'Succession' Season 2 Episode 8 sees Logan Roy finally name the next CEO, but Shiv may have just beat her father
What does it really feel like to sit in a room where your family is toasting your life and achievements on your birthday, but none of them mean it? Logan Roy (Brian Cox), who has finally returned home to Dundee in Scotland, sees himself placed in such a situation. All the while he is trying to deal with pent up emotions about what returning to his homeland feels like. In 'Succession' season 2 episode 8 titled 'Dundee', he initially tries to express it but is not successful. He meets his brother Ewan Roy (James Cromwell), his friends he hasn't seen in years and protesters - all of whom are against someone such as Logan visiting their country.
Meeting his brother doesn't put Logan in a good mood.
"Who is next in line?" This question is the core of 'Succession', and "Who is Logan Roy really?" is what drives the show.
For now, we know what his brother, who also happens to be Greg's (Nicholas Braun) grandfather, thinks: "He's morally bankrupt, a nothing man." And Logan's brother continues to tell his grandson that Logan might be the single person most responsible for climate change with his companies and with his news channel among other things; he may also be the person responsible for most lives lost because of the said climate change being ignored by his support to men in power, namely the Republicans.
Despite all this, Logan makes it to Scotland in the first place because it's something that Logan's new friend Rhea Jarrell (Holly Hunter) has planned. She says it is to honor him, and the fact that Logan agreed to it at all, surprised his family. Of course, Logan is planning on using this as a platform to announce his next CEO, and everyone expects it to be Rhea. This leads to his children hating on Rhea, and pretty strongly at that; and so Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) initially hone in and target Rhea to show her true colors to their father Logan. This is to make him understand that his recent dalliance will not lead to good things.
As a start, the Roy siblings convene on how to "fu** Rhea a 1000 ways," as Shiv puts it. Ken is not completely on Shiv's side about screwing Rhea over since he believes that his father could be right, but he does help Shiv in the smallest way possible. He tells Rhea that while she is giving her toast, she should mention Logan's late mother Helen and sister Rose. While Helen is not a problem, the mention of Rose definitely seems to be, as Logan is visibly perturbed by Rhea's toast. This is nowhere close to what Shiv really wants done to Rhea. Afterall, Rhea did backstab Shiv.
As the episode plays out, Rhea gains Ken's support by telling him that he is next in line despite what Logan has been telling everyone including Shiv. Considering how Shiv has been kept at an arms distance since the beginning, Ken sees an opportunity and backs out of wanting to go against Rhea. Roman doesn't want to be in cahoots with Shiv either. She is frustrated that no one including her husband sees Rhea as a problem and just when she is trying to figure out a way to kick Rhea out, an opportunity presents itself.
An issue about one Waystar Cruise employee, who has access to the company's dirty laundry, wanting to blow the whistle comes to Shiv's attention. Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron) wants to solve the issue because this man who was also involved in a sexual assault allegation earlier, was one of the main reasons why the PGM acquisition fell through. She doesn't want a repeat of that, and definitely not on the night that Logan plans to announce the next CEO. However, Shiv sees an opportunity to tie up the next CEO with the repercussion of everything wrong that Waystar has done in the past coming to light. She understands that the next CEO will be ruined from the resulting media attention, especially if that someone happens to be Rhea, and she is all for it. Will this play out as she expects?
That is something that we would have to watch out for in the next episode. So in conclusion, revisiting Dundee has not been such a great experience for Waystar Royco's founder.
The penultimate episode of 'Succession' will air on Sunday, October 6 at 9 pm ET on HBO.