Warning this article does contain major Succession spoilers so there's no need to continue reading if you haven't seen this week's episode.
The third episode of the final season of Succession was legitimately shocking television. While we all know the show is ending at the end of this season, no one could have predicted that Logan Roy would never disembark from the fateful flight to Stockholm that he boarded at the start of the episode.
Logan Roy's death raises so many questions, mostly pertaining to the show's resolution, but the biggest one of all is how did they keep it a secret? Just as the Roy children are legitimately shocked by the news, so were viewers. Fans of the show knew a big episode was coming this week, but the death of Logan was completely unexpected.
It appears the actions of Brian Cox - who played Roy - played a major part in keeping the secret safe.
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Brian Cox of Succession: 'I was very proud of myself'
Speaking on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night, Cox explained how he tricked the media ahead of an "invented" funeral scene.
"They’re silly buggers, a lot of these people who make these programs," said Cox.
"They invented this scene that I was to play at the church. I can’t remember the church, it was uptown, very fancy, big Catholic church. What happened was I was on my way to film this scene and I got the call saying, ‘We’re so behind, and it’s a scene that will never be used because it’s your funeral, so don’t come.’ And I thought no, I’d better go. I'd better go because I know there’s going to be a lot of paparazzi there, and as sure as eggs, I went there and as soon as I got out of the car they started clicking away. So immediately I was able to put off the fact that it was my funeral."
Cox also spoke of his pride at coming up with this trick.
"I was very proud of myself. I used to check myself in the mirror and say 'well done.'"
In HBO's behind-the-scenes Inside the Episode, showrunner Jesse Armstrong spoke of how he broke the news to Cox that Logan was being killed off. He said Cox was a "total pro".
"There's lots of anxieties over whether it's the right creative decision, and there's anxieties that someone that I love working with and has been at the centre of the show will feel rejected on a human level for not being in it anymore when he's been so central to the whole thing. He was professional and decent enough to make it a pretty good meeting, but a sad and significant one."
Meanwhile Cox said he feels that audiences will 'find it tough' without him.
"When you work with the genius of somebody like Jesse it's always sad when that comes to an end, there's no question about it, because you've had such great respect. It's going to be hard, when the public see he's gone in episode three. I think they're going to find it tough, because they've lived with Logan for so long, so they're going to miss him."
The episode was incredible. It's IMDB ranking is 10.0 and it sits amongst the top 20 episodes on the website's TV rankings.
