The Roy children are here to play ball. The first episode of Succession season four sees Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook), and Roman (Kieran Culkin) aligned in their quest to take down Logan (Brian Cox), delivering the one-two punch of skipping Logan’s birthday party and scooping Pierce Media Group up under his very nose. On this week’s episode of Vanity Fair‘s television podcast Still Watching, hosts Richard Lawson and Chris Murphy break down the unification of the Roy children, the end of Tom and Shiv’s marriage, and what exactly happened to Anne Pierce in Maine.
Before they can take on Papa Logan, the Roy children have to come up with—and dispense—their maybe terrible idea, The Hundred. “Rather than deal with any of the way more pressing issues in their lives, they’re like ‘Oh, let’s start a made-up, fake, bullshit company that has no way of going anywhere,” notes Murphy.
But The Hundred, the Roy children’s new media venture—described as “Substack meets Masterclass meets The Economist meets The New Yorker”—is dead on arrival. “It fails ten minutes into the episode,” Lawson notes, while pointing out it’s shrewd satire of recent real-life media ventures like Semafor and CNN+.
The abandoned business also servers as table setting for the rest of the season. “It was eerily familiar,” says Lawson. “I think that it’s such a good characterization of exactly this kind of heir: not heir to just a static fortune, but heir to a business.” At first, the kids want to try to build something new. Then “they abandoned this kind of dumb rich kid idea, and then they’re like, ‘Oh, we’re rich kids. Let’s just buy this show’s version of the New York Times.”
Enter Nan Pierce, the owner of Pierce Media Group. Due to a tipoff from Tom, the Roy children learn that Logan is angling to buy it, and decide to get in the game. Played by Tony-winner Cherry Jones, Nan Pierce is diametrically opposed to Logan in her negotiation style, revealing something very true about a certain type of wealthy person . “It’s such a rich people thing to be like, ‘Oh, I don’t care about money. It’s beneath me.’ And it’s like, no, you’re lying,” Murphy notes. “That’s maybe all that you care about, actually.”
The Roy kids ultimately go head-to-head with their father for Pierce Media Group—and win with a bid of $10 billion. But will their high bid end up biting them in the ass? Either way, it seems Nan Pierce needs the money if only to help cover “Anne’s disaster in Maine”—whatever that may be. “What was the disaster in Maine?” wonders Lawson. “Did she run over one of the Bushes in Kennebunkport on her wood-sided motor boat?”
In non-business dealings, Tom and Shiv seem to be at the end of the road when it comes to their marriage. Lawson appreciated the scene in which they appear to call it quits. “I thought that was pretty striking. I don’t think these are good people, just cause they had a moment of weakness and connection,” he says.“Throughout this episode there were moments that were careful to remind us that these are, at the end of the day, flesh and blood people—who, like Roman says, should probably be buying snowmobiles and sushi. Should just be enjoying themselves, but they can’t.”
But will the end of Tom and Shiv’s union affect Tom’s standing with Logan? If he is legally not married to Shiv any more, if there is no formal bond between them, what is Tom’s position at ATN? We’ll have to wait and see.
Listen below to hear Lawson and Murphy unpack the season premiere of Succession, and debate who will take over Waystar Royco by series end. For your own questions, comments, and final season theories, please email [email protected].
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