{"id":280685,"date":"2023-03-29T12:05:19","date_gmt":"2023-03-29T16:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tvobsessive.com\/?p=280685"},"modified":"2026-08-14T03:25:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T03:25:21","slug":"succession-s4e1-life-death-logan-roy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/?p=280685","title":{"rendered":"Succession S4E1: Life, Death & Logan Roy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The final chapter of one of television\u2019s greatest achievements from the 21st century has begun. Succession <\/em>S4E1, titled \u201cThe Munsters,\u201d saw the kids unite, Logan discuss the afterlife, Shiv and Tom\u2019s tortured marriage break our hearts one more time and well\u2026don\u2019t ask to smell Greg\u2019s fingers. If you haven\u2019t seen the season premiere of Succession<\/em>\u2019s final season, beware because there are spoilers ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYour Face Gives Me a Headache\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After last season\u2019s finale<\/a> saw the youngest three Roy siblings reunite after years of backstabbing and betrayal, we picked up where we left off with them here in Succession <\/em>S4E1. <\/em>Kendall, Shiv and Roman are looking to launch their own cutting edge news platform and listening to pitches they visibly dislike. The siblings have always discussed trying to modernize, yet always go back to what they know: their father\u2019s traditional news business. Which is a cycle we would see play out again here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pierce family, who own a more moderate news network that Logan wanted to purchase last season, is looking to sell again. This news came to the siblings at the 11th hour, when they discovered that their father was closing in on a deal to purchase their network on the eve of selling his own company. What could go wrong here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was interesting to see the younger Roy siblings debate their next move. Roman was the most opposed and was clearly in favor of launching the new platform. Despite finally taking his biggest stand to date against his father, Roman is still afraid to go to war with his father. Or is he fatigued from it? Perhaps happy to finally not be at odds with his siblings and equally as happy to be avoiding his father\u2019s wrath? Roman has always been the most desperate for his father\u2019s approval and going along with his siblings to do battle with Dad one more time wasn\u2019t an easy decision for him to make. Even if going to war with Dad one more time was exactly what Shiv and Kendall wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Worst Birthday Party Ever<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Succession <\/em>S4E1 gave us the worst birthday party of all time, for none other than Logan. Logan was bored out of his mind, surrounded by his yes men and women only. The reality was that his youngest three children really weren\u2019t coming back to him this time and that the more powerful people in the world weren\u2019t surrounding him, likely seeing him as less important with the sale of his company days away from happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Logan is a complicated character for many, many reasons but perhaps none more fascinating than his dynamic with his children. He doesn\u2019t take them seriously. He doesn\u2019t believe that they can come out from his shadow. He thinks they have very real talents but not the killer instincts to truly thrive in this world. He beats them down but he doesn\u2019t see it as the abuse that they see it as. He, in his mind, thinks he\u2019s protecting them. He loves them and doesn\u2019t understand why they take these things personally and are so removed from him these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the party equally showed that he feels disrespected and bored. With this sale of his company going through in two days, Logan sees it as a win, or at least that\u2019s what he says. But his killer instinct hasn\u2019t diminished. The fight is still there. You can tell that his desire for power is as strong as ever. Can this man truly retire and ride off into the sunset? Not a chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My favorite scene in Succession <\/em>S4E1 was Logan at the restaurant with his bodyguard Collin, the same bodyguard who cleaned up the vehicular homicide Kendall was responsible for in Season 1. Logan escaped his party with Collin and wanted some real conversation. He trusts Collin because Collin does his job and does it well. He doesn\u2019t push back, he doesn\u2019t complain about why he doesn\u2019t have more. He just does what he\u2019s supposed to do and Logan Roy admires that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the restaurant, Logan asked Collin what he thought happened after you die. Logan said that he thinks this is it, there\u2019s nothing after, which says so much about his mentality and the way he acts. He lives like there\u2019s no tomorrow, with no remorse for his actions because he believes he\u2019s never going to have to account for them. That with money and power, he\u2019ll win the game of life and go out on top. But was this foreshadowing? Succession<\/em> started with Logan nearly dead and the kids fighting over who would succeed Dad. Now the kids are at war with Dad but if the end game is him dying with the kids birthright gone, what do they have to fight for after all? What\u2019s their motivation? Serious questions to possibly end the series on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Innocents No More<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In many ways, Succession<\/em> has been a study of the way that greed corrupts. Greg was a true innocent when this series started. Tom, less so, but still way on the other end of the spectrum from where he is now. These two men are obsessed with power and will do anything Logan asks of them. While their heart is still there and on display at times, they have been corrupted by a system designed to break the strongest and most pure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet I couldn\u2019t help but feel for Tom when he and Shiv discussed divorce at the end of Succession <\/em>S4E1. <\/em>He is a snake in the grass, yes, but he\u2019s been hurt, he\u2019s been lied to and humiliated. Was he driven to his choices by pain or greed? Likely both. No, Tom isn\u2019t an innocent anymore by any means but there are shreds of humanity hiding in there. It\u2019s nice when the show reminds us of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Highest Number<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Kendall, Shiv and Roman won the bidding war and are purchasing an aging media empire for the cool sum of ten billion dollars. They\u2019re going to war with their father, who despite being angry, will not go quietly into the night. He will fire back on his children and war will be waged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what does the final act of this Shakespearean-esque drama look like? A potentially dangerous Trump-like President looms on the horizon. The rich are getting richer. The way people consume news and the manner in which that news is presented is nothing more than a weapon in this war of the most powerful people on Earth. How does it all end? Succession <\/em>S4E1 didn\u2019t give us many clues except that Logan\u2019s mortality and how the kids will react to his possible death are the stories to watch. Until next week my friends\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The final chapter of one of television\u2019s greatest achievements from the 21st century has begun. Succession S4E1, titled \u201cThe Munsters,\u201d saw the kids unite, Logan discuss the afterlife, Shiv and Tom\u2019s tortured marriage break our hearts one more time and well\u2026don\u2019t ask to smell Greg\u2019s fingers. If you haven\u2019t seen the season premiere of Succession\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":280689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"saved_in_kubio":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[283],"tags":[27,17,25,26,294],"class_list":["post-280685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv-recaps","tag-brian-cox","tag-hbo","tag-jeremy-strong","tag-kieran-culkin","tag-succession"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=280685"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":298932,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280685\/revisions\/298932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/280689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=280685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=280685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=280685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}