The final season of Succession is only just getting started, but Logan Roy (Brian Cox) wastes no time heating things up. We’re just two episodes in, and the Waystar Royco dictator (we’d say CEO, but he feels more like a world leader) may have just selected his successor to the throne.
(Warning: Spoilers ahead for Season 4, Episode 2 of Succession, “Rehearsal.”)
At the beginning of this week’s episode, it was hard to believe that Logan would select any of his rebellious children to be the next CEO of Waystar Royco. Lo and behold, it only takes a birthday text and a confrontation at Connor’s (Alan Ruck) dismal wedding rehearsal dinner to change his mind. A handful of offers are made in this episode—let’s unpack all of them, from Kerry’s (Zoe Winters) new anchor gig to the lead position going to Roman (Kieran Culkin).
Logan’s full attention is on ATN at the beginning of the episode walking around the office as if “Santa Claus was a hitman,” per Greg (Nicholas Braun). In an effort to revamp the news division—and possibly receive a present in the bedroom as a thanks, yuck—Logan suggests Kerry as a new anchor for the show. Head of ATN Tom (Matthew MacFadyen) has no choice but to agree (though she has no experience), though Logan recuses himself from commenting on the matter. Kind of.
Kerry fails terribly. Remember in the early 2010s when news gaffes went viral online, instead of TikToks and celebrity legal drama? The good old days. Succession reminisces on that time, creating a rapid-fire clip of Kerry’s blunders. She laughs when announcing deaths. She waves her hands around as if she were a third grade teacher pointing to numbers on a graph. It’s a pain and a pleasure to watch, and everyone from Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Shiv (Sarah Snook) to Hugo (Fisher Stevens) and Gerri (J. Smith Cameron) watch on repeat.
No one thinks she can handle the gig. Then again, who has the balls to tell Logan he’s wrong, and his girlfriend/assistant shouldn’t be on the news with no training whatsoever? Apparently the answer is Greg. For what already feels like the umpteenth time this season, poor little Cousin Greg is forced to go against Uncle Logan. Tom forces the younger family member to give Kerry the bad news. She doesn’t take it well. Greg tells her there was a “confidential focus group” to lessen the blow. (There was, in fact, no focus group.)
So, perhaps Logan’s pick for the new lead ATN anchor was a little off target. No big deal. A little hilarious comedy of errors never hurt anyone—especially not in Succession. But it appears that, in that same vein of poor choices, Logan has made his call for the Waystar Royco CEO. Maybe?
Brian Cox.
Macall Polay/HBOThough the kids have appeared united in their front against Logan, it seems that Roman is a traitor. On his father’s birthday, Roman texted Logan to send good wishes and apologize for not appearing at his party. Roman plays it off like nothing—it’s only a few texts!—but Shiv and Kendall accuse him of nothing short of blasphemy.
When Logan arrives at Connor’s rehearsal dinner, he apologizes for… well, everything, it seems, because the man can’t pinpoint a specific thing that hurt his children. There are plenty! Still, it’s truly wild to see Logan apologize for anything at all. One might say pigs have flown, but I’d argue the whole barn is in the sky, when Logan says he regrets some of the actions he made with regards to his children’s involvement in Waystar.
The kids blow Logan off immediately, though Connor is quick to defend him. Logan says he missed seeing them on his birthday. They laugh in his face. Logan’s tired of the games, so he offers them the deal of a lifetime: To separate business and personal lives. The three of them run Pierce, he runs Waystar, and they carry on with their personal lives together, as a family. Fat chance! Logan has molded his children to be so business-brained that they have no interest in actually being his kids. It’s a harrowing moment, seeing these children reject the love and security they so crave from their father.
But one of them is actually interested in the idea of reconnecting—but in a more business sense. Near the end of the episode, Roman breaks the trust of his siblings again. Clearly, if anyone’s going to flip, it’s going to be Roman. Both Shiv and Kendall are trying to completely screw their dad over with the GoJo sale, but Rome is the only one who sides every so slightly with Daddio.
Kieran Culkin, Alan Ruck, Sarah Snook and Jeremy Strong.
Macall Polay/HBORoman does the walk of shame over to Logan’s, where his father makes him an offer he can’t refuse.
“I’m reinventing ATN. I need a firebreather—a ruthless fuck who will do whatever it takes,” Logan says. “You’re not Pierce. Smart people know what they are.”
“You really want me at ATN?” Roman fires back.
“More, Romulus,” Logan counters. “More. I need you.”
Sounds like that’s the big CEO title to me! Logan has offered up the position to both Shiv and Kendall in seasons past, so this pitch to Roman doesn’t really stand, in my view. Roman’s betrayal of his two siblings is the bigger twist here, since Logan seems to be offering the job to a new kid each season. (Sorry, Conn.) But seeing as this is the last season of Succession, and there are only eight episodes left, this could be Logan’s final offer.
Keeping Up With the Roys
Even though they may not be in the main plot, we still want to highlight the most blazing burns and spiciest moments of Succession. Here they are from this episode:
-Kendall starts uttering quotes from whatever Buddhist bullshit he found online. (I’m not saying Buddhism is B.S., I’m saying whatever Kendall believes Buddhism to be is B.S.) “Nice Tom Fords, Buddha,” Roman says, shutting his brother down immediately.
-After Willa (Justine Lupe) leaves Connor at their rehearsal dinner (a little better than the altar), Connor thinks he can do better than her. “You’re not doing better than Willa, dude,” Kendall says. “Yeah, don’t get rid of her,” Roman agrees. The harsh realization…
-As Kerry faces an awkward confrontation from Greg about being fired from ATN, he tells her that the “focus group” (uh huh) is completely confidential—even to Logan, the CEO of the company. Kerry fires back: “If this focus group isn’t real, I’m going to take you apart like a human string cheese.”
-“This is Guantanamo-level shit.” This could be about almost anything in this episode—Tom’s treatment of Shiv amidst their divorce, Kerry’s anchor job, the entire rehearsal dinner—but no, it’s specifically about Connor doing karaoke. He selects “Famous Blue Raincoat” by Leonard Cohen. Perhaps I’ll be adding this tune to my karaoke rotation for pure camp value.
-We saw part of this in the trailer, but Logan really goes after his kids before parting ways with them: “You’re such fucking dopes. You’re not serious figures,” he says. “I love you, but you are not serious people.”
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