Succession season 4 episode 9 ultimately saw Logan Roy (Brian Cox) laid to rest, but in the midst of their mourning, Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Shiv (Sarah Snook) were back to their plotting.
Protests and rioting erupted across New York when ATN declared Mencken (Justin Kirk) the winner of the presidential election, with Kendall’s ex-wife Rava (Natalie Gold) and their children escaping the chaos.
Despite Kendall pleading with her to remain and pretending to have real regret, it was soon back to business as usual – at his father’s own wake.
On that topic, Logan’s funeral was an explosion of cruel punches, beginning with his brother Ewan (James Cromwell), who practically launched into an essay about how horrible he was.
Meanwhile, Roman (Kieran Culkin) was filled with grief and burst into tears, earning him the title “Grim Weaver” from Mencken, with a stoic Kendall filling in.
Shiv announced her pregnancy to her brothers with little fanfare, save for some extremely filthy and incestuous comments from Roman, and went on – that carrying on being conspiring with Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgard) to destabilise the Wayster Royco empire.
But what does Logan’s funeral reveal about the upcoming Succession conclusion, which will be a 90-minute epic?
To begin with, Tom Wambsgans’ (Matthew Macfayden) absence is revealing, since he chose to forego the event in order to focus on his efforts to put out ATN fires worldwide.
While fans previously speculated that Tom may be the end-game villain, considering that he previously stabbed the Roy siblings in the back and foiled their efforts to supplant Logan, his absence from the photo tells it all.
Tom has definitely found his stride at ATN, and he no longer appears to be interested in achieving full Waystar Royco fame, despite the fact that he hasn’t been engaged in any of the double-crossing.
Meanwhile, Roman looked to be settling in when he was promoted to the top role in the family firm, alongside Kendall, and made some major power plays with Mencken.
However, the fact that he disintegrated during Logan’s burial, with the episode concluding with him practically being trampled on by demonstrators, implies he lacks the strength to bear the mantle.
It might also imply that Kendall will trample on him, considering that he spent the most of the funeral covertly plotting and negotiating with Hugo (Fisher Stevens) to undermine the GoJo merger.
Kendall wasn’t the only Roy sibling with a plan in the works, as Shiv developed her bond with Lukas, which seemed to be paying off.
Lukas signalled Shiv that he had successfully persuaded Mencken to rescind his agreement with Kendall and Roman to oppose the merger, setting up an enormous carnage in the climax.
But who will finally take sides? As we all know, Succession advertisements have cleverly hinted significant narrative lines, so let’s apply same reasoning to the cab scenario.
Shiv and Roman are in the front of the cab as the Roy siblings drive to the burial, while Kendall sits alone in the rear. Could this be a harbinger of Roman and Shiv joining forces, with Kendall venturing off on his own once more?
Succession continues on Monday on Now in the UK and on HBO in the US.
