It's been just a few days since Logan's earth-shattering death in the "Succession" world, and his funeral has finally arrived. It feels like we've been grieving the loss of the Murdoch-like media titan forever, but the wound is still very fresh for the Roy siblings, and their newly formed scabs are ripped open in this gut-wrenching episode.
Kendall and Roman might have been crowned co-CEOs, but the coronation demolition derby is still well underway. Some of the sibs have been handling the death better than others, while others get hit like a freight train. This is an emotional day, but power games aren't put on pause out of respect for the dead — he was the one who set those games into motion, after all. Roman kicks off the morning by joking that Kendall will "emerge victorious as the winner of the funeral," but there really is a winner in the end, isn't there? That winner might not be Kendall, but it sure as s*** isn't Roman.
12. Roman The Showman
The youngest Roy boy took a big swing when he decided to speak at his father's funeral. He's been spiraling pretty hard since Logan's death, but his house of cards hadn't collapsed just yet. He'd accomplished exactly what he wanted on election night, and it felt as though everything was coming up Roman. He goes into his eulogy with a prepared monologue and a somewhat rare self-assuredness — besides, he pre-grieved! — but after sitting through Ewan's meticulous takedown of the man he was assigned to build up, reality sets in and Roman falls to pieces.
If only his public breakdown was the worst moment of Roman's day. Mencken really played Roman on election night, and he clearly loses any remaining respect he had for Roman when he starts sobbing uncontrollably. Kendall takes advantage of Roman's vulnerability to assert his dominance (anyone up for a game of dog pound?) which means Roman's not even the top dog on the losing team. To make matters worse, a clip of his meltdown is "circulating," and even Gerri feels bad for him.
Goading a crowd of protestors into beating him up was a fitting ending to Roman's terrible, horrible, no good very bad night. He "tried to Dad it," as Kendall so cuttingly puts it, to blow up the world and not care who he hurts, but he couldn't handle it. He's too sensitive and he pushes too far. He tries to remind us of Logan a little, and he fails.
11. Tommy Boy
Tom hasn't really slept since election day. He's been stuck at work and is unable to make the funeral of his protector, the man he was so close to, the only family member to watch Logan die. On top of that, Tom's marriage has been falling apart for the entire season, most recently complicated by his ex-wife's pregnancy as well as her affair with Matsson. Consequently, Tom's been staying at a hotel, and it humiliates him — the people there recognize him, or so he thinks.
Despite all the hours he's been putting into work, Tom's job is still very much at risk. Matsson has all but assured him (by way of Shiv) that he will be fired when he takes over the company. As the head of ATN, Tom also might have to take the fall for the controversial decision to call the election for Mencken. The boy from St. Paul was held responsible on PGN on election night, which scared him, but the next day his role was "diminished" in the papers. He should celebrate not being held too culpable for something potentially criminal, but since he's on the wrong side of history anyway, it's more important to Tom that he comes across as a powerful decision-maker. As he puts it, "there's no point joining the party unless you get your little dacha."
The only moment the sun shines on Tom in this episode is when he finally makes it to the funeral. His exhaustion, grief, and general sadness finally break him into tears, and Shiv takes pity on him. Even though it was a tough day for Tom, his sadness sparked a rare sympathy in Logan's icy daughter that her husband hadn't seen in some time.
10. Shiv's Baby
When Shiv was keeping her pregnancy a secret, it was easier to imagine that she might have a hidden soft spot for her future kid — after all, she made the conscious decision to become a mother, right? But now that Shiv has started speaking about her pregnancy, she's beginning to paint a picture of the life that her future child will have — and boy, is it bleak.
Her marriage with Tom is obviously on the rocks, so there's no telling what type of relationship their child will have with its father. But regardless of custody, it's likely that the kid will be distant from both parents. "I'm not gonna see it," Shiv sneers at her own mother, "I'm just gonna do the family way." She definitely has the disposable income to hire round-the-clock care for her child, so she doesn't necessarily have to raise her child herself — and it seems that she doesn't care to.
To make matters even worse, Shiv refuses to take care of the child even while it lives in her womb. She has been seen drinking and doing drugs throughout the season, but it was always ambiguous. She was never seen taking a real sip, just raising the items to her lips or nose, potentially to gain Matsson's trust. This time, there was no two ways about it — Shiv had several sips from a glass of champagne with no ulterior motives other than to agitate Tom. If Shiv was drinking this time, she was probably drinking all those other times she had a glass in her hand. Her disregard for her child's life is jarring, saddening, and scary. I'm just glad it's only a TV show!
9. Frank
Everyone wants Frank on their team these days. For those that aren't familiar with his job title, Frank is vice-chairman of the board at Waystar — that is, when he's not moonlighting as the evil parrot on Captain Kendall's shoulder. Kendall approached Frank in "Living+" on a manic upswing and tried to recruit him into another round of rebellion — in other words, to help him achieve his "one head, one crown" vision. Riding the high of the election, Roman approaches Frank with a plan of his own at Logan's funeral — that is, before his big old meltdown in front of everyone.
Luckily for Frank, he hasn't hitched his wagon to either of the Royco C-E-bros just yet. He left his options open and decided on the best horse to back. It's unclear if Frank still has a dog in this fight but, between Roman and Kendall, Kendall seems like the obvious choice. Moreover, Frank has always had a soft spot for the elder Roy son and has teamed up with him several times against the rest of the family.
The only reason why Frank's not further up in the ranks is that he's still between a rock and a hard place here. Kendall might have had a better performance than Roman so far, but he's also clearly relapsed into using cocaine regularly. His worsening addiction is a ticking time bomb, and if Frank gets too close he might become a casualty of Kendall's implosion.
8. Kerry
Logan's friend, assistant, and advisor has had a rough go of it since the big boss kicked the bucket. Her informal attachment to Logan left her with no claim to his fortune, and she wasn't even allowed back into his bedroom to collect her things — merely given a bag of assorted belongings and walked out by security. Marcia treats her late husband's mistress very coldly at first, but at Logan's funeral, things change.
Kerry finally gets her redemption arc with Marcia in "Church and State," with Marcia even going as far as to hold her hand in comfort. Kerry is publicly recognized as someone who was close to Logan and pulled into the very front row with the rest of his family. Chuckles the Clown is finally able to grieve comfortably among the people that knew her lover best. She isn't making any power moves, but it's not such a bad day to be Kerry.
7. Kenny
Kendall appears relatively triumphant in this episode, so you might be surprised to see him so low on the list. Despite his half-decent speechifying, the golden fail-son's success is only comparative. The bar was set pretty low when Roman broke down into violent sobs, so Kendall didn't have to do much to upstage him. He definitely came across as more capable a boss than his brother, but he also sounded completely insane.
Kendall spent an eternity rambling about Waystar's "geysers of power" while his nose ran like a geyser. This was the clearest indication of the return of his coke addiction that season 4 has given so far. There have been lots of hints, from relentlessly gnawing on sunflower seeds in the season premiere to the manic energy of "Living+."
In addition to the cocaine use, or perhaps because of it, Kendall is completely delusional about Waystar's prospects. He thinks that a dying legacy media empire that was struggling to stay afloat just six months ago can somehow "eat" the rapidly growing streamer as well as another legacy media company, PGN. Pitching eternal life to the shareholders with completely fabricated projections might have been better received than Roman's rampant firings and public meltdown, but it still won't do much to save the company long-term.
There are a couple of reasons why Kendall's not at the very bottom of the totem pole this week — firstly because Roman has to be there, secondly because he's starting to assemble a pretty solid team with Hugo, Colin, and Frank, and lastly because he hasn't crashed and burned just yet. Still, I'd be surprised if we make it through the finale episode without seeing Kendall's addiction drawn out into the light.
6. Rava And Jess
Kendall's ex-wife might be a bit alarmist, but she is nothing if not perceptive. She knows something is going down with her baby daddy and her city, and her instincts are to protect her children from them both. After being sympathetic to some upsetting personal and business decisions from Kendall, Rava finally puts her foot down and pulls the kids upstate instead of bringing them to Logan's funeral. Rava has a lot of power over Kendall, and he has finally forced her to use it.
But Rava isn't the only woman in Kendall's life that's speaking up in the wake of the election. Jess is clearly freaked out by ATN backing a candidate with white nationalist ties and decides to quit. She plans to tell Kendall another day, but he eyes the time slot on the schedule and forces her to say it on the morning of his father's funeral. Jess definitely hesitates, but she doesn't relent. Kendall relies on Jess for everything, from fetching his coat to fetching his coke, and is going to be undeniably lost without her. Even though Kendall is technically her superior, she ranks higher than him on the totem pole tonight.
5. Ewan, Back With A Vengeance
Logan's brother totally swerves the quad squad's combined efforts to keep him from speaking at the funeral. He walks right on up to the podium and puts them all in their place with a single sentence: "What sort of people would stop a brother speaking for the sake of a share price?"
Ewan has never been shy about voicing his criticisms of his brother, and Logan's death didn't change that fact. Unencumbered by the burden of minding the company, Ewan was free to speak his mind and tell the ugly truth about Logan, as well as to reveal some of the horrible shared experiences of their childhood. He goes into detail about the tragedy of Logan's youth that formed his hardened character, and in the end, he writes his later brother off as "mean" and "meager." As always, he leaves nothing left unsaid.
The only reason Ewan isn't higher up in the ranks is because he doesn't play power games. He simply wanted to speak and speak he did.
4. Lady Caroline
The Roys' impish British mother is sewing her usual mischief but, this time, she uses some of her powers for good. She immediately notices that Shiv is pregnant and doesn't even give her the chance to deliver the news herself. Then, in a stroke of evil genius, she facilitates a truce between Marcia and Kerry.
Caroline pulls Kerry into the front row and forces Marcia to make amends with her by introducing them both to Sally-Anne, Caroline's own "Kerry" from back when she and Logan were married. Not only does Caroline get one over on Marcia, but she also sticks it to Logan from beyond the grave by publicly recognizing his mistresses. "God, Logan would hate this," she chuckles.
The only point against Lady Caroline is her husband. He is clearly a social climber, but the part of their marriage that's most embarrassing is not his conduct, but the way that his wife speaks about him. Making fun of Peter behind his back calls attention to Caroline's poor choice of a husband and makes her look cold-hearted. If it weren't for Peter Munion, Lady Caroline would have won the day.
3. Lukas The Viking
The election night debacle worked out pretty well for Matsson. The media frenzy gives him an opportunity to bury his funky numbers in the news cycle and avoid any serious blowback in a masterful move by Shiv. Kendall and Roman's big fumble most likely pushes shareholders even further in favor of the deal and it also surrenders their power over Mencken, giving the Swede an opening to pillage their village.
Not only are he and Shiv able to swipe Mencken from Team KenRo, but they also still have Jimenez pulling for them. With neither candidate willing to block the sale for the fail-sons, Matsson's prospects are looking pretty good. The only trouble is that he owes a lot to Shiv, and in turn, he is forced to put a lot of power in her hands by giving her the title of U.S. CEO. Shiv is definitely the smartest of her siblings, but that's a pretty low bar. Is she really smart enough to run the Gojo-Waystar empire, and is Matsson smart to trust her?
2. Pending President Elect Jeryd Mencken
It might be Logan's big day, but Mencken is the name on everybody's lips. At the big right-wing media party, there isn't a person in the room who doesn't want to rub elbows. From Greg to Kendall to Roman, nearly every surviving member of the Roy family is vying for his attention, but in the end, it is Shiv who wins out.
After ATN called the election in Mencken's favor, they lost any sway that they had with him. Now, they were forced to back him regardless of whether he helps them block the sale of Waystar or not. By Kendall's own admission, Mencken has the Roy bros' "d***s in his hand," and he can do whatever he wants with them.
Mencken never had too much love for Kendall, but he and Roman had a good rapport. Unfortunately Roman bursting into tears didn't fit into Mencken's rigid masculine ideal, and he loses any respect he had left for the youngest Roy brother. He even makes a jab and takes a shot at Roman, who fails to weather the joke with grace. Kendall rushes to his brother's defense, but it's just the kind of policing and coddling that reactionary conservatives are so repelled by.
The C-E-bros put the ball in Mencken's court, and now he can pick any side he wants. Shiv and Matsson make an offer, and he goes with the winners, thereby sealing the losers' fate.
1. Shiv Roy
It took until after his death, but Shiv finally proved that she really is more like her father than any of her siblings. She knows what she wants, she negotiates cleverly for it, and this time, she gets it.
Matsson is right to give Shiv what she wants. She pulls his funky subscriber numbers out of a hat and makes them disappear. She commands a room of powerful men with her eulogy and measures criticism with compassion, delivering a compelling and sober speech that easily tops her brother's keyed-up monologue. And in yet another win against Team KenRo, Shiv grabs Mencken onto her team.
Shiv has been pushing for Matsson without reaping any rewards, but she's finally figured out what she wants and how to get it. She demands to be made U.S. CEO of Gojo once it acquires Wayster, then convinces Matsson he'll have total control — "They say she's Matsson's total puppet," she jokes. And as a testament to her tenacity, Shiv doesn't let the pregnancy stop her from anything — even drinking.
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The post Succession Season 4 Power Ranking: Divided We Fall In Church and State appeared first on /Film.