"The Munsters"
A few months have passed since the last episode.
In New York City, Logan unhappily celebrates his birthday with his inner circle. The sale to GoJo is 48 hours away, but Logan is also hoping to finally buy Pierce Media Group. In California, Kendall, Roman and Shiv are about to meet with financiers for the media venture they've been planning, The Hundred. Shiv gets a phone call from Tom, with whom she is on a "trial separation", which clues her into Logan buying Pierce. The siblings figure that they can probably outbid Logan with the money from their shares once the GoJo sale is finalized.
Kendall, Roman, and Shiv arrive at the Pierce mansion to meet with Nan personally. Nan pretends to be hesitant to sell to them, but at the same time is communicating with Logan's team about their offer. A back-and-forth between the parties ensues, with the younger Roys sealing the deal with a $10B offer.
Meanwhile, Connor muses blowing another $100M on his campaign, while Greg brings an embarrassing date to Logan's party. Shiv returns to the New York apartment she and Tom share to pick up some things. As she'd previously promised Nan she would divorce Tom, Shiv tells him that it may now be the time for them to end their marriage.
Tropes:
- Actually Pretty Funny: According to Greg, Logan lambasted him for Making Love in All the Wrong Places while wearing a smile.
- Blatant Lies: Shiv repeatedly insists that she is fine while fielding multiple troubling phone calls from Tom. It's clear that she is not fine.
- Did You Just Have Sex?: Midway through the episode, Greg becomes unusually cheery when talking with Tom, something that the latter notices. Greg then gleefully notes how he and his date had just had sex in one of Logan's guest beds, much to Tom's disgust.
- Downtime Downgrade: Shiv and Tom are separated, with Shiv offhandedly confirming she's divorcing him. Kendall and Naomi also broke up sometime between his birthday and the present.
- Elite School Means Elite Brain: The Roy siblings don't think highly of their new Yes-Man money guy and Roman sarcastically compliments his Harvard degree.Cyrus: It's worth what the top bidder will pay, I guess.
Roman: Wow, I really wish I went to Harvard Business School like you, T. It is intimidating, talking to an intellectual giant like yourself. - Laser-Guided Karma: While discussing their business venture plans, Kendall, Roman and Shiv force their potential buyers to wait outside for several minutes by claiming they aren't ready. When they go to meet Nana in person, they are subject to the same treatment through Naomi when they arrive at her place.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Greg sneaks off to have a quickie with his date in a guest room at Logan's birthday party. Tom taunts him by saying Logan's got cameras everywhere, driving Greg to humiliate himself by admitting the act to Logan.
- Not So Above It All: As frustrated and unpleasant as Logan generally is, he does seem to miss his kids' snarky wit filling up his room. He starts egging Frank, Gerri and Cyd to roast him for fun, and even seems amused with Greg delivering a pretty good one regarding his missing children. Earlier, he also expressed disgust at Greg having sex with his date inside one of his guest rooms, but supposedly had an amused grin on his face when he said it.
- Obviously Not Fine:
- Both Shiv and Tom try to act like they aren't bothered with their respective spouses working against each other when in front of others. But privately, they're both falling apart, and when the two confront each other over the idea of divorce, they're both angry, anguished and on the verge of tears.
- Logan attempts to pretend that he's perfectly content with his kids not being on his side anymore, but his solemn, cranky attitude clearly dispels that notion. At one point, he practically starts begging for someone in the room to crack a joke, as it's clear that he misses his family's Deadpan Snarker tendencies.
- Playing Both Sides: Nan and her heirs, sensing that the two Roy factions want to outdo the other in buying their company, communicate hesitance to both of them and successfully drive the final bid upwards.
- Shallow News Site Satire: The Hundred, the younger Roys' latest media venture, is described as "Substack meets Masterclass meets the Economist meets The New Yorker" — it apparently seems to be a glorified blog with content from modern-day experts. Tellingly, they aren't taking it very seriously, and once another idea to screw their dad over comes along, they jump ship.
- Sunk Cost Fallacy: Connor has spent a gargantuan sum of money on his presidential campaign and is still only polling at 1%. He thinks about spending another $100M just so he doesn't poll below 1%, because he's already spent so much.
- The Nothing After Death: Discussed. In an uncharacteristically vulnerable moment, Logan admits that he doesn't believe in an afterlife, though he nearly immediately says he ultimately doesn't know but has his "suspicions".
- Title Drop: The episode is named for The Munsters, which is dropped when Logan calls his birthday party attendees "The fucking Munsters".
