With the utmost sincerity, I hope you don’t find yourself relating to any scrap of the “Succession” universe. But if you do, and chances are that you, in fact, do, especially if you’ve stuck around long enough to be here, I sure hope you have a support system to reach out to should you require it. And for those of you bereft of it, consider this a due trigger warning before you sit down expecting a hilarious spectacle of Connor’s wedding only to step on a landmine of emotional devastation. If you deem this presumptuous, let me just say that I don’t actually believe that someone just skims through “Succession” casually. Yet there’s comfort in a sense of community.
There’s an understanding, soothing embrace of camaraderie in knowing that you’re not alone in investing your precious sympathies in the tremendously dreadful lives of the Roy kids. Jesse Armstrong had his gory intentions set on the complete obliteration of hearts with this week’s episode of “Succession.” And I don’t know if I’m happy to see him succeed. But that may just be an appreciation that will come with the necessary time needed to recover from what I’ve just witnessed.
Spoilers Ahead
All Aboard To A Surprisingly Wholesome Wedding
Welp! It’s a royal wedding, alright. And none of Willa’s “eat the rich” thespian friends seem to mind the taste of the champagne selection. Connor has made a solid defender out of Willa’s mother, who’s glad to see her daughter get the princess treatment on the luxury boat. So, where is his family? On his way to the eldest’s wedding, Roman has already been tagged as the bringer of the bad news. Their dad won’t make it. Confronting and comforting the fidgety Mattson is something Logan would much rather subject himself to, than attending Connor’s wedding. Although I doubt the old guy would be jumping up and down for the wedding if he didn’t have to assure the GoJo sale. Well, at least he knows his son and is certain that a gift worth an arm and a leg would be an appropriate way to justify his absence. And so come the letters of Napoleon and Josephine for the pretentious art connoisseur of a groom, who would frankly, much rather have that than his dad.
As it turns out, making fun of his old bro and his bought bride with his signature wisecracking banters isn’t all that Roman would be doing on the boat. Whether to get him to prove his loyalty or just to mess with little Roy, Logan has handed Roman the responsibility of breaking the grim news to Gerri. After a lifetime of standing guard against the fire thrown at Waystar Royco and the big Roy himself, Gerri is about to get the boot. What’s more insulting is that it’s the guy who harassed her with inappropriate pictures who happens to be the bringer of the news. But Gerri, being the very face of “calm in the face of a storm,” takes it with as much dignity as one can conjure in a moment like that.
It’s like the universe is conspiring against Greg, who’s just trying to have a nice time at the family wedding. First, he gets egged in his face by his cousins in front of a girl he’s trying to woo. And then he’s shooed off as though he were poison Ivy by Shiv. I guess it’s “pile on Greg” day for everyone considering even his disgusting brother Tom has replaced him with a bunch of “greggies and greglets” that he has picked up from the pigpen before boarding the plane to Mattson. You didn’t really expect the poor li’l rich guy not to have some complaint to harp on about on the day of his wedding, right? But Connor’s grumbling about the “looney cake” seems to echo a rather traumatic episode of his past where he was kept docile with cakes when his mother was sent to a place that Roman calls a “funny farm.” It’s rather amusing, albeit hopeless at the same time, to watch a manipulated Roman bargain with the clear-as-day machination his dad has contrived. It’s even more dispiriting to see that despite all the little fights he puts up, the rage always comes after he’s been a good little boy and done what he was told.
And The World Was Never The Same Again
It doesn’t necessarily come as a shock that Shiv would ignore Tom’s calls. As she’s away, dropping the news of Logan being a no-show to Connor, Ken picks up a call from Tom, expecting probably another schemey tactic from dad just before he hits Mattson. But Ken can’t wrap his head around what he’s just heard from Tom, and I guess neither can any of us. Away from our eyes, fitting to his manicured persona where grandiose and monstrosity coexist in harmony, Logan Roy went to the plane bathroom with chest pain and had to be carried out of there unconscious and barely breathing. The look of utter disbelief on Ken and Rome’s faces is shared by all of us who’ve known the vicious mogul to be kind of invincible. I mean, the man stole his life away from sure death when we started off with “Succession.” Surely, chest compressions and defibrillators would revive the unconquerable Logan Roy, right?
Mumbling through his own grappling acceptance of the unbelievable phenomenon, Tom struggles to deliver the obvious, terrible news while trying not to mention “dead” as he communicates with Ken. Roman is further confused as he takes the phone to his ear and is given the news that makes the earth shift from under his feet. The kids are no strangers to grief. But there’s something cataclysmic about losing the very subject of the fight—the enforcer of the love-hate trauma bonding who controls them like an invasive parasite controls its host. The three Roy kids’ most consequential demon wasn’t their dad. It was, at the end of the day, the love they had for their disaster of a father that was the toughest thing for the trio to shake off. Roman was just starting to get caught up in his abusive back-and-forths again. How could the world have stolen his father so soon?
Holding on firmly to the jittery hope Tom is feeding him, Roman speaks to his dead father as Tom holds the phone to his ear. Being pulled further and further into the black hole of acceptance, the crack in Roman’s voice is morosely telling of the regrets he can’t help but feel. It’s his one chance to make it right with his father. Even if he has to get himself to believe in the lie one last time. In death, all is granted. All sins are erased, and all crimes are pardoned. Or at least that’s what it comes off as when Roman says that he was a good dad. But there’s one truth in his words, and that of Ken’s, that even Logan wasn’t unaware of—they love their dad. Although I would assign more hope to Ken’s self-betterment, considering his awareness of the truth, he doesn’t find it in his heart to forgive Logan for all that he’s done, even when he’s gone.
Catching a scent of something grim occurring makes Shiv instantly hope that it’s their mom. It’s quite curious how redemption is within reach for an abusive parent who stuck around but eludes the one that got away. The dread of the loss is at its most affecting display on her tear-soaked face, as in her shaken state, Shiv communicates her love for her father one last time and rather incoherently holds him accountable for all that he has pulled. Logan Roy is gone. And like the landscape of the American media, Shiv, Ken, and Roman’s lives will never be the same again. And neither will it be for Connor, whose first knee-jerk reaction is to remember that Logan didn’t even like him, only to break down in tears the very next moment.
Ending Explained – How Does Logan’s Death Affect Everyone In The Family?
With the risk of sounding unappreciative of all the fantastic work put in by all the actors, I would still say that “Succession,” in its very essence, is Brian Cox’s show entirely. That is to say that Logan may be the only irreplaceable part that really could not be played by any other actor. And for this whale of a man who has scarred, tormented, and eviscerated—all with such a spectacularly thrilling indifference—a gnarly visual of his death would only be tasteless. Hammering out a deal with the grim reaper isn’t something that Ken can achieve, no matter how much money he can throw at getting the best doctors on the line. The dance of denial and an unforeseen gush of sadness plays out like an epic battle where the only thing likely to win is the forbearance of the truth. With the three Roy kids caught up in the whirlwind of grief, the people who have less to lose hold on firmly to what they still have.
With his protector gone, Tom assigns the job of ridding the office computer of the incriminating evidence against him to Greg. Seeing his dream wedding drown in the quicksand brings out all the insecurities in Connor. His worry about Willa leaving his side if the wedding doesn’t happen isn’t completely baseless. But as she reassures him and we get to be a part of what ironically is the most sincere relationship in “Succession”; we know that the money is important to Willa, but the happiness she gets from being with Connor is why she’s sticking around. It’s a whole other muted pandemonium on the plane where Frank, 12 feet away from lifeless Logan, holds the team together, and Karolina takes it upon herself to jot down the timeline and a possible statement to release to the press when the time comes. Breaking up the party is a peculiarly grief-stricken Kerry, who evidently has the Claire Dunphy syndrome and smiles as a coping mechanism in the face of tragedies. And as Carl doesn’t want Logan’s “chuckles the clown” girlfriend facing the press, it is, as of now, up to the core team to communicate with all the concerned parties while making sure that the shareholders don’t get spooked.
The CPR has ceased. And there’s nothing underpropping the Roy kids’ denial about their father’s death any longer. With Hugo playing the reliable liaison between the group in the sky and the group in the sea, the trio learns of the statement Karl, Frank, and Karolina are devising for the board and the press. That isn’t something the kids are taking kindly to. As Kendall promptly reminds them of the “family function” they just had the other night and attempts to establish that they weren’t, in fact, estranged, the core group is made to halt their ploy of excluding the kids from whatever becomes of the business. In the wake of Rome’s engulfing denial and Shiv’s ridiculous plan of keeping the plane afloat for longer, Ken seems to be the only one with a clear vision of what’s heading their way. What they do, how they behave, and what they say on the day of their father’s death is what will determine not just their future in the business but also how they’re perceived until the end of their time. Leading what probably is his first and only triumphant pursuit, Ken brings his two grieving siblings together and takes charge of throwing light on their names when the world gets to learn of Logan’s death.
With the plane containing the weighty history of a great American businessman landing, Connor is nowhere to be found. He’s done altering his life in accordance with the convenience of his father, who was never once proud of him. Whether his marriage to Willa will be a lasting love story or not is hardly what matters here. Connor has taken charge of his own happiness, away from all the soul-crushing atrocities of his family. And that’s an action that is worthy of all the appreciation in the ghastly context of “Succession.” That in no way means that I’m not awfully proud of Roman, Ken, and Shiv, who braced their wretched hearts to face the press and deliver a statement that pays some due and some undue respect to the behemoth business mogul, the great “American Family” businessman that was Logan Roy. It’s a day of mourning, only made convenient for the kids who always happen to be dressed for that very occasion.
A fleeting, closed-up embrace from Tom speaks a thousand words of the love he still has in his heart for Shiv. And the three Roys united in grief, summon the kindness they didn’t even know they were capable of to be entwined by the shared feeling of a peculiar loss. What happens when a beloved abuser dies? There’s grief. There’s self-loathing for even feeling the grief. And the worst of it all, there’s a pang of nonsensical guilt even if one doesn’t feel the sadness. Yet, there’s also a guilt-infused relief—something that Shiv feels through her understanding that dad won’t be mad even if she doesn’t say a proper goodbye.
With Shiv leaving and Ken waiting to see his dad from afar, Roman is the only one who gets close to the traces of the history, which holds all the ghastly secrets of pain and the morose truths of love. The hurt written all over Ken’s face as he sees his big, terrifying father’s corpse being brought out of the plane yet again turns him into the little boy that forever hankered for his love. There’s no chance of closure with an abusive parent dying before acknowledging all that did wrong. Not that it was something that ever had the chance of occurring, even if Logan lived forever.
