'Succession' Season 4 Episode 6 Review: While 'the King is dead', Kendall steps into Logan Roy's shoes
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: HBO’s prodigal show, ‘Succession’ is a gift that keeps on giving. Now past its halfway mark, the final season of this masterful show has only gone from strength to strength. Logan Roy, the patriarchal figure of the Waystar Royco family is dead, his children are scrambling like scared chickens to chew on the final straw while the old guard or the senior executives of Logan’s empire are trying to hold on to their jobs by getting in line with the wishes of the new CEO’s, Kendall Roy and Roman Roy. The Roy brothers seemed to have made a terrible mistake of leaving out their sister, Shiv Roy, out of the power equation who is now forming her own alliances to save herself on Mayday.
‘Succession’ has always been about exercising control and grabbing power from each other. At first, it was Logan who kept a watchful eye over every inch of his empire and even his children until they got together to avenge all the wrongs done to them by their father. But now, the Roy siblings are learning about the crown of thorns that Logan wore while managing his empire. In the sixth episode of the ongoing season, we see Kendall and Roman getting into the dirty work of the CEO for the first time. They are not striking a deal with Lukas Matsson in this episode but are now trying to effectively run the company by introducing a new real estate program titled 'Living+'. Meanwhile, Kendall and Roman are also trying to sabotage the deal with Matsson due to their inflated egos while Shiv is slowly swaying towards Matsson, trying to provide information about her brothers' doings. However, the biggest talking point of the show is unarguably Kendall’s presentation on Investor Day where he pitches 'Living+' to a huge auditorium full of analysts and investors, portraying shades of Logan at times, which brings us to another burning question from this episode.
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Is Kendall the new Logan?
Waystar’s new product, 'Living+' offers assisted living facilities packed with entertainment (like having your house in Disneyland) which Kendall is trying to push and sell. He enlists Roman’s help in the process but the younger Roy backs out at the final moment before the presentation, leaving his brother high and dry. But the main reason behind Kendall putting his all into 'Living+' is the fact that he wants to raise the company’s stock price to outmatch the price that Matsson’s offering per share. He wants to keep Matsson out, run the company by himself, just Roy’s, and be the patriarchal figure that his father once was. This is what Kendall believes that Logan would have done if he was alive, despite the previous few episodes showing us that Logan was hellbent on selling to Matsson.
When Kendall returns backstage after delivering his victorious presentation about 'Living+', he is welcomed with thunderous applause by the senior management of Karl, Gerri, Hugo, and Karolina. This is where the line that permeates the show comes in from Hugo, “The King is dead. Long Live the Kings and Queen,” signaling that even though Logan is gone, the company has new Kings in Kendall and Roman and a queen in Shiv. However, selling the idea of 'Living+' to investors is a small victory in the scheme of things. Logan was a killer, and he told Kendall in the second season, “You’re not a killer son,” letting him know that Kendall was not ready for the big job. Maybe Kendall is still not, but after the presentation, he sure looks like on the path to becoming Logan.
Will Roman and Shiv partner with Lukas Matsson?
Kendall’s impressive presentation of 'Living+' before the investors turned Roman jealous who had the chance to be onstage with his brother and shine, but backed off after Shiv blabbered in his ears that introducing 'Living+' would be a mistake. Shiv had her interest at heart since she was approached by Matsson to inform her brothers. She wants to be in Matsson’s good books and wants to see the GoJo deal go through with Matsson. Roman, who was all up with his brother, now feels insecure after everyone begins to praise Kendall for his impeccable presentation. Shiv is already getting in deep with Matsson. Could she bring in Roman, make him look at the bigger picture of selling to Matsson, and then turn him against Kendall? It will be an uphill task because Roman hates Matsson at the moment, but since it's a show of corporate politics, anything’s feasible.
