Succession – The Munsters

By: Kelly Kearney

“Succession” is back and it’s been four months, give or take, since Tom shivved his wife in the back and when dickpicgate misaligned Gerri and Roman’s interests, but now is not the time for tears, now is the time for reinvention! With the Waystar/GoJo deal set to go through in a matter of days, Logan contemplates life after death and the scorched earth legacy he’s leaving behind. As his health declines by the seasons, we’ve seen the Mad Roy King bob and weave with lady death before, but in the season 4 premiere, it seems Logan is finally ready to look her in the face and tell that Hell-queen to, “f**k off!” It all comes to a head on his birthday, when Kerry throws him a party filled with employees and yes-men, but missing from the crowd are three out of four of his children. Connor is there, of course, because he was never considered a threat to his father, but the other three played Logan’s game and got burnt one too many times to join in on the best wishes. Now the powerful patriarch can add moping to his long list of exhausting traits–not that it’s affected his business acumen– that’s as sharp and conniving as ever, but with the clocks ticking all over the place on his reign and this massive Gojo sale, the birth of “New Gen Roy” attempting to make, “their own piles” of cash adds an interesting kink to his future plans. So, let’s dive right into what’s going on in this, the final season, with the filthy rich and slightly fascist family we love to loathe.

The Hundred

We open on Logan’s (Brian Cox) birthday four months post-Italy. Everyone is in attendance but the ones who matter most. The three kids Logan tossed to the curb in Season 3 are avoiding their father’s big day by staying in L.A. and getting high on ideas and new ventures. Well, at least

Kendall (Jeremy Strong) is high – mostly on himself  – but also maybe on “horse,” too? The point is, they are together and brainstorming this new idea Ken describes as “substack meets masterclass meets the economist meets the New Yorker.” All three have been lining up investors to back this new company Roman (Kieran Culkin) proudly calls The Hundred. Speaking of the Slime Puppy, in between X-rated photos and masturbatory phone calls to Waystar’s acting CEO, Roman really picked up a few things from his mommy-girlfriend. He is more competent than we have ever seen him before proving he really is the little Logan that Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron) had always thought. Enter Shiv (Sarah Snook) who is late to the meeting her brothers called with the money backers for their new business. She uses traffic as her fishy excuse and even with a nose probably paralyzed by drugs Ken can smell her lies. From across the room he asks, “Shivvy, are you snaking?” Both Roman and Kendall heard she has been talking to the Jimenez transition team which flies in direct opposition to their father’s presidential pick, Jaryed Mencken. Shiv is a self-preserver and in this unstable landscape she is maneuvering, where nothing is a done deal and everything exists in the land of maybes, she is keeping all of her options open. Jimenez might not win the election and their father – regardless of what her brothers think, might not sell the company to Matsson (Alexander Skarsgard), and this venture of theirs might not work out. Her fear of commitment has always extended beyond her marriage, which is now in shambles thanks to Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) growing a spine and stabbing all three of them in the back. Roman isn’t surprised by his sister’s inability to make up her mind, but he has made up his. He thinks The Hundred is a slamdunk but does wonder if Shiv’s hesitation comes from it being a small-scale project and not their usual big brand. She keeps saying she’s in, but he knows she is never all in on anything and typically bails before the disappointment kicks in. So, admitting she’s kept her options open just means she has one foot always out the door.

Coincidently, Logan is also bouncing back and forth about his decision to cut the kids out. One minute he is happy they’ve taken themselves out of the line of succession and the next he’s obsessing about them missing the party. The thrill of the hunt is gone now that the kids refuse to run around squealing in front of Daddy’s crosshairs. Without his favorite players in the game, his party is dull and full of geriatric co-workers he’s referring to as “The Munsters.” That doesnt include the loyal Tom and his sidekick Greg (Nicholas Braun) who brought along a nosey, selfie-taking date named Bridget (Francesca Root-Dodson). Kerry (Zoe Winters) who is now Logan’s girlfriend and three-headed guard dog at the gates clocks this Bridget problem immediately and nips the whole date thing in the bud in case this girl isn’t who she seems. She reminds Greg of the position Logan is in now that he’s in the middle of a large sale with Gojo, a hotly contested election for the White House, and looking ahead to an obsessive acquisition he just won’t drop. “We’re not a f**king Shake-Shack, Greg, This isn’t a pre-f**k party. It’s a birthday party.” We can only assume she’s been trained by the Stone-cold killer bitch Gerri Kellman on how to deal with idiot Roys because she practically tackles Greg with insults about how dumb the idea was of his date. Kerry is out of her shell in this episode, with every interaction seemingly planned, plotted, and surprisingly unflappable considering the verbal prowess of some of these Roy players. She doesnt even flinch when Greg brings up Logan’s wife, Marcia, like a weapon he thinks will put her in her place. No surprise, it doesnt work because Marcia is on an eternal shopping spree in Milan, and Kerry is in New York, knocking Greg down a peg or three with her special brand of quiet volatility. Later, we see her attitude pop up again when she’s on the phone with Roman negotiating a birthday phone call none of the kids have any interest in making. They won’t budge until their father takes that first step, but the old man’s pride sends Cerebus to negotiate a text instead.

The Business [not] Date

There is no time for birthday wishes when Shiv is reminded of why she left New York in the first place. After receiving a phone call from Tom where he informs her of a non-date he recently had with Naomi Pierce (Annabelle Dexter-Jones), she is a ball of confusing panic and rage. Tom claimed he was calling in an attempt to get ahead of any rumors about the two being seen together, but if it wasn’t a date (as he continues to insist) could it be about business? Is this heads-up a clue to what Logan’s acquisition might be, and if so, why would Tom spill that piping-hot tea into his angry wife’s lap? Is he feeling guilty about the rules of their separation–where both are free to date other people or is he struggling with his role in what went down in Italy? Is he tossing out Pierce as bait to tempt her back to Logan’s game or to their marriage? He must be looping her in for more reasons than his marital vows, and no one would be shocked if Logan was behind it.

After the call, Shiv is fired up about what this Tom and Naomi Pierce angle could mean. Putting The Hundred’s financial backers on hold for a moment, she fills Roman and Kendall in on the call and now thanks to an Instagram post from Bun Pierce’s friend Bridget, they have a good idea of what’s going on. Their father is keeping ATN after the Gojo deal and simultaneously gearing up for another attempt to takeover Pierce. Beating Nan is Logan’s life-long obsession and combining her company with ATN means he would have a monopoly on the news cycle while ensuring Menken (Justin Kirk) – his fascist choice in candidates, wins the election. Logan is changing focus and now so are his kids, well… maybe not Roman. The youngest son loves this idea they came up with and wants to find success separate from their father’s. They were doing a good job of it too until Tom called, and now Roman is wondering if this whole thing isn’t their father jerking them around to ruin their new plans. Unfortunately, his concerns are downvoted by Kendall and Shiv, who think stealing this deal out from under Logan would not only be funny but might prove to him they are the worthy adversaries he was hoping they would be. The Hundred is heading to the backburner for now.

As for Tom, he is dating all the supermodels he can land one-night-stands with and he’s even formed a bachelor club of two with Greg, referring to themselves as “The Disgusting Brothers.” They feed off each other’s sexual conquests, which is why Greg made the terrible decision to hook up with Bridget–the possible “hostile corporate asset” at Logan’s party. Tom can’t help but be delighted at this news because Logan has the entire house rigged with cameras. Greg just made his uncle a very special birthday sex tape. Tom tells him to get ahead of this and in perfect Roy fashion, winds up throwing Bridget under the bus claiming she was a sexually aggressive drunk!  Logan responds with a smirk and crass gag about smelling his finger and then orders Colin (Scott Nicholson) to toss the interloper out. Greg doesn’t even bother saying goodbye to her, he just lets Logan’s bodyguard do the work because he would rather not know what goes down in his uncle’s version of GITMO.

Meanwhile, we check in with Connor (Alan Ruck) who is obsessing about the election ten days away. The eldest Roy son is worried his one percent in the Presidential polls might get “squeezed down” to the decimals if he doesn’t inject some cash into the media cycle. A hundred million should do it but the reality of flushing that money down his gold-plated toilet isn’t sitting right with him. He tells Willa (Justine Lupe) the loss wouldn’t bankrupt him, but with such uncertainty in his father’s business Connor is having second thoughts. What’s his plan B? Convincing Willa to let him turn their wedding into a media circus that captures everyone’s attention. Connor wants to stay in the conversation and he will sacrifice Willa’s dream day to do it. Let’s hope her inner bridezilla is the news coverage he was going for because it’s time she stood up for herself instead of allowing him to plow over every one of her concerns.

The Acquisition

“I feel like we’re in the middle of a bidding war,” says the manipulative matriarch, Nan Pierce (Cherry Jones) when the siblings show up at her home to make a play for her company. They let her know their capital is “robust” and unlike their father who will dismantle her liberal legacy and turn it into a Democracy-killing alt-right propaganda machine. Shiv, Roman, and Kendall wouldn’t do that. At least not now that Mencken is likely to win the election and drag the country back to the 1930s. With Tom on the other end of the phone doing Logan’s bidding, Nan plays both sides against each other hoping to hear a number she likes. She keeps them all guessing after Logan underbids at six billion and the kids overbid at ten. They are cashing in all their chips while Logan is entertaining himself with a little humor. He has time to kill so he forces the C-suite and Greg into roasting him. Nobody wants to take that bait, not Frank the wordsmith- who for once in his life is at a loss for words, and certainly not Gerri, who is still deflecting dickpicgate jokes while trying to be that filing cabinet nobody notices. Well, nobody but Roman–who could really lighten the mood in this chilly room with that classy sense of humor he is known for. Especially after the whole room goes quiet when Greg tries his hand at roasting and brings up the fact his mean uncle’s kids are nowhere to be found. Terrible timing, as usual, Greg the Egg!

After a tense back and forth highlighting the differences, or lack thereof, between the greed-driven Roys approach to business and the pearl-clutching manipulative tactics of Nan Pierce, the kids finally shake on a ten billion dollar deal. They finally beat their dad by handing Nan the figure she was always going for regardless of her supposed detest of bidding wars and money negotiations. When Logan hears that the bidding is closed and the kids were the winners, he finally gives them a call but it’s only to insult them for, “saying the biggest number, you f**king morons!” They finally got to him, and Ken and Shiv couldn’t be happier, but Roman still isn’t sure how he feels. He really had his heart set on The Hundred, but like always, he buckled under that sibling pressure.

The Break-up

After Logan gave Tom a non-answer to his question about where he would stand in the company if he divorced Shiv, he finally gets a chance to talk with his wife when she wanders home to pick up some clothes and refamiliarize herself with their dog, Mondale. Somehow these two never talked about Italy, and Shiv makes it very clear it isn’t worth bringing up now. She is ready to say goodbye to their marriage and any attempts to talk about their feelings are met with an ice-cold stare. It seems like this is the end for these two but divorce talk is exhausting so Shiv lies down in the bed with Tom next to her holding her hand. It is their final gesture of a love that’s been lost since the day they said “I do.”

Fresh off his recent loss but focusing on his next project, the episode ends with Logan in his chair watching ATN’s late-night programs. He is disgusted with what he sees and blows up Cyd Peach’s (Jeannie Berlin) phone asking her if she’s losing her news mojo. Their anchor is soft and Logan wants bigger, meaner, country-destroying chaos, and if Cyd can’t deliver then her time at ATN might be up. Logan has never been on the losing side of a deal and we all know what happens when a wolf like him is backed into a corner and told to fight for relevancy. If there is any country left after this warring family is done tearing each other apart, it won’t be thanks to his nepo-babies buying Pierce, but it could have something to do with a little chat he had in a diner with Colin about what happens to our legacies once we die. Sometimes they live on in our children, and other times those children find freedom in the certainty of your death.