Every week here on Balls.ie, football scribe John Brewin reviews and rate the main characters in the latest episode of the final series of Succession. As ever, please note this article does contain spoilers
Oh, the game is truly afoot now in Succession. The season opener served as palate-cleanser for the double-dealing and back-biting to begin in earnest. Between the two sides, roughly Logan Roy’s evil empire versus what Connor Roy, in an episode where he is a central figure at long last, calls the “rebel alliance”, things are already getting pretty damned factional.
The second episode is choc-full of clandestine phone messages and ad-hoc meetings as the jockeying for position and, well, more money continues. Waystar-Royco’s sale is nearing completion but only if Logan can get his ducks in a row. Meanwhile, the ducks themselves, three of his own children, may soon have something he always wanted, Pierce. But to get that, they first have to squeeze his pips.
So, who’s hitting top form, and what fate awaits them by the end of the final series?
Read also: Succession Player Ratings: Season 4, Episode 1
Logan Roy - 9/10
“I love you, but you are not serious people.”
There’s full lead in Logan’s pencil, as the staff at ATN find out during an impromptu stump speech on the shop floor after a surprise visit and rapid-fire auditing of cost centres. “I want to know that we’re killing the opposition,” he roars concluding that the staff of his TV station - “the clock-watching fucks” - are “f***ing pirates!” He is, though, actually afraid of Kerry passing TV anchor ambitions of his “friend, assistant and advisor” around the minions like a hot potato. And he continues to be exasperated by his children, “dopes” he calls them as they demand more cash from Lukas Matsson/Elon Musk during the first family summit of the season. “The rats are fat as skunks,” he rages He labelled his children rodents in the previous episode.
The final reckoning: King Rat
Roman Roy - 8/10
“Hey, Buddha, nice Tom Fords.”
It did not take Roman long to find his way back to dad. That chippy, bitchy alliance with Shiv and Kendall was always likely to be shaky. And the nasty side exhibits itself, too. When Logan clips the kids’ helicopter wings, Roman lays into an unwitting female flunky: “I’m going to set aside several hundred thousand dollars, and I’m going to dedicate it to destroying your life.” Charming, but being so nasty may well pay off for him. He ends the episode with Logan’s offer to work at ATN as a “fire-breather”. Now, wasn’t that Tom’s job?
The final reckoning: At father’s side.
Shiv Roy - 6/10
“That sounds like homework.”
Having received the Carmela Soprano treatment for her divorce, Tom tying up all the top family lawyers in New York, Shiv continues to act as a dealmaker, bringing Sandy and Stewie back into the fold. “I’ll keep working,” she tells them, showing little sympathy for Connor being jilted at his own wedding rehearsal. With so much else up in the air, she’s all business. “More money is more money and that’s all there is to it,” she says though the karaoke-bar meeting with her father clearly gets to her.
The final reckoning: Poor little rich girl.
Kendall Roy - 7/10
“Did dad just say a feeling?”
Kendall is no slacker on the double-dealing, and has a direct line to Matsson and a back-channel to Stewy that he keeps to himself. Risky business considering how often he and his old mate have double-crossed each other. Kendall’s latest fad is Buddhism but his feelings toward his father boil over in rather less than spiritual fashion. “Congratulations on breaking your betrayal cherry,” he hisses at Kerry, playing full and enthusiastic part in the kind of roast Logan demanded in the series’ first episode.
The final reckoning: What could possibly go wrong?
Connor Roy - 7/10
“I’m a plant that grows off rocks and lives off insects that die inside of me.”
Left hanging and miserable by Willa on the eve of their wedding, Connor demands his siblings visit, “a real bar, with chicks, and guys who work with their hands and grease, and sweat from their hands, and have blood in their hair”. The man of the people then asks for a choice of wheat beer from the bar. He further gets his own way with a first ever karaoke session, and a decent stab at Leonard Cohen’s Famous Blue Raincoat.
didn't think i had anything in common with connor roy until he demanded to go to karaoke and then did a five minute long leonard cohen song to an unenthused audience
— charlie squire (@evil_female) April 3, 2023
The final reckoning: Cashed out and happy.
Tom Wambsgans - 8/10
“Hanging around, like the threat of nuclear war.”
Tom is in diplomat mode, including nursing Logan through his visit to ATN, and facing that delicate Kerry situation. “It’s like Israel and Palestine, except harder, and much more important,” he tells in spin-passing to Greg. And he’s also putting the hammer down on Shiv by lawyering up, continuing to be the dirtiest fighter of the lot of them.
The final reckoning: Watch out, Roman
Cousin Greg - 8/10
“Like Jaws if everyone in Jaws worked for Jaws.”
Unwanted responsibility is thrown Greg’s way when he first has to police Logan’s floor-walk at ATN, and then lead the chorus line of approval. Later, Tom makes him deal with Kerry’s audition tape as a “next-level task”. “I’m going to take you apart like a human string cheese,” she warns him after he attempts to let her down gently by conjuring up an imaginary focus group. “The arms aren’t right,” he busks away. “I did the job,” he reflects following the first instance of him doing anything vaguely useful.
The final reckoning: eJaws IV: The Revenge
if there is a greg betrayal in our future, it won’t be because he’s leaving atn. tom and greg had the same reaction to logan’s speech. if they leave they’re leaving together. pic.twitter.com/hZzDN6MCOt
— char | succession spoilers (@JUNOVELOUR) April 3, 2023
