Succession Premiere Recap: You Can't Put a Price on Screwing Over Family
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Think the Roy family is just going to hug it out in Succession‘s final season? Yeah, we don’t, either.
A grumpy Logan reluctantly attends his own birthday party as Sunday’s Season 4 premiere kicks off, and Connor and Gerri are in attendance, as is Logan’s assistant/girlfriend Kerry. But his kids Kendall, Roman and Shiv are conspicuously absent. Instead, they’re busy developing their new joint business venture: The Hundred, a new media company that Kendall describes (in typical Kendall fashion) as “Substack meets MasterClass meets The Economist meets The New Yorker.” Shiv is late to the meeting, which makes Kendall and Roman suspicious: “Shivvy, are you snaking?” She admits she met with a political candidate’s transition team, but they just want “to talk about talking.” The Waystar sale to GoJo is only two days away, and they’re excited to start fresh with their own thing. The only worry Roman has about it is: “Is it literally too good?”
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Logan glances around and grimaces as the partygoers sing him “Happy Birthday,” seemingly looking for someone who’s not there. Greg is there, though, and he brought a new girl named Bridget — or, as Kerry calls her, “Bridget Randomf—k.” Kerry is highly suspicious of her: “Do you know she’s not a hostile corporate asset?” (She also says Logan’s wife Marcia is “in Milan shopping, forever.”) Tom calls Shiv and confesses he had a drink last night with Naomi Pierce (remember her?), but he insists it was only social, “not sexual.” A flustered Shiv runs and tells Kendall, who calls his past relationship with Naomi a “carnival of mindf—k.” Their antennae are now officially up, and they start to suspect Logan is making a bid to buy Pierce. (Again.) Roman thinks their dad is just messing with their heads… but if he is, it’s working.
At the party, Connor contemplates blowing another hundred million dollars on campaign ads to maintain his current polling — at one percent. (He wants to stay in the conversation!) Tom pulls Logan aside and tells them everything looks good with his deal for Pierce. “Have you heard from the rats?” Logan asks him. Tom says no, but he does ask if he and Logan will still be OK if his trial separation from Shiv turns into a divorce. “If we’re good, we’re good,” Logan tells him. Well, that’s reassuring. Meanwhile, Roman doesn’t want to buy Pierce; he wants to stay young and lean, and he’s not even sure they can afford it. Shiv figures it’ll cost 8 billion, and after the sale, they’ll have 2 or 3 billion between them, which is a start. As for The Hundred, Shiv says: “It’s very exciting… but it’s kind of bulls—t.”
Tom mercilessly mocks Greg’s date and her giant handbag, warning him she’s asking too many questions and eating “like a famished warthog.” And in his defense, she did just try to take a selfie with Logan, so… Shiv gets word that Pierce is “honor bound to another buyer,” but they didn’t exactly say no, so she gears up to go make a last-minute pitch to Nan Pierce. Logan is still moping; when Kerry asks if he wants her to reach out to his kids, he says he just wants to hear from Nan Pierce, and then he ditches his own party. Shiv confirms that Logan is the Pierce buyer, but she knows Nan Pierce hates him, so she’ll be willing to meet with them. Roman tries to protest: Kendall just wants to get back at Logan, and Shiv just wants to get back at Tom. But he’s outvoted.
Logan has a meal with his bodyguard, who he calls his “best pal,” and shares his belief that people are just “economic units” before lamenting: “Nothing tastes the same as it used to, does it?” (He doesn’t believe in an afterlife, either: “I think this is it.”) As Kendall, Shiv and Roman prepare to jet off to meet Nan, Kerry calls and asks if they’d consider calling their father on his birthday. They’re still waiting for an apology, though, and turn her down flat. Connor worries that his wedding isn’t “special enough” to get media attention and talks Willa into getting married underneath the Statue of Liberty with a brass band and… bum fights? (They’ll iron all that out later.) Greg brags to Tom that he and Bridget just got frisky in a guest bedroom, but he’s terrified when Tom tells him Logan has the whole place wired with security cameras: “He watches it back every night with a Scotch.” Tom tells him he needs to apologize — and when Logan abruptly ends the party and calls his inner circle into another room, Greg is convinced it’s about him. (Ha!)
Really, it’s about the Pierce sale, and Logan gets the word that his own kids are the rival bidders. He’s furious — and poor Greg is trying to tell him he fooled around in his house. He later tells Tom he assured Logan that he “never intended to soil these halls,” and when security kicks Bridget out for posting about the party on social media, Greg lets them confront her without him. (How chivalrous!) Nan meets with the Roy kids, but she tells them it’s a complicated deal and it might be too late. Kendall argues that Logan only wants to buy her company to run it into the ground, and Shiv promises they can be “competitive” on price. While Logan waits to hear back, he prods his staff into roasting him to break the tension. They make some feeble attempts until Greg hits him with: “Where are your kids?” (Ouch.) Logan roars right back with an unprintable joke about Greg’s father, insisting to Gerri: “I’m not being horrible! I’m being fun!” Well, he’s having fun, at least.
After consulting her advisor, Shiv thinks they can offer 8 billion, while Logan tells Tom to come in at 6. Naomi tells Shiv they appreciate the offer, but they’re looking for “more upside.” Tom calls Shiv, and she asks him what Logan’s bid is, but he won’t say. She bluffs that their ceiling is 12, and Tom bluffs that theirs is, too. Shiv hangs up and thinks they need to go to 9.5, and Kendall suggests they go right to a nice, round 10 billion. Roman reminds them that half a billion dollars is a lot of money, but he eventually gives in, and Shiv goes back to Nan with an offer of 10 billion. “That gives us something to think about,” she replies, and soon, Tom tells Logan they lost it because Pierce received “a conversation-ending offer.” When Tom calls Shiv, Logan jumps on the call and calls them “f—king morons” before hanging up. They won! A very pricey victory, but still!
Shiv goes home to find Tom there and needles him about rumors of his sexual exploits: “Is Greg your wingman?” He offers to unpack their marital problems, but she doesn’t want to get into all that: She says it’s time to end it. Instead of crying and arguing, she thinks they should just wish each other luck. Tom offers to have sex one last time, but she declines. Instead, she lays down on the bed, exhausted, and so does he, at odd angles from each other. “We gave it a go,” she offers as they hold hands. (Watch our interview with Sarah Snook here.) And back at the townhouse, Logan is up late watching ATN when he calls a network executive to complain about what he’s seeing. He doesn’t like the anchor. He doesn’t like any of it. “Are you losing it?” he demands to know before hanging up. And doesn’t it seem like when he asks that, in that bellowing Logan Roy voice of his, that the words echo around that big, empty room of his and bounce right back at himself?
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