Succession S4, Episode 3: WHAT AN EPISODE!

WOW, I was not expecting THAT plot twist to happen. Succession Season 4, Episode 3 might have just won the show’s third Emmy for Best Drama Series as the episode masterfully unveiled the biggest plot twist in the series to date.

WARNING: If you don’t want to be spoiled, then don’t read any further until you finish the episode. Yes, this plot twist is that important.

Is everyone who hasn’t watched the episode off the page? Yes, okay, for everyone who has watched the episode/doesn’t care about spoilers, I’ll keep this review short as even though the episode was fantastic, it very much was contained. Nevertheless, let me just go out and say the elephant in the room: Logan Roy is dead.

I can’t believe showrunner Jesse Armstrong actually killed off Logan Roy, the very man everyone has been trying to succeed as the CEO and chairman of Waystar Royco, without not only naming a successor, but also before the midway point in the season. Truthfully, I had expected Logan to die before the end of the season as you can’t really have a “Succession” if the proverbial “king” lives throughout the entire series, but this was so shocking.

Like I said, the final season isn’t even halfway through its 10-episode runtime and there was so much resolved tension, suspense, and conflict between Logan and his kids, Lukas Mattson, the senior employees at Waystar, Tom, and Greg. But not anymore, obviously.

This death practically came out of the blue as Logan started the episode out as his old, strong, relentless, and ruthless self as he ordered Roman, who he was “reconciling” (in Logan Roy fashion) back into the business, to fire Gerri and told Tom about replacing Cyd as the sole chairman/director of ATN. This episode had all the making of a classic, backstabbing, intrigue-filled Succession episode. Until it wasn’t.

But that’s why this was such a great episode. No, scratch that, that’s why this was the best episode of Succession to date.

Armstrong, who is also the lead writer on the series, has been able to capture what so few showrunners/writers/directors/etc. are able to do in their Hollywood careers: build compelling, bold, and realistic plot lines that tug on the emotional heartstrings of the viewers.

The reason why Logan’s death, which was almost exclusively offscreen and occurred within the bathroom of an airplane, was so unceremonious for a character so much larger than life is because that’s how death really is. Unceremonious, sudden, unexpected, and usually quiet.

HBO has done these inconspicuous death scenes for its extraordinary, imposing characters before, such as Tywin Lannister’s toilet death scene in Game of Thrones and Tony Soprano’s inconclusive (but probable) fade-to-black death scene in the final scene of The Sopranos, but this was the best of the lot. It was just so unexpected, realistic, and well-acted.

Armstrong and the rest of the cast explain this choice much better than I am doing in the Inside the Episode of this episode, so I recommend checking it out as they divulge the writing and acting process for such a monumentous scene.

Speaking of acting, I don’t see how the cast of Succession doesn’t sweep up the Emmys this year from this scene alone.

From Kendall Roy’s (Jeremy Strong) horrified disbelief, Siobhan Roy’s (Sarah Snook) uncontrollable grief, Roman Roy’s (Kieran Culkin) stubborn denial, Connor Roy’s (Alan Ruck) external battle between relief and despair, all the way to Tom Wambsgans’ (Matthew Macfadyen) tight rope walk between sadness of the loss of an in-law and the horror over the security of his job, the acting in this episode was impeccable.

I was on the edge of my seat hoping that Logan Roy, who, despite being my favorite character, is one of the most despicable, destructive, and frankly horrible characters on the show, would not die for the sake of his grieving, panicking children.

It’s crazy how the actors, with three of the four kids completely estranged and emotionally distant from Logan a week ago, were able elicit such visceral emotions from a viewer (such as me). It just goes to show the acting job by all of these guys (including the likes of Karl, Frank, Gerri, Kerry, Greg, Karolina, Hugo’s actors and actresses) has been simply sensational from the first moment of the show to the latest one.

I wish I could go further into depth about the events of this episode, but the death of Logan was essentially the only major thing that happened aside from Connor solemnly getting married to Willa…who pretty much said she mainly loved him for the money. Some episode it was for Connor.

Nevertheless, considering the competition on air at the moment, there’s no way Succession doesn’t win all the Emmy and Golden Globe awards come the 2023 Award season as this episode showed the gulf of class between this show and the rest of television (both on cable and premium).

As for this episode itself, it gets a perfect 10/10 score from me. I can’t remember the last time I gave out a perfect score before for anything, including movies, shows, and video games, but this episode and show definitely deserve it.

I can’t wait to see how the Roy children will battle Mattson, the senior board (who were already siphoning up the company leadership as Logan laid dying on the floor), the extended Roy family (i.e.: Tom, Greg, Uncle Ewan), and the rest of the Roy family’s enemies (ex: Pierces, Senator Gil Eavis, Congressman Jeryd Mencken, Stewy Hosseini, Sandi Furness, etc.) over the fate of the leadership of Waystar Royco.

Images Source: Featured Image: (HBO/Warner Bros. Discovery) (Succession | Inside the Episode: Season 4, Episode 3 | HBO Max – YouTube)

In Text Image 1: (HBO/Warner Bros. Discovery) (Succession | Inside the Episode: Season 4, Episode 3 | HBO Max – YouTube)

In Text Image 2: (HBO/Warner Bros. Discovery) (Succession | Inside the Episode: Season 4, Episode 3 | HBO Max – YouTube)