Succession [HBO] Spoilers

Arghus · 16-05-2023 09:45AM

Have to say I didn't really buy that it was election night. The TV centre wasn't that busy, nearly deserted. It just felt like a regular evening at the office, even a quieter than usual one. There was an airless unreality to the depiction of behind the scenes on election night.

Shiv just walking out the front door on the building, through a deserted plaza. In reality that place would be thronged, given the night that was in it.

The lack of verisimilitude in the episode took me out of it a bit this week.

FortuneChip · 16-05-2023 11:32AM

An absolute riot of the episode. Comfortably has the most take-away lines since Logan was around

"It's not that lemony. It's just a hint of lemon"

Everything Connor said, and obviously "Connor was running for president?"

Roman was ruthless. He's actually decisive and had zero hesitation in anything he said or did. He's the most level headed of the three. He's just got no moral compass - which doesn't always result in failure.

Kendall won the "optics" for now but this man is a wreck. He wants to be the big guy, he wants to be the good guy. He's just the lost guy.

Shiv getting called out was glorious. She's such a snake through and through. Trying to plead for sympathy with Tom, trying to butter up Ken, trying to undermine Roman. She's awful. A great character, mind you...

Greg is the worst. He's the bully's side-kick. Zero backbone, I reckon he doesn't have a clue as to why one candidate is better than the other. And he's utterly useless. Great to watch as well.

Tom - The MVP. This guy is also ruthless, he knows how to manouver all the siblings, he has a moral compass and is aware to know when he should ignore it or not. He's probably the only one with any level self-awareness. One snag... he's completely incompetent.

I've zero clue where it all goes.

Jump_In_Jack · 16-05-2023 11:48AM

Best line was Tom yelling to Greg not to put any more wasabi or lemon in Darwin's eyes!

AllForIt · 16-05-2023 12:00PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120602516#Comment_120602516

Have to say I didn't really buy that it was election night. The TV centre wasn't that busy, nearly deserted.

Popped in here to say the same thing. A few episodes feel as though they've had a smaller budget that in previous seasons. There just wasn't that intensity like in previous shareholder meeting type episodes with hundreds of extras.

EltonJohn69 · 16-05-2023 12:02PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120603021#Comment_120603021

Greg does know a lot about France...

Banzai600 · 16-05-2023 12:06PM

kinda getting sick of the "deal" talk, its droning on and on.....Lukas Matsson character is being a litter over acted....but its bearable.

scene with Tom & Sibh on the balcony, very good, knocking lumps out of each other.

i wonder when kendall is going to screw over everyone 🔪 ?

Tabnabs · 16-05-2023 12:07PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120603021#Comment_120603021

I think you (and many more) are underestimating Greg, for somebody so outwardly ineffectual and completely lacking awareness, he seems to get himself in the right rooms at the right times and I think will be amongst the last cast standing.

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup · 16-05-2023 12:21PM

as I said, most boring episode, mainly because it wasn't that funny. Except for tom's quip about Cyd and her cloven hooves not fitting a shoe.

Aside from all that, it feeds into the media perception that they're that influential. they're not, especially in the online age. as if them making the call actually decides the election. Is there any industry that has such a lofty position of itself? anyway, that's bit offtopic.

Jump_In_Jack · 16-05-2023 12:29PM

Greg had an important scene, remember Tom's advice that secrets are like a bottle of fine wine.

The big moment for Greg was his bottle in the face to Siobhán after she threatened him when he told Kendall she was working with Matsson.

Penn · 16-05-2023 12:44PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120603221#Comment_120603221

Greg has been playing the long game....

https://twitter.com/lindsay_kusiak/status/1658162355170332673?s=20

shrewdness · 16-05-2023 01:28PM

Yeah Greg is a bit of a bigger player than some can see or want to admit. Not that he's going to end up CEO or any of those crazy theories, but he's been edging up the ladder regardless.

He comes across as a bumbling fool so noone takes him seriously, but people also let him in on some secrets now and again, and he uses that to his advantage - as Tom said, knowledge is power. Funny thing is that Shiv could have kept him on side if she wasn't so hostile to him - compare the reactions of Tom, Ken and even Logan, when Greg previously tried to leverage something out of them. Meanwhile Shiv got ultra aggressive and Greg had no hesitation in burning her. She played that awfully tbh.

Penn · 16-05-2023 01:50PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120603458#Comment_120603458

It's how Shiv always is. She sees herself as smarter than everyone else but always walks herself into her own problems. Even with faking the call to Jimenez's team when Kendall asked her to call them. If she'd instead made the call but just did enough to not convince Jimenez's team but get a maybe or a "We're open to discussion after the election", it'd be a different story. In her hubris, she thought she was outsmarting Kendall.

Now she has little choice but to help Matsson take down Waystar. She may claim she's doing it because she cares about democracy, is worried about Mencken etc, but really it's the only way she can now hold on to any kind of power; help Matsson buy Waystar and hope she's done enough for Matsson that she'll be in a position of power within the company.

youcancallmeal · 16-05-2023 06:44PM

I wouldn't be surprised if Matsson is playing them all and the moral at the end will be their downfall because they're all awful people who couldn't work together

Tabnabs · 17-05-2023 09:37AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120605064#Comment_120605064

I still think Matsson is in cahoots with the Pierce family and they'll be the ultimate owner of Waystar.

Full_Circle_81 · 17-05-2023 11:08AM

I really want to sympathize with Shiv, but she's always so backstabby, no matter who she's dealing with! The scorpion was so apt...

The White Wolf · 22-05-2023 12:15PM

That was tough going and reminded me only too well of painful memories. **** Karl, Menchken and probably a few others for their reactions to Roman.

Kendall's was possibly worst of all, again going deeper into his own monstrous descent separate from his father.

martyos121 · 22-05-2023 01:03PM

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that someone is acting, and that it’s not real. That’s how I felt about Roman at the funeral, it was tough to watch and it’s something many of us can relate to I’m sure.

That was a stellar episode from start to finish, many brilliant performances, but it Culkin doesn’t get his Emmy then I don’t know what more you could possibly do to earn one.

Penn · 22-05-2023 03:45PM

Incredible performances at the funeral. Roman was amazing, but definite shoutouts to Kendall and Shiv too.

Insane to think next week's episode is the series finale. Can't see anyone other than Kendall winning at this stage, it seems set up for him to outplay Shiv. How, or what happens to Shiv & Roman, I have no idea.

Sudden Valley · 22-05-2023 04:27PM

Wow the "Grim Weeper" line at Roman was one of many brutal lines in the episode. Feel Shiv will lose out in the finale, just because she seemed to be on a high at the end of the episode. Can see none of the kids succeeding their dad to be in charge.

_Kaiser_ · 22-05-2023 07:41PM

Outstanding episode. Culkin's performance was something else but they all stepped up this week. Loved the cuts to Karl during the funeral though 😂

I've no idea how this will end. Ken clearly won't win because it seems setup that he will. Shiv equally hasn't a chance. Rome.. Well he ruined any chance after his break down.

I actually think the theories could be true and that Greg could be named the new CEO - easily controlled by both sides (Mattson and Menchken)

nachouser · 22-05-2023 08:04PM

"And, I think I can make a US CEO work."

Yeah, very open to who that might be. Should be funny either way to see who is f*cked over in the finale.

"Cat-food Ozymandias" was brilliant.

22-05-2023 08:57PM

Jesus that was good.

Brutal and excellent

Penn · 22-05-2023 09:05PM

I'd be really disappointed if somehow Greg ended up on top. There are definitely ways it could happen, but man that'd be such a kicker. Kendall and Shiv would have to go absolutely kamikaze on each other for neither of them to win, in some extreme mutual destruction.

Tom would be a more palatable third-party to win out. Maybe Shiv p*sses off Matsson somehow that he picks Tom to spite her, and he's already running ATN anyway. And Tom was the one who essentially pushed the button to help Mencken's claim to be President-Elect.

_Kaiser_ · 22-05-2023 09:08PM

One other bit I loved actually was Kerry and Marcia burying the hatchet so to speak with some unexpected help from Caroline.

Great scene.

elefant · 22-05-2023 09:19PM

I think it would cheapen the show if Greg somehow ended up being CEO. It would be far too unrealistic.

johnny_ultimate · 22-05-2023 09:41PM

Thought Roman was being cruel and abrasive even by his standards at the start of the episode, but how Kieran Culkin managed the transition to totally broken human in those funeral scenes was screen acting at its most agile and convincing.

Special shout out to James Cromwell too. The show uses him sparingly, but how he set the tone for that series of eulogies with a perfectly delivered truth bomb was a joy to watch.

chewed · 22-05-2023 09:45PM

Best line of that episode... Hugo's reply to Kendell.. "woof woof" 🤣

Arghus · 22-05-2023 10:54PM

The dead waiter is going to bring Kendall down.

EltonJohn69 · 22-05-2023 10:57PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120629059#Comment_120629059

President Greg ?

EltonJohn69 · 22-05-2023 11:03PM

I think Shiv regretted letting Tom sleep over, I think she thought she got played, emotionally manipulated.

It is Ken’s destiny to win. He is the strongest.

Succession [HBO] *Spoilers*

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Succession [HBO] Spoilers