Last week on Succession, Kendall assembled a war council while trying to trend on Twitter, Roman backed Gerri for interim CEO, Shiv screwed the pooch, and Logan went full beast. This week, all the siblings get together for a little quality time and continue to jockey for power (over some potentially poisoned donuts). After the video below, check out our spoiler-filled season three, episode two Succession Power Rankings.
1. Logan Roy: Logan starts the episode in as harried a state as we've seen him (give or take his early season one health troubles), holed up in a hotel room in Sarajevo with none of his family around. "I need to know where everyone is and what everyone's thinking," he says. It is rare to see him in a position where he seems outmanned, and all he can do is anxiously check his phone for updates.
Like many abusers, he tries to gain some control of the situation back by putting aside the stick and breaking out the carrot: he starts reaching out to his children one by one (except for "the snake" Kendall), whispering in their ears that they are his number one. He only gets to Roman and Connor, and remains frustrated that Shiv is completely out of pocket.
His lackeys are of no use, and he boils over: "I'm stuck in quicksand, my family has disappeared, the world is wobbly. Does no one understand what the fuck is happening? I'm losing juice. I can't find the right fucking lawyer. The sky is falling in." Logan is someone who believes he must act upon the world before it acts upon him, and being stuck in limbo is untenable.
Later in the episode, Roman compares his dad to Moby Dick: "He could take us all down with his back riddled with harpoons." And that gets to the core of it all: the kids are all still terrified of their dad. It's why Kendall so badly wants his siblings by his side, because he can't pull off this coup on his own, and he knows it on some level.
And that's why, even when Logan looks like he is at his weakest, he's still the most powerful person on the board. By the end of the episode, Panicky Logan is gone, and Sunglasses Logan is back, making nice with his family for the cameras. The king stays the king.
2. The Powdered Power Of Donuts: Would Logan really send poisoned donuts to his extremely large and extremely disloyal children? "I'm like 98% sure those aren't poisoned," Roman notes, but the donuts do the trick either way. They are a timely reminder that dad is always in the room, especially when the kids are discussing a possible coup. Judging by Connor's face, they may even be haunted.
3. Marcia Roy: Things got pretty icy between Logan and Marcia last season amidst Logan's dalliance with Rhea Jarrell. As Marcia puts it, "He was led by his prick... she's a whore and it's not my problem if she wouldn't finish him."
Amidst his crisis in Sarajevo, Logan finally reaches out to her, although he refuses to eat shit: "I just can't... but I can sometimes get distracted." That's as much of an admission of responsibility as she's likely to get from him, and Marcia takes it.
And she's smart enough to realize she holds a lot of power in this position, negotiating to get her role in the trust finalized, take care of her children from her prior marriage, and making some improvements in her financial position, which leads to this hilarious sentence from her attorney: "Now the numbers I'm going to propose will sound like very, very large numbers, but if you consider them in terms of the difficulties it would present Mr. Roy to have an acrimonious divorce announced ahead of a contested shareholder meeting, then they start to seem like very reasonable numbers."
And in case you forgot that Marcia is just as ruthless as Logan, her first piece of strategy advice is suggesting Logan has plenty of ammunition to use on Kendall (I'm assuming this is about his drug use, or the fact he killed someone in season one, all of which would definitely be brutal for him).
4. Shiv Roy: After things went so very wrong for Shiv in the premiere, I couldn't see a way for her to climb back up this high on the list. But she definitely appears to be in the best position of all the siblings by the end of the episode, with Logan (a.k.a. Captain Cuddles) installing her as president of the company to serve as his "eyes and ears."
For most of the episode, she seems more likely to stab her father in the back than trade affectionate nicknames with him in the back of a car. She is the first sibling to go visit Kendall in person, after fucking up the Lisa Arthur situation, and her intentions seem opaque. She clearly thinks he might actually have the upper hand for once, not that he is making it easy for her to join forces with him.
"You tell yourself you're a good person, but you're not a good person," Kendall says with extreme self-righteousness. "Right now, I'm the real you." Their argument draws on the fact Shiv used to be a left-leaning political consultant who took pains to distance herself and her career from her family's empire...and she has now gone all-in on the family business. She's sold out every ideal she claimed to believe in, so Kendall's words touch a nerve.
For most of the big sibling meet-up, Shiv seems to be poking and prodding Kendall to see if he really has evidence, if he's really serious about going against their dad or if he's just acting out of anger. And I think her conversation with Roman towards the end reveals she really does see the play here.
But she wants to be CEO more than anything, and Ken says she's too divisive and inexperienced: "You're still seen as a token woman woke snowflake—I don't think that, but the market does." (Roman, of course, has to chime in, "Well it's true, I just spoke to the market, that's exactly what the market thinks.")
This really sinks any alliance, because it exposes how much anger Shiv feels that two other women—Rhea and Gerri—got picked to be CEO over her. It's notable that when Shiv unloads on Roman earlier in the episode, it's because he is defending Gerri.
Then the aforementioned donuts come out, and the sibling bonding time comes to an abrupt end.
5. Gerri Killman Doesn't Want To Dilute Her Potency: Is there anything sweeter than Gerri taking a photo of the TV news feed announcing her as interim CEO so she can send it to her daughters? I'm glad she gets this moment, because she otherwise is under no illusions about her place in the company: "It's like when you see those lists of popes and emperors and some of them have asterisks by their names."
Of course, Logan puts it a lot less charitably, referring to Gerri as "a full chemical and biological suit" to be used as protection for the family. Gerri's position as interim CEO is a placeholder to the Roys, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have some ideas about how to consolidate it into something real...
6. The Love Ballad Of Gerri & Roman: It is remarkable how much more vulnerable and, dare I say, "sweet" Roman can be behind closed doors with Gerri. Before Roman can make a final decision about whether to agree to join Kendall's coup, Gerri is the person he calls for advice (or as Roman so eloquently puts it, he is putting his "dick in her mad, scheming scissorhands").
"Stick with me Roman, we have something going. And I am an incredibly dangerous enemy to whom you just imparted prejudicial information," Gerri tells him. "Don't threaten met Gerri, I don't have time to jerk off." Who would have guessed that this would be the love story of our times?
7a. Roman Roy: Roman is nothing is not self-aware about his limitations, especially when he's alone with Gerri cementing their partnership/apprenticeship. He wonders whether she regrets chaining herself to "a fire hydrant who spews out cultural insensitivities and sperms," a description which touches upon his many sexual hangups. It is also one that will get thrown back in his face when Roman later fights with Shiv.
For the first half of the sibling meet-up, Roman seems out of his depth, completely unsure whether he should even consider having the conversation about overthrowing his dad in the first place. He interjects Kendall's plea with sarcastic asides, mocks his siblings ("Thought I heard a clown car pulling up" he says when Connor arrives), and generally seems more comfortable playing the joker than really wrestling with the deeper issues of the company.
He also delivers maybe the funniest line of the episode, seeing through Kendall's big speech about it being their time: "Oh you mean us, this multi-fucking ethnic transgender alliance of 20-something dreamers we got here?"
Then in the midst of it all, he defends Gerri, which prompts Shiv to pull out a dagger which hits at Roman's many longstanding issues: "You can't hide under the covers with mommy...you love showing your pee-pee to everyone, but someday you know you're actually gonna have to fuck something." It doesn't just hit a nerve—it slices that nerve open and leaves it dangling for everyone to see, so much so that Roman storms out of the room like a hurt child.
Ultimately, even more than any of the other kids, Roman is far too intimidated by his father to move against him. He knows Logan is not infallible, but he adds, "I just don't think he's ever failed or ever will." For now, Roman remains situated just below his father and his new mother figure.
7b. Newly-Announced SNL Host Kieran Culkin: Roman might be treading water, but things are looking up for Culkin. It makes total sense that SNL would invite one of the castmembers of the zeitgeisty show to host (and it seems likely other castmembers will cameo in the episode, which airs November 6th). It's a credit to the entire cast that it feels hard to pick out one person to host—Nicholas Braun is an Internet darling (and made an SNL cameo this weekend), Brian Cox would be a hoot, Jeremy Strong is a certified weirdo and the closest thing to a lead outside of Cox, Sarah Snook and Matthew Macfadyen both feel entirely plausible—but Culkin is so good at playing such an outwardly jokey, tortured character, I'm excited to see how Culkin does in the sketch comedy format.
8. "Rotten Cabal," And Other Great Names For Bands Based On Succession Insults: The Popinjays, No Weevils, Gender Fluid Illegals, Bone Grinder, Slime Puppy, Doctor Google, Sweaty Corpse, Yuppie RoboCop, King Potato, Snake Linguini, Relevant Donuts.
9. Kendall Roy: Still riding high since his press conference, Kendall is particularly smug and "fucking merry" when he greets Shiv at Rava's apartment. He's clear-eyed initially: Roman and Connor would be nice as allies, but Shiv is the one he really needs to pull this all off. Kendall continually uses therapy-speak to explain his actions (he feels "a certain amount of regret, but I feel cleansed"), but Shiv calls him out on it: "That was self-aggrandizing bullshit, it was a peacock fuck show."
Similarly, his entire "manifesto" (see below) is a bunch of nonsense corporate jargon (it's totally "epiphenomenal," as Kendall might say) mixed with a few kernels of cold hard truth: "These incidents are symptomatic of a foundational sickness in our father and his company." This point can't be argued with—the horrors that were inflicted upon the "pipeline of sad dancers" who got used and abused by his father's cronies are real, and no matter what Shiv and Roman say they knew or didn't know, it is a stain on the family and company. The part where Kendall is in denial is in his belief that he is any different, or in any higher moral position, to help cleanup the company.
But what does Kendall really believe in? Is he trying to convince his siblings or himself about the worthiness of taking down Logan? If his siblings believe in his mission, does that validate what he did to "betray" his father (who, lest we forget, was trying to sacrifice him)? How much is he trying to absolve himself of the company's sins and how much is he trying to absolve himself of his own sins (including killing the waiter and then letting his father cover it up)?
"Look guys, I don't know what I think about dad," Kendall says soberly at one point. "I love him, I hate him, I'm gonna outsource it to my therapist, but he was gonna send me to jail. He'd do the same to you Roman. And Con. Shiv, I don't know. I don't know, maybe. So what do we owe him here, really?"
Kendall is right in so many ways, especially about who their father is, but he's also such a transparent broken mess of a person, it's no wonder his siblings ultimately decide not to throw in with him. Without his siblings' backing, his grand coup looks completely doomed already. And he seems poised for a huge comedown.
10. Kendall's Full Manifesto (But Without Roman & Shiv's Commentary And Jokes Ruining The Flow Of His Coherent Philosophy): "Big picture, we're at the end of a long American century. Our company is a declining empire inside a declining empire. People are killing themselves with guns or dope so fast that we're losing pace. We're fat-fingered fucks and we can only live on cream. U.S. supremacy is waning. What I think is, within that context, we can become omni-national and reposition because actually we are not tied culturally or physically, so we are actually in a great position to leapfrog tech. Information is going to be more precious than water in the next hundred. Combine all our news operations, become the global news information hub. Amazon is 20 years old, Gates is an old geezer. Detoxify our brand and we can go supersonic."
11. Big Gramps In The Big City: Ewan Roy, Greg's grandfather, and Logan's estranged brother, makes his first appearance of the season to help Greg out with his representation problem. Kendall and Greg want to make the company nice now, so like, that means they're aligned, right?
But Ewan doesn't care for Kendall, particularly because he doesn't like seeing dirty laundry aired in public: "I found his performance histrionic and meretricious"—Greg interjects, "Well, tell me about it!"—"The man is a self-regarding popinjay." Never before has the word "popinjay" sounded so much like a curse.
Ewan, as played by James Cromwell, is a fascinating component to the show: he's the most moral and upstanding member of the Roy clan, and he's also by far the most unlikeable character in the show. He's abrasively severe, judgmental and lacking in humor (he has wit, but no charm). The more rigid he is, the less we the audience like him, even though he is a passionate environmentalist and inarguably a much better human being than any of his family members.
Ewan ultimately agrees to help his grandson (even though he technically cut him off last season after Greg refused to leave Waystar), but he won't lower himself to be touched by Greg. "You're the man...I love you!" Greg says. He really deserves a better family.
12. Exposing The Structural Contradictions Of Capitalism As Reified In The Architecture Of Corporate America: All Greg wants is an attorney who is going to look after his interests. Instead, he gets Pugh, as played by the GOAT Peter Riegert, who you might recognize from Animal House, Crossing Delancey, The Sopranos, Damages, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and dozens of other projects. He's more interested in popping the hood open on Waystar Royco and bringing the system down, or something like that, than protecting Greg's interests. "He's incredible intransigent," Ewen notes.
13. Tom Wambsgams: Tom has been reduced to waiting by the phone for Shiv and taking clandestine calls in various bathrooms and hallways. It makes sense that he's been lumped in with the likes of fellow Logan lackeys Karl Muller, Frank Vernon and Hugo Baker: he's absolutely tertiary to all the real stuff going on.
That said, Tom is still processing his relationship woes with Shiv with his patented Wambsgams logic: "You can't just take my love and bank it and take a view of the lovemarket and see if you want to invest in me," he says to her after one particularly terse conversation. Their marriage is going great. It's good to know they don't have an unbalanced love portfolio.
14. Lisa Arthur: Shiv tried to warn her last week to be careful who she hitches her wagon to, but it seems she still hasn't figured out that Kendall is not doing so well right now. But I imagine his ultra-paranoid speech about possible outcomes for the case is setting her spider sense off: "You need to prepare for all eventualities. we might need to call the state police to arrest the FBI. We might need to plan to fly me out without a tail number to Frankfurt or Venezuela. I'm not serious, okay, but I am serious."
15. A Literal Trojan Horse: This ten foot metaphor is a gift from Stewy, Kendall's frenemy-turned-Waystar board member. He isn't upset Kendall didn't give him a heads up about his press conference, because, "I got to see the Vietnamese monk set himself on fire, I got a ticket to the greatest freak show on Earth." The two huddle in the back of a car with Sandi Furness—Hope Davis makes her debut here as the daughter of Sandy Furness, Logan's rival who has been trying to takeover the company since season one. The most notable thing is that despite Kendall's assurances that he can "kill" his father, Stewy seems understandably skeptical that this is gonna work out any better than the last time they partnered up in season one.
16. Greg "I'm Kinda Too Young To Be In Congress So Much" Hirsch: Poor gangly Greg isn't looking so hot—or as Kendall puts it, he looks like someone who has "tied his dick to a runaway train." He's locked into a comical subplot ("Oh God, oh man, what now?") in which everyone keeps trying to give him a lawyer and he has no idea who to trust or who has his best interests in mind. (Spoiler alert Greg: no one has Greg's best interests in mind.)
He probably shouldn't trust Kendall, since he's saying weird stuff about promising not to burn him, which only makes it sound like he definitely is going to do so first chance he gets. He probably also shouldn't be relying on a first year law student for his legal advice. He has no idea what any of it means ("So there's a lawyer here, and he is saying he is my lawyer, do you think he's probably my lawyer?"), but at least he now knows that anytime you meet a lawyer, you should ask them, "Do you choose me or do I choose you?"
17. Libertarian Power Couple Connor Roy & Willa Ferreyra: To be fair, Willa really isn't in this episode much besides offering Con a sympathetic look in the back of a car as they soothe themselves after their harrowing commercial flight back to NYC. ("They had movies and a selection of heavily refrigerated cheeses, so you know it was really nice.")
With Operation Thumbtwiddle over, Connor gets the spotlight here, as Logan apologizes for what he said on his yacht last season, and even calls him his "number one kiddo." Logan must really be feeling vulnerable to go so far as to try to prop up Connor's sense of self.
Connor also comes across the best of the four siblings during the big showdown, and he seems to have a little bit of self-awareness regarding the kids' standing with dad; he even sides with Kendall when he talks about knowing the evils the company had unleashed on the world.
But ultimately, all it takes are those donuts from daddy to spook Connor enough to back out of any family coup: "I just don't want to destroy dad. I'm a national figure. It's not right to kill one's father. History teaches us that."
Kendall lashes out at him, calling him irrelevant and repeating "you're not wanted," which is a pretty brutal thing to say about your half-brother who clearly has abandonment issues.
18. The Facility Where Connor Stores His Fine Wine: Connor has looked at the geological surveys, and he is worried.
19. Rava Roy: Rava wasn't even in this episode, but Kendall sure as shit is still acting like he owns her place! At least she'll have some likely unpoisoned leftover donuts waiting for her.
20. Sophie Roy & Iverson Roy: Still no sign of Kendall's little-seen children, but Sophie's room does get turned into the main venue for this week's sibling throwdown. On the one hand, Kendall uses the excuse that he wants to hug his kids as a way to sneak out to clandestinely meet Stewy and Sandi. On the other hand, hey, at least Kendall remembers Sophie's name! 😞
Creepiest Sexual Innuendo Of The Week: I'm handing this one to Tom this week for his entire phone conversation with Greg. First there's the utterly creepy way he says "Hi Gregory," like he's auditioning for a role in a new Saw movie. Then there's the absolutely bizarre line, "Do you like to do your house chores in the nude?" And to top it off, he regales Greg with a preview of his future if he betrays Logan: "Logan is going to fire a million poisonous spiders down your dickie. You better find an animal's corpse to crawl into and hide."
Family Members In Absentia: I'm pretty sure that Karl Muller and Frank "Mashed Potatoes" Vernon were both in every scene with Logan this week, but I also have no memory of either of them getting any lines, so I'm counting them as absent. Karolina Novotney was on the phone with Logan but we didn't see her. Estranged matriarch Lady Caroline Collingwood still remains MIA, which seems right since she was absent for much of the kids' lives. No Naomi Pierce, no Rava Roy, no idea if Roman is still dating Tabitha (I'm pretty sure they broke up, but you never know). Another person we haven't seen yet this season: Cyd Peach!
Did Anyone Get A Kiss From Daddy This Week? No, but Roman was greeted with an air punch and a hug when Logan returns from Sarajevo, which I think is close to a kiss? Sure, it was just for the cameras, but this is what passes for physical affection in this family.
Next week on Succession, Kendall roasts himself, Logan gets back to business, and Tom makes an offer. Until then, there's no better way to troll your enemies than deploying a string quartet to play the theme outside their offices.
