"Connor's Wedding"
"Sorry for your loss."
Connor and Willa are getting married at the Statue of Liberty. Logan, en route to Sweden to renegotiate with Matsson along with Karl, Tom, Karolina, Frank, and Kerry, has decided to fire Gerri and tasks Roman with giving her the news. Connor sequesters Kendall, Shiv and Roman above deck for the wedding, but then Tom calls with bad news — Logan's heart has stopped, and he passes away as the siblings try to get updates over the phone.
Conversation now turns to how to announce the news. Those on the plane are putting a statement together, but Kendall insists that the siblings draft it and put their names forward. Connor asks Willa if she really wants to go ahead with the marriage; she says yes and they marry in front of a reduced crowd. His siblings have gone to meet the plane; Shiv gives a statement to the gathered reporters; Kendall observes Logan's body being transported away from afar while Roman is does it nearby.
Tropes:
- All for Nothing: While he's gentle with Shiv and her brothers, Tom is certainly feeling uncertain about his position now that Logan is dead, as he betrayed his wife and ruined his marriage for in order to remain within Logan's inner circle.
- Audience Surrogate: Roman repeatedly expresses his disbelief that Logan could be dying, believing it to be a fake-out and expecting him to rally, no doubt echoing may of the viewers' reactions watching the episode unfold.
- Big Brother Instinct:
- Shiv especially reverts back to being a little girl when she hears the news, and all three of her older brothers hug her and are gentle with her in a way they’ve never been before.
- When he hears the news, Connor's initial response is a stunned, instinctive "He never even liked me." On seeing how this clearly hurts his brothers, he immediately takes it back and brushes it off, moving to comfort them rather than wallow in his own misery.
- Bait-and-Switch: Viewers were expecting a mostly quirky episode with Connor and Willa's wedding hijinks. But after the first act? Nothing much save for Logan's death. Connor and Willa decide to carry on with the ceremony nonetheless.
- Can't Get Away with Nuthin': The one time Roman overcomes his anxiety to confront his father over the phone, Logan dies, with Roman panicking if he was the cause.
- Consummate Professional: As it becomes clearer and clearer that Logan is actually dead, Karolina calmly enters in crisis management mode to write a list of who must be informed first of the events.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Greg's reaction to Tom's off-colour appraisal of his prospects with Logan gone at so opportune a juncture.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Logan's death comes suddenly and without warning, without any final words or the chance to get closure with any of his children.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After years of emotional abuse by a distant father, mockery by siblings who barely acknowledge his existence despite him acting as their father figure, and uncertainty over whether or not the woman he loves is really only with him for his money, Connor ends the episode marrying Willa in a small ceremony and seemingly starting to chart his own way in life.
- Foreshadowing: Tom keeps trying to call Shiv, who hangs up due to the state of their marriage. It only becomes clear in hindsight that he was trying to tell her about Logan.
- Funny Background Event: In a Black Comedy sort of way. After Kendall gets Shiv and Roman tells them the situation with Logan has gotten worse, there's a huge photo of Connor (who the siblings once again didn't think to include) on wall behind Shiv.
- Group Hug: The golden trio share one after Shiv gives a statement to the press and it sinks in that their dad is gone.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: While nobody in the plane is capable of admitting that Logan has passed away, Karl announces he wants a drink. He offers to pour a glass for Tom, Frank and Karolina to give have one on Logan's name.
- Killed Offscreen: Logan Roy isn't physically on-screen much in this episode. The first time he is seen, someone is giving his body chest compressions in the background. There is exactly one shot that includes his head, and it only shows the top of it.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Once again Logan chooses business over his family and/or ignores his Unfavorite son by skipping Connor's wedding in favor of meeting with Matsson. If he had actually attended the wedding, he could have potentially gotten medical attention in time or at the very least died surrounded by his family. Instead, he ends up dying alone on an airplane toilet surrounded by people who only care about him as long as its profitable for them.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- Roman is horrified when he learns that his father is dying, and he wonders if his final words to his father were appropriate.
- A minor example with Connor, who comes to realize that his relationship with Willa may have doomed her from ever living a good life on her own, especially given their Age-Gap Romance. Willa assures him that while she may have only started dating him for his money, she does genuinely love Connor to some extent. They end the episode certifying their marriage.
- The Oner: Played with. The Roy children's separate realizations of their father's death was scripted and shot both normally, and then again as a 27-minute one-take shot. For the latter attempt, film rolls were hidden around the boat set and an additional camera used strictly for reloading reels was hidden behind a door, as Succession is shot on film and can only shoot 10 minutes at a time. Director of the episode Mark Mylod stated that while they didn't show the one-shot in its entirety, most of that part of the episode is sourced from the one-take.
- My Own Private "I Do": Connor and Willa continue on with their wedding ceremony with only a handful of guests remaining after everyone else leaves in the aftermath of Logan's death.
- Parental Abandonment: Logan decides to skip Connor's wedding, preferring to fly to Europe to close the GoJo deal. Its Logan's latest act of abandonment in a life ignoring Connor. It is also the last.
- Parting-Words Regret: Roman begins to fear that Logan may have heard his last voicemail before he died, in which Roman got frustrated with him after having to fire Gerri. He also panics over whether he said "I love you" to Logan or not.
- Pet the Dog: As scheming as he gets with Greg later, Tom is as gentle as he can trying to tell the siblings that Logan isn’t doing well and is probably not long for this world.
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: Was anyone expecting the Roy patriarch himself to die here of all episodes? The death is just as shocking in-universe.
- Trauma Button: Connor freaks out about the wedding cake, repeatedly calling it a "loony cake" and demanding it not be served. Kendall helpfully fills in that the cake is Victoria sponge cake, and it was what Connor was served for a week straight after Logan told him his mother had been institutionalized.
- Undignified Death: After building a media empire and becoming one of the richest men on the planet, Logan Roy goes out alone in an airplane bathroom, surrounded by cronies.
- Wedding/Death Juxtaposition: Connor's wedding day is quickly overtaken by the death of his father Logan.
- Wedding Episode: Subverted. The episode is titled "Connor's Wedding" and it starts with half the cast rolling up to the occasion. Quirky shenanigans are expected to go on, especially since Connor starts freaking out about the cake. But after Tom calls with news of Logan's collapse, the episode quickly becomes dominated by the characters reacting to Logan's death.
- Wham Episode: The entire show has been about currying favor from Logan in hopes of getting the biggest slice of the media conglomerate pie. Logan dies in this episode, and the uncertainty of the company's and characters' futures is mentioned even as the characters try to come to grips with it.
- Wham Line: Once Logan's medical crisis becomes evident, it's clear from the get-go the situation is bad. By the time Kendall collects Shiv to explain and join him and Roman with the phone connecting them to the situation, Roman says something that that dramatically twists the whole show:Roman: They... They think he's gone.
Shiv: What happened? What do you mean?
Roman: They think Dad died.
