Succession hits a new high as the Roys pick the next president and Kendall does some recruiting – The A.V. Club

The Roys have always been easy to read. Like all people with power, money, access, and privilege, they want to hang onto that power, money, access, and privilege. Whether they have any guiding moral truisms, tenets, or beliefs past maintain the status quo, and our role within it is hard to sayand often irrelevant. The politics they push on Waystar Royco maintain their popularity and please their shareholders. The cynicism and nihilism with which they approach every situation maintains their aloofness and perceived superiority.

The only true believer in Republican ideology for what it actually stands for might be Connor, and note how his political aspirations are met with mocking and sarcasm by his siblings and even his father. Why would you want to be a politician, someone who works for people? The real move is to be the person pulling the politicians strings, and thats always who the Roys have beenmade explicitly clear by What It Takes, the sixth episode of this third season of Succession and one of the series absolute best.

What an absolute tornado of an hour, full of the pointedly cruel, quiveringly pathetic, and amusingly melodramatic stuff that makes Succession great. For all the time we spend in Virginia at the secret weekend where powerful Republican influencers and donors get together to decide who theyre going to throw their weight behind in the next presidential race, what gives What It Takes its whiplash-inducing narrative speed is all the stuff that happens offscreen.

Kendall just fires Lisa after she rightfully calls him out for overplaying his hand to the government! Logan is definitely sleeping with Kerry, only weeks after having sworn to Marcia that hed stop being so inattentive and indiscreet! (I know that Marcia secured her bag, and good for her, but why are you going to embarrass her like this again, Logan?!) Greg gets a new lawyer who is already advising him about suing Greenpeace! Shiv accepts that Tom is going to prison, and it has made her husband such a nonplayer in her mind that she doesnt even seem to notice when he disappears to have a gigantic breakfast spread at a nearby diner with her backstabbing brother!

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All of this is in line with who these people areselfish, self-obsessed, self-absorbed. And what What It Takes does so well is remind us of how this ensconced toxicity spreads outward, how it enacts and enables, in all ways big and small. The greatest danger in Succession is to believe in anything; this show treats that extension of self as a kind of weakness. Kendall believes in his own martyrdom and trips over his own dick. Shiv believes in the American republic and gets laughed at. Connor believes in himself and gets shuffled offstage. The only truly powerful people right now are Logan and Roman, the latter reshaping himself fully in the formers image, because they care about nothing past themselves.

I always found it hard to care about politics, Roman says, because his life is utterly unaffected by it; I dont care about the resume or ideological purity, as long as they get it and they pop, Logan says. When youre that rich, what does it matter who the president is? Remember No amount of antibacterial gel is gonna be able to wipe the America off me? This is all a game, and the only thing Roman, acting as Logans shadow, wants to do is win. And, frankly, he is. Roman is firmly now Daddys No. 1 Boy, giggling over memes with Logan and giggling in bathrooms with the most appalling Republican candidate, the one who spells his first name Jeryd because of course he does.

The only person who seems really even close to the Logan/Roman untouchability is Tom, and for an oppositional reason. They have everything to lose and he has nothing, and if we all remember our Fight Club training, Its only after weve lost everything that were free to do anything. Tom truly believes hes going to prison, and he truly believes that Shiv is preparing to leave him (because how dare she use birth control!), and he truly believes that Greg is on an upward swing that leaves his onetime mentee/abusee behind, and yetand yethe still doesnt throw his lot in with Kendall. Matthew Macfadyen is a phenomenal actor who has consistently done amazing work on this series (just recently, with the pitch-perfect line delivery of Id castrate and marry you in a heartbeat!), but his work against Jeremy Strong is next-level stuff.

Macfadyen is a deeply empathetic mix of resigned and curious, resentful and dismissive, polite and aggressive, and his conversation with Strong is like a tennis match, with Kendall trying to whip aces past Tom and Tom lobbing back every single one. Tom might often seem like a bumbling fly on the wall, all bluster and acquiescence, but I truly do not think he is an idiot. He understands power, and he understands that Kendall doesnt have any. Macfadyens pitying tone when he tells Kendall, Do you know what theyre doing up in his suite? Theyre picking the next president, is melancholy, morose, and exceptional. Maybe Tom abandons the family, but hes not going to do it by joining Kendall. Kendall is a broken man, and Tom isnt broken yet. Hes hopeless, but hes not helpless.

What It Takes begins after the triumph of the Roys maintaining control of their company, coming to terms with Stewy, Sandy, and Sandi, and avoiding a vote at the recent shareholder meeting. Interestingly, although Gerri, Karl, and Frank were all pivotal at the shareholder meeting, none of them is in attendance in this episode, which begins with the Roy family en route to Virginia and the Future Freedom Summit. The reshuffled family dynamics remain here: Roman is closer to Logan, Shiv is on the outside, Logan is being kinder to Tom, and Connor is still low-key threatening everyone.

The Roys are waltzing into Virginia with the sense that theyre king breakers (President Raisin is definitively on the way out) and with the mission of being king makers. Alongside the White Houses Michelle Anne and Republican operative and donor Ron Pectis (the ever-delightful Stephen Root), the Roys arrive to figure out who ATN is going to support in the six months to the presidential election. (Interesting that this timeline situates us in May, because both Kerry and Shiv are dressing more like its autumn.) The Roys are still going after President Raisin so that he potentially eases up on the investigation into Waystar Royco, but, unsurprisingly, theres infighting between the family about which Republican wannabe should get their shine.

The three frontrunners are the ineffectual (and boring) Vice President Dave Boyer (Reed Birney), policy-focused (and seemingly middle-of-the-road, and therefore hype-lacking) Senator Rick Salgado (Yul Vasquez), and Proud Boy-adjacent fringe asshole Jeryd Mencken (Justin Kirk), who whips the base into a frenzy with his endlessly aggressive, totally empty stances. Connor sees an opportunity to put himself forward, but lets be real, thats not going to happen. (In a room full of Timothy McVeighs, does Connor suddenly look like a Roosevelt? Unfortunately, no, and I guess this means Connor didnt actually get that European job?)

Boyer, who licks his lips a little too often, is out as soon as Logan mocks him to assistant-turned-lover Kerry. Salgado tells Shiv that if she helps him become president, hell send Logan to jail so she can be in chargeand Shiv is down with it, but no one else is interested by Salgado as a candidate. Instead, it becomes clear that Mencken, with what Shiv calls his Its all red pill, baby ideology, is going to be the guy. Was there really any other way this could go? There was not.

It doesnt matter that Mencken mocks Logan and disrespects ATN; he certainly changes his tune once he realizes ATN is on the hunt for a candidate. What does matter is how quickly Mencken and Roman vibe, and Ill be honest: It was too sexual! I was almost uncomfortable! Has Roman ever been as flirtatious, coy, and coquettish as when he was talking to Mencken? Kieran Culkins full-court-press charm offensive as Roman was less direct than he is with Gerri, but it was more alluring: all winks and puckered lips and genuine smirks. I truly thought that Roman and Jeryd were going to kiss, and Im sure someone is already writing that fan fiction. Theyre just a couple of cool guys having some disgusting fun, and it didnt take long for Logan to be convinced, did it?

Climate said I was going down. Climate said I should just step aside. I guess Im a climate denier, Logan says before going off to bed with Kerry, and the next morning, when Shiv claims she wont be in the family picture with Mencken, he wears her down with just one line. Are you part of this family or not? he asks, and honestly, Shiv, what are you doing? You think standing three people away from Mencken is a victory? You win, Pinky. You win, Logan says, and thats such a snapshot into how this father shares power with his children: barely.

That seems like a natural transition to discussing Kendall, doesnt it? My man is losing it! He pisses off Lisa first by not taking their practice questioning seriously (I approved the illegal payments because I love sexual assault and I love to cover it up. Is that bad? Im not saying that, Im saying what you think I think, right?) and insulting her, then gets offended by Lisas warning that the papers hes provided lack some of the explosiveness it was suggested they might have. Does the fact that Mommy Caroline is getting married without telling him rattle Kendall enough (Ken bores the shit out of Mom) that he fails the sit-down with the U.S. government? Or did he blow it on purpose? I think theres a little of both affecting Kendalls actions, and when Lisa calls him out on acting high-handed and defensive wildly overfamiliar and glib, he cant handle it. Bye to Lisa, and hello, potentially, to Tom.

But Kendall, for all his attempts at being a righteous leader, is not a coalition builder. He basically offers Tom nothing in exchange for his cooperation, and while Kendall thinks hes being a martyr, Tom actually is. He offered himself up to Logan. He agrees to take on some of Gregs crimes: Load me up, you piece of shit. He is curious about how a toilet can be a bastard! (So am I!) And consider how Kendall and Tom both act during and after their sit-down: Kendall insults Tom and his marriage to Shiv, he calls him a country mouse, and then takes a picture of him as blackmail. Kendalls desperation is getting real bad, and Im going to go ahead and call Tom right-on with this analysis: My hunch is that you are going to get fucked. Because Ive seen you get fucked a lot. And Ive never seen Logan get fucked once.

Couple that line with what Shiv said earlier: Nothings more dangerous than a second-rate individual who sees his chance. The problem, of course, is that Shivs statement could apply to any of the kids. What will Kendall do? What will Roman do? What will Connor do? What will Shiv herself do? And what will Tomalways silently sitting, watching, and waitingwhat will Tom do? Cant let all that cake batter go to waste.

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Succession hits a new high as the Roys pick the next president and Kendall does some recruiting - The A.V. Club