Winning Succession. Does that sound appealing to anyone? Over four seasons, series creator Jesse Armstrong and his team of writers have shown how power, and the ruthless, sometimes clumsy pursuit of it, divides families, drives couples to divorce, and turns grown adults into simpering slime puppies. But the end is in sight, and someone has to take up the mantle of Waystar CEO. Those right-wing news channels won’t run themselves!
Below is our Succession power ranking based on Season 4, Episode 2 (you can read our recap here). We will release a new ranking weekly, until the end of the season.
1. Roman
Roman’s journey to maturity has been so steep over the last three seasons (there really wasn’t much lower to go) that when he sloped back to Logan at the end of this week’s episode, it read less like double-crossing and more like, well, actually caring for his family’s wellbeing. In the opening episodes of this season, he’s also shown more savvy than either of his clueless siblings, expressing caution over their truly bonkers acquisition of Pierce Global Media (PGM). Even if he conceded that point, the boy who once sent a dick pic to his dad is turning into a man who actually wields reason. Nowhere was that clearer in his insistence to Connor that he will simply never do better than Willa. Could this finally be slime puppy’s moment?
– Henry Wong
2. Logan
Logan parachuting into the ATN newsroom to deliver a sabre-rattling speech demanding “faster, lighter, meaner, wilder” content suggests that the pater familias is at least slightly rattled by his offspring’s agreed purchase of rival network PGM. So too does his – seemingly unsuccessful – surprise appearance in the sickly-lit karaoke bar in which Connor is wailing Leonard Cohen and his other kids are contemplating putting the brakes on his sale of Waystar to GoJo; he even suffers the indignity of coughing up a Fonz-style apology to them, only to be soundly pied. It’s all looking a little sad-face for him, until the dying minutes of the episode when he plays the Daddy Loves You card with the most susceptible of his children: Roman. A potential masterstroke.
– Miranda Collinge
3. Tom
So many of Tom’s shenanigans – as he would no doubt describe them – seem to happen off-screen via secret phone call. There was, of course, the pivotal one that ended series three, with which, by getting into bed with Logan, he capitulated the end of his conjugal relations with Shiv. But now he appears to be at it again, and it seems to be working. From the sounds of things he’s rung around all of New York’s best divorce lawyers, thereby effectively cock-blocking Shiv, as well as being given the honour of being Logan’s hype man as his boss attempts to elicit bloodlust in the newsroom. A strong week for Wambsgans; or rather, no obvious fuck-ups.
– MC
4. Kendall
Once this show’s biggest power-player (though perhaps agitator is a better word for the Ken.W.A’s ludicrous behaviour), Kendall has spent most of this season… chilling? He seems at ease with himself: making bad jokes, worse philosophical statements about Buddhism, and pitching terrible angles for the newly-acquired PGM group (that “global-global” news channel about Africa does indeed sound like homework). It’s entirely possible that Kendall, previously the most miserable Roy child, is now the one having the most fun. That probably means he’s never been in a better headspace to assume the throne; he just doesn’t seem to want it anymore.
– HW
5. Shiv
Shiv is the sharpest of the yung Roys, and she’s currently driving the business-related hoo-ha of season four. It was her suggestion, after all, that they push Matsson for more money in the acquisition of Waystar. Alas, she is not – as we have regularly discovered over the course of the series – anywhere near as sharp as she thinks she is, and in her desire to stick the knife into her dad and draw even a droplet of contrition, she has totally missed out on the fact that Roman is working with Logan behind their backs. Shiv currently being outmanoeuvred by her husband, father and brother. Maybe she’s due a win.
– Nick Pope
6. Kerry
It was intriguing to see Kerry play such a prominent role in the season four opener, dressing down Cousin Greg for bringing an app date to Logan’s birthday (“We’re not a fucking Shake Shack”) and losing out in a tête-à-tête with Roman. Her seemingly earnest desire to facilitate some kind of peace accord between her lover-boss and his kids felt out of step with a show so cynical and conniving; maybe it was a sign that she had more than a Winkleman-ian fringe in her sights? But no, her ambitions are far more humble in the grand scheme of things: she wants to be a star anchor on ATN, and Logan is leaning heavily on the Disgusting Brothers to make that happen. Problem is, she’s shonkingly bad at it. When Logan is informed of her dismal performance on the audition tape, he leaves it up to Tom to break the news, who leaves it up to Greg to break the news, who does a characteristically terrible job of breaking the news. Kerry is furious, but Logan is too busy to feel the brunt of her ire – the big sale to GoJo is under threat, and it’s time to ambush the saboteurs in Connor’s melancholy karaoke booth. Kerry buries her anger, but she knows that the rejection came straight from the top, and now has a grievance with Logan to simmer on.
– NP
7. Gerri
“The bidding’s off. I need to see Matsson. It’ll be you, me, Tom, Karl, Frank, but no Gerri.”
So says Logan, walking away from kids’ karaoke booth after learning that they planned to squeeze the GoJo owner for even more money in the buyout of Waystar Royco. Has Gerri – who was caught laughing at Kerry’s shambolic audition tape earlier in the episode – lost her place in the circle of trust? Logan warns his general counsel that he’s not out of the door just yet, and as he’s set to spend a lot more time roaming menacingly around the newsroom – like “if Santa Claus was a hit man” – it’s clear that a confrontation is on the horizon.
– NP
8. Greg
If there’s a recurring peculiarity in Succession overall, it’s in the ever-presence of Greg. Like, why, when the most intimate details of business and family are being discussed, is he, a distant, seemingly inept cousin, right there in the room, looming (very) large? For any “Greg is Poor Tom” conspiracy theorists out there it certainly adds fuel to the fire, but in this episode, Greg suffers the double indignity of having to fire Kerry from her ill-assigned ascendency to news anchor, resulting in her threatening to take him apart “like a human string cheese”, and also, more to the point, of having Logan turn to him in a private moment, as he witters about the “sog factor” of pizza, and utter the immortal words: “Greg, fuck off.” It’s been a long time coming.
– MC
9. Connor
While the likelihood of Connor becoming CEO is about as high as the eldest Roy’s chance of winning the election – what’s less than 1%? – he did manage to cajole his siblings into a karaoke session this week which, amid all of Succession’s behind-the-scenes hustling and endless whispering, is a tangible result. Perhaps, there’s a consolation position for him at Waystar – Head of Vibes? CEO of Team Culture? At the very least, at the end of a long week, he’ll be able to take the team to a real bar – you know, the kind where people sweat from their hands, and have blood in their hair.
– HW
Succession airs weekly on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV
Henry Wong is a senior culture writer at Esquire, working across digital and print. He covers film, television, books, and art for the magazine, and also writes profiles.
