"Living+"
The Roys go to Los Angeles for Waystar's Investor Day, where they plan to launch "Living+", a luxury gated community that Logan had proposed prior to his death. Matsson dislikes the idea and unsuccessfully tries to convince Shiv to call it off, telling her about his hostile negotiation with Kendall and Roman in Norway. Kendall and Roman, meanwhile, tell Waystar's senior executives that the deal isn't viable due to Matsson's erratic behaviour. After the meeting, Shiv confronts her brothers, who admit they dislike the GoJo deal and apologise for keeping her in the dark about their plans.
Roman meets with Joy Palmer, the division head of Waystar Studios, to discuss the disastrous production of their latest big-budget film. When Joy voices concern about ATN's favourable coverage of Jeryd Mencken's Presidential campaign (which has subjected the studio to increased scrutiny), Roman accuses her of not taking him seriously, and impulsively fires her. Gerri later chastises Roman for firing a senior studio executive without due process, and accuses him of being unfit to run the company. Roman angrily tells Gerri she's fired as well; he immediately regrets his decision and confides in Kendall, who is surprised but approves.
Shiv and Tom begin to reconnect romantically after he discovers her crying in an office. Kendall prepares an outlandish presentation for the Living+ product launch, hoping to attract enough investment interest to render the GoJo acquisition untenable. Shiv is concerned that he's entering another manic spiral and gets Roman to talk him out of it, but all Roman does is back out of joining Kendall in the presentation as originally planned, leaving Kendall to do it himself.
Despite a shaky start, Kendall ultimately delivers a successful speech, incorporating video footage of Logan that Greg had edited to include a false promise of doubling Waystar's parks revenue. Waystar's stock price ultimately increases due to positive press coverage of Kendall's presentation. Afterwards, Shiv and Tom plan a company party at their home; Roman repeatedly listens to an edited video of Logan mocking him, and Kendall enjoys a cathartic swim at the beach.
Tropes:
- And You Thought It Would Fail: In-universe, everyone thinks that Kendall's presentation is going to bomb ... especially when it's revealed that he's using re-edited footage of Logan. However, his speech is in fact a success, and causes Waystar's stock price to rise.
- Berserk Button: Two senior execs — Joy and Gerri — insinuate to Roman that he's an Inadequate Inheritor; he fires both of them.
- Bite of Affection: A somewhat twisted example with Shiv and Tom, who play a game of "bitey" (they bite each other's forearms simultaneously to see who can bite the other the hardest) as a means of reconnecting.
- Blatant Lies: Kendall and Roman tell the board that Matsson was erratic and unstable, purely in order to sink the GoJo deal. Shiv sees right through them and calls them out.
- Drunk with Power: Kendall and Roman have clearly gotten a bit too comfortable with the "throwing their weight around with employees" part of being in charge, Roman particularly being very quick to fire people on questionable grounds.
- Friendship Moment: A twisted one between Roman and Kendall. When the younger Roy timidly cops to firing key senior staff, Kendall lionizes his brother's behaviour as audacity worthy of their father and waxes lyrical about the shining new era the two Young Conquerors will usher in at Waystar.
- Godwin's Law: Attempted by Matsson, whose tweet seems to compare Living+ to the Holocaust. Kendall, who learns of this during the Q&A, is able to allay the audience's concerns. Shiv privately convinces Matsson to delete the tweet.
- Hypocrite: Greg has had to put up with being only referred to by a nickname (or by a different name as people get his wrong), and has not seemed entirely happy with this. When the boot's on the other foot, however, he is happy to refer to underlings by nickname only, as his scene with the film editor shows.
- Inadequate Inheritor: Both of the Roy boys are seen as this in comparison to their father, who they are consciously trying to emulate by way of (in Roman's case) brashly firing people who disagree with them and (in Kendall's case) making outrageous demands on underlings and then berating them when they don't fulfil said demands.
- The Mole: Matsson makes it clear that he regards Shiv as his "inside girl" at Waystar. She plays up to this by surreptitiously calling him during Kendall's presentation.
- Threat Backfire: When Karl stands up to Kendall over the Living+ numbers, Kendall — in a similar vein to how Roman has gone on a mini-firing spree with senior executives who have dismissed or belittled him — tries to reassert authority by implicitly threatening Karl's job, reminding him that Kendall is now the CEO whereas Karl is the CFO. Much to his clear surprise, however, Karl merely laughs it off, and reminds him that firing people isn't always a sign of strength; Kendall removing his CFO a mere handful of days into his job would be taken as a clear sign of weakness and instability, increasing the chances that he himself would be removed.
- Took a Level in Badass: Karl shows unexpected backbone when Kendall tries to brush him off before the presentation, pointing out that he's an experienced CFO who can't just be fobbed off and making it clear that if Kendall tries to deliberately tank the deal or bullshit his way through financial data that Karl doesn't approve of, Karl will happily throw him to the wolves. Lampshaded when Karl points out that he was willing to put up with a lot more shit from Logan than he is from Kendall because he and Logan "went through the mill" together, whereas Kendall is untested and hasn't earned similar deference.
