In The Succession Season 4 Premiere, The Roy Siblings Finally Seem Kind Of Happy
This piece contains spoilers for the "Succession" season 4 premiere.
If one had to compare Logan Roy (Brian Cox) to any other character in a prestige drama, it would probably be Tony Soprano. They're both powerful men living luxurious lives, and they also happen to be terrible for everyone around them. For six seasons in "The Sopranos," we watched as the mob leader became increasingly cruel and manipulative to everyone in his life; by the time the finale hit with its famous cut-to-black, it seemed clear that his family and friends probably would in fact be better off without him. Sure, if Tony died in that diner scene it'd be sad and traumatic for his family members, but long-term? Carmella, Meadow, and AJ would no longer be beholden to the mob life; they'd be free to do their own things on their own terms.
The big difference between Tony and Logan is that Tony's the main character of his show, whereas Logan isn't. The focus of "Succession" has always been on Logan's kids; whereas Tony was always around to stunt the growth of everyone around him, the season 3 finale of "Succession" ended with Logan burning his bridges with his three main kids. "All the Bells Say" has often been seen as a tragic episode of the show, as the Roy siblings were betrayed (by basically everyone) in a cruel, devastating way, but the season 4 premiere paints that finale in a different light. As we watch the Roy trio work together with relative smoothness, without any of the usual insults or backstabbing we've come to expect, it seems like getting screwed over by Logan was the best thing to ever happen to them.
A clear-headed Shiv
Shiv might be the most refreshing character in this episode, because she's the one who got sucked into Logan's toxic black hole the hardest throughout the past two seasons. Back when the show started, Shiv was unique in that she'd actually sort of managed to make a name for herself on her own. Sure, her connections to Logan helped, but she had a good reputation and she didn't need Logan's approval for most of her choices.
But then Logan dangled the possibility of being CEO in front of her in the season 2 premiere, and it was all downhill from there. She threw her political career away, became even more disconnected and inconsiderate of Tom, and pretty soon her entire life was dependent once again on the whims of her father, just like it's been for Roman and Kendell. What followed was 19 episodes of Shiv selling what was left of her soul, inch by inch, to a man who didn't truly appreciate her and certainly never would.
It was depressing to witness, which is why it's so fun now to watch her confidently fight to attain Pierce, the company that's both her father's white whale and a media conglomerate that actually aligns with Shiv's values. (No more being forced to take pictures with fascists, we hope.) When Logan calls them "f***ing morons" over the phone at the end, something that would've hurt her at one point, here she's able to brush past the insult and understand the call for what it really is: Logan's admission of defeat. They still haven't gotten their full revenge on him in any sense, but they've at least gotten one significant victory.
A sober(?) Kendall
The episode's first scene features Kendall snacking on sunflower seeds, one of those go-to comfort snacks for recovering addicts, as he tells his siblings how he needs something big and important to stay focused on. The episode doesn't explicitly confirm for certain, but it certainly feels like he might be sober for the first time since season 1's "Austerlitz." Even if he's not, there does seem to be a spark of life in his eyes again, something we haven't really seen in a while.
It makes sense, because even as Kendall seemingly lost his war against his father in season 3, the finale still ended on a promising note for him: he's unburdened himself of the guilt from his season 1 manslaughter, and he's gotten Shiv and Roman both solidly on his side for possibly the first time ever. Now he's going up against Logan again, but with none of the mania or self-delusion, nor with any of the hope that he might still have a chance of winning his father's love.
On one hand, it might seem like the show's going around in circles with Kendall, putting him in a constant loop of rebelling against his father, failing, and rebelling again. But this time it feels different, in a way it didn't feel at the start of season 3. A lot of that's because Kendall seems to have learned a little from his many failures, but it's also because of Roman.
Is Roman nice now?
Back in the season 2 finale, Roman was talking to Shiv and Kendall after his survival of a hostage situation the episode before. Roman was surprisingly clear-headed and sensitive, to the point where he asked his siblings, "Is there a thing where we, like, talk to each other about stuff... normally?" Kendall and Shiv respond by mocking him for his rare display of maturity, but 10 episodes later, it seems like Roman's gotten his wish. The three of them are actually talking to each other normally, or at least as normally as the Roy kids are capable of doing.
It's all such a stark contrast to the way Roman was acting back when he thought he had a chance of being Logan's successor. The first three seasons of this show were all about one or two of the main siblings getting strung along by Logan while the other one or two got left out in the cold. Shiv and Kendall both learned the hard way that the moment it seems like Logan might actually respect you, the moment he says he's seriously considering making you his successor, that means he's about to start tearing you down and saying the same to someone else.
Roman, who's been heavily implied to have suffered the most physical abuse from Logan throughout his childhood, is also the one who's been most easily swayed by Logan's threats and his fleeting moments of affection. It's why the season 3 finale, where Roman doesn't fall for Logan's repeated attempts to get him to break from the other two, is such a watershed moment for the character. He may have lost his control in the company, but after a lifetime of being the easiest child for Logan to control, he's finally broken free.
Things don't look good for the Disgusting Brothers
Tom and Greg were often considered by fans to be the big winners of season 3, but were they really? The premiere features Greg sheepishly letting Logan's people bully his date out of the party, deciding to abandon her entirely at the end like Kendall did to Jennifer in season 2. Materially, Greg's doing better than ever before, but he's also lost any semblance of the decency that made him so endearing in the early seasons. And as the whole subplot with Tom forcing him to confess his impromptu hook-up to Logan makes abundantly clear, he's still not respected by anyone, not even a little bit.
Tom, meanwhile, seems to be getting the beginning of an important lesson of how little Logan's loyalty counts for. Tom asks Logan for some sort of assurance that he'll still keep his position if he and Shiv get divorced, and Logan gives him that uncaring, non-committal answer Tom's already gotten plenty of times from Shiv. The difference is that Shiv actually did sorta-kinda love Tom before his betrayal, whereas Logan will clearly kick him to the curb the moment he stops being useful.
The scene's a nice little reminder that most of Shiv's worst qualities are inherited directly from her father, who's even worse, and that the short-term gain of betraying your wife for your father-in-law is almost certainly not worth the long-term cost. Without Shiv's name to hang onto, Tom's position is soon to become solely reliant on Logan's whims, and that's going to drive him even crazier than he was before.
'F***ing munsters'
Where the season 4 premiere's at its bleakest is the scene where Logan tries to get his employees to make a joke at his expense. "Come on, roast me!" he says, and everybody's too afraid to say anything that might even come close to cutting too deep. Logan knows this of course; by pressuring them to roast him, all he's doing is flexing his power. It's only when he pushes Greg that the kid finally says something that's actually in the ballpark of what Logan claims he wants: "Where's your kids, Uncle Roy? On your big birthday?"
Logan, of course, immediately snaps back even harder: "Where's your old man, huh? Still sucking c*** at the county fair?" Logan then attempts to mock Gerri for the pictures Roman was sending her last year. Gerri responds with honesty and bluntness that Logan claims to appreciate, but clearly doesn't. If it weren't for Tom's interruption, there's no telling how much further Logan's attempt at a "roast" would've gone, how much more he would've tormented his underlings if the deal hadn't gotten in the way.
Nothing serious comes from this moment within the episode, but man does it seem like a nice little reminder of what the Roy siblings have left behind. Now that Logan can't make the three compete against each other for his approval, he's only got the remaining members of his crew to torment. As toxic as working for Logan was before, it's only going to get worse for all his remaining minions from here.
But is the siblings' independence permanent?
As strangely optimistic as this episode feels for Kendall, Shiv and Roman, it's still undermined by the looming possibility that the three of them are going to backslide. As the trailer makes clear, they will not be separated from Logan for the entire season. We know that Logan will tell Roman he "needs" him at one point, and knowing Roman, there's still a good chance this tactic might actually work.
In the end, all three of these kids are addicted to the little glimpses of affection their father occasionally doles out, not to mention the power and wealth his affection promises them. They're all in recovery from Logan's hold on them right now, which is why they all feel so strangely clear-headed and functional for the first time in ages. But just as Kendall relapsed on literal drugs in season 1, there's no telling whether the three of them will relapse on Logan an episode or two down the line.
This show has often been referred to as a modern Shakespearean tragedy, after all; while we certainly hope the Roy siblings don't backslide, it wouldn't be "Succession" if they all successful maintained this level of relative stability throughout the whole final season. Things are probably going to get way darker and way more intense, but the Roy siblings still have a shot if they can maintain this united front. It's so refreshing to see them working as a team after all these years of infighting; it would be a shame if that fell apart any time soon.
"Succession" airs on HBO and streams on HBO Max every Sunday at 9 p.m. ET.