. This sequence is terrific as Shiv and Kendall practically play a tug of war with their approaches about the cruises issue, while Roman comes off as juvenile and thoughtless in his brief interjections. The whole scene is excellent and had me fully engaged, awaiting to see when and how things would go wrong. Surprisingly, the panel goes pretty well but it's the bold jabs of a comedian that kill the deal for Nan. Logan's final effort to keep things together is gripping to watch as he falls into a full-on meltdown trying to get Nan to stay, a culmination of how his health had troubled him the entire time at Argestes. It's so satisfying to see a despicable man like Logan fail, but it's also sad to see this deal go up in flames after so much work went into it, creating a complex web of emotions at the episode's end. I continue to have a blast watching the Roy children all spar with each other and struggle. Shiv had a big episode here as she got called in last second to rectify this situation. At the start of the season I thought that Shiv had a good shot at doing this job better than the others, but these last two episodes make it clear that she has plenty of issues that need to be sorted out. At first I thought that her not wanting to go for the panel was because she was afraid of making a fool of herself again, but it's actually way worse than that: she doesn't think that she should clean up someone else's mess. That is such a conceited and entitled thought, and it caught me entirely off-guard. Add on Shiv screwing up with her "dinosaur cull" comment, and we quickly realize that Shiv is nowhere near as smart as she thinks she is, and that she's too spoiled to do the hard yards required of this job. Meanwhile Kendall is still not much more than Logan's instrument. Seeing him chew people out for his father in the opening scene felt so weird because we got to see Logan's words come out of the mouth of Kendall, which felt wrong in a delightfully well-written way. It's not until Logan physically abuses Roman that we see some sort of independence from Kendall in what was an excellent scene (see: Best Moment). I really am starting to feel bad for Roman since he is constantly belittled and looked down upon. Gerri advocates for him in this episode, and to his credit, Roman does well to secure a deal with Eduardo. But nobody else supports him. Logan has to be convinced to give Roman a job, Roman is the first person that Logan wants off of the panel, and when Logan's frustrations towards Shiv break out, it is Roman who has to deal with it. It's so sad to see Roman shrugging off losing his tooth, and now I can see that Roman has always been the punching bag of this family, and his pointed barbs and jokes are just a way for him to deal with being put down all the time. This is sad, but it is excellent character depth for a character who is starting to become more fascinating. Tom and Greg's side story is hilarious, and I'm glad that the show found some space to include it. These two add so much comedy to every episode, and that remains true here. Tom's "we're listening" catchphrase is good, but it has a pretty funny red flag associated with it, and Tom's exasperation over the situation because "we're actually listening" is quite funny. Tom and Greg's brains combine to come up with "we hear for you", a hilariously awful catchphrase that just got funnier as the episode went on. These two are still my favourite characters in the show, and these comedic B-stories get good value out of them. The Bad: Nothing. The Unknown: Will the fallout from the cruises situation get worse? Will other stories come out? How will this affect Waystar Royco's future? Will Nan reconsider, or is this the end of the Pierce storyline? What happens now that Logan's plan to acquire Pierce has failed? Rhea just got fired. Will we see her again, or is this it for her? Will Eduardo and his rich father play a bigger role in the story? How significant will Roman's deal with him turn out to be? Best Moment: Logan hitting Roman in his frustration came right out of nowhere, and perfectly highlighted the dysfunctional dynamic of this family. Kendall immediately jumping to Roman's defense suggests a childhood trauma of this abusive behaviour, and Tom's shocked face while watching this brilliantly highlights how jarring this kind of stuff must be for him when he has come from a far kinder family. Character of the Episode: Logan. Conclusion: Another terrific episode, and I think I'm starting to love this show. Every episode is now offering up engaging storylines and fascinating character dynamics, while having tremendous directing, acting, editing, soundtrack, and production at the same time. I'm excited to see where this all goes. Score: 75
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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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