Succession Season 4, Episode 3: Power Rankings

oh boy, a lot to unpack

Last night, I poured myself a tall glass of prosecco and hunkered down for my weekly viewing of the black comedy known as Succession. Things started off fine: Connor’s wedding. Willa’s mom being tacky. Siobhan in a pantsuit instead of the usual bodycon dress the costume department likes to put her in whenever they go to a party. And then…things took a bit of a turn. 

At first, I thought Logan’s death was a way for him and his team to mess with the kids so that they would be too grief-stricken to meddle in any Gojo-related affairs; but when his death became a reality, new exciting opportunities for the show became obvious. The title of the show is about to be explored to the fullest, with all the backstabbing involved in a vacuum left by Logan. We have so many variables at play: will the deal with Gojo go through? Are the Roys fully pushed out of the company and will they be able to stick together now that they don’t have a common enemy (AKA their dad)?

Succession has a gift for mining the drama out of the smallest interactions, so in the rare moments when the show goes big – think Kendall accidentally killing someone at Shiv’s wedding – it feels earned. And although we pretty much knew Logan’s death was an inevitability, the choice to have him pass so early on and without warning adds a jolt of electricity to Succession’s final season.

#10: LOGAN

• FLOP ERAAAAAAAA

• What is there to say? Logan slayed too hard and died surrounded by his yes-men and a girlfriend who is young enough to be his daughter. 

  • Logan may have sealed his fate by ditching Connor’s wedding: if he were not in that plane, he would have had access to potentially life-saving care. In any case, he unwittingly robbed himself of the opportunity to die in a more dignified way surrounded by family.

• Logan was a powerful man who didn’t feel the need to be particularly nice to anyone, so his death stumped people. Everyone is shook but no one is shooketh deeply if that makes sense. People start strategizing within MINUTES of his demise. 

• The children are in shock and grieving, but there is a sense of catharsis as well. When Roman asks if they should go see dad’s body Shiv responds with “Do you want to? He’s not going to get mad if you don’t,” and then she smiles in a way that seems more relaxed than anything we’ve seen from Shiv in a long time – the realization flashes across her face that she and her brothers are done with the “Does Daddy Approve of Me?” race.

  

   

• What they don’t realize is that they are about to dive headfirst into the race for Waystar Royco. As Marsha has said before, Logan constructed a playground for his kids and they took that to be the real world. Even in all of their machinations, ascents and descents down the ladder, they were still protected by Logan. Now, it is a free-for-all and the kids will find out very soon that saying “sorry Dad, I love you” won’t get them back into anyone’s good graces. Now they are facing off against people who have ACTUALLY worked for a living. 

• Now we are going to be a little controversial here, but isn’t there space to think about whether Logan was quite as unspeakably awful as the children seem to think he was? Was he rude, dismissive, manipulative? Yes. But has he done something that could not be forgiven even at his deathbed, as Kendall implied? I don’t know, I don’t know…

  • You know what, Let’s talk about Kendall. Yes, your father was mean to you sometimes. However, he did save you after you accidentally killed a man. So you know, give and take.

  • It’s interesting that Connor probably has the biggest right to hate their dad – Logan put his mother in an insane asylum, which is not great – but he’s the least emotional.

  #9: KERRY

• Unless she’s secretly got a baby cooking in there, things aren’t looking so peachy for Kerry. With Logan gone, the old guard made quick work of undermining Kerry’s position of power in the company, and her toothy grin didn’t help things. Having said that, Kerry narrowly escapes last place on the power rankings by the simple virtue of being alive. Slay!

• Although Kerry was grinning like a little girl on Christmas morning, I doubt that she’s concocting some diabolical plan behind those massive bangs. I think it’s more likely that, as the last episode established in her audition reel (…), Kerry has a habit of smiling in uncomfortable situations. 

• She is in shock from losing access to designer clothes. I bet she wishes she could be Marcia and be “shopping in Milan permanently” right about now. 

• There doesn’t seem to be a way for Kerry to become any sort of serious player in what is about to unfold. Side piece has been pushed to the side, if you will.