Succession Recap: Musical electric chairs
Wow. That’s all I got for an intro. Maybe the best episode of Succession ever? And I’m counting the one this season where the main character literally dies.
Let’s get into it.
“The CE-Bros/B-Roll Brothers”
Oh God cocky Kendall is back.
What I love about this show is how they’re able to draw on scenes from past episodes to make an impact in the present. Think about the similarities between this scene and the first scene of the entire series when Kendall:
Kendall is hyping himself up on the way to the office with rap
He’s about to be named CEO of Waystar
His imminent move is to make a deal with a prominent startup (Vaulter vs. GoJo)
It seems like history repeating itself right? Maybe not.
Kendall makes a point to tell Roman that he can’t have anything with the deal “play weak” and threaten his standing as executive. If you remember, Logan says the same thing to Kendall after he gets bullied at the negotiating table on the Vaulter deal.
This is Kendall trying to both learn from his mistakes and essentially take on the role of his father. If he can actually be his dad and not just a Costco-brand Logan Roy remains to be seen however.
Waystar Royco heads to Norway to meet up with the Swede at the final boss of douchey startup company retreats. Was hoping to avoid seeing this guy ever again because I feel violated every time we make eye contact through the screen, but he’s a necessary evil to drive the plot forward.
From the first minute of this retreat, it’s clear that the entire thing is a big dick power play by Matsson to get himself a favorable deal.
The power dynamics are so overt that the siblings have to literally meet him at the top of a mountain to negotiate. Also what an asshole saying “I know it’s not ideal” with a fucking fjord behind him. God these people are out of touch.
Look, the Swede is a fucking weird asshole creep. He’s wearing a hoodie indoors like a sith lord and has that eerie Midsommar-like Scandanavian thing going on.
But he’s not stupid. He’s good at business and he knows Kendall and Roman are inexperienced and at their weakest point with the VERY recent passing of their father.
This first negotiating session tells us two things:
The Swede is out for blood with Logan gone and he is trying to take the entire Waystar pie, ATN included
Kendall can kind of hold his own in this arena?
Matsson tries to shake Kendall’s confidence by bringing up the failed Vaulter acquisition, but Kendall cooly deflects this and continues on.
When they return to the bottom of the mountain with an offer, the siblings find themselves in three distinct places emotionally:
Kendall - He doesn’t like the deal and wants Waystar for himself. You can see he likes what brief taste of control he’s had so far and desires a lot more.
Shiv - She likes the deal insofar as it gets rid of this toxic asset the three have and gives her the freedom and money to pivot into a new direction with a baby on the way.
Roman - He’s conflicted. Part of him wants to preserve his father’s legacy, but the other part wants to do the deal his dad put together. Finishing this deal would be closure in a way for him.
The discussion also somewhat hints at the fact the siblings are trying to think as their dad would, rather than stand on their own as individuals. We’ll revisit these three shortly.
“Estrogen air freshener”
Night falls and shit is getting real. Kendall, has completely committed to tanking the deal because of his own desire to run his father’s company. (Whether or not that makes business sense is seemingly irrelevant.)
Roman sides with Kendall seemingly because he just isn’t in the headspace to make a decision more complex than boxers or briefs at the moment.
But Shiv is scheming. She’s retreated with Matsson to his weird Nordic lair to discuss the particulars of the deal. He’s coked-out and probably hammered and is telling her way too much.
Also, is she doing blow and drinking while pregnant? Those things are bad for you when you aren’t actively growing a person inside you. But I digress.
Matssen, in a twist that surprises no one, is a fucking creep. He mentions his assistant, whom he says won’t “let him in,” in a stroke of innuendo so thinly veiled that it’s translucent, before dropping the bombshell that he’s been sending her frozen half-liter bricks of his blood as a “joke.”
First off, classic prank. Who doesn’t send their homies bodily fluids? Half the popsicles in my freezer right now are just my urine. Keep telling the roomies that they’re frozen lemonade.
Secondly, how much fucking blood does this guy have? I would say maybe just donate that instead of turning this poor woman’s freezer into the elevator from the shining, but whoever gets that transfusion will definitely just die faster than they already would have.
Third, it would seem Shiv has stumbled upon Matsson’s great weakness: women.
He’s merely the latest in a long line of idiot men risking it all to impress a woman. From Adam taking the forbidden fruit, to Macbeth murdering Duncan, to me trying to show some girl I can get rim on a regulation basket then losing my balance on the landing and fucking up my tail bone then having to pretend it didn’t hurt even though I had trouble sitting for a few days.
Regardless, Shiv now has leverage on the Swede that she fails to mention when Kendall asks. Very curious…
“I don’t care what you think — you’re a tribute band.”
The boys head back to the mountaintop to negotiate and it’s clear that Kendall has slightly overplayed his hand, while underestimating his opponent.
Kendall tries to be covert and emulate his father by leaking news of the retreat to the press in an effort to tank the deal.
But Kendall isn’t Logan. At least not yet anyways, and Matsson sees right through it. So while the tactic fails in tanking the deal, it does succeed in irritating Matsson to the point that he drops any pretense of friendliness and tells the boys exactly what he thinks of them.
Matsson is one of those guys who will say some shit like, “You’re a dumb bitch and I hope your family dies,” then follow it up with “Omg I’m totally kidding bro.”
The guy is a prick plain and simple, and his quote that heads this section made me audibly gasp when I heard it live.
And Roman, fresh off seeing a photo of his father’s embalmed body, finally snaps at the Swede. In the most earnest expression of emotion we’ve ever seen from Roman, he lays bare all the cards on the table and tells Matsson what we’re all thinking: he’s an asshole.
He dragged them out to God’s dispensary just days after their father’s death, knowing that they weren’t in any kind of shape to discuss business, solely so he could leverage their grief for his gain.
And Roman satisfyingly tells him off…but at what cost?
“It wasn’t the plan, but maybe it plays.”
As the Waystar crew return to the states, Frank gets a call from Matssen, saying that he’s bumping the offer up to a level so high that the board will have to take it.
Naturally, everyone assumes that Kendall and Roman pulled a big move and landed the deal. But the sullen look on their faces says it all.
Roman’s cathartic revelation backfired. Matssen knew they weren’t going to sell to him willingly, so he had to put them in a position where they were powerless. And the only way to do that was to make an offer so good that they would be ousted as CEOs if they didn’t approve it.
In other words, he kind of made them his bitch.
How Kendall and Roman respond in the coming episodes will be something to watch, but the real character to keep an eye on here is Shiv. She gets a call from Matssen just after Frank, and is asked to take a photo of her brother’s faces so Matssen can revel in their confused misery.
Methinks that Shiv made a deal with the Swede. It would explain why she’s suddenly warmed back up to Tom and is discussing his future at ATN.
Their relationship actually kind of works in a weird way, but only when Shiv has all the power. She soured on him when he outfoxed her and took the upper hand. But if she’s in cahoots with the Swede, that means she controls Tom’s destiny. Case in point: when the kill list is read aloud on the plane, the only people saved are women, presumably because the Swede is a perv and all the guys are kind of useless anyways.
Except Tom. Tom is the only man saved of the entire executive crew. I wonder if someone made a deal for his life?
Miscellaneous Notes
The writers of this show are just the best. Matssen wants to make the whole negotiation a big dick pissing contest and he literally whips out his dick and starts taking a piss on the mountain.
The playground insults Shiv and Tom hurled at each other are the clearest indications that they still love each other that I’ve ever seen.
Ken is definitely about to do the “I’m not fucking leaving” bit with regards to the GoJo deal.
I bet Jeremy Strong just goes around every day life dissecting people’s behaviors as if they’re acting. Like he encounters a homeless guy asking for change and he’s like, “Wow, that was really powerful. Like I could actually see the literal hunger in your eyes. Really strong stuff man. Did you study under Adler?” And the guy is like “dude wtf just give me $5 so I can get McDonald’s and not die for another day.”
Winner of the week: Shiv
She’s making moves I’m telling you. Hell hath no fury like a pregnant shiv scorned.
Loser of the week: Hugo
Get fucking bodied pencil neck. First he gets alpha’d by his GoJo equivalent, who is a handsome former Olympian. Then he gets fired cause he does nothing and his dumb job is redundant. Lol pce bro.
Top 7 Quotes of the Week
7. “When a bear shits in the woods, it uses one of these I think.” - Roman
6. “Let’s just keep one of his old sweaters, less racist.” - Shiv
5. “Norway, Sweden, what’s the difference? They all descended from the same rapists.” - Tom
4. “It’s not like our dad died yesterday. It was a couple of days ago.” - Roman
3. “If a deal collapses in the woods and no one hears it, is it an SEC violation?" - Roman
2. “Just in terms of education and quality of life, Old Lady France fucking, don’t fucking bet against the old fucking, uh, the baguette—you know, the baguette might be mightier than the bagel.” - Greg using swears as a filler word like a Bostonian
1. “Deniability is difficult given she has so much of your blood.” - Shiv
Final Analysis
I’m telling you right now Shiv has something cooking. She’s not happy about being left out of the C-Suite with her brothers and is now doing everything she can to render them powerless. But Kendall is power-hungry and Roman isn’t willing to sell the last living piece of his father, especially to a prick like Matsson. It’s going to be a fun dynamic that hopefully includes less of the Swede. Guy gives me big ‘Epstein Island’ vibes. See you next week!
