Succession Recap: High Altitudes, Bad Attitudes — Is the GoJo Deal Doomed?
Succession‘s Roy siblings jetted off to Norway this week to hammer out the GoJo sale — but did Lukas Matsson drop the hammer on them instead?
Kendall’s swagger is back as Sunday’s episode opens, cruising into the Waystar building while listening to hardcore hip-hop, just like he did in the pilot. He basks in applause from his employees as he enters — and gazes at his father Logan’s empty office. He and his fellow co-CEO Roman get right to work, approving reshoots on a troubled movie before turning to the GoJo deal. Kendall is flying to Norway to meet Matsson and wants to squeeze out a few extra dollars per share before sealing the deal, but then they get an email that GoJo wants all division heads to come to Norway, too. It’s a “cultural compatibility check,” they’re guessing, but Kendall is undeterred and pumped to play hardball: “Let’s bleed the Swede.” Greg is just excited to meet some “Arctic foxes,” but Hugo warns him they’re all going to have to justify keeping their jobs. Plus, Tom is worried Shiv could fire him at any moment, now that Logan isn’t around to shield him from her wrath.
More from TVLine
Succession's Stars Look Back on Their Favorite Scenes So Far — Watch Video
Succession Recap: The Grief Is Wearing Off, and the Knives Are Coming Out
On the plane to Norway, Shiv is seeing a bunch of hit pieces about Logan, so Kendall orders Hugo to “crucify” whoever’s responsible — which would be him, of course. When Shiv persists, Kendall distracts her by suggesting they could “cut Tom’s throat.” And she might be considering it? Karolina marvels at GoJo’s staff, which is loaded with impressive young people, “a NASDAQ master race.” Will the deal be a bloodbath? The Waystar veterans are worried, but Gerri shrugs them off as soft Europeans: “They may think they’re Vikings, but we’ve been raised by wolves,” meaning Logan F—king Roy. They arrive in Norway and settle in at a woodsy outdoor retreat, and Kendall decides that 144 is the absolute minimum stock price he’ll accept in a deal. Oh, and Connor is calling them and bugging them with details from Logan’s burial. (Marcia wants to bury him in a kilt?)
As the Waystar staff mingles with GoJo’s hearty Euros, trying to seem youthful and useful, Kendall, Roman and Shiv meet with Matsson, who laughs that they brought the likes of Gerri and Frank in with them: “You guys scared to come talk without the village elders?” He pulls Ken and Roman into a private room, and when Roman hints they’re looking for more cash, Matsson scoffs: “I feel like I’m going through the checkout at a sale and being asked to pay more.” He still wants a deal — but he wants ATN included now, at a share price of 187. Roman protests that Logan wanted to keep ATN carved out, but Matsson keeps pressing them on the new offer: “You like it a little bit, don’t you?” Kendall and Roman take the deal to “the village elders,” who love it, and Shiv thinks ATN is “a toxic asset” now that news has leaked that presidential frontrunner Jeryd Mencken’s team is sitting in on ATN editorial meetings. Roman still wants to honor his late dad’s wishes, while Kendall maintains, “We can’t navigate by Dad maps.”
Greg awkwardly tries to huddle with Kendall, Roman and Shiv, dubbing the four of them “the quad squad” — yeah, that’ll catch on — while Tom awkwardly sits down with Matsson and his GoJo cronies and fumbles his way through some talk of international politics. But really, “we’re just passing time until you come up with a counter,” Matsson pointedly tells Kendall. Roman wants to know what his offer is minus ATN, but Matsson insists, “You don’t want ATN.” He has a new vision for it, and laughs out loud when Kendall calls Waystar “a trusted brand.” He calls them “a parts shop… good parts, bad brand,” and when Kendall pushes back, Matsson sneers that he’s just “a tribute band.” Ouch. But hey, who wants to sauna? Matsson later pulls Shiv aside and levels with her: “When it comes to money, just say the f–king number.” He asks her if a deal is still possible, and she says it’s “potentially” still there for the taking.
Kendall and Roman aren’t sure where to go from here, and Kendall admits he kind of wants to tank the whole GoJo deal at this point. He thinks they can run Waystar themselves, and when Roman reminds him Logan wanted this deal, Kendall calls Matsson “a bad fit… He’s going to destroy everything Dad built.” They’ll need to make Matsson think it’s his idea to nix the deal, though: “It’s like a tightrope walk on a straight razor,” Kendall says. But he’s smiling! And Roman is onboard, too. Meanwhile, Matsson and Shiv are getting closer: They snort drugs together — did a pregnant Shiv actually partake? We didn’t get a definitive look — and Matsson confesses to repeatedly sending his blood to an ex of his. (Oh, and she’s GoJo’s current head of communications, by the way.) Shiv says this could be a PR nightmare (“Denying it is difficult, given that she has so much of your blood”) and offers to help shepherd him through it, and he’s clearly impressed by her: “I like you. You’re cool… You can take a joke. I like that. Like your dad.”
Kendall gets Greg to leak to the press that “the deal vibes are bad” and makes the GoJo executives sit through a rough cut of that troubled movie — that’ll get them to reconsider! — while Shiv tells them Matsson will go high to get ATN in the deal. Ken decides on a price of 146 without ATN, or “a crazy premium” to include ATN. (Plus, Shiv and Tom have an ugly encounter where he slaps her and calls her earlobes “thick and chewy,” and she taunts him with how “very conventionally attractive” Matsson is. Does this count as flirting for these two?) Roman is dogged by Connor’s constant texts about Logan’s body as he and Kendall ride up to the top of a Nordic mountain to meet Matsson. “Are you Scooby-Doo-ing me?” Matsson demands to know, pointing out their transparent efforts to kill the deal. “I preferred doing this with your dad,” he sniffs. “He was a prick, but at least he knew what he wanted.”
Roman insists Logan was not a prick, but Matsson adds, “I think he’d be embarrassed if he saw you now,” threatening to bypass them and go straight to the board to finish the deal. He casually walks up the hill to take a piss, and an angry Roman follows, reminding Matsson how he once callously asked when Logan was going to die. Their father just died, but Matsson dragged them out to Norway anyway, Roman complains, calling him an “inhuman dog-man.” He accuses Matsson of killing Logan (“You drained the life out of him”) and impulsively declares they’re not selling to him. “We are gonna grind you down” until Matsson gets bored and moves onto another deal, he vows, adding: “I f–king hate you.” Matsson gets right in his face and laughs, telling him, “You just f–ked yourself.” Roman says he can claim this was all just a negotiating tactic before marching off with a stunned Kendall behind him. Well, then!
On the flight home, Frank gets a call from Matsson… and he has a new offer: 192, including ATN. That’s a huge number, and the rest of the team celebrates, but Roman and Kendall sit stone-faced. Shiv tells Tom she wants to make some moves at ATN, but instead of firing him, she tasks him with firing Cyd instead. (And she asks him out to dinner?) Matsson calls Shiv and asks her to send him a photo of her brothers’ faces, which she does — they don’t look happy — while the Waystar staff scroll through a “kill list” of potential post-sale cuts. Hugo, Frank and Karl are out; Karolina, Gerri and Tom are still in. Kendall, Roman and Shiv toast the lucrative new deal with flutes of Champagne… but we’re not sure how sweet that bubbly tastes to Roman.
Got thoughts on that dramatic episode of Succession? (Did Roman, in fact, just f—k himself?) Hit the comments below and give us your take.
Best of TVLine
Get more from TVLine.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
