Somehow, I never pictured a big, final-season Roy family confrontation happening in a karaoke room under the soft disco glow of the pink and purple lights. Logan apologizes and Kerry explains that it’s a chance to separate their business interests and reconnect as a family. I think the healthiest thing they can all do is go their separate ways for awhile. I’ve always thought Succession is a neat twist on the cliché that high-powered business people need to resign to spend more time with their families. The Roys are people who need to spend less time with their family. They have no outside interest or lives outside Waystar Royco. They don’t have any friends or even sycophantic friends; just employees.
As Shiv pointedly notes, if they separate business interests and just be a family, there isn’t much to go back to because there was never a foundation there—their bond is the company. The kids showed this in dramatic fashion by barely feigning to care that Willa walked out on Connor during his wedding rehearsal dinner. Sure, their half-brother needs emotional support, but there’s a business deal ready to be sealed—there’s always a business deal.
How genuine was Logan’s apology? I think there was some truth to it but I think Logan does of course want to engineer the sale to GoJo in his best interests. There is a lot to apologize for, the kids tell him. Logan fucked them over in Italy, was never there for Connor growing up, and beat Roman (a rare explicit acknowledgement of this).
Logan hits the nail on the head. “You are such dopes,” he tells his kids. “I love you but you are not serious people.”
“Rehearsal” definitely showed that contrast in levels of seriousness. Logan was fiery but professional in addressing the ATN staff. The kids were acting like idiots. Kendall, 40, perpetually wears a baseball cap and snottily calls all the PGN shows “dookie.” He’s a very depressed person but he’s never been a serious one. Roman and Shiv let their feelings for their dad color their business dealings and may make a mistake worth billions because they don’t take things seriously enough.
Connor nails his half-siblings, too, calling them “love sponges.” Even their seeming enmity with Logan springs from wanting his love and approval. Connor never got any love from them so he’s above all this. “I’m a plant that grows on rocks and lives off insects that die inside me … I don’t need love. It’s like a superpower.”
The bit with Kerry’s terrible news anchor audition was funny, with everyone laughing at her inappropriate smiling and jerky arm movements. Kerry seems like a serious person but what did she think would happen—that she could waltz in and claim an anchor spot with no training? Greg should have let her on the air. The response from viewers and media critics would have been so overwhelming that he could have let them do his dirty work and Kerry would have gotten the point without Greg moving further up on her shit list.
Betrayal is afoot as the Roy sons seem to choose their sides. Kendall doesn’t tell anybody that Lukas Matsson is ready to back out of the deal if the kids go along with Sandi and Stewie to ask for more money. Roman is having doubts about his siblings. They attack his business instincts and he quietly separates himself from them, and is ready to go back to dad’s side. And apparently, all this will coalesce at the board meeting on the same day as Connor’s (still-on) wedding.
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