'Succession' Season 4, Episode 5 Recap: Shiv’s Got Moves
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Spoilers below.
Now is not the time to underestimate Siobhan Roy. Especially after the last couple of episodes (or, according to the Succession timeline, the last couple of days), which have seen her repeatedly shut out by her brothers. She wasn’t in the room while they were on the phone with their dying father as he gave his final breaths; by the time she got on the line, it was too late. And she doesn’t get to share the title of co-CEO with her brothers, to avoid scaring the board and buyer Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård). Plus, she tripped down the steps at her father’s wake in front guests while 20 weeks pregnant, and is still in the middle of divorcing Tom. And so, in episode 5, “Kill List,” she takes a little bit of the power back.
But first, as the episode opens, Kendall is back on his bullshit: listening to Jay-Z in the back seat of his black car, on the way to Waystar Royco HQ. “Takeover” is an apt soundtrack as he returns to the building as Logan Roy’s underlined—or crossed out?—successor of choice, carrying on the title of co-CEO with Roman.
His fellow CE-Bro (Hugo’s suggested nickname, which is vehemently shut down) is already at the office, nearly exhausted from the onslaught of emails and memos from Kendall and the team as they gear up for GoJo negotiations. (Shiv wasn’t cc’d on all the correspondences.) Another drops in their inboxes: a request from Matsson to meet the whole crew in Norway for a “cultural compatibility check” as the deal approaches. He even has a list of specific names he wants present. So, to GoJo’s team retreat in Norway they go.
Everyone has their own concerns en route to Scandinavia. Greg is eager to scout “hotties,” Roman and Kendall are in dress rehearsal mode, Tom isn’t sure what to do with the sight of Karl rolling up his compression socks, and the others are starting to worry about their younger, more impressive GoJo counterparts. They’re of a “NASDAQ Master Race,” the usually unshakeable Karolina points out. If the deal goes through, there likely won’t be multiple people in the same role. When Matsson acquired a video game publisher, there was less than 10 percent retention. Heads will certainly roll…but whose?
Gerri shakes their fears with a pep talk: “They’re European. They’re soft.” She adds, “They may think they’re Vikings, but we’ve been raised by wolves. Exposed to a pathogen that goes by the name Logan Roy.” What better advantage could they have?
Let me take a moment here to gawk at the scenery and note that, yes: the setting for Matsson’s Norwegian retreat, Juvet Landscape Hotel, is the Ex-Machina house. Nestled between foggy mountains, with sleek modern architecture and floor-to-ceiling windows looking out to lush forests, the venue is so disarmingly beautiful you could forget you’re about to have a high-stakes billion dollar deal with the devil within its walls. But business is strictly on the Roys’ minds. That and whether Connor can have “carte blanche” in dressing Logan’s body for the funeral (lest Marcia put him in a kilt).
Not long after the team starts sizing up their competition over welcome pastries, Matsson arrives in a windbreaker, hood on. The wardrobe choice is douchey, laid-back, slightly unhinged, and may or may not be a gag—much like his negotiating tactics. As he sits down with Roman and Kendall for round one of bargaining, he’s a cocktail of mind games, power moves, and bad jokes. But he makes an interesting offer: He wants to buy the whole operation for $187 per share (his previous offer was only $144) including ATN (reverting to the original deal). The tension is palpable as Kendall and Roman exchange looks in silence, trying to read the other’s mind. They need to take a break and reconvene.
Karl, Frank, and Gerri see Matsson’s new offer as a win, and Shiv is fine with losing ATN and its toxic reputation, but Roman winces at it. Ever loyal to his father, he wants to keep “Dad’s pride and joy” and nurture it. He and his siblings are all trying to figure out what their father would’ve wanted to do, but they’re struggling to navigate “Dad Maps,” as Kendall says.
Meanwhile, Greg has yet to snag a hottie but did pick up useful intel: there is a kill list of eight or nine names who will be cut when the deal goes through. Upon hearing this, Tom tries to cozy up to Matsson, but epically fails while attempting small talk (prompt: “Will France make it?”), which leads Greg to jump in, followed by Kendall who re-starts negotiations with Matsson on impulse. The Roy siblings say the deal won’t work, but the Swede slaps them with the hard truth: he plans to Bloomberg-ify ATN, make it more tame and accessible, or as he puts it, “IKEA’d to fuck.” He thinks they’re a “bad brand” with “good parts” and he merely sees the Roy kids as a “tribute band” to their father—a lame knockoff of the real thing. Shiv has to step in to cool the guys down.
Come nighttime, Greg is bobbing his head like a chicken on the dance floor and the Roys are off to their own schemes. Kendall confides in Roman that he actually wants to kill the GoJo deal altogether. He likes running the ship, Matsson isn’t a good match for the brand, and Roman is into the idea of finishing their dad’s work. And in the spirit of Logan Roy, they’ll be doing whatever the fuck they want, “full boar.” They just have to make Matsson think that tanking the deal is his own idea. Roman wants to bring Shiv into the plan but Kendall is hesitant. “Can Pinky dance?” he asks, using the nickname Logan gave their sister. Thus, he and Roman get the sabotage ball rolling. (Who are the disgusting brothers now?) Kendall has Greg tell a journalist that no one at Waystar and GoJo is getting along and the “deal vibes” are sour. He has Jess arrange a screening of their troubled big-budget sci-fi movie, Kalispitron: Hibernation—the full, three-hour rough cut—the following morning.
While all this is happening, Shiv is having a one-on-one with Matsson in his room, over whisky and bumps of cocaine (while pregnant, but she doesn’t tell him that; she hasn’t told anyone). He wants to know the truth about the deal and she states the obvious, that if he offers more money, he’ll be able to get more. But he also wants her advice, as a divorcée-to-be, on his own relationship issues: He’s been sending half a liter of his own blood to his ex as a joke, repeatedly, and it’s turned into a serious problem and potential PR crisis. Also, the ex is GoJo’s head of communications, Ebba. Yikes. After the Waystar deal, if Matsson’s creepy behavior goes public, the U.S. media would devour him, causing an economic impact on his company, Shiv says. She shoots him some quick pointers, like, um, stop sending people your blood, have an open meeting, and don’t fire Ebba. She even offers Gerri as a potential resource. Matsson is pleased. He likes Shiv because she doesn’t judge and can take a joke. “Like your dad,” he says. Music to Shiv’s ears.
The next morning, Kendall and Roman meet Matsson on a mountaintop for negotiation round three. The press story about bad deal vibes is out, the congregation is suffering through a Kalispatron viewing, and the brothers mention that their wannabe blockbuster has a “few issues.” Matsson clocks that they’re trying to spook him out of the sale. “Are you Scooby Doo-ing me here?” They deny. They’re committed to the deal, they say, but just need to slow it down because of the election, the transition of power, regulatory issues, yada yada yada. Matsson doesn’t like what he’s hearing. He’d much rather be negotiating with Logan Roy, who was “a prick,” he says, “but at least he knew what he wanted.” As Kendall continues to sputter, Matsson goes for the jugular: “I think [Logan would] be embarrassed if he saw you two now.”
This is when Roman “Pre-Grieved” Roy finally loses it. He scolds Matsson, while he’s urinating on a rock, for joking about when Logan would die and scheduling the negotiations for the day after his wake. He even goes as far as to blame him for Logan’s death, as the patriarch was on a plane to meet Matsson when he passed. If Matsson wants to keep pursuing the sale, they’ll slow down the process so badly he’ll just get bored and move on. In the end, Roman lays it plain: They won’t sell Waystar Royco to Matsson, and—cherry on top—“I fucking hate you.”
And just like that, it seems the deal has blown up in smoke. But as the Waystar crew flies back to the States, Frank gets a call from Matsson. The deal is still on. In fact, he has a juicy new offer: $192 per share, and ATN is included. The team starts popping champagne, but the brothers can barely touch their glasses. Matsson retaliated perfectly; he knew Kendall and Roman wanted to keep the company to themselves so he came back to yank it from them with an offer they couldn’t refuse.
Now, does Shiv’s new friendship with Matsson have something to do with that? Or was he just trying to screw her brothers over after they pissed him off? Her barely-suppressed smile hints at the former. Regardless, the offer sends her into an instant power trip and she finds Tom to warn him of changes at ATN, but it’s not him she’s firing. She’d actually like for Tom to fire Cyd Peach, the senior news division head, for being too power-hungry and too close to far-right presidential candidate Jeryd Mencken. (Apparently, his campaign team is dialed in on ATN’s morning editorial meetings. Not a good look.) In a surprising twist, Shiv even asks Tom out to dinner. Just earlier that morning, they were exchanging insults on resort grounds, with him mocking her “chewy” earlobes and her likening him to a “spelunker.” What a difference $192 per share makes.
Before Tom can accept her invitation, Shiv gets a call from Matsson asking her to send a photo of her brothers’ despondent faces, to which she gladly obliges. Greg can throw around as many family group nicknames as he wants (The Quad Squad, The Roy Patrol), but the siblings’ once-united front is failing faster than Kalispitron.
Elsewhere on the plane, Jess, Kendall’s assistant, has acquired an early draft of the kill list. Nearly every non-Roy on the plane is listed except Gerri and PR head Karolina, two people Shiv recommended to Matsson to clean up his bloody mess.
With this week’s Norwegian escapade, Shiv is back in the ring. But how long can she keep up the fight?
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