HBO's Succession - Season 2 and Beyond

sails out, nails out

do y'all think that kendall + logan's failed meeting with stewy was part of kendall's plan? idk how much he thought everything through, beyond the scheming with greg (and greg must've had those documents on the yacht at some point)

I was just thinking there was no way Greg would have had his sole copies of those documents in a folder in a drawer at work.

I think the tipping point was when Logan referred to the death of the kid as "no real person involved". Like this is the defining moment of Kendall's life and the event that's been torturing him for maybe a year and Logan just handwaves it away, while also basically admitting his involvement and complicity in the abuse scandal. Genuinely I think Kendall would have taken the fall before that moment.

I was half expecting Kendall to whip out a phone recording of that moment at the press conference.

greg totally had all the documents in a folder at work. the ones he had at the hearing were presumably the ones he snatched out of the grill before tom burned the others

Logan not completely surprised by the betrayal, but maybe not quite expecting it? It was only a matter of time before he could shift his self-blame for the kid drowning on to his dad and return to his scheming imo

He looked like he was actively proud of Kendall for shafting him.

he was definitely proud. It was the killer move

still not sure if he expected it to happen though (the fact that he knew the shareholders wouldn't accept anyone other than him taking the fall maybe points to yes?)

Logan was hoping for this outcome, i think. Bear in mind that we heard that the shareholders were going to call for his head so without any white knight on the horizon, he was going to have to back down or set the pieces in place for a coup that would allow him to go down kicking and screaming. Suicide by cop.

I still hold that the seventh and eighth episodes of this season were missteps and that Holly Hunter's character ended up misused and disposed of... two episodes of sudden build up for her to immediately become CEO so they can have her leave after half an episode? It was ill-considered in the way that GoT would throw in ballast characterizations for great actors to rumble around and then get unceremoniously torched by a dragon. But yes, they DID get back on track pretty fast and 8 great episodes out of ten means that, occasional filler aside, this is still probably the most compelling show on television.

which episode had kendall's rap

bro, don’t get it twisted, I’ve been through hell
but since I stan dad, I’m alive and well https://t.co/vV1w8xHxX5

— sheila girlface (@buttcasino) October 10, 2019

I still hold that the seventh and eighth episodes of this season were missteps and that Holly Hunter's character ended up misused and disposed of... two episodes of sudden build up for her to immediately become CEO so they can have her leave after half an episode?

This could well be the case, but we don't know yet that she's definitely gone for good. Now she's another person with inside information and a huge grudge against the family.

Sure, somebody could pick up the character later and write her better and do something more interesting with her (and i hope they do, I love holly hunter!) but the point remains that the character went nowhere fast this season and was discarded unceremoniously. This wasn't prepping for future seasons so much as it was padding this one.

one point that is perhaps obvious on the face of it in the trump era is that logan's character doesn't mind being hated or attacked, he just can't stand losing or, worse, being irrelevant. from that perspective, a messy public hearing over stewardship of the company is like oh i dunno an impeachment trial of sorts

i think the point of the rhea character was to just hammer home why the successor had to be a roy--rhea had every superficial qualification, but she didn't have the ruthlessness

eh, i think the point of the rhea character is that they had holly hunter. which is not to say i don't get why you would want to hang on to holly hunter! I'm kinda sad they seem to have let Cherry Jones go! But the build-up of her going from well-written secondary character to aspiring to the throne and fucking logan then speedily becoming ceo and self-deposing with no real impact to the story at large seems like smoke and mirrors to bide time until we can get to the real story. she became "no real person involved" and that's not clever conceptual metaphor so much as just lazily considered storytelling.
Again, though: I love this show! But it's so good that when the quality dips a bit that glares all the brighter for it.

I thought it was interesting that Brian Cox said that he and Holly Hunter decided that their characters didn't actually sleep together.

Do you think Marcia will come back to Logan?
I hope it will happen. He clearly loves Marcia. There’s this idea that he had this affair with Rhea, but I’m not sure that happened. Both Holly [Hunter] and I felt that hadn’t actually happened, that it was more in the minds of the kids. He does ask her to stay the night, but that was because he had plenty of rooms. His sell-by date on that sort of thing is near. The kids thinking they were having an affair was more them projecting.

That’s fascinating. The general consensus seems to be that Rhea and Logan were having an affair.
Of course people think that! That tells you more about those people than what actually happened. [Laughs.] That’s the giveaway. That’s frailty in human nature, I’m afraid.

https://www.vulture.com/2019/10/succession-season-2-finale-brian-cox.html

the show certainly implied the fuck out of it! either way it suggests rhea as a toy for logan to bat around and that's not something the show needs more of.

idk, the show intentionally kept that ambiguous. i think that it's an interesting part of the show's dna to keep some important details lingering under the surface, but not explicit. it's clear that the roy kids suffered some serious emotional (and probably physical?) abuse at the hands of both parents, but the show and the characters never quite spell out exactly what happened (aside from jokey things about roman enjoying getting locked up in a cage).

well logan does hit his grown son so that's a hint

Roman's sincere "are you ok?" to Kendall after the announcement felt rooted in that too

I kind of stopped counting, but how many times in the show does it seem like Logan is sundowning? The closet shoe pissing happens a couple times, he seems confused multiple times in later evening scenes or when jet lagged, and seems to be making more choices midday on purpose

yeah i feel like a lot of those indicators were early season 1 -- and i at the time remember thinking it was gonna be a different arc & type of plot that it ultimately ended up being

i think brian cox said in that interview originally they were going to kill off logan at the end of s1

Interesting article here that talks about the Logan mastermind theory:

https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/10/16/20915933/succession-season-2-finale-twist-logan-kendall-this-is-not-for-tears

And has an incidental paragraph that explains the utility of Holly Hunter’s character

i think the show intentionally leaves it in the no-mans-land between 'logan hatched a plot' & 'logan smiled for some quotidian reason'; logan was obviously proud, he was obviously pleased w the outcome on at least one level, he hoped it would happen but knew kendall had to figure it out for himself...not sure how *conscious* it was of a "plot" by him, the word "plot" implies that he was really trying to set it in motion when i think the truth is probably somewhere closer to 'intuited it could happen'

'created the possibility for it to happen if his son was who he hoped he was'

agreed on all counts

right, but he's also been trying in his own nasty way to inspire kendall to be a killer his whole life. it wasn't part of a calculated plan, just logan doing what he always does.

Kendall Roy what's on your awesome headphones while you plan to kill you father

https://robbreportedit.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/3.jpg

north american scum!

just finished this last night after marathoning all weekend . Great fucking show!!!

uh yeah he was playing that when he took them off xp

i know, was mostly commenting that it was a hilariously appropriate choice

i think he's listening to 'a christmas fucking miracle' by run the jewels

Tom eating Logan's chicken was awesome btw

fuck so many amazing scenes in this show though

and yet i feel like hardly anyone knows about it

it's awfully popular!

i'm sure i just slept on it myself but no one i know irl watches it

It's extremely difficult to get people irl to watch it ime

my mom binged the first season in two days

it's awfully popular!

― Fuck the NRA (ulysses)

Yeah to me it seems to have penetrated the collective cultural consciousness with startling speed - people irl are throwing around the character names without first referencing the show they're from already.

this show is so good

so many hard to watch scenes tho.

kendall's rap :s

at least once a week i find myself morosely thinking "L to the OG...."

haha.

finished season 2 last night. wow.

“look it’s a succession”- me pointing to a helicopter flying over nyc

— Catherine Cohen (@catcohen) October 18, 2019

tru

i was in the financial district of my city last week during the day on friday and i was seeing the dudes in their vests and stuff and just feeling like i was surrounded by succession people

saw that James Murdoch, of the News Corp Murdochs, is supporting Buttigieg and I had a big Succession moment