We always knew Logan Roy would continue to haunt his children — we just didn't realise it would involve a touch of AI.
This week, Waystar launched its newest real estate offering dubbed Living+, or "prison camps for grannies".
But Kendall is perplexed: "Personalised longevity programs … what is that? Is that something?"
Fasten your seatbelts, because our co-pilots don't know how to fly this plane.
We need to talk about the strangest double act ever
First, Kendall and Roman decide it's totally OK to fudge the numbers and lie about how much Living+ will boost Waystar's growth.
Enter Greg, who is directed to bully "Mr Snippy Snip" into twisting Logan's words.
One would think we've reached peak Kendall at this point, but we haven't.
He then demands his team construct him a Living+ house, complete with "clouds", overnight — ahead of the Investors' Day presentation.
"Small, plywood, basic brickwork, nothing crazy," he says, acting like he's Frank Ocean asking for an ice rink for his Coachella set.
Despite the video being in poor taste, it is seamless, and Kendall even manages to handle Lukas Matsson going rogue with a Holocaust tweet.
The episode ends with Kendall walking into the ocean and floating, face up, but not before drawing the number "one" in the sand.
We can't not talk about Shiv and Tom (somewhat) getting back together
Huzzah! The ice is finally starting to thaw between these two crazy kids. Nice.
Shiv finally lets down her guard, partly against her will, thanks to Tom walking in on her "scheduling her grief".
Later, we get some unhinged billionaire flirting through a game of "bitey", where Sarah Snook gets the honour of chomping down on Matthew Macfadyen's hand (the same hand which shot to fame thanks to that scene in the 2005 adaption of Pride and Prejudice, mind you).
Shiv makes it clear she still hasn't forgiven him for betraying her when he sided with Logan, but controlling both her brothers and Matsson gives her such a rush that she might as well control Tom as well.
Speaking of Matsson, he is not a fan of Living+ and has tried his hardest to get Shiv to convince her brothers to axe the idea.
But even Shiv couldn't stop Kendall.
Let's chat power rankings
Connor and Marcia get the week off because they didn't appear in this episode. But one thing is for sure: Marcia wouldn't be caught dead in a Living+ dwelling.
Kendall
Despite his hare-brained schemes, Kendall shines when under pressure and came out unexpectedly triumphant. "Dynamic Waystar duo shake up their senior leadership team, grumble quote, grumble quote, caveat: Some are saying these two Young Turks might just have what it takes to turn things around." While some might say the ocean scene was Kendall's rebirth, one can't help but feel it will foreshadow something sinister.
Matsson
This man is walking around airport tarmacs with no shoes on, so he is not to be trusted. Try as he might to control Ken and Rome via Shiv, Living+ was still pushed through. However, he proved he can still pull the rug out from beneath them with a single offensive tweet — and delete it just as fast.
Shiv
Her husband might be known as Tightrope Tommy, but this week Shiv continued to walk that delicate line by appeasing Matsson and trying to protect her brothers while simultaneously seeing right through them. Ken and Rome are too busy enabling the worst in each other that they can't see that Matsson is in the room with them. Shiv's flattered to be Matsson's girl on the inside but he can discard her at any moment.
Tom
My favourite ATN citizen! This was a great week for Tom. He reunited with Shiv, got spotlit, and turned into Oprah. However, as excited as I am for a truce between the two, Shiv is most like her father in the sense she's never loved anything she wouldn't kick just to see if it came back to her. Also, he's still in the dark about Baby Wambsgans.
Roman
Our boy Romulus is not in a good place and it's showing. He's firing people, left and right, first the Waystar Studio executive Joy, then Gerri, who absolutely murders Roman by calling him a "weak monarch in a dangerous interregnum". While Shiv's scheduling her grief, Roman is repressing his, and there's only so many times he can replay that deep fake video of Logan saying his name.
Karl
Karl was a spicy meatball this episode and for that, he earned his first place in our weekly power rankings. "What, you're going to fire your chief financial officer a week in? Your Dad just gone? You'd be toast." But what did Karl mean when he threatened to squeal to the press if Kendall ever did him over? Does Karl know about the waiter? Watch this space.
Greg
Despite Greg's robot impression being so bad that Roman wanted to fire him on the spot, he's still hanging in there and actually succeeded in getting the video of Logan edited well. And the old man who hated him isn't around to talk back! Greg also gave us one of the best lines this week ("It’s hard to make houses seem like tech because we’ve had houses for a while"), but anyone can sound rational when compared to Kendall's nonsense corporate speak.
Gerri
This week Roman lashed out at one of the only people he's close to and "fired" Gerri. She's still sitting with Karl and Frank by episode's end, so you can't shake her that easily. Roman's grief, mixed with imposter syndrome, is a toxic combination, and he seems to be forgetting he sent Gerri some pictures that could come back to haunt him if she's dismissed.
Logan
There's nothing like the sight of your late father standing in front of a green screen, calling you an idiot, to stir up your emotions. Logan might be gone but his judgement is still omnipresent throughout Waystar, and each of his children is making some terrible decisions as they struggle to process their grief. But for the first time ever, he's a puppet and Kendall is pulling the strings.
Notes and observations
- That flight jacket was actually Jeremy Strong's idea. He told Vulture: "I started doing some research and there was this costume designer named Jose Fernandez who designed a flight suit for Elon Musk. It was a 'Chief Twit' thing I wanted to embody."
- Sarah Snook thought the biting game was something weird that Jesse Armstrong thought up until fellow Succession writer, Lucy Prebble, said she used to do it with her brother.
- Please enjoy this behind-the-scenes snap from Succession writer Georgia Pritchett of Sarah and Matthew rehearsing the bite scene in a stunning location.
