[Ed. note: This post discusses the plot of “Connor’s Wedding,” season 4 episode 3 of Succession, in detail.]
In its fourth season, HBO successor had a promise to keep. As the final season of the acclaimed drama, the current installment has the onus to fulfill the promise of the series’ title. Someone needs to fill in for Logan Roy (Brian Cox), the patriarch of the Roy family and conservative media tycoon, towards the end of his life and career. After more than once deciding against stepping down and naming a successor among his bickering children, it’s become clear that the only thing that will separate Logan from his company is death.
What makes “Connor’s Marriage” a terrific TV episode is how Logan’s inevitable death still feels like a shock, keeping the audience invested in the messy, complicated grief of his children.
Logan’s death is compelling in its sudden mundaneness. In a show that squeezes both heavy drama and laugh-out-loud comedy out of board meetings and hilarity, Logan’s final moments are notable for carrying so little weight. He only has a few brief moments in “Connor’s Marriage” where he asks his youngest son to let a trusted associate know that she’s being axed and chooses to skip his eldest son’s wedding in order to close a business deal to back up.
This laid-back coolness is characteristic of Logan Roy, perfected over three seasons by Cox’s performance and successor‘s authors. Then he gets on a plane. The next we hear from him is when his son-in-law, Tom Wambsgams (Matthew Macfadyen), the only family member on the flight full of cronies, is on the phone with Roman (Kieran Culkin) to break the news that Logan has gone to the bathroom and had to be dragged out just as the flight attendant began chest compressions.
What follows is a showcase for the acting talents of successorThe cast of Roman, Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Connor (Alan Ruck) process the shock of their father’s death in a way that summarizes in moments who each of Roy’s siblings are among the personalities they present to the world and the complicated feelings of love and loathing that can arise from a toxic family relationship.
Connor’s Wedding answers a frequently asked question successorCritics of : Why would I want to watch a show about a bunch of rich white assholes?? As it turns out, the answer is the result of any well-written story. successor is a show about rich white assholes, yeah. But these rich white assholes are people first. They have weaknesses and insecurities, a richly hinted inner life and a strong interpersonal dynamic with each other. The yachts, mansions and galas they enjoy as 1 percent don’t matter if someone on the phone tells them their dad isn’t breathing. Wealth only reinforces their worst tendencies, leading them to believe that their fatal flaws are superpowers or that some bills will never come their way.
They are often right when they think so. Kendall Roy caused a man’s death in Season 1, and all he had to do was go to a fancy rehab rehab retreat to pay for it. Each and every one of the Roy siblings has spent the series failing, starting and merging new business ventures essentially on a whim. successor
But Logan’s death leaves her powerless. Through a phone call, they learn that their father has passed out in a bathroom and may not get up again. They cannot say goodbye or use their vast resources to better care for him. Logan Roy is just a man going out like a lot of men his age, and the Roy siblings are also just people who get through nothing but the chaos of a family they have.
For the viewer firmly outside the 1%, the Roy family is fractured in ways that are both painfully recognizable and comically alien. All the money in the world, and it doesn’t make it any easier to just tell your family what they mean to you. None of this will help you cope with abuse or toxicity over a lifetime. Everyone has to stand in front of a mirror at some point and reflect on what has become of them.