ONE PERFECT EPISODE / Succession: "Connor's Wedding" / Kolleen Carney-Hoepfner
Have you ever seen that Simpsons episode where Homer is watching Twin Peaks and he says "Brilliant... I have no idea what's going on"? That's how I feel a lot of the time about Succession— at least, that's how I feel about the business portion of the show, which, much like Twin Peaks's Ghostwood plotline, is lost on me, a woman who does not understand "business", per se.
Succession though—it's riveting. We came into it late, only watching it for the first time last year, blowing through it and lamenting the long wait between seasons. Yeah sure, all these people are terrible, rich assholes who will trample over anyone in order to secure their bag, but I just can't help but root for 'em. The fraught sexual tension between Roman and Gerri! The homoerotic pinings of Tom and Greg! And look, it's true, I'll look at Kendall and think "I can fix him, or at least go down with him" every time.
Succession has never shied away from being emotionally charged (even if the emotion is "cringe"), and if you've ever been in an abusive relationship, often it can be a bit too much. Logan Roy is a textbook narcissist (a word that's lost a lot of meaning since it became the internet psych slang du jour), and watching his children vie not only for his approval but his affection is just crushing. They're terrible people, but he made them that way. They're products of their own environment: rich, incapable of love, profoundly damaged. I'd argue Roman's masturbating on Gerri's door is probably the most normal he's ever been.
“Connor's Wedding” (S4 E3) starts off exactly as it sounds: the gang gears up for their elder half-brother's wedding to the (incredible!) Willa, who none of them respect. Connor has essentially purchased his bride to be; she was a call girl when they started “dating”, and the previous episode centered around his being in his feels, as Willa had run away from their rehearsal dinner. None of the siblings want to be there (there were copious thinkpieces on Shiv’s simple black hair elastic, an accessory that screams “heading to the gym!”), stuck on a boat with each other, with everyone. Accommodations are made to keep Logan away from his estranged kids during the festivities, but it's for naught, as he has no intention of showing up— he, Tom, and the team are heading to Sweden to meet with Matsson. Logan informs Roman on the phone that he has to fire Gerri, a woman who has worked for him for so long that she's Shiv’s godmother. To punish Gerri or Roman more is hard to say. Tom denigrates Greg on the phone, Connor chats up Willa’s mom, Kendall kidney chops a stressed out Roman's backside- standard Succession fare.
Before the episode turns on us we have the first brilliant scene of the hour: Roman approaching Gerri to give her the news that his dad wants her gone. “What no stupid jokes… or something disgusting about dicks or maybe vaginas?” Gerri delivers this line with gusto- I replayed it three times on my first viewing (I'm in love with J. Smith Cameron). She realizes quickly something is wrong, and when he spills the beans she is furious. As this scene ends we see Connor tell a beleaguered wedding planner the “cake is inadequate”. The vibe is off, and things are about to get way worse. We find out that this is a “loony cake”- the same cake Connor was presented with as a child when his mother was institutionalized as a way to soften the blow. Roman calls his father, furious and devastated, and leaves a message. “That was horrible with Gerri… Are you kind of just being shitty with me?” His voice breaks. “Are you just being a cunt?”
Shiv arrives and the siblings (sans Connor, who is always the afterthought) go to a private room to talk. Here Shiv declines a call from Tom (notable that she has her own husband in her contacts by his full name). The kids talk business. Tom calls again and she declines again. Connor comes by to tell them their dad will be separated from them if he arrives. “Someone has to tell him,” Shiv says as he leaves. Remember this line. The boys tell her she should and she leaves to find him.
Tom calls Roman and the entire episode implodes on itself.
When I first watched it, I was sure this was a put on. The episode before, the kids really laid into their father in a karaoke room while Connor was drowning his sorrows. “I love you,” Logan had said to them, “but you are not serious people.” As Tom begins to explain to Roman that Logan has collapsed and the attendants on flight are attempting to revive him, my brain refused to process it. Another cruel joke from a cruel man, right?
“It seems very very bad,” Tom says.
The show falls into disarray. Kendall and Roman talk over Tom, trying to ask questions, increasingly frantic. Frank suggests they speak to Logan, as it might be “the last chance”. Tom asks repeatedly for Shiv. Roman asks if Logan is ok. He struggles to speak to him, choosing to tell him he's a good man and a good dad. “You did a good job,” he stammers, then balks and shoves the phone at Kendall. “I don't know how to do that,” he says. Kendall tells Logan he cannot forgive him, but he loves him. Tom practically begs them to get Shiv, and Kendall does.
As Roman hands her the phone he says “They think he died,” to which Shiv, breaking down, replies “I can't have that.” She panics and asks Tom if he's alive. “I don't know, honey,” he says. You want a man like Tom Wombsgams on the other end of your phone in a crisis. He's direct but kind, tender. You know the big guns have come out when your estranged ex is calling you honey. Sarah Snook's ability to do the small, meek voice of anxious grief is astounding, give her all the awards (there is a later moment when she sits, defeated, next to Connor and makes the smallest whining sound, a sound I know very well as the whine of intense, overwhelming grief). “Don't go please,” she says. “It's ok, daddy,” she cries. At this point in my initial viewing I made my husband pause the show because I was sobbing, full braying sobs over people who are not real and, to be honest, are not very sympathetic.
No one is getting Connor, which is stressful. The trio go through a wide range of emotions, particularly Roman, who begins to assert that there is a chance that Logan isn't dead and questions if he said he loved him (he didn't). They finally realize they should probably tell Connor, who responds to the news with “He never liked me”, a statement he retracts as he notices his siblings’ stricken faces. “I never got the chance to make him proud of me.”
That's the crux of it, really; none of them ever could make Logan proud of them, because Logan barely regarded them as people at all.
The episode continues with bureaucratic decisions with regards to announcements and strategies, things I'm not interested much in (though Kendall's handling of everything is amazing- he takes charge in a way that is appropriate, that makes sense). There's some incredible moments in there (Tom’s “what the fuuuuuck” during a bizarre Kerry situation is particularly funny). Roman approaches Gerri for comfort and she denies him, which breaks my heart. Connor speaks to Willa in what's easily the best and most honest scene they've ever had. “My father’s dead and I feel old,” he says, asking her if she's only with him for the money. She says she appreciates the safety of his wealth, but she is happy and doesn't plan on leaving him. They wed in the end, in front of almost no one, just for themselves. In truth, they only have each other, anyway.
I don't have to talk much about how this episode handled the extremely realistic chaos of being told a relative—especially a difficult one—has died; the confusion, the bartering, the devastation. While I do not fear my own death, having courted it many times over the years, I live in perpetual fear of the mortality of my loved ones, especially my parents, who live thousands of miles away from me. I know that someday I will field a call; it is inevitable. Someday I will board a plane. I will fly for hours knowing there is nothing on the other side of the flight but a world for me that is incomplete, that is missing someone. I've lost a lot of people in my life (indeed, my friend Claire just passed from complications stemming from anorexia the day after this episode aired); like anyone else, it crushes me, and I fear its assured return.
Not since Six Feet Under has a show so utterly stomped on my heart. And the balls on the showrunners to have this as the third epsiode of the season. It's one perfect, brilliant episode of one of the greatest shows we're fortunate to have right now. I am grateful that we have Succession, that we have these characters, and I will miss it when it's gone.
