Summary: The Roys prepare for Investor Day where they plan to launch Living+, a project their father was working on. Matsson tells Shiv to scrap the idea and tells her about the negotiation with Roman and Kendall. Shiv confronts her brothers when they claim the opposite and figures out they are trying to tank the GoJo deal. Roman meets with Joy, the head of Waystar studios, and impulsively fires her after she pisses him off. Gerri chastises him for this and he angrily fires her too but regrets it after. Kendall becomes obsessive with the Living+ announcement and forces everyone to abide by extremely optimistic projections that he will announce. Tom and Shiv start to reconnect. Roman backs out of the Living+ announcement after Shiv tries to get him to stop Kendall. Kendall goes up alone after being threatened by Karl and his speech is ultimately successful, but Matsson posts negative comments online.
The Good: The follow-up from last episode is great, and I'm enjoying the emotional journey that this season is taking me on. After "Honeymoon States", I was fully behind the siblings to step up and take Waystar in a good direction. After "Kill List", my feelings completely reversed and I'm convinced that these three goons are going to run the company into the ground. "Living+" confirms my feelings from "Kill List" in an engaging way, showing us each character's dysfunction in unique ways while still being thoroughly entertaining. The sibling dynamic is already fraying at the seams, and nothing demonstrates this better than Shiv confronting her brothers about cutting her out. Naturally Roman and Kendall hide behind the assertion that they were "protecting" her (total bullshit), and Shiv clearly doesn't buy it. The brothers are quick to apologize and hug it out, but it rings hollow and you can tell that Shiv isn't satisfied by this. It's clear to her that her brothers are shrugging off her involvement completely and have no intention of working with her, and it's in this moment that Kendall and Roman lose Shiv to Matsson. They've lost her trust and now Shiv has every reason to keep working with the charismatic Matsson who continues to show so much interest in her. Following this, Shiv's story throughout the episode surprisingly centers around getting back together with Tom. It felt like their relationship has been burned but they just can't seem to escape each other. After Shiv's 20 minute booked crying session is interrupted, she reconnects with Tom in a surprising way. Tom appears to have given up on the relationship being loving and is behaving with so much more aggression and straight-forwardness. Based on Shiv's reactions, it seems that she prefers him this way. I can't imagine these two ever playing "Bitey" in an earlier season, yet they do it here and have a blast. Tom's newfound clarity in this relationship has extended it in a compelling and realistic way, and it's fascinating to see Shiv respond to this other side of Tom, and to see Tom finally openly admit his obsession with wealth and that his love for Shiv is built on the foundation of his love for money. These are sides to this relationship that we could have only guessed at before, but now we get to see what makes these two tick deep down. Tom is selfishly motivated, and whenever Shiv is reminded of the toughness of her husband, she grows closer to him. Roman and Kendall's stories are equally compelling as they continue to flail around in their new position. Roman especially looks completely in over his head. Season 3 showed Roman maturing into a genuine leader, but Logan's death has completely stunted his development, and I think this episode does a magnificent job exploring his inner turmoil. The fantastic outburst against Matsson in "Kill List" suggested that Roman was not alright deep down, and this episode confirms it. Roman goes into professional meetings with Joy and Gerri, and every time he throws a temper tantrum and fires them both for basically no reason. His need to be like his father has re-emerged and when both Joy and Gerri fail to work with his inferiority complex when compared to Logan, he fires them out of frustration. This is behaviour of a loose cannon and it's far more pathetic than anything we've seen from Roman before this. He failed to process his father's death despite his assertions that he is okay, and he's paying for it in his day-to-day actions. The end of the episode makes it all the more sad as we hear Roman replaying the edited voice of Logan chastising him, desperately seeking some comfort from the abuser that he dearly misses and feels afloat without. This is a compelling and sad story, and it's impressive that I feel something for Roman despite him making some of the worst decisions ever in this episode. Meanwhile Kendall is back on his manic high. It's like the poor guy is trapped in a cycle he can't escape from, and it's all his own fault. It was distressing seeing Kendall going all in on Living+ despite there being numerous concerns that he chooses to ignore. Numbers aren't good? Let's increase them unrealistically. Production isn't that impressive? Well then let's make it impressive. Logan's final words aren't lining up? Let's poorly edit them to make him say what we want him to say. Kendall makes bad decisions at every turn, and it's both painful and hilarious to see him do this in the set up for what's sure to be a disastrous presentation. The presentation more than lived up to the hype. Kendall's awkwardness is hysterical and it's baffling to see him make every mistake imaginable while his siblings chastise him from behind the scenes. The Living+ presentation was thoroughly entertaining and it felt like a classic Kendall moment seeing him up there. A few other talking points in the episode: It was nice to see Logan back briefly, and he was his usual vicious self in the recordings. Hearing him trash on his useless kids from beyond the grave is hilariously fitting, and I appreciate that it was included. Karl has been on fire this season, and he gets a terrific scene where he threatens Kendall into cooperating. Greg is mostly in the background in this episode, but he still provides some really good lines and laughs. The Bad: After all the build-up to the Living+ presentation being a disaster and seeing Kendall make mistake after mistake, it was jarring to hear everyone call the presentation a resounding success. This was tonally confusing and it made me question the story of the episode because this did not feel like the conclusion we were building up to. The transition from laughing stock to success was way too jarring, and this prevented me from engaging with the emotions of the final few scenes where we're supposed to believe that Kendall actually succeeded. The Unknown: Is Shiv going to hook up with Tom again? I feel like they aren't going to get past their many, many problems, but it's surprising to see them getting into each other again. Was Kendall's Living+ presentation actually a success? Will he face any consequences for what he said up there? Will Matsson's comments have any bearing on this or on the GoJo deal? Is Gerri actually fired? Is Roman going through with it or will he be forced to back off? Interesting opening scene. It sounds to me like Shiv is pregnant. Why isn't she telling anyone? When will she tell Tom? How will pregnancy affect Shiv's career? As much as I would love to say it won't, you get the sense that the scumbags around Shiv will most certainly use her pregnancy against her. Best Moment: Shiv confronting Kendall and Roman about trying to destroy the deal behind her back. Character of the Episode: Roman. Conclusion: This episode had great stories for all three siblings and was easy to enjoy all the way through. Some confused tones towards the end do detract from the episode, but overall this was another success in what has been another consistent season. Score: 68
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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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