It looks like all of the hype leading up to the season 4 premiere of Succession was well-founded because the first episode in the acclaimed series’ final season delivered on all fronts.
“The Munsters” featured a number of callbacks to the series premiere; it’s Logan Roy’s (Brian Cox) birthday but this time he’s surrounded by a bunch of stiff well-to-do people who seem to have no personalities.
Three of his children are missing from the event because they’re on a mission to take their father down. Connor (Alan Ruck) is there but he’s preoccupied with maintaining his 1% in the latest election polls (to have a place in the conversation, of course) while Shiv’s traitorous husband Tom (Matthew MacFayden) and Roy cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun) have their own battles.
Meanwhile, the Roy siblings are holing out in a swank Los Angeles hillside mansion plotting their new venture, The Hundred, a cutting edge media company that’s supposedly unlike anything that’s been done before. Roman (Kieran Culkin) is trying to nail down the most important aspect of their new company — namely, their logo and branding — and Kendall (Jeremy Strong) has strong opinions about it all. But when Shiv (Sarah Snook) arrives, they suspect she might have been plotting new ventures without them. She doesn’t hide the fact that she’s coming up with contingency plans given that they’re close to the election and she wants to have a fallback plan.
At the heart of the episode is the battle brewing between Logan and his kids. Logan is days away from finalizing theGoJo deal with Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgaard) but he’s still interested in acquiring Pierce as the final piece of his legacy. What Logan doesn’t know (initially, anyway) is that Kendall, Roman and Shiv are very aware that Nan (Cherry Jones) is entertaining offers to buy her family’s company and they’re thinking about making a move. He also doesn’t know that it was Tom who inadvertently tipped Shiv off when he called to tell her he’d gone out with Naomi (Annabelle Dexter-Jones).
Nan invites the Roy trio to her estate in California wine country, where she keeps them hanging under the excuse of having a headache because she’s really not thrilled about talking numbers. Eventually she’s got Logan making offers on one line while Shiv passes offers on behalf of her and her brothers. Logan goes low while the Roy trio swings for the fences with a $10 billion deal that effectively shuts down Nan’s conversation with Logan. Later, Tom gets on a call with Shiv and her brothers and Logan tells them that they’ve made a massive error.
There were several noteworthy moments from the episode.
It has now been confirmed that Marcia (Hiam Abbas) is “in Milan, shopping forever,” while Logan’s assistant Kerry (Zoe Winters) is officially both his assistant and his assistant.
Greg brings a date to Logan’s birthday party and has to face Kerry, who plies him for information about her until he tries to shut her down by pointing out that he’s a cousin and he gets a plus one. (She doesn’t agree) Though his date seems to be more interested in selfies from inside the party, Greg tells Tom that they had an amorous encounter in a guest bedroom on the way to find the armory/ cigar humidor and Tom reminds Greg that Logan has cameras everywhere so he essentially gave Logan a sex tape.
Logan ends up leaving his party with Colin (Scott Nicholson), his bodyguard, who shares a meal with his boss in a small diner. Logan needs to vent and he considers Colin his best pal, thanks in large part to the other man’s dedication to his job. Logan clearly misses his kids but can’t admit it, and he seems to find comfort being with someone who is totally loyal to him.
Tom and Shiv’s marriage is over. She returns to their home at the end of the episode and he’s there. He’s hoping to talk, but she’s ready to call it quits even though she doesn’t seem to be entirely sure of her decision. This will no doubt play out throughout the season.
Succession airs Sundays at 9 pm ET/6 pm PT on HBO.
