After last week’s claustrophobic events in the late Logan Roy’s sepulchral New York apartment, Episode 5 of the final season of “Succession” sends his surviving kids and assorted Waystar executives out to play in the Norwegian wilderness.
A very posh section of it at least, with luxury cabin views of lush forests, fast-flowing streams and snow-capped mountains in all directions. But a feral place nonetheless for Kendall, Roman, Shiv and company to fight tooth-and-nail with Lukas Matsson and his GoJo team over how much the Swedish tech baron will pay to buy Waystar Royco. The episode is called “Kill List” for a reason, and not just because there’s an actual list.
CEBros Gonna Get It Done?
On his first day as co-CEO, Kendall (Jeremy Strong) enters Waystar’s Manhattan HQ and is greeted by P.R. guy Hugo (Fisher Stevens), who introduces him to “additional manpower for the new role.” Ken welcomes them, then says they can f—k off until he needs them, Loganing already. He just wants to check in with the grays and get to the plane.
“Get in early and slip a mickey in Matsson’s meatballs,” Ken says, as the writers room strains to make Swedish stereotyping a thing. Hugo suggests a photoshoot with Roman. “CEBros is the bad version,” he says of the inevitable caption. Ken says let’s not, but sorry; we’re using that term to describe you two for the rest of this recap.
Ken’s greeted by applause on the executive floor. He stares briefly into Logan’s unoccupied office, enters a conference room, hugs Roman (Kieran Culkin), meets a few new faces who liaise with Waystar’s Hollywood studio. Their big, dumb robot movie needs reshoots, its second producer is on leave citing “mental collapse/overload.” The CEBros agree to keep spending on it.
Rome tells the movie messengers to f—k off, then says “Here we go, march of the emperor penguins” as Karl(David Rasche) and Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron) come in. Karl offers anything they can do to be helpful with the looming GoJo negotiations. Ken tells them he wants to squeeze an extra $3-$4 per share out of Matsson as Shiv (Sarah Snook) walks in. As if on cue, Matsson messages everyone. Frank (Peter Friedman) walks in. The whole executive team is requested in Norway. Matsson sent a list of names. Sinister as f—k. Cultural compatibility check? Early, but smart.
“Or invite everyone so he doesn’t have to just deal with the B-roll Brothers.” Shiv suggests. OK, using that one for Ken and Rome, too.
After Gerri gently shoots down his don’t play ball suggestion, Ken says “Yeah, great. Let’s go get the deal. Let’s bleed the Swede.”
Compression Socks
Greg (Nicholas Braun) and Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) at the airfield. “Why Norway, not Sweden?” Greg asks.
“Annual retreat,” Tom answers. “Anyway, Norway, Sweden, what’s the difference? They’re all descended from the same rapists.”
Greg tells Hugo and his boys he wants to get a feel for Scandinavia. And some hotties, arctic foxes, bit of Norwegian wood. He’s told to calm down. It’s business.
“Musical electric chairs,” Hugo explains. “Find out who they like. Everyone else, welcome to the lime pit. You’re on the other plane, by the way.”
Tom tells Greg he feels safe with the ATN carve-out, but he’s worried about getting whacked by the cast of “Bugsy Malone.” That would be Shiv plus the B-roll CEBros. Tom boards the plane to find Karl and Frank putting on compression socks. They don’t want to contract Flying Logan Syndrome.
In the air, Shiv’s concerned about bad Dad reports all over the internet. Ken, who secretly ordered Hugo to launch the smears, claims he’s more worried about the $225 million already sunk into their movie. “It’s a f—n’ sleeping robot in a cave, how the hell is that a quarter bil?”
Shiv’s eyes widen in horror as she doomscrolls on her phone. “I’m just struck by the number of pieces that knife Dad and imply that his children – particularly his younger sons – have been covering for him for quite some time.”
A shocked Ken orders Hugo to crucify whomever’s doing those briefings. Shiv indicates she knows at least one of the CEBros is behind it. Both B-rollers claim they’re busy now prepping to wrestle with Matsson and his ogres. Her brothers do offer to cut Tom’s throat if she’d like. Noncommittal, Shiv walks into the other cabin, where she sees her estranged husband wearing compression socks.
Karolina (Dagmara Domińczyk) tells Hugo GoJo’s deputy of coms is an ex-Olympic ski jumper. “I mean, Fulbrights coming out of their ass,” she says of the opposing team. “NASDAQ master race.”
Let’s Yodel
The contingent takes a scenic Fjordside drive to the retreat, past impressive waterfalls and up winding mountain roads. Waystarers switch to golf carts at the entrance to the retreat grounds, get carted past beautiful woods and streams. The floor-to-ceiling windows of Ken’s cabin look out on God’s bounty.
“I’ve already got f—kin’ mud on my sneaks,” he bitches to Roman.
Matsson invites the negotiating team up top while division heads are sent to brunch. In the gondola lift up to the mountain summit, Frank asks the “Malone” cast if they want to go over angles, etc. Roman says they’re good on the plan. Karl starts babbling about hardball and their dad and … Ken writes 144 on a clipboard. An offer below that per share = unhappiness, above = happiness.
Brother Connor (Alan Ruck) calls Roman from the funeral home in New York. He’s upset Marcia wants to bury Logan in a kilt. Ken tells him to work it out. Connor notes that he has a pretty full plate, and had to cancel on a roomful of working class whites in Cleveland for his one-percent-in-the-polls presidential campaign to do this. Ken writes “moron” on the clipboard, holds it up for the rest of the gondola to see, then gives Connor carte blanche to solve the funeral couture situation. Roman says “Don’t send photos! Bye.”
At the brunch, Hugo meets his GoJo counterpart, Andreas, “congratulates” him for nearly getting a Bronze at Sochi.
“That’s almost huge,” the American digs.
What’s really huge is the blonde wood and steel beam chalet where a hoodie-wearing Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) greets the Waystar delegation atop the mountain. He hugs Roman, soul handshakes Ken, tells Shiv “Am I gonna get a lawsuit if I hug you?”
“Maybe. Wanna find out?” she responds, and they do a perfunctory, single-arm embrace.
Claiming he’s been out-maneuvered (even though he asked for them all to attend), Matsson joshes “You got scared to come and talk without the village elders?”
The CEBros say no. Matsson says he was just kidding and leads the B-roll away. In another smorgasbord-lined room, Matsson thanks Ken and Rome for coming out to Norway.
“Yeah, well, it’s not like our dad died yesterday. It was a couple of days ago, so …” Roman notes.
“At least you didn’t find him yourself, BMW still running. That s—t can be trau-ma-tic.” Matsson says while pulling off his hoodie. “No sorries for Lukas?” Ken offers sorries as Matsson smiles. “It’s not a competition.”
Rome basically tells him his offer’s too low.
“OK. And your stock dropped 20% on Friday?” Matsson ripostes.
“And regained 10 Monday,” Ken lobs back. He and Roman explain that Waystar’s real assets don’t depend on Logan.
“I still feel like I’m going to the checkout during a sale and getting asked to pay more,” Matsson shrugs, then offers to buy their entire operation for one dollar.
”I’m kidding. Sorry. Your faces!” he cackles, pointing. Then Matsson says he wants ATN, like in the original deal. He’ll pay $187 per share. 50/50 cash/stock for the whole of Waystar, then pokes the younger, less-experienced at this level Roys, “Maybe you want to check in with the boiled eggs out there?”
Ooh, a new group name for the old Waystar execs!
“You like it a little bit, dontcha?” Matsson wants to know, almost squeezing a thumb and forefinger together, from the clearly shocked CEBros.
They decline his offer of bubbles, walk out and tell the eggs what happened.
“Excellent news, Gents.” Big stockholder Karl enthuses. Roman tells him to hide his boner.
“You effectively achieved a bump,” Gerri says, nodding approvingly.
Walking down a path to see Shiv, the Bros discuss the new offer. Roman asserts they want to keep ATN, it’s what Dad would have wanted. Shiv tells them ATN has an open line during editorial meetings to right wing presidential candidate Jeryd Mencken’s campaign team. That’ll blow the network’s credibility if news gets out. Told by her brothers about folding ATN back into the deal, she quickly says, “Sure, get rid of it. It’s a toxic asset.”
“It’s also Dad’s pride and joy he died trying to keep,” Roman says, getting more sentimental about the issue by the minute.
“Well, let’s just keep one of his old sweaters. Less racist,” Shiv retorts.
“We can’t navigate by Dad maps,” Ken points out. “He’s not here.”
“I know he’s not here,” Shiv says. “I have a giant hole in my heart and a 24-hour migraine.”
They’re not the Murdochs. They’re the Hapsburgs!
There’s axe-throwing, archery and drone-flying on the resort lawn. Greg informs Tom he has it on good authority there is a kill list, then moseys over to the “Bugsy” cast and suggests he join them to make a Quad Squad. OK, this is a nickname bridge too far, even for me. Fortunately, Shiv tells him the extent of that should be Greg getting her coffee.
Tom perches over a table of Swedes that includes Lukas and his lieutenant Oskar. France’s future is being discussed. Greg comes over and chimes in that The Economist says don’t bet against “Old Lady France.” “The baguette might be mightier than the bagel.”
“Who are you?” Matsson asks. “I don’t remember you from the list.”
Informed Greg’s a cousin, Lukas and his crew start chuckling and commenting in Swedish about the metastasizing number of Roys there. Words such as “incest” and “Hapsburgs” can be understood.
All others leave when the sibs come over to parley with Matsson. They say they’re running the numbers, but want to explore ATN-keeping options. With half the buyout in stock, Roys are concerned about Matsson’s fit and vision for the network, don’t want to lose their value if he screws it up.
“I’ve seen it,” Matsson says of ATN. “It’s a lot of yellin’. Small men, big veins.”
“Fat wallets,” Rome adds.
“Sure,” Matsson acknowledges, “But long-term, I don’t think news for angry old people works.”
And there, miraculously, you have the week of Fox News-inspired shootings and massive defamation payouts encapsulated in one metaphorical dialog exchange that was written last year. Anyway, he wants to make ATN more Bloombergy, simple, cheap, “IKEA’d to f—k.”
Ken calls Waystar a trusted brand. Matsson tells him it’s a parts shop. “Good parts, yes. Bad brand.”
Ken: “Gotta say, I think fundamentally you’re wrong.”
Matsson: “I don’t care what you think. You’re a tribute band.”
Oskar marches across the lawn shouting “Time for sauna!” Funny visual of uncomfortably sweating Waystar peons follows.
At a reception that evening, Matsson introduces Shiv to his coms director, Ebba (Eili Harboe), then with urgency asks her if they’ve got a deal or not.
“Yeah, potentially,” Shiv Mona Lisa smiles.
On a hill overlooking the disco tent, Ken tells Roman he wants to tank the deal, but in a way that makes Matsson think it was his idea and the old guard won’t know what they’re up to.
“It’s a f—n’ tightrope walk on a straight razor, 500-foot reputational drop,” Ken says with relish.
“Why does that make you smile?” Rome asks, reluctant but nonetheless acquiescent.
Shiv and Matsson talk in his cabin. She suggests a meaningful bump if he wants the deal. He thanks her for her top mind advice to just keep offering more money. He wants to know what she thinks of Ebba, asks about her husband situation.
“Oh, well, we’re f—d,” Shiv states. “It’s a disaster. I broke his heart and he broke mine. We lost our footing.”
Matsson admits sending an ex some of his blood after a breakup. Half a liter frozen blood brick. As a joke.
Shiv: “Half a liter? Wow. Well, obviously, first of all, good one!”
“She got a bit weirded when I did that,” Matsson reports. But he kept doing it. Then it became not a joke, but then a joke again. Now it’s apparently not a joke. Oh, and it’s Ebba. He plans to deny it, lawyer it out.
“Well, deniability is difficult given she has so much of your blood,” Shiv advises. “If this deal goes through, U.S. media are going to be all over you. So, if you’re the creepy stalker guy who sits in the dark writing code, dripping into an IV bag and harassing his direct reports, it’s going to have an economic impact.”
She advises him to stop sending people blood and don’t fire Ebba.
Like a little boy, Matsson says “I like you. You’re cool. You’re not judgy. You can take a joke. I like that. Like your dad.”
She sips her drink, half-winks, smiles.
On the hill, Ken hands Greg a burner phone; he’s to tell a journalist the deal vibes are bad.
“It’s Quad Squad type s—t!” Greg spouts, deliriously happy.
Ken tells his assistant to set up a full, three-hour screening of the bad movie for the GoJos in the morning.
Negotiating Tactics
Sun rises. Lots of bored Swedes watching.
Shiv approaches Ken and Greg about a “bad vibes” report on her phone.
“Hear you were getting pretty “close to Lukas last night,” Roman says.
“Yeah,” Shiv confirms. You jealous?”
Waystar elders approach. Ken tells them the pitch is they retain ATN and Matsson buys the rest foe $146, or he takes ATN at a crazy premium.
All good. The Bros “take it to the ridge.” When the rest have gone, Tom talks to Shiv. She tells him his white sneakers are bad fashion, then kicks gravel on them.
“I’m helping you, Tom. This is why people don’t take you seriously.”
He snaps her left ear with a finger. Hard. “Your earlobes are thick. And chewy. Like barnacle meat.”
He steps toward her and she rearfoots warily. He asks about her chat with Lukas. She calls Lukas very conventionally attractive. Broad, unlike Tom. “Compared to him, you’re wiry. You’re like a f—g spelunker.” She walks away.
On the gondola to the ridge, Connor sends Roman the picture of Logan’s corpse he was asked not to.
Outside on the ridge, with surrounding peaks semi-covered in clouds, it’s just the Bros and Matsson. He wants to know if they’re for real; the movie, these f—g press stories. “Are you Scooby-Dooing me here?”
Wait. Has someone been nicknamed Scooby-Doo? No, Matsson’s referring to an act. Let’s check the Urban Dictionary to see what he might mean … Oh my.
“I preferred doing this with your dad,” Matsson says. “He was a prick, but at least he knew what he wanted.”
Roman: “Our dad was not a prick, OK?”
Matsson: “Ah, sure. But he was.”
Ken: “This is a long distance run, it’s not a sprint.”
Matsson: “I think he’d be embarrassed if he saw you two now. His two big boys, playing Scooby-Doos.”
He threatens to go around them to the board and the old ones. Silence. He walks between them. After a moment, Rome pulls a face and goes after Matsson, who’s pissing on a rock ledge.
“You really couldn’t push this a week, could you?” Roman, seething, sputters, then details how devastated the siblings are about Logan’s death. “You just drag us out here, you inhuman f—g dogman you. Crazy! You f—g killed him, too. You did. You drained the life out of him, dragged this thing out for six f—g months, and then you bring us out here now.”
Roman declares they’re not selling to him. “I f—g hate you. And if you tell the board any of this I’m just going to say it was a negotiating tactic. And you know what? Maybe it is. But it’s not, so f—k you.”
Matsson whispers to him, “You just f—d yourself. Good.” He grins and chuckles.
“It’s a negotiating tactic,” Roman tells Matsson as he walks away, then hurls a string of expletives.
Waiting for the gondola, Ken says to Roman “It wasn’t the plan but maybe it plays.”
“If a deal collapses in the woods and no one hears it, is it an SEC violation?” Roman ponders.
Roys 1, Vikings 0
On the plane heading home, Frank gets a call from Matsson, who doesn’t want to speak to either brother.
Frank hangs up and tells them, “Revised offer. 192.”
“Five dollar bump. OK!” Karl, rubbing his palms together. “Hey, it’s a home run, Boys! Hail the conquering heroes.” In the other cabin, Karl tells the troops “We came, we saw, we pillaged, we raided the Vikings!” High fives.
In a quieter part of the plane, Shiv tells Tom about the deal, Matsson taking ATN (where Tom works) and the whole kaboodle. His face is half-shadowed in stark, noirish sidelighting.
“We’re looking at some moves at ATN. I’m not happy, so …” she adds.
“You’re really gonna do this?” a worried Tom says.
“Yeah. Cyd’s getting too close to Menckin. She’s gotta go.”
She then asks Tom if he wants to let Cyd know; it’s her father’s favorite loyalty test. He says sure.
“Don’t get an erection, Tom, that’s weird,” Shiv says, then asks her husband, “You want to have dinner when we get back?”
Matsson calls her. Requests she send him a photo of her brothers’ faces. Shiv surreptitiously takes a shot of the B-rollers looking pensive.
A preliminary draft of Gojo’s kill list is sent to Gerri. Hugo and his boys are on it.
Hugo: “That slalom mother—r.”
So are Frank and Karl, who lifts his champagne flute to his expected golden parachute, “Let the good times roll.”
Karolina, Gerri and Tom are not on list. Karl can’t believe that last one.
In their cabin, the “Malone” cast toast themselves. Looks like Roman and Ken really are Logan’s Big Boys. Unless they’re the ones getting Scooby-Dooed.
Best One-Liner:
As some Waystar junior execs panic on the plane to Norway, Gerri gives them a pep talk that could also double as a list of ATN’s patriotic capitalist talking points.
“Sure, they’re young and they’re fit. But they’re European!” She says of the GoJo team they’re about to face down. “They’re soft, hammocked in their social security safety net. Sick on vacation mania and free health care. They may think they’re Vikings, but we’ve been raised by wolves, exposed to a pathogen that goes by the name Logan Roy. And they have no idea what’s coming to them.”
Stray Observations:
It could be grape juice and we never see the powder going up her nose, but it looks like Shiv is drinking and snorting coke with Matsson in his cabin. Is she not that pregnant, or perhaps not that happy to be carrying Tom’s child? Hard to say, since she hasn’t expressed her feelings on the subject yet.
Roman’s prediction in the last episode that the delayed impact of Logan’s death would hit him hard appears to be coming true. He has the most emotional reactions to every stage of strategizing and negotiations for the Waystar sale, all informed by his feelings for his dad. They’re finally blown out of control by the picture Connor sends of Logan in the funeral home.
Not the best business tactic, but it seemed to work. Throughout the episode, Ken and Roman are out of their depth and often petty when it comes to responding to the more masterful Matsson’s moves. Yet they get more than they expected from him in the end. He clearly has some great need to buy Waystar with ATN, so no matter what the brothers did they probably would have come out on top. But this success should encourage them to go with their feelings and sometimes harebrained strategies. Can’t wait to see how that bites them in the end.
