Summary: Logan visits the ATN newsroom and delivers a speech indicating that he intends to reimagine the network. Kerry becomes an ATN anchor but is embarrassingly bad at it. Logan sees others laughing at her and has Tom take her off TV. Shiv learns that Tom met with all of New York's good divorce attorneys so she can't use them. She, Roman, and Kendall leave to attend Connor's wedding rehearsal. When they arrive, Willa has left after panicking and Connor is dejected. Shiv tries to convince the others to join in on Stewy's plan to veto the GoJo deal to bleed more money from Matsson but they don't listen. After Matsson calls Kendall threatening to disperse the deal if they push for more money, Kendall joins in too. Logan learns of what happened from Connor and goes to meet his children. They have a nasty meeting at a karaoke bar and harsh words are exchanged. Roman goes to visit Logan afterwards and Logan asks for his help.
The Good: The episode started slow, but the main plot gradually became more and more interesting as it went on, and it was engaging to feel myself get pulled into the episode more and more like this. The episode takes place mostly at Connor's wedding rehearsal, but the main story revolves around Stewy and Sandy trying to convince the Roys to bomb the Matsson deal to squeeze him for more money. Naturally, Kendall and Roman don't care for this because it's just a little more money and they are already set up for the Pierce deal. But Shiv is the one who wants to join forces with them, and at first it's hard to see why. But then you gradually realize that it's just because she wants to spite Logan further by inconveniencing him with this deal. The episode gets really good when it begins to explore how messed up this way of thinking is, and also when the same thinking spreads to Kendall. Shiv's motives being revealed make her seem villainous, and it's disgusting to see that she values vengeance against her father over the Pierce deal (when Roman brings up that Matsson will tank the deal, she discredits him and ignores the risk). To make matters worse, Kendall actually ends up agreeing with her after calling Matsson, and he only agrees when Matsson confirms that he will blow up the deal. It seems like Kendall is also after blowing up the deal specifically to piss off Logan, and while he is abusive and awful, it's disgusting that he and Shiv are solely motivated by lashing out against him. It disgusts Roman too, and it's clear that he is disturbed with the way his siblings are handling the situation, and with the way they gang up on him and dismiss his business instincts - not too far off from what Logan at his worst would tell him, is it? Unlike his siblings, Roman doesn't hate his father to the same degree, and it's fascinating to see him be the one more focused on securing their own future while his siblings deride him for not despising Logan like they do. This made for a really interesting sibling dynamic throughout the episode, culminating in a great twist as Roman leaves his siblings and seemingly decides to throw in his lot with Logan again (see: The Unknown). After seeing the extent of their hatred and having them gang up on him, it's totally understandable that Roman would return to his father seeing that he hasn't yet had as many bad memories with him as they have. Everything comes to a head in that magnificent karaoke bar scene, one of those rare terrific scenes that puts the entire family together and lets the tensions between everyone create a dramatic spectacle. This scene is incredible and does a magnificent job of highlighting the dynamic between Logan and his kids. Shiv and Kendall have clearly decided that they won't believe a word that Logan says once he enters that room, and it's brutally amusing seeing them quip and insult at every turn while Logan tries to turn on his usual manipulation to get them to stop interfering with the Matsson deal. I don't deny that Logan does miss them to a degree, but he is not here because he wants them back, he's only here to stop them from interfering with him. And Shiv and Kendall know that, and are all about throwing it in his face that they know, making for a brutal sequence of insults and barbs. Then you have Roman and Connor on the sidelines who stay fairly quiet. Clearly these two just want the dust to settle so they can all stay together, and they are the ones trying to mediate the arguments so that the family can continue. It's heartbreaking to see them fail. Connor is resigned, knowing that he doesn't matter much to them, but Roman tries his best to mend fences only for it to fail completely. In the end, Logan gives in to his frustration and storms out of the room delivering perhaps the most accurate assessment of his kids that we've ever seen from him: "you're not serious people". This was a magnificent scene that more than earns being the centerpiece of this episode. Despite all of this great character work and drama, I actually think that Connor was the episode's standout, and this was the best we've ever seen from him. In this episode, Connor has to contend with the idea of Willa possibly having left him on the eve of their wedding, he has to contend with the awful "comfort" he gets from his siblings, and he has to handle yet another large-scale family argument that he is powerless to put an end to. This episode paints Connor's tragedy beautifully, and Alan Ruck is given plenty of moments to shine as he contends with how marginalized he always is, never being the focal point at any point in the episode despite being the one who desperately needs some comfort after Willa leaves. It's sad, and I've never felt more for Connor than I did in this episode. His speech at the end, regardless of if it's true or not, is so powerful because this is how Connor has to cope with having a family that doesn't care about him. He says he doesn't need love to survive because he knows after all these years that he is never going to get it from his family. Regardless of if this is what he really feels, he has to tell himself that he does not need love or else he will likely fall into intense depression. This moment was powerful and the significance it had for the character of Connor made it even better. The episode has a fun side story at ATN, and I enjoyed this quite a bit. Logan's inspiring speech was a nice surprise because we've never seen this side of him before, and he was fierce and motivational in all the right ways. I liked that a lot. Even better was Kerry's stint as news anchor. She was laughably bad, and I loved seeing the various characters poking fun at her bad performances. Hugo having to hide what he was doing when Logan walks in was easily the comedic highlight, and that moment made me laugh a lot. I also enjoyed Tom's interactions with Logan as he is clearly more comfortable with him (he made an awkward joke like he usually does with Greg!), but he still has to toe the line of giving him what he wants. The conversations regarding Kerry where Logan indirectly tells Tom what to do about her is hilarious and I really liked seeing Tom struggle to figure out what it is that Logan wants. Lastly, I got a real laugh out of poor Greg having to "fire" Kerry because of the "focus group", another comedic highlight in an episode that had a lot of good jokes. The Bad: I'm sad about how this show handled the Stewy/Sandy story and their characters. Back in seasons 1 and 2, these two were pretty much the main antagonists of the show and they posed an enormous threat to Waystar. But now? They don't even matter at all. Stewy has hardly appeared since season 2 despite being a really fun character to have around, and he is showing none of the clever resourcefulness that made him a player in the earlier seasons. Once upon a time, he was motivated to take the entire company for himself and cleverly manipulated characters to make this happen; now he just begs people to help him get a little bit more money out of a deal. The difference is enormous, and highlights how Stewy has been wasted by the show. His entire subplot faded into nothingness following "Retired Janitors of Idaho" and I wish that it had been handled better. The Unknown: Is Tom going to try to prevent a divorce, or was his move to secure the divorce lawyers just to help him get a better deal out of the divorce? Will the GoJo deal blow up because of Shiv and Kendall's actions? Will this ruin the Pierce deal since the Roy kids won't be able to get enough money? Will they care if they are still part of Waystar? Is Roman going to join forces with Logan again? He seems very alienated from his siblings after their mean-spirited actions against their father. Why did Kendall change his mind after Matsson's call? What motivated him? Is it because he still wants to be CEO deep down? Or is it just because he saw a chance to screw over Logan and wanted to take it, just like Shiv? Is Willa going to stay put at the wedding? Can she go through with marrying Connor? Best Moment: You know it's going to be an excellent scene when we get to see the Roy family dynamics in action. The karaoke bar scene with all of the kids and Logan together was superbly written and acted, and it was easily the highlight of the episode. Character of the Episode: Connor. Conclusion: Season 4 is already getting into its groove. This episode was a slow starter, but it built up into something excellent, delivering a phenomenal family scene in the climax. Score: 72
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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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