'Succession' Season 4: Reignited battle for PGM rectifies most of Season 3's problems
The following contains spoilers for Succession Season 4, Episode 1
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: What made 'Succession' Seasons 1 and 2 so fantastic and what caused Season 3 to fail are reinstated as the Roy family fights once more in the latest season to acquire PGM. The Season 2 ending portrayed Kendall as a villain in his family's eyes, only for him to crumble under strain and make the third Season feel disjointed. By bringing back a previous acquisition, the PGM, owned by the Pierce family, Season 4 acknowledges its own prior errors while maintaining the plot's uniformity.
The final season of the series aired on March 26, 2023, and broke records with almost 2.3 million views on its opening night. Here's how the premiere episode, titled 'The Munsters', is already making up for the chaotic storyline of the previous season.
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The battles continue
Following the cliffhanger in the Season 3 finale, Kendall, Shiv, and Roman are on opposite sides and starting their own businesses in an effort to outdo their father. Nonetheless, Logan has the support of the entire board, and Tom and Greg are in his corner. The trio discovers shortly after that Waystar is preparing to acquire PGM once more, which Logan hinted at briefly at the end of Season 3. A proxy fight to death ensues, with the wealthy pitted against the wealthy and billions of dollars being thrown around, while Nan Pierce cheers on the Roys' mutual destruction. The siblings surprise everyone by outselling their father in sales.
It is once again clear that all these individuals possess the killer instinct that Season 3 lacked; in the Season 2 finale, Kendall betrayed his father and provided enough proof to throw him in jail, but in Season 3, he did nothing to act on it. Instead, he dangled the facts before all his children, much like Logan does with the CEO job. A son attempting to win over his father lay behind the revenge quest. Kendall disguised his ultimate intentions by playing both sides in order to prevent Stewy and Sandy from buying Waystar out. The chaos made it hard to discern what he desired. However, now, it is evident that Kendall and his siblings don't give a damn about Logan and Waystar – they might as well let the family business go up in flames if they can't save it.
Season 4 helps solve show's morality issues
'Succession' addressed the Roys' moral corruption by placing PGM and the sex scandal at the forefront of Season 2. The Roys became even more despicable than they previously were as a result, with everyone going to great lengths to hide what happened on the trip, including blackmailing victims to remain silent. Even Logan's children cried when they heard that a conservative news organization was buying PGM, which was always left-leaning. Logan didn't particularly enjoy providing an answer to a crucial question: If the Roys control all the news, what else is there to watch? One family controlling the news from both political extremes would have been a moral nightmare for the nation. Therefore, many rejoiced when Nan Pierce pulled out of the deal.
This spark, which was doused in Season 3's PGM war, is reignited in Season 4's PGM conflict. Even though the Roys are fighting on opposing sides, the attitude remains the same: a Roy is acquiring PGM. Again, the news is now owned by one family only. The American government and its citizens don't care if the siblings seek to overthrow their father because, in their eyes, they see a family using the media as a means of power-sharing that could be resolved over dinner. For the Roys, exploiting PGM's "for sale" sign is just a game, but it signals to everyone else that the Roys are slowly taking control.
