Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for the Season 4 premiere of Succession.Nothing brings the Roy family together quite like their heads sitting concurrently on the chopping block while also being hung out to dry by the public at large. Sure, holiday gatherings and impromptu yacht trips might physically unite the family for a moment, but it’s never until war is declared on the Roys that they actually slam their skulls together and get to work. Now that we’re looking the final season of Succession right in the eye, it’s a bit clearer to tell when this series—one that’s already that good—is at its absolute best.
With the first episode of Season 4 already under our belts, it’s clear that Jesse Armstrong‘s series is back in fine form. Though Succession centers around the Roy siblings just as much as their father, we’ve really only seen the family dynamic operating in a three-little-pigs-against-the-big-bad-wolf manner a handful of times over the years. The thing is, Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Roman (Kieran Culkin), and Shiv (Sarah Snook) have all had their differences over the past three seasons, leaving alliances scattered among the family and company at large. This time around, the three are finally on the same page, a stark contrast to how things had been flowing throughout the third season. Now that we’re this far along in the game, how can you not root for the three little pigs?
The Roy Siblings Have a Longer Track Record of Working Against Each Other
At any given time in Succession, you could usually count on at least two Roy siblings to be at each other’s throats—and listen, that makes for great television. As much as it’s exhilarating to watch the Roy siblings at odds, seeing them work together flips on a different switch, is more akin to witnessing the underdog make an impossible comeback in a football game. And in many ways, they are the underdogs; going up against Logan Roy (Brian Cox) is no easy feat, and as we all witnessed in the finale of season three, he’s running on decades of experience in the art of outmaneuvering his competition. But as a viewer, many of us have felt that instinctual desire for the siblings to function as a solid family unit despite the volatile circumstances that they’ve grown up around and have become accustomed to. After three seasons, it would almost be too easy for the three to be at odds once again, which is where Season 4 comes in.
Let’s take, for example, the trajectory of Season 3 from beginning to end. Roman and Shiv joined forces with their father after Kendall dropped a major bombshell about Logan at the end of Season 2, creating a stark divide between the siblings. At the end of the season, Kendall breaks down to Roman and Shiv, finally confessing to killing a waiter in the car accident during his sister’s wedding. Because of that confession, the three are able to reach a place of deep understanding; after all, they’re the only other people who can fully relate to being a Roy. Although we’ve seen each sibling make terrible business moves separately, when the three unite, they’re somehow able to fall back into their chaotic, screwed-up Roy groove and make some solid decisions. When Kendall, Roman, and Shiv are together, the audience has a team to root for; apart, it’s a bit tougher to see their redeeming qualities—save for Kendall’s ability to come up with some sick rhymes.
At the Same Time in Season 4, Logan Is On the Outside Looking In
In this first episode of Season 4, Logan is in a state of deep contemplation and emotion, perhaps more than we’ve ever seen from him in the past. At the same time that it’s exciting to see Kendall, Roman, and Shiv back together, it’s a bit sad to see an old dude alone on his birthday. Sure, his apartment is packed with business colleagues and acquaintances, but there’s a notably massive crater: his kids aren’t there. Well, OK, Connor (Alan Ruck) is, but that doesn’t really count. Halfway through his birthday celebration, Logan even asks Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) what his kids are up to (granted, he refers to them as “the rats,” but still, there does seem to be a part of him that genuinely cares about them). Annoyed by the celebrations in his honor, Logan heads off mid-party to a local diner with his body man, Colin (Scott Nicholson), where he starts up a conversation about mortality.
“I mean, what are people?” Logan asks. “Everything I try to do, people turn against me. Nothing tastes like it used to, does it? Nothing is the same as it was. You think there’s anything after all this? I don’t think so. I think this is it, right?” After three seasons of dwindling health and having a front-row seat to his own children tearing each other apart to become the next CEO of Waystar Royco, it’s clearly not lost on Logan that it’s going to take him bowing out—in whatever form that ends up being—for someone to prevail. Now that it’s closer than ever to happening, he’s not exactly sure if he’s ready to let go. After all, if Logan doesn’t believe that “there’s anything after all this,” what’s the point of willingly stepping down?
Later on in the episode, Kendall, Roman, and Shiv outsmart their father in a bidding war for the acquisition of Pierce Global Media, a longstanding media company. Though Logan ends the episode by telling his children on the phone, “Congratulations on saying the biggest number, you f***ing morons,” it’s safe to say that both sides are beginning to realize that the Roy siblings can become quite the powerhouse when they actually join hands. Whether they’ll be able to keep hold of those hands for the duration of this season… well, that’s another story.
New episodes of Succession Season 4 premiere every Sunday on HBO and HBO Max.
