‘Succession’ stars Sarah Snook, Matthew Macfadyen on the unforgettable Shiv-Tom scene in season premiere

Christopher Rosen
·3 min read

The following piece contains spoilers about “Succession” Season 4, Episode 1

The final season of “Succession” picked up a few months after the shocking events of the Season 3 finale and tied off one of that episode’s biggest cliffhangers: the fate of Tom and Shiv’s relationship after Tom stabbed his wife in the back and sided with her father, Logan, in the sale of Waystar Royco. In the final moments of the “Succession” Season 4 premiere, “The Munsters,” Tom and Shiv officially decide to end their marriage.

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But in typical “Succession” fashion, the confrontation between the estranged couple happens without a true confrontation. Returning home from the West Coast late at night, Shiv declines to get into a “full accounting of all the pain in our marriage,” as Tom suggests. Instead, she pushes them to simply split up on as good of terms as possible.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Shiv actress Sarah Snook said of her character’s decision, “She’s hoping that Tom will fight back. She’s throwing out barbs and saying, ‘We should break up. We shouldn’t be together, we should just call it quits now.’ [She hopes] that he might argue back and say no, no, there’s space, convincingly, and try and convince her to stay so that she has the power.”

But Tom declines, despite having little closure about their relationship or his decision to side with Logan over Shiv. “He didn’t have the chance to discuss it or explain his reasonings, or to have the chance to tell her that there wasn’t anything he did that she wouldn’t have done or wouldn’t do,” Tom actor Matthew Macfadyen said to the same outlet. “She shuts it down, and it’s quite sad.”

Still, despite the somewhat cordial nature of their split – the pair end up holding hands while lying in bed – the Shiv-Tom divorce will likely be pretty acrimonious. A teaser for the upcoming season showed the pair engaging in numerous arguments, and Snook said to TV Line that sparks will indeed fly.

“There’s a lot of great stuff coming up with Shiv and Tom,” Snook said. “It was really fun this season because Matthew and I got to explore different aspects of the relationship between them. There’s a great argument that happens. It was really fun to yell at Matthew and have him yell at me. It’s quite a thing to have someone who’s so lovely yell at you!”

“Succession” airs Sundays on HBO.

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