"America Decides"
"Crazy one."
— Greg
It's the evening of the American election. The Roy siblings hunker down at ATN headquarters as polls begin to close and vote counts begin to come in. Early projections favor Jimenez, the Democratic nominee, and Kendall reaches out to his team via Nate in hopes that Jimenez will block the GoJo sale. Leadership wonders why Tom, as head of ATN, isn't covering the story of a fire at a Milwaukee voting center that cost about hundred thousand votes; ATN eventually runs it as it becomes clear the votes will be crucial in calling Wisconsin. Roman, who is batting for Mencken, is ready to disregard them, but Shiv and Kendall are hesitant. At Roman's urging, ATN eventually calls Wisconsin for Mencken, giving him a significant lead.
Connor concedes, now hoping that Mencken will give him a cushy ambassadorship. Kendall confides in Shiv about his personal fears and asks her to reach out to Nate. Shiv, still hoping that Jimenez will win and allow the deal because that is what Matsson wants, fakes the call, but Kendall susses her out immediately and also learns that she is colluding with Matsson.
Kendall and Roman agree to call Arizona for Mencken, essentially declaring him President-elect. A pleased Roman fields a call from Mencken, who is eager to continue doing business with the Roys. A furious Shiv promises Matsson that she will strike back. A despondent Kendall tries to get in touch with his children.
Tropes:
- The Bad Guy Wins: Everyone's worst instincts and self-serving motivations during this episode result in the far-right Mencken being declared the president-elect by ATN, which is enough for him to declare himself the winner despite the Wisconsin results being very much up in the air.
- Bathos: In the middle of an incredibly tense episode, with characters making decisions that may have serious consequences for the world, recalling for viewers some of the most stressful and traumatic election nights of recent memory... suddenly a minor character accidentally gets wasabi in his eye and that's what the scene is about for the next few minutes.
- Beneath Notice: Alluded to when Frank expresses surprise when he learns that Connor was running for President as an independent candidate — emphasising just how much Logan's eldest son does not matter to the Waystar executives.
- Disaster Dominoes: At one point, Greg leaves out some wasabi from the food he's eating as Darwin is sitting down. Darwin proceeds to accidentally get it in his eyes, which causes him to be in agonizing pain as everyone tries to fix the issue. Greg attempts to fix his mistake by pouring La Croix on Darwin's eyes, only to make it worse since it was a lemon-flavored variant.
- The Dog Bites Back: Shiv makes the same mistake as Kerry did several episodes early, trying to intimidate Greg. Greg retaliates by telling Kendall about her dealings with Matsson.
- Election Day Episode: The episode is about an in-universe presidential election — the characters, billionaires who own a major news network, are fretting about how to cover the vote counting after the polls close, and getting a bit more involved in deciding on the editorial content than they should.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Kendall has an attack of conscience when his dark-skinned adopted daughter is both harassed by a proponent of Mencken and bullied by critics of her family's news network, whose coverage of the bombastic Republican candidate is favourable. This bothers Kendall enough to consider backing the Dems if their liaison in his camp can ensure the same favours Roman's far-right ally has promised, but Shiv's betrayal spurs him to stick with Mencken after all.
- Everything Is Racist: Tom mocks Greg for not wanting to do cocaine with him. According to Tom, since the Aztecs did coke, Greg not wanting to is racist.
- Eye Scream: Darwin ends up getting wasabi and lemon-flavored La Croix in his eyes, thanks to some clumsiness and poor thinking on Greg's part.
- Idiot Ball: Shiv's "strategy" to convince Kendall that the Dems are going to block the Matsson deal relies on fake-calling Nate and then unconvincingly lying about the contents of their alleged conversation.
- Ignored Expert: "Decision Desk" Darwin, ATN's in-house political analyst, is hesitant to call states for Mencken, but the highers-up push him to do it because it furthers their own agendas. When they call the whole shebang for Mencken, the camera focuses on an increasingly frustrated Darwin eventually leaving the room.
- Internal Reveal:
- Tom learns that Shiv is pregnant, which the audience has known for a few episodes.
- Kendall and Roman learn that Shiv is colluding with Matsson, which was made clear to the audience a handful of episodes ago.
- Irony: In Season 3, Tom was constantly pressuring a reluctant Shiv to have his child, as he didn't want to go to jail without leaving some kind of legacy. When Shiv tells him that she's actually pregnant with their child, Tom has become too disillusioned with his estranged wife to the point where he sees it as little more than a manipulation tactic on her part, much to her disgust.
- Laser-Guided Karma: At one point, Shiv intimidates Greg and threatens to (metaphorically) kill him because of his consistently working with Tom. Unfortunately, this makes him more than eager to tell Kendall about her secret dealings with Matsson, which results in him deciding to call the vote for Mencken out of spite for his sister.
- My God, What Have I Done?: For a moment while Mencken gives his speech, Kendall has a Thousand-Yard Stare that indicates his guilt over allowing the bastard to win.
- Never My Fault: In his awkward conversation with Jess in the halls, Greg insists he has no control in who “pushes the button” and calls the election for Mencken. He’s all too happy to ignore his role in informing Kendall about Shiv’s connection to Mattson, which greatly contributed to Kendall’s decision to side with Roman.
- Person as Verb: Tom describes the process of an underling getting coffee for him as "Gregging".
- Pet the Dog: While they're awful to her too later, Ken and Rome again offer to have Tom killed after she comes back from a conversation with him clearly crying.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Mencken's electoral success is the clear in-universe equivalent of the infamous US 2016 election. Meanwhile, some of the specific developments of the night are inspired by the 2020 election, such as pressure to call states prematurely.
- Wham Episode: While it was never disputed that the Roys are amoral people, them helping to push literal Nazi Mencken over the electoral finish line puts all the humanizing that happened over the series, especially in the wake of Logan's death, back into perspective.
- What Would X Do?: In the face of an uncertain election call, the siblings ask themselves what their father would do. Roman believes that he would just do whatever he felt like, but Shiv argues that Logan desired stability.
- You, Get Me Coffee: Exaggerated. Greg's been promoted far above "the guy whose job it is to get Tom coffee", but Tom, antsy from the exhaustion of last night's party, the stress of his crumbling marriage, and the pressure of running America's one of most influential networks on election night, yells at him to get him coffee anyway — because the state of America depends on Tom and if Tom screws up due to drowsiness, war will break out and the human race will be reduced to amoeba.
- You Keep Using That Word: Shiv complains that Roman incorrectly calls every development he doesn't like a False Flag Operation.
