Succession – Living+

By: Kelly Kearney

“Long live the kings and queen,” says Karl this week in episode six of the acclaimed series’ final run, but after decades with Logan competently running the company the question remains: can the sons fill their father’s incredibly large shoes? In “Living+” the co-CE-Bros are tasked with convincing Waystar’s investors at their yearly meeting in Los Angeles that they are the right fit to lead Waystar into the future–or at least get to the other side of the deal with Matsson. The trouble is, the two didn’t just inherit Logan’s company, they also inherited his taste for brutality– something both Roman and Kendall spent a lifetime trying to overcome while it wiggled its way into their psyches and created–let’s just say, quirks in their personalities. With everyone but the co-CEOs on board with the GoJo merger, Roman and Kendall flex their Roy muscles, and in the process, prove Logan Roy was right: they are not serious people.

“Good to See You, Dad.”

Logan (Brian Cox) lives! Well, on video anyway. In a pre-recorded presentation meant to be delivered at the yearly investor’s meeting in Los Angeles. The topic for this year’s gathering is ironically a senior living facility Kendall (Jeremy Strong) plans to sell as the ultimate elderly resort that may help you prolong your life, if not forever. Living+ combines real estate with assisted living facilities in a Disney-esque resort setting Logan hoped would replace the cruise portion of Waystar’s entertainment sector. Cartoon characters coming to change your bedpan and read you your last rights isn’t exactly the easiest sell, but with the help of Logan’s recorded words maybe Kendall can convince the company’s investors into backing it.

The brothers loop in Shiv (Sarah Snook) via Facetime as she sits stuck on an airport runway waiting for her plane to refuel. Her interest in their father’s video takes a backseat to a barefooted Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) shimmying his way into her airspace. Apparently, the billionaire blood fetishist was also fueling up nearby and figured he would kill some time flirting with Waystar’s princess-turned- queen in name only. Shiv knows never to trust a man with sex eyes offering deals on the tail end of calling you his “buddy” because no matter how attractive he and that 191 billion are, she knows he is quietly sharpening his backstabbing blade. They don’t call her “Shiv” for nothing because she too has been sharpening the knife she’s fitted to her brothers’ backs and doesn’t need Matsson’s help; although playing both sides of this deal from the middle seems to be Shiv’s comfort zone. As the two stranded billionaires bounce between complement and thinly veiled insults, Matsson turns their banter towards filling Shiv in on what went down on the mountaintop with Roman. While she is interested, she does an excellent job of not taking his bait. She kindly boots him off her plane, but before he makes his exit he tells her to keep him “looped in” and calls her his “girl on the inside,” which prompts her to respond with an “F**k you, my boy on the outside.” She plans on telling her brothers about their little chat but he doesn’t seem too worried about that. He has something Shiv wants; a chance at beating her brothers.

Killing the Deal

At Waystar Studios, the CE-bros kick Shiv out of her father’s seat in the boardroom and get down to business. Frank (Peter Friedman), Karl (David Rasche), Karolina (Dagmara Dominczyk), Tom (Matthew Macfadyen), and Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron), all want an update on how the sale is going. Investors Day aside, Kendall and Roman broach the subject of Matsson and their concerns about his outlandish behaviors. They fear the tech bro’s antics could spook investors and tank their fifty percent in stocks if the deal were to go through. The brothers are trying to sell their walk back from the GoJo deal but nobody is on board with discussing the possibilities without the two offering a legitimate reason. They failed upwards into a very nice boost in the sale price and the wallets keeping Waystar in fascist news and robot movies won’t be interested in giving that up just because Matsson is eccentric and uses drugs recreationally. To be honest, it is hysterical that either CE-Bro thinks they are any better. Shiv, who already knows her brothers are lying, pushes them to explain this, “erratic behavior,” they found so concerning, and they both start to ramble on about meltdowns and Lukas being a “human Chernobyl.” Their reasons aren’t specific enough to pull back from this massive deal and everyone else at the table expresses this. Roman goes a step further and lies about Matsson secretly admitting he didn’t want the deal and that it was solely driven by the GoJo board, but that is equally hard for everyone at the table to understand. Tom questions if Matsson’s behavior was a negotiation tactic–the very excuse Roman said he would use if Matsson went to the Waystar board with his mountaintop meltdown, and that’s when Gerri steps in to compartmentalize their worries. Yes, his behavior is bizarre and they should keep an eye out for any other possible disasters on the horizon, but tech geniuses acting weird isn’t new. Besides, “his reputation is priced in.” Karl reminds everyone that the bankers backing Lukas have all been professional, and in the end, that probably matters more than drugs and mailing exes his blood. The Roy boys aren’t convincing, and with everyone hoping to get their massive payouts once the deal goes through, they will have to come up with something better than the guy is weird. Once the Old Guard leaves the room the brothers apologize for once again leaving Shiv out of their plans. She’s not buying Roman’s excuses about feeling proud of the price bump and that kept them from admitting–even to themselves, this tech bro might not be the right fit to lead their father’s company. She calls out on their lies because nobody knows them better than she does, and accuses them of trying to kill the deal. They can’t lie to her face, so they come clean; Kendall claims he was trying to protect her and Roman admits Lukas was denigrating their father’s memory not even 48hrs after the man died. She reminds them that they all agreed to get out of Logan’s shadow and buy Pierce and run it together but Kendall interrupts her to sweeten that deal with a promise that they can still buy Pierce and keep Waystar too. They fail to convince her that this is a good idea and fail even harder at getting her to believe they left her in the dark for her own good. When they attempt to hug it out, the embrace is cold and looks nothing like the previous sibling group hugs we’ve seen from these three throughout the series. Shiv is on the outs now and that’s a dangerous place for Pinky to be when she has their competition–Matsson, on speed dial. The awkward hug gets interrupted by Shiv’s assistant letting her know she is late for her scheduled meeting, and we quickly realize that the meeting is her daily moment to grieve. Unlike her brother, Roman, who has been claiming he pre-grieved their father’s death, Shiv has taken to scheduling grief times in order to cry in private. Nobody knows about this until Tom walks in and sees her red-eyed and stumbling to make excuses. Immediately her walls go up and she tries to cover up her tears, but her soon-to-be ex-husband knows when his wife is upset. She tells him the truth and the two have a moment where Shiv ends up kissing him!

Roman the Wrecking Ball

In another office at the L.A. studios, Roman and Kendall brainstorm ideas for the outdated speech their father planned on giving to the investors about their, “personalized longevity program.” Living+ combines Waystar’s entertainment sector of the cruise division with an assisted living community. Kendall waits for his team to come up with information on how long longevity actually is, with the hope they can sell this idea to the elderly and suck them dry of their last pennies before they hit the dirt. Disney’s death’s door aside, Roman excuses himself for a meeting with studio exec Joy Palmer (Annabeth Gish) about that out-of-control budget for their robot movie, Kalispitron. Still reeling from his father’s sudden death combined with the stressors of diving into the CEO’s role, on top of his fall out with Gerri, which he is convinced inadvertently led to him killing Logan with a voice message, Roman is falling apart the moment he sits down with the studio executive. He refuses her offer of condolences by claiming he is all- full of them, and then gets right down to business; he wants Joy to fire the director of the movie and Waystar will flood her company with money to back any number of franchise films in the future. She comes clean and admits the talent is having issues with the right-leaning news of ATN and they would rather not be associated with it. They have a collective concern “about the democratic institutions” now that the company is backing Jaryd Mencken. The Hollywood PR machine tends to avoid attaching their names to any sort of fascist, and Mencken is certainly that. Roman steamrolls over her concerns when he picks up on her attitude over his competence when making business decisions. “I’m sure you are where you are for a reason,” doesn’t boost his confidence in her. In fact, he is insulted, and in what can only be described as a poor man’s imitation of Logan Roy, Roman fires the woman on the spot. So much for the old Roman who expressed his distaste at firing a woman in a leadership role because it looks bad for a company trying to stay relevant in 2023…that Roman is in some sort of grief coma and is allowing this Roman to wreck his future and risk everything Logan built.

Back at the studios, the video of Logan isn’t the only idea Kendall is working on for his big presentation; #1 boy also wants to turn his speech into an event that rivals some introspective experience he had in Berlin–fake clouds, cheesy set houses on stage, and all. Ken has monkey- brain, swinging from one ludicrous idea to the next, and like all uber-wealthy people, nobody dares slow his manic roll. His team has 24-hours to bring his massive vision to life, but his stagehands just aren’t seeing it get done in that time frame. Ken– full of Co-CEO ego, isn’t interested in hearing nos and makes a new rule of the day, “no one can say no.” The Roy Boys are running amok as they try to steer this ship from the confines of their father’s shadow. They are like two cosplayers swimming in Logan’s extra-large suit, they look ridiculous lashing out at anyone and everyone who questions their decisions. They expect the same respect their father earned over the course of decades–through the sweat of hard work and the bloodletting of corporate deals on the battlefield of late-stage capitalism, these soft man-babies have no idea what it means to get in the gutter and fight. They only saw their father as a larger-than-life sometimes hero, sometimes villain, who wielded his power from his throne never once paying attention to how he earned his crown. They are soulless and hollow copies of Logan Roy–the father they hated almost as much as they worshiped, and now they dishonor his memory with this caricature of the man they thought he was.

Things Get Nippy With Tom and Shiv

Speaking of men we thought we knew, divorced Tom has a bit of a bite about him–literally, now that he is untethered from his Roy family connections and trying to ride whatever wave of success he can hop on to. At a party with the investors, Tom runs into Shiv and they are both still thinking about that kiss. They flirt the only way they know how–with insults and bragging about Tom’s supermodel hookups he and Greg seem to be notching their belts with these days. The two push as much as they pull, sticking the dagger in and extracting it with a joke and a laugh eventually agreeing on the thing that brought them together wasnt love, but their shared attachment to wealth and acquiring it. The playfully toxic banter leads to Tom apologizing for screwing her over with Logan, and she laughs in his face because Shiv Roy will never admit to weakness– especially when it coincides with love and business. To some degree, whether either of them believes it or not, Tom is being genuine with his apologies but everything is mind games with these two and that quickly evolves into a physical game Shiv calls “bitey.” “You bite me, I bite you, see who can take it,” and she’s not kidding. They cross arms in front of all the partygoers–not that anyone is paying attention to them, and sink their teeth into the other’s fleshy forearm. The first one to give up loses, so Tom chomps down hard and Shiv is impressed by his ability to hurt her. It might be the first time she’s looked at her husband with respect.

Back at Waystar Studios, Kendall is coming up with his own little game to beat Matsson and the board without ruining his chances as CEO. He’s brainstorming ways to use Living+ to drive up the company’s worth and ultimately the price well past that 191 billion dollar offer. A cute little idea starts forming with his “personalized longevity programs” which is just a fancy way to say milk the elderly out of their retirement on immortality grifts. According to Karl, Matsson can’t go beyond 192, but if the company gains market value then the deal could fall through without them sabotaging it and ruining their chances with the board. Kendall thinks they can get the real estate project considered as a tech valuation by selling Living+ as an app that promises seniors the impossible. Greg (Nicholas Braun), who is shockingly the voice of reason in this meeting, finds it difficult to sell houses as tech because people kind of know the difference between the two. Kendall disagrees but jumps from one random idea to the next, thinking he can make it work because his mania tells him he can do anything, he is Waystar’s co-King!  As they work up the numbers, Roman gets called out of the meeting by Gerri who is livid over him firing Joy. The woman is connected and will bury them under a mountain of lawsuits, he can’t just fire anyone he pleases without running it by legal AKA her first! Still stuck in his pre-grieve phase and disappointed in her not rushing to pick up all of his broken pieces and mommy-girlfriend him back together, Roman unleashes his anger on Gerri claiming she doesn’t respect him in the same way she did his father. He then practically begs her to tell him he is as good as Logan and when she asks him, “say it or believe it,” her honesty snaps the very last brittle straw propping up his composure. He lashes out at her saying the unthinkable: that she isn’t good at her job if she can’t see firing Joy was the right business move and maybe that means he should fire her too! With her chin quivering she whispers to herself that she is good at her job, but he’s done listening as he twists the knife by questioning her mental sharpness and then admits he couldn’t care less what Matsson wants. Sure, he planned on keeping Gerri around after the Gojo deal but she has no idea he isn’t planning on going through with it. She picks up on his vague admission and panics, trying to talk some sense into him. She knows he can’t win over that 191 billion– the money always decides who gets to wear the Waystar/Gojo crown and he has no power over that. The co-CEOs are just stand-ins until that deal goes through, but Roman can’t listen to her reasons and fires her on the spot and storms out of the office. He almost instantly regrets his decision and runs to Ken to fill him in on firing Joy– which his brother seems to approve of, but when he says he also fired Gerri, Kendall is shocked and sort of delighted. Chaos is what these two Roy boys seem to feed off of, so Kendall cheers the Gerri decision and laughs over who his scamp of a little brother plans on firing next. Kendall is all about burning down Waystar and building something new, but Roman was never about that life nor would he ever think Gerri was bad at her job. His pre-grieving didn’t work because he is starting to crumble and take the company, his father’s memory, and the one person he cares about most, down with him.

Matsson Trolls Kendall’s Take-off

It’s finally the day of the Investor’s meeting and Kendall is less than thrilled with the stage setup that didn’t exactly recreate his Berlin cloud machine dreams. It’s a good thing Greg was able to threaten the editing team into putting fake words in Logan’s mouth in support of Living+ because the matching pilot jackets Ken had made for the CE-Bros to wear on their big coming-out day look as ridiculous as Roman quietly thinks they do. No amount of Top Gun imagery is going to save him from another round of on-stage embarrassment because Mr. L to the OG rap God, has always excelled in that subject. In fact, after cringing through the dress rehearsal, Roman takes Shiv’s advice and bails on joining his brother for the presentation they both know has a decent chance of turning into a disaster. He can see his brother’s manic energy calling the shots and is well-versed in the signs of Kendall spiraling into some bender. Roman wants no part of whatever public humiliation Ken is signing up for and tells him he is on his own seconds before pushing him on stage.

As the lights go up, Kendall is determined to convince the investors, his siblings, the board, and maybe even the ghost of his father talking on the jumbo screen, that he can step into Logan Roy’s shoes. Shockingly, and without much help from facts or proper figures, he does great! He manages to convince the crowd that Waystar is getting into the business of immortality through, “character IP life enhancement,” by explaining–poorly, how it combines a delivery system for pharmaceuticals with real estate and wellness tech that was once only available to the wealthy. It’s a hail-Mary pass that, with the help of Logan’s edited words, carries Living+ into the endzone. Logan explains to the audience how Living+ brings cruise ships to dock permanently and could double their profits. The double part is where Greg’s editors did their magic, and the investors are so hungry with greed they never even ask to see the stats on that, they just cheer and put a smile on Kendall’s face. The one person who isn’t smiling is Matsson, who after hearing about this plan and complaining to Shiv about it on the phone, Tweets a horrific Holocaust joke comparing Kendall to Doderick the Dog– a beloved Waystar cartoon character, to the Wolf of Auschwitz. He Tweets the words over the gate of the concentration camp, “[Doderick] albeit macht frei” (translation “work sets you free”), by comparing Living+ to some Nazi eugenics program, and as expected, the internet is shocked by the comparison. Someone in the audience asks Kendall what he thinks of Matsson’s Tweet, and it catches him off guard because he hadn’t read it yet. After a bit of a stutter, he recovers by chalking it up to Matsson being European and promises the tweeter will change his mind once he sees the profits roll in.

After the speech, Kendall is crowned the new King of the Waystar and celebrates his win with a swim in the ocean. The scene is a far cry from season two when his failures found him drunk and face down in a swimming pool in what was rumored to be an attempt to take his own life. Now the second-born son might have finally earned his CEO title, but at what cost? Opening the company up to SEC violations when the investors find out that doubling profits was a lie? While he is swimming–smitten and slick in his own glory, Roman and Shiv are licking their wounds on the car ride home. Shiv in her own car, is sitting next to Tom listening as he plans an election party with ATN. On a much sadder ride home, we find Roman in his own car listening repeatedly to another edit of his father’s speech. This one singles him out with insults about his competence and penis size, and it is like another stab in the heart delivered from the grave. The one son who was abused the most by that man almost seems to crave that abuse because he’s somehow confused ridicule with attention and love. He cringes as he listens but he can’t seem to stop. This “kick the dog to see if it comes back” tactic of parenting is just one of the many ways Logan Roy broke his children. Without the time to grieve for the man Logan was, or for the man they all wished he could be, the two kings and queen of Waystar are destined to allow their grief to dethrone them. The question remains: who will step in to replace them?