\n<\/p>\n
Warning: Spoilers for Succession<\/em> season 4, episode 3 to follow.\u00a0<\/p>\n We didn\u2019t really think that Logan Roy, the bellicose media tycoon at the center of Succession<\/em>, would get a tearful deathbed goodbye, did we? Jesse Armstrong<\/strong>\u2019s series, while certainly soapy at times, is just not that kind of program. Blunt and mean as Logan could be, it\u2019s fitting that his death\u2014which finally came in season four, episode three\u2014was just that, too: off-camera and ignoble and sudden, as so much death is in the real world.<\/p>\n Logan didn\u2019t even make it to the penultimate or final episode of a series that has, arguably, revolved around him for four seasons now. Which is shocking in the best way, especially as Logan, so shrewdly played by Brian Cox<\/strong>, seemed to be gearing up for yet another existential struggle to secure his legacy. As it turns out, there will be no new Logan era at ATN, no protracted campaign to sell his company, no uneasy reconciliation nor ultimate disowning of his needy and vexing children. He\u2019s just dead on a plane, having collapsed in a bathroom on his way toward another battle.<\/p>\n That\u2019s certainly a more realistic end for someone his age whose health has been a question since the premiere of the series. Death is often quick and inconvenient, a sentence cut off without punctuation. There is something artful in Armstrong\u2019s choice, then, a kind of Euro indie-film sensibility toward the comic harshness of the world. Logan was there one minute and then he was gone, disrupting (or, really, destroying) his eldest and most-mocked (but perhaps most loyal) son\u2019s wedding as one last \u201cfuck off\u201d to his frivolous family.<\/p>\n I suppose one could look at this plot twist as a cop out, as damning evidence that Armstrong and his writers just weren\u2019t sure how to close the loop on Logan. Some viewers will no doubt feel a bit cheated, denied some vindication or clear defeat that would have given Logan\u2019s arc a satisfying conclusion. That\u2019s an understandable complaint when so much time has been invested\u2014how could such a huge part of the story run into a brick wall like this?<\/p>\n Well, one reason might be that now the Roy kids\u2019 scramble will get that much scramblier. Without the common enemy of mean old Dad\u2014and, yes, while dealing with some genuine grief\u2014how long can Kendall, Shiv, and Roman stick together? We\u2019ve already seen their briefly aligned interests starting to diverge, as Roman tentatively returned to the lap of his father while Kendall and Shiv got greedier about the GoJo sale. With the king dead, someone new must be placed in charge\u2014but none of the other kids, nor presumably most of Logan\u2019s underlings, know about the conversation between Logan and Roman at the end of episode two. Will Roman try to claim his undocumented bequeathment? There\u2019s pretty much zero chance his siblings would honor that, right?<\/p>\n This is, perhaps, the ultimate chaos the show has always been driving at\u2014the inevitable explosion that, yes, removes the physical obstacle of Logan, but creates more mess and instability than maybe he ever could while alive. As much as we\u2019ll miss Cox\u2019s fiery performance, we can hopefully look at this shockingly stark development as an opportunity for the show to boldly realize its endgame.<\/p>\n And what fine work it\u2019s already coaxed out of the actors. The snap-of-a-finger upending of the kids\u2019 entire world was beautifully rendered by Jeremy Strong<\/strong>, Kieran Culkin<\/strong>, Sarah Snook<\/strong>, and Alan Ruck<\/strong>. Perhaps never before on Succession<\/em> have we gotten to see the Roy children in such frayed disarray, stammeringly trying to figure out the banal aftermath of death\u2014what do we do<\/em> now?\u2014and confronting the strangest and biggest of losses. Their enabler, benefactor, rival, torturer, and, yes, protector is now gone; they have ostensibly beat him in at least a single crucial way. (Though they had nothing to do with that victory.) But who are they without the frustrating, shielding loom of their father\u2019s shadow?<\/p>\n I\u2019d expect that question to define the last seven episodes of the series, perhaps bringing the kids toward some kind of humane epiphanies or pushing them further into amoral cynicism. Maybe they can never fully escape Logan\u2019s shadow, and that realization will send them all spinning into Shakespearean ruin. The war of Succession<\/em> may end with no Roy holding the crown, a noble house that cannot hold without its patriarch. If that\u2019s the case, then I say all hail Queen Gerri, who narrowly avoided banishment because, well, the guy who wanted her out just dropped dead on an airplane. Maybe that\u2019s the kind of dumb luck that gets you to the top in the end.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n