Spoiler alert: this recap is for people watching Succession season four. Don’t read on unless you’ve watched episode six.
Hirings and firings. Ghosts from the past and fears for the future. Here are your board recommendations on the sixth episode, titled Living+ …
We’d recognise those F-bombs anywhere
Sir Brian of Cox said he’d filmed some flashback scenes and here they were. We opened on the disconcerting sight of the late Logan Roy filming a launch announcement for a new product, Living+. Not to be confused with the defunct TV channel, this was “a cruise ship on dry land” – essentially timeshares in a retirement-cum-holiday village. Or “prison camps for grannies”, as Shiv (Sarah Snook) put it.
Irritated by makeup touch-ups and a request to be “more upbeat”, Logan snapped in familiar style: “Stop buzzing around me. Fucking useless, the lot of you. As bad as my fucking idiot kids.” Cut to son Kendall (Jeremy Strong), watching the video with the Waystar comms team. Awkward. “Good to see you, dad,” he muttered to the craggy face glowering from the screen.
We were at Waystar’s Hollywood studio, preparing to unveil the new offering on Investor Day. As their PJs crossed at a refuelling stop, incoming owner Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) popped in for a barefoot flirtatious chat with Shiv. He had a proposal: be his “girl on the inside” at Waystar. As Shiv weighed it up, Matsson pointedly mentioned how her brothers “went mental” during Norway negotiations, behaving “totally unprofessional and dumb”. His account was about to be contradicted.
Lies, damned lies and projections
Having failed to torpedo the deal last week, the “CE-bros” flipped the script on their mountaintop meeting. They claimed Matsson had melted down like a “human Chornobyl”. Together with his tweets (more of those later) and rumoured drug use (pots and kettles, boys?), could they recommend such an erratic buyer to the board? With half the sale price paid in stock, they’d be exposed if things went south.
The exec team waved away such worries. Matsson was an eccentric genius. Besides, the sale was progressing fast. Due to decades of practice, Shiv saw straight through her siblings’ lame lies, busting them for “trying to fuck the deal”. As they apologised for not looping her in, she didn’t look appeased. “Operation Fruitloop” had backfired.
Kendall’s plan B? Price Matsson out of the sale by causing Waystar stock to rocket. How? Pitch Living+ as a digital proposition, rather than real estate, so analysts would give the firm a tech valuation. Energised to the point of mania, Kendall hatched hare-brained schemes to cover all angles. Fold in health benefits which promised to extend users’ life, add razzmatazz to his launch speech and bully the finance team into bumping up the projected numbers. Quad squadder Greg (Nicholas Braun) was dispatched to deepfake the Logan video so it predicted double earnings, not just “a significant boost”. Fraudulently manipulating the market? What could possibly go wrong?
Roman got trigger-happy
Roman (Kieran Culkin) lived up to his name by behaving like a power-crazed emperor. A meeting with studio head Joy Palmer (Annabeth Gish) immediately turned tense. He vowed to “turn on the money hose” if she could produce some hits but was unimpressed by Joy brushing off the disastrous Kalispitron movie. She further got his back up by raising concerns about the rightwards lurch of ATN, which jarred with Hollywood’s liberal values. When she hinted that Roman was a nepo-baby (“I’m sure you are where you are for a reason”), toys flew out of prams and he fired her. “Hooray for Fuckywood” indeed.
General counsel Gerri (J Smith Cameron) was furious he’d left them open to litigation, calling him “a weak monarch in a dangerous interregnum”. Roman demanded respect. She needed to believe he was Logan’s equal. “Say it or believe it?” asked Gerri. When he denied “minding shop”, she rumbled what he was up to. “You can’t win against the money,” she warned. “Your dad knew it. Tech is coming. We are over.” With the petulance of a spurned lover, Roman promptly fired Ger-bear too. Notable how both sackings were older women who’d challenged his fragile ego.
Already regretful, Roman was surprised to find Kendall backing him, hailing it as “a baller move”. Both brothers were desperately trying to imitate Logan’s volatile style. Yep, they were tribute bands.
Shiv, laugh, love
In a meeting room for “an appointment I can’t reschedule”, we saw Shiv in tears. Had it been a medical consultation and she’d lost her baby? Interrupted by estranged husband Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen), she claimed it was “scheduled grief”. A comfort hug turned into a kiss. Well, it beats earlobe-flicking.
Later at a party, the pair reverted to love-hate negging. When Tom apologised for breaking her heart, Shiv insisted he’d barely scratched the surface, although her face told a different story. They played a game of “Bitey” – in full view of fellow guests – which turned out to be bizarre but effective foreplay. They promptly slept together. Sex with your ex was deemed “nice, very nice”. I was delighted by this rekindling.
Pillow talk saw Shiv confess about her conspiratorial relationship with “the striking Viking”. Tom wanted her back full-time and admitted he’d betrayed her for money, trying to secure his future. Shallow, sure, but would she throw out all her riches to live together in a trailer park? Uncharacteristically romantic Shiv replied: “I’d follow you anywhere for love.” They laughed it off but it was an air-punch moment. Tom sat in on her next Matsson call, feet on the desk. The power couple were back. Could they keep it strictly business at work? “I can’t help it if I find strategy sexy,” said Tom. Shiv smirked. Aww, you guys.
‘Weirdest double act ever’
Investor Day was rapidly unravelling for snake oil salesman Kendall. He wasn’t happy with the stage props, while Shiv and CFO Karl (David Rasche) were worried by the falsely inflated numbers. Realising he’d be implicated, Roman backed out of “co-piloting” in matching flight jackets. Crestfallen Kendall looked set for a tailspin to rival his 40th birthday bash or aborted comedy show appearance.
We watched through our fingers as he walked on stage to the strains of Public Enemy’s Harder Than You Think. A bit Brent-meets-Partridge. After some bizarre banter with virtual Logan from beyond the grave, he got into his stride. Sure, Living+ was mainly meaningless buzzwords, but it played well. When Kendall linked “life extension therapies” back to his dead father, damp-eyed as he said “an extra year with my dad would be priceless”, it was a hit.
Matsson tried to hijack the launch with an incendiary tweet (“Doderick macht frei”, tastelessly connecting the studio’s cartoon dog with Auschwitz). Asked about it in a tricky Q&A, Kendall acquitted himself well. On Shiv’s advice, Matsson deleted the tweet. As Kendall got a hero’s welcome from the Waystar sycophants, the share price soared. Had the siblings snatched victory from the jaws of defeat again?
We left with Roman repeatedly pressing play on a prank deepfake of Logan – he hadn’t “pre-grieved” at all, had he? – while Kendall took a dip in the Pacific. Water is often an ominous motif (see the car crash and Tuscany pool) but as he scratched “1” in the sand and floated on his back, this felt more buoyant.
The heir apparent
Shiv still has Matsson on side, but Kendall overtook her. Living+, we have lift-off.
Line of the week
“Big shoes, big hat, big nervous breakdown” – Roman’s running commentary as Kendall’s speech got off to a shaky start. Narrowly beats his “If I cringe any harder, I might become a fossil.”
Notes and observations
No sign of Connor and Willa this week. Hope they’re not still stuck at the funeral parlour, arguing about sporrans with Marcia.
This episode was directed by Lorene Scafaria, who also made a knowing voice cameo as the director of Logan’s promo vid.
Kendall’s Upper East Side penthouse is for sale, if you’ve got a spare $29m. More affordable is Waystar RoyCo-branded “swag” at HBO’s webstore. Just the thing for your next corporate retreat.
A tense episode of corporate brinkmanship, recalling last season’s “piss-mad” shareholder meeting. Rejoin us here next Monday. In the meantime, pitchbots, please proffer your thoughts and theories below.
