Conventional wisdom goes that when somebody says “It’s not about the money,” it’s all about the money. After exploring that concept in the first episode of “Succession” Season 4, the HBO series looked the other way in Episode 2, “Rehearsal.” Throughout the hour, the trio of Roy children gone rogue – Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) – debate whether they should join some other contentious Waystar board members in blocking dad Logan’s (Brian Cox) sale of his media empire to Swedish internet gazillionaire Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård).
They state repeatedly that it’s just a play to get more money for the family business. True as far as that goes. Yet Shiv and Ken, especially, seem to relish every opportunity it gives them to stick it to the old man. This fight is over a lot more than the money.
Nothing More Than Feelings
The episode opens with Logan’s “friend, assistant and advisor” Kerry (Zoe Winters) asking how he’s feeling as they leave his building for ATN, the Fox-like news network he’s retaining after the sale of Waystar’s other assets to Matsson’s GoJo.
“Why does everyone ask how I’m feeling?” he laments. “I’m selling. My decision. I’m feeling great. And yes, axe that chopper. They can f—n’ walk.”
That would be the chartered helicopter Kendall, Shiv and Roman were planning to take from Upstate New York to their half-brother Connor’s wedding rehearsal in the city. At their luxury lakeside cabin, the kids watch incredibly boring shows on the Pierce Global News network they’ve just committed to overpaying to buy.
“A show about politics called ‘Inside Baseball,” Kendall complains. “How f-ing confusing is that?” He then suggests new programs about current events in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“That sounds like ‘Homework: The Show,’” Shiv, apparently recovered from what was probably her last, sad night with her husband Tom, snipes with bullseye accuracy. Then her assistant calls to inform Shiv that Tom has conflicted-out all of the top divorce lawyers in Manhattan from taking her on as a client, a trick Logan used on her mother.
In the city, Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) confirms with his assistant that this has indeed been done. As he gets into a car, Greg (Nicholas Braun) calls to warn him that Logan is at ATN.
“He’s on the floor, Tom,” Greg reports like an unarmed army scout. “Moseying. Terrifyingly moseying. He’s wearing sunglasses inside. It looks as if Santa Claus was a hit man.”
Shiv phones and berates Tom as he runs back upstairs. The term “bitch boy” is applied. When Greg sees Tom, he tells him, “It’s like ‘Jaws,’ if everyone in ‘Jaws’ worked for Jaws.” Tom says once the Waystar sale goes through, Logan will be there all the time, “Hangin’ around. Like the threat of nuclear war.”
Tom and another ATN honcho, Cyd (Jeannie Berlin), approach Logan, who stops complaining about everything to ask them what they thought of Kerry’s anchor audition tape. Both underlings lie that the boss’ girlfriend has really got something. Logan says he’s keeping out of the decision to give her a shot, leaving it to the two geniuses.
Back Upstate, the kids watch the tape and make fun of Kerry’s every awkward delivery.
“Must act natural to fool the humans,” Roman jokes in robotic cadence, then laments, “Tomorrow he selling the empire to a 4Chan Swede and dishin’ out jobs for blowies.”
Shiv makes a furtive call to Sandi Furness (Hope Davis), member of another rival media family that hates Logan but has seats on Waystar’s board. She’s interested in delaying the sale unless Matsson coughs up more dough.
Pirate Time
At ATN, boxes of Hammermill paper are arranged as a makeshift stage for Logan to address the troops. Tom introduces the boss by crowing about the network’s 15% revenue increase. Logan asks a frightened young staffer if that’s good against a 40% uptick in costs. After some thought, the lad says no.
“No! Good. Good head for numbers!” Logan praises/derides.
Then, fire-breathing as only Cox (or perhaps Mussolini) could, Logan launches into a pep talk about how the new ATN will cut the throats of the competition and promises/threatens to be around the newsroom a lot more.
“This is not the end,” he inveighs. “I’m gonna build something better. Something faster, lighter, meaner, wilder. And I’m going to do it from in here. With you lot! You’re f-ing pirates!”
Applause all around. Logan smiles and chuckles.
Upstate, the helicopter indeed takes off without the kids onboard, forcing them to seek slower transport to the city.
In an ATN conference room, execs Hugo and Gerri are laughing at Kerry’s audition tape on a laptop when Logan marches in early. Startled, Hugo closes the computer. Logan is informed that Matsson wants a photo op with him; the old man doesn’t want to be seen shaking hands with him.
Asked to put his presentation on a wall-mounted monitor, Hugo reluctantly opens his laptop; a brief shot of Kerry flashes on the screen for all to see before he quickly switches to graphics.
More angry about Matsson than Kerry, Logan storms out – but mentions he’s concerned about the board and tells Hugo to put his lipstick on to suck off an independent director.
It’s dark and the kids arrive late outside the wedding rehearsal building, Sandi and another board member, Stewy Hosseini (Arian Moayed), are waiting on the street. Not an ambush, they just want to do five in person, get the three Roys to vote no at tomorrow’s board meeting and squeeze more money from the Swede. The siblings have a couple of hours to choose sides.
“So it’s either we vote yes tomorrow and we all make billions of dollars or we sign up for your cool s–t and then Dad disinherits us entirely,” Roman sarcastically sums up. “That sounds like a toughie. We’ll think about it, thanks.”
She’s Gone?
Inside the rehearsal building, folks are leaving and a drunk bride-to-be, Willa (Justine Lupe), staggers down the staircase in a white pantsuit. “I’m just going for a little drink,” she tells the siblings, though the rehearsal’s not over. “You can’t be jumpin’ for joy the whole time, right?”
“Fairy tale wedding,” Shiv shrugs after Willa leaves.
Up in the emptying ballroom, Connor (Alan Ruck) is drinking alone at a big round table. Shiv apologizes for arriving late “Dad screwed us.” Hugs.
“Look at you.,” Connor tells the trio. “The Rebel Alliance. Willa stood up to do her speech and she said, ‘I can’t do this.’ And she went to the bathroom for 45 minutes with her so-called friends.”
Connor, whose life is one of wealthy isolation, wants to try karaoke, or at least go drink somewhere else with his half-siblings.
“Somewhere fun,” he suggests. “And real. Away from the fancy dance. A real bar with chicks. And guys who work with their hands and grease and sweat from their hands and have blood in their hair.”
“I don’t like these guys,” Roman grumbles. “They sound like a medical experiment gone wrong.”
At a not-too-divey bar. Man of the people Connor tells Kendall to order for him. “I’ll just have whatever a regular Joe would have,” he tells his brother while trying to track Willa’s whereabouts on a phone app.
“Just a Belgian weissbier, not Hoegaarden,” getting both the proletariat appeal wrong and confusing the Flemish and German names for the style.
Kendall goes out back and halfway down a subway entrance to take a call from Lukas. He threatens the kids not to push for more money or else he’ll walk.
“This is not aggressive. I’m told that sometimes when I’m direct, it can code aggressive,” the Swede says aggressively. Seconds after hanging up, Ken texts Stewy.
In an ATN conference room, Tom coerces and cajoles Greg into being the one who has to break the bad news to Kerry.
“This is an incredibly delicate piece of diplomacy, Greg,” he explains. “It’s like Israel-Palestine, except harder and much more important.”
In a rare display of intelligence, Greg says he doesn’t want to do it. Tom tells him it’s one of the “next level tasks” Greg’s been wanting, gives him some stupid talking points, and emphasizes keeping his and Logan’s name out of the audition rejection.
Shiv, Ken and Roman talk business around a bar table while Connor listens in. It’s discovered that Roman texted birthday greetings to Dad; the other two feel betrayed. They guilt him into going along with their no votes at the board meeting. Connor’s upset that they’re ruining his night and demands to go to karaoke.
Greg gets Kerry alone in a conference room. “I wanted to give you heads up, on the down low, on what the murmurs are . . .”
She gathers Tom doesn’t think she’s ready to anchor. Greg blames it on a focus group.
“They focus-grouped me?” Kerry spits with growing outrage. She wants details of the criticism, which Greg of course doesn’t have.
“If this focus group isn’t real, I’m gonna take you apart like a human string cheese,” she promises before storming out.
Alone, Greg tells himself he did the job.
Kerry walks into another conference room, where Logan and Gerri tell her Connor just informed them about his siblings’ plans. Logan acknowledges they have some f—in’ juice.
Desperados
The younger Roys are in a luxury karaoke room at the back of a Japanese restaurant. “Think they have ‘Desperado’ by The Eagles?” Connor asks. “I would imagine they do,” Roman winces. “Longest night of my life.”
Then Connor gets a phone message, announces Dad’s on his way, and declares more than confesses that he told Logan what the others are up to.
“I want my father to be at my wedding,” Connor rationalizes.
“You mean you want the money,” Shiv retorts.
Connor is butchering Leonard Cohen’s “Famous Blue Raincoat” while Logan, Kerry and bodyguard Colin march through the restaurant.
“This is Guantanamo-level s—t,” Roman grouses (it’s the season’s second reference to the notorious prison; will they go for one in each episode?). “I think I’d like to hear ‘Desperado.’ Please?”
Once Logan and Kerry settle in the lavendar-lit karaoke room, the father says he was sad his younger children didn’t come to his birthday party.
“It’s like a f-in’ telenovela,” Kendall sneers, then proceeds, with assistance from Shiv, to confront Logan about his history of bad parenting. Connor and Roman meekly protest their issues with Logan getting thrown in there.
“Look, I don’t do apologies,” Logan responds, somewhat sincerely. “But if it means so much to you, then [long pause] sorry.”
“There’s nothing you could say to me now that I would ever believe,” Shiv shoots back.
It being about the money, Logan then tries to convince them that the GoJo deal is good and they should back it. Shiv says they want more money, speaking for them all.
“Oh Jesus,” Logan says, rubbing his brow in genuine frustration. “You’re such f—ing dopes. You are not serious figures. I love you, but you are not serious people.”
He and Kerry leave. On the sidewalk, he spots a man rummaging through a trash can.
“This city,” he muses in despair. “The rats are as fat as skunks. They hardly care to run anymore. I don’t know. I don’t f—ing know.”
Logan tells Kerry to cancel the next day’s board meeting and gives her a list of executives he wants to accompany him to Sweden instead.
Back in the karaoke room, Shiv takes a drink and asks, “So, how was it for you? F—ing Dad?”
“Amazing,” Ken enthuses. “Just over too soon. I coulda kept going.”
Connor says he’s going home. Shiv tells him she’s sure Willa will be in touch.
“You know what?” Connor says. “It’s fine. The good thing about having a family that doesn’t love you is that you learn to live without it.”
Calling his siblings needy love sponges, Connor adds, with eyes wide like a crazy person or a libertarian, “And I’m a plant that grows on rocks and lives off insects that die inside of me!”
Back in their hotel suite, though, Willa’s in bed. Connor climbs on top of the covers, his suit and shoes still on. They clasp hands, spoon.
Are there going to be significant mattress configurations at the end of every episode this season?
Later, Roman comes to Logan’s penthouse. He apologizes for the karaoke room.
“Oh, we know what they’re like,” Logan says with rare jollity.
Logan asks Roman to come to Sweden with him the next day, though that means missing Connor’s wedding.
“There’s a night of the long knives coming,” Father tells Son. “Cyd’s toast, I’m reinventing ATN. I need a firebreather, a ruthless f— who’ll do whatever it takes.”
Roman contemplates the job offer as Logan looks on with a s—t-eating grin.
Best One-Liner:
While Kendall is berating Logan in the karaoke room, he brings up their father hitting brother Roman as a child. Roman, whose mouth has been particularly vicious (even for him) throughout the entire episode, not only comes to his father’s defense but flashes remarkable self-awareness:
“Oh, no! I mean, everyone hit me. I’m f—in’ annoying.”
Stray Observations
Logan may be human after all. Or is his sadness over three of his children’s estrangement, his weary distress about everything changing for the worse and a few glints of genuine-seeming happiness in this episode just cover for nasty machinations?
Whatever is going on between Connor and Willa, was tonight’s supposed runaway bride business just a cover for the eldest Roy to eavesdrop on his rebellious siblings, so he could rat out their plans to their father?
Whose side is Roman really on? Could it be both? Is he really just a softie who wants to get along with everybody?
Until next week…
