Tear Jerker / Succession

"It's not gonna be me."

This series holds no punches back in showing just how mentally broken the Roy siblings are due to their father's lifelong abuse. While still awful people, who they are today is entirely Logan Roy's fault.

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General

• The opening credits, showing the Roys as kids, and Logan as the distant father, openly walking away from his children.
• Harriet Walter and executive producer Georgia Pritchett summed up why these horrible people are still sympathetic, and that’s because they’re not fighting for the money or position, but because they desperately crave daddy’s love.

Season 1

• Kendall's two breakdowns that bookend season 1. The first one has him screaming into coats in the bathroom and then cleaning up, while the second comes after Logan reveals he knows about the waiter and Kendall is reduced to crying in his arms, begging that he's sorry. Logan is only so gentle because he knows he's got his child under his control again.
• In "Shit Show At The Fuck Factory", Shiv complains about her family being a shitshow, but Tom tries to reassure her that it's "their" family, and her face just falls before covering it up.
  • Kendall crying on the phone to Rava about his dad being in the hospital and begging Fikret to go around the traffic just so they can get there faster.
• Shiv shoves her way into her father's room, and almost breaks down crying when he says he loves her. And then he tries to move her hand to his crotch, thinking she was Marcia the whole time.
• The vote of no confidence is a complete disaster, Roman is too cowed to make a real vote, and Kendall looks both destroyed and terrified when Logan loses his temper.
• Shiv is genuinely disappointed with the fake therapy, and later on, Logan verbally abuses her for endorsing a candidate he doesn't like when Kendall is the one high off his face, and she can't even pretend everything is okay when Tom holds her hand upstairs.
• Shiv meets with Logan and he tells her he shouldn't have protected her, which drives her to brokenly rest her head on Nate's shoulder and ask if she can stay.
• Shiv crying about how love is fake and it's wrapped up in control, and how she's using it as an excuse to cheat on Tom, which hurts him just as bad.
• After Kendall shows a bit of spine saying he doesn’t owe Logan anything, Logan in his Softspoken Sadist way completely destroys him in front of the whole family (who also look upset, all probably knowing they could be up there getting ripped apart), blaming him for his own fragility, that he’s not made for the world and that he’s ruined. Kendall in his next scene ends up begging a concerned Stewy for coke because he desperately needs it.
• After crashing the waiter's car into the lake, Kendall does swim back under the surface twice to look for the waiter before having to give up (likely due to it being dark and freezing cold). His shell-shocked reaction to the enormity of what has just happened and what he has had to leave in the lake makes for a hard watch.

Season 2

• What Kendall goes through in “The Summer Palace” in exchange for protection. Logan barely even wants him to think for himself, let alone finish rehab, Shiv and Roman are both furious with him but also worried that he’s even more of an Extreme Doormat not fighting back, calling him both a Sex Bot and a beaten dog that dad will use, and likewise Stewy knows full well something is wrong, but just gets defeated hostage answers in response.
  • Logan getting Shiv on the hook to play the who will succeed him game, and she has tears in her eyes as she falls for it, begging him to say this is real. He tells her to "remember this slant of light"—which, if you're familiar with the origin of the quote, is just proof that it isn't.
• In the second episode, Logan tells Kendall to burn down his "baby" Vaulter, and for a while there’s a Hope Spot of him getting some life back and trying to save it, but that turns out to be faked and – in the end, completely dead-eyed – tells everyone to get out. When Yee asks what the fuck, all he can manage is a broken “because my dad told me to”.
  • At the end, Shiv has sabotaged her chances with Gil only for Logan to dismiss her as a headache, and Roman really thought he had an opportunity to be the favourite, only for his dad to tell him to leave and does he expect a goodbye kiss? It’s no good for Kendall either, as Roman feels betrayed thinking he’s getting pampered, but he’s really in the same office as Logan to be kept under control.
• In “Hunting”, after "Boar On The Floor" it's found out that Roman was the one who talked, and Roman (who was enjoying someone else getting humiliated) gets tearful and terrified as his dad descends on him. The truly painful moment comes when Logan calls him an idiot, and his face turns to total heartbreak.
• “Safe Room” has Shiv initially confront Kendall on why their dad is being so kind to him, but he ends up crying on her shoulder about what he can’t tell her, and he asks that she look after him because without dad needing him, he doesn’t know what he would be for. She has no idea what’s going on, but she’s close to tears herself.
• After Logan makes his big pretending to be nice speech about appreciating the Pierces, Connor asides that he likes this version of dad, and ponders why he can't be their dad.
• Logan smacks Roman so hard his tooth falls out, and when his siblings immediately go and see if he’s okay, he quietly says he’s fine. It carries on over to the next episode, where Logan "apologises" and Roman dismisses it as nothing, and in early season three where Logan fake-punches him for the press.
  • Logan's "apology" itself is grueling to watch. He expresses real concern and asks if Roman is okay, seeming for a minute like he really is about to say he's sorry...only to then gently coax Roman into affirming that he didn't hit him at all, because "that isn't something he would do." It's like Logan couldn't allow himself to acknowledge that he was wrong, even after knocking his son's tooth out.
• Kendall comes close to confessing to his mother that he was responsible for the death of the waiter at Shiv's wedding, only for her to see an emotional homecoming on the approach and move to avoid it. She jots off a quick message saying she’s got a lot to do, and both he and Roman are heartbreakingly used to this happening with her.
  • This comes after her terse negotiations with Shiv and Roman, where she offers to support Logan in exchange for them spending Christmas with her. She wants to be closer to her children, but not too close.
  • When Kendall starts regaining some joy with Naomi, and so gets a little confidence back, Logan decides he should come along to the waiter’s family’s house, effectively beating him down again. The waiter’s uncle is kind to Kendall, just seeing a sad man looking like he’s going to cry, but it just makes him feel worse.
  • Rhea manipulates Shiv for Logan, making her think there’s a job offer with the Pierces, and when Shiv confronts Logan on being given the runaround, she looks like a scared little girl when he yells at her.
• Logan has one of his own in “Dundee”, giving a rambling speech on what it was like for him growing up, and how it’s always… complicated.
• Sending Naomi away (again because his dad told him to), Kendall desperately tries to convince both her and himself that Logan loves him, it’s "just the wrong kind of love expression". She rightfully tells him Logan loves the broken version of him, and he looks like a defeated puppy.
  • Shiv, Roman and Kendall are all affectionately dragging each other on the yacht and having fun. Then Logan comes in and they all go back to being miserable.
  • After returning from a clearly-traumatic hostage situation, Roman asks his siblings if it's possible that they talk to each other about real, important things. Shiv and Kendall mock him for it, and he casually brushes them off, but it's clear he meant it and is hurt by them not taking him seriously.

Season 3

• When Kendall, Roman, Connor and Shiv are thinking about an alliance in the second episode, Logan doesn’t even have to be in the room to wreck it. They’re all afraid of the fact that he sent donuts and what they represent, and Kendall loses all cool and starts kicking the dog just like dad, telling Connor he’s not wanted, telling Shiv he only wanted her because she’s the girl and just outright yelling at Roman and Jess.
• The fact that in “The Disruption”, Roman can’t think of a single decent father-son memory. He has to take the time Connor took him out for fishing, and even this attempt at being kind to his dad gets him called a “faggot”.
  • Mixed with horror, but the amount of emotional abuse Logan lays on Shiv; angry that his only daughter isn’t saying nice things about him, asking her to “tell the truth” about Kendall (which she only does once Kendall pulls his Nirvana stunt) and when she asks if he was involved, he feeds her a changed story and that he fought to protect her and her brothers. Worst of all, she eventually buys it.
  • Kendall’s horrendously petty playing of “Rape Me” during Shiv’s press conference, no matter how dutiful she’s being, makes her run off to cry, and go back on her earlier nixing to air out all his issues. Of course not to be outdone, he gets the news that she’s aired out everything, and the manic crusading bro mask slips, and he’s back to same old Kendall, stuttering, miserable and curling up alone.
• “Lion In The Meadow” has Logan call Kendall a good kid, that he loves him, and he’s the best of all of them, while Kendall stares with a mix of knowing Logan is just bullshitting, but wishing it was true. Sure enough, Logan tells him after “you’ll say anything to get fucked on a first date”.
• The shareholder’s meeting has Shiv score a win while Logan has a UTI, and when he’s better, he offers no credit and shouts at her in front of everyone. She can only try her best to dismiss it, but she’s very hurt.
• In “What It Takes”, Shiv (the only child who actually knows anything about politics) is ignored when she objects to the family endorsing a nazi candidate, and she’s reduced to having to stand in the family photo with him, Logan telling her that it’s a win for her when he actually made just a tiny concession that she doesn’t have to stand next to Mencken.
• Kendall's emotional meltdown in "Too Much Birthday", as his initial excitement over his birthday slowly gives way to a desperate, pathetic obsession with validation as he realizes his siblings only attended for business reasons, and are coldly dismissive when he calls them out on it. He's reduced to tears as he furiously searches a pile of superficial presents for the one sincere gift, which came from his children. the episode ends with him crying in Naomi's lap, saying that he "just wishes he was home". Given how much of the party was about reliving his childhood, (canapés served in vintage lunchboxes, a recreation of his old treehouse), it's clear that the last time he truly felt "at home" was as a child, and can never truly go back there.
  • Not long after Kendall’s breakdown, Roman, Shiv and him are all clawing at each other. Roman kicks Shiv by taunting that dad likes fucking him not her, has no problem with Kendall’s kids getting spied on “because suddenly there’s a line now?” and overall acts like a mini Logan; asking his brother if he wants to hit him and then shoving him to the floor. Shiv mocks Roman for his sex issues and Ken calls him not real, and while she’s actually defending Kendall, Shiv and Connor are the ones who get lashed out at. You get the sense that Logan would be delighted if he saw all this.
• Caroline’s manipulation of Shiv, equating Shiv as a thirteen year old wanting to go off with her (just as) abusive father with Caroline to being a horrible mother. She then says she shouldn’t have had children, and rather should have had dogs, but Logan never saw anything he loved that he didn’t want to kick to see if it came back. Logan proves this without a shadow of a doubt with Kendall next scene, and Shiv tries it out for herself with Tom, telling him she doesn’t love him as foreplay.
• Kendall’s breakdown in the finale, where he’s barely there until he sees a waiter taking out trash, and he sits in the dirt and cries, telling Shiv and Roman what he did in the season one finale, how awful he feels he is, and how he really wanted to save everyone from the company but just couldn’t. His siblings try to console him, and after his cathartic sobbing fit, they wipe their eyes behind their sunglasses, as they were crying too.
• After Kendall in season one, and Shiv in season two, it’s Roman’s turn to beg his dad for validation. Logan asks what he has got to offer him, and Roman simply says "love", which is thrown back in his face. He also begs Gerri for help, but as she’s been telling him all season long, it doesn’t serve her interests, and he looks completely broken, crying on the floor afterward while his big brother holds his hand.
• Despite treating him horribly, and repeatedly claiming not to love him, Shiv is clearly devastated to see that it was Tom who sold her and her brothers out to Logan, leaving her in the dust while advancing his own position in the family. The absolute horror in her eyes as it sinks in speaks volumes, as does the immediate shift to her "game face" when Tom comes over to (fake) console her.

Season 4

• When Shiv comes to the apartment for clothes, she clearly knows about Tom sleeping around and is far more hurt by Tom’s betrayal and "line of models" than she lets on. When Tom tries to explain, she interrupts, her voice breaking as she admits “I don’t think it’s good for me to hear all that.” But she lies down, so does he, and they reach for each other’s hands, admitting that even if it's the end of their marriage, they at least "gave it a go".
• Logan's Surprisingly Sudden Death in "Connor's Wedding" provided plenty of moments courtesy of the kids:
  • The kids' frantic calls to their dying father: Roman worrying that the voice mail where he Grew a Spine and called Logan "cunty" for forcing him to fire Gerri is the last thing Logan heard, Shiv's "there's no excuse for the ... but it's okay daddy", and Kendall's simple "I can't forgive you".
  • The fact that Shiv could have spoken to Logan earlier if she had taken Tom's calls, but because she didn't, she had to talk to him when it became clear that he didn't make it alive.
  • Roman spends most of the episode in a state of denial when everyone already understands that Logan is dead. He tries to open up to Gerri later when he finds himself alone in the same room with her, but she simply withdraws due to the awkwardness of him trying to fire her earlier.
  • Each of the siblings' response to Logan dying is heartbreaking, but Connor's hits particularly hard: resignedly noting that "He didn't even like me..." before backtracking when he sees just how much his siblings are hurting. Rather than be angry that his siblings didn't tell him earlier, or that his wedding day has been ruined, he sits with and comforts them until they leave to deal with the business end of things. He and Willa go on to have a serious talk about their relationship, culminating in them having a private ceremony with what's left of the guests.
  • Colin looking around like a lost puppy after the plane lands and paramedics take Logan's body away.
• Connor has an aversion to sponge cake due to being fed it constantly when his mother was institutionalized. He calls it simply "Looney Cake". He has a minor breakdown at his own wedding when it's revealed part of the wedding cake was "Looney Cake". This same type of cake was now served at the loss of both his parents.
• "Honeymoon States": After her Dissonant Serenity on the plane, Kerry has a sobbing fit in the apartment and is told to leave by Marcia. Kerry really thought Logan was going to marry her, and she cries even harder when her belongings fall out of the bag. It's such a scene that Roman, the guy who ripped up a cheque in front of a child, rushes to help and reassure her.
• "Kill List": Roman's end rant where he blames Lukas for having the deal that he believes killed his dad, and admitting "it's over for me".
• "Tailgate Party":
  • Shiv and Tom's argument is a brutal list of the ways they’ve hurt each other over the last three seasons, but he pushes her Trauma Button by saying it's not his fault that she couldn't get her dad's approval, and he knows he's her dad replacement but it doesn't fill her up because she's broken.
  • Roman hopes Gerri didn't take his impulsive firing of her seriously, but she did and she's done, telling him with measurable disappointment she could have got him there. "But nope."
• ”America Decides”: Tom outright stating that Shiv killed Logan, and then wondering out loud if her pregnancy is even real or a tactic to manipulate him. She’s beyond devastated.
  • Kendall admits he doesn't think he's a good father, and Shiv (probably thinking of her own motherhood) tells him truthfully that he's tried, and that's all any of them can do.
    Kendall: Sometimes I think the poison drips through.
  • Even though Shiv has been secretly working against her brothers for a few episodes by now, it all comes into the open here and at the worst possible time. While Roman takes it in stride, Kendall is clearly visibly hurt by the betrayal - not least because he had mere minutes beforehand been honest with Shiv about desiring the top job for himself rather than wanting to share the power and his fears about not being a good father or a good person in general and it's clear he now views her words of support to him in response as a manipulation tactic - and agrees to back Mencken despite his misgivings out of pure spite against Shiv. After so many episodes of the siblings managing to largely stick together as a team (at least in public), it's genuinely heart-breaking to see them so easily falling back into their old self-destructive habits for the sake of a quick victory over each other.
  • Jess, who has been pretty calm and collected despite all the insanity of the Roy family, looks terrified when Greg tells her they're calling it for Mencken. Even Greg himself, who had previously ratted out Shiv's dealings with Matsson to Kendall and given her a Psychotic Smirk on the way out, seems completely dazed and freaked out about what's happening.
• "Church and State":
  • Roman, who claimed to have "pre-grieved" his father's death, breaking down in Inelegant Blubbering during his funeral speech. After several characters mock his crying, he goes out into the street and provokes protesters into beating him like Logan would have done.
  • In a different way, Kendall's manic glorifying of Logan in his eulogy. This is a guy who, as his sister said, can't find a happy medium between hating and loving his father. He’d always had a glimmer of hope that he wasn't like his dad, and now he says that hopes he's like Logan. It's so over for him.
  • Shiv calls back to her and Logan's scene in "The Summer Palace", recalling that when he let you in to the light - even if it wasn't real - you felt warm. She also admits it was so hard being his daughter, as "he couldn't fit a whole woman in his head".
  • Ewan finally reveals what happened with Rose: Logan was a sickly child, and came home from a school he hated, possibly giving her polio. Everyone let him blame himself for her death.
    Ewan: But when he got back, our little sister, she was a baby, she was there by then, she…uh…He always believed that he brought home the polio with him, which took her. I don’t even know if that’s true. But our aunt and uncle certainly did nothing to disabuse him of that notion. They let it lie with him.
• "With Open Eyes": In the end, no one wins except Matsson.
  • Shiv changes her mind at the last second after admitting she can't see Kendall as CEO (and possibly a case of if I can't be CEO no one can, as well as watching him become Logan in front of her eyes) and votes to allow the merger to go through. Now she's in the same position her mother had been: the trophy wife of a CEO in a loveless marriage, carrying a child she doesn't even know if she wants.
  • Tom is named CEO instead of any of the Roy siblings, but he knows damn well he's basically Matsson's puppet. And Greg only has a job because Tom wants to keep him around, despite the fact that he backstabbed Matsson and Matsson has nothing but contempt for him.
  • Roman ends the series like he began: a slacker with no purpose in life. He, at least, seems to have made peace with everything, and he also admits none of them were fit to run the company.
  • Kendall ruins his final push to be named CEO by throwing a tantrum and fighting Roman. After the merger is finalized, he realizes he has nothing and has lost all the relationships he has, and it's implied he's seriously contemplating suicide.
  • With heavy subtext, Kendall reveals Logan has been grooming him for CEO since he was seven, and has the capacity to realise that was fucked up.

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