"Hunting"
The family deals with Logan's desire to acquire PGM. Shiv asks Gerri to talk Logan out of it, while Roman tries to contact the family through Tabitha, who personally knows one of the cousins. Logan tasks Shiv with handling Connor, who has posted a problematic video announcing his candidacy for president.
Michelle Pantsil, a biographer, is sniffing around Logan Roy, and Logan is incensed to find out that someone close to him has spoken to her already. En route to the top brass's corporate retreat in Hungary along with most of his close circle, Logan vows to find out who it is and destroy them. Unbeknownst to him, Greg met with the biographer and is now fearful of being found out.
At the retreat, Logan learns that the Pierce family knows about the bid, meaning someone leaked it to them. Furious, he has the attendees play a humiliating game until someone talks. Kendall finds out that the leak was Roman through Tabitha. Realizing that no one in the room supports his bid for PGM, Logan announces his desire to continue, and learns the next day that the PGM CEO is interested in meeting.
Tropes in this episode:
- Ate His Gun: In a deleted scene, Kendall kills an animal and then sits with his gun in his mouth for a long time, wanting to make Logan’s “move against me and get a bullet hole” threat literal.
- Bad Boss: Logan tyrannises, humiliates, and rails against Waystar Royco's upper echelons when it becomes apparent that few, if any of them support his desired acquisition of a news outlet and that one among them has interfaced with a biographer against his wishes.
- Big Brother Bully: After Logan puts his hands on his shoulders, in a sign of protection and caging at the same time, Kendall is his daddy's little terminator, turning on Roman and finding out he talked.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Tom looks bitter as Greg talks to Kendall, despite the fact that the latter two are cousins and Ken is no threat to him.
- Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit: Much to Greg's relief, it turns out another person spoke to the biographer. Even luckier, that person has now passed away and Logan seems to believe that the leak has been stopped.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Logan wants to buy the entire media group because they once maligned him in a short segment in one of their papers decades ago. Also, his hated brother watches their news.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Mo, someone very important, is mentioned for the first time as sick and not having long left. Naomi is mentioned too, as a friend of Tabitha’s who she’s slept with.
- History Repeats: With Logan putting his hands on Kendall’s shoulders like he did with the child version in the credits, and both of them zeroing in on Roman, it’s a glimpse into some context surrounding the dog cage.
- Hypocritical Humor: A couple.
- Roman complains at Kendall for sucking up to their dad for approving a bad acquisition, but when asked what he thinks, he approves it too.
- Logan makes it very clear from the outset he has NO truck with anyone sniffing around him for a biography. His network strongly implied Gil killed his own wife (which is just fine of course), but Logan himself is off-limits.
- Karl, Greg and Tom all watch with various levels of disapproval as Kendall and Roman wrestle over possession of Roman's phone...despite all having been reduced to fighting each other for sausages a couple of minutes previously as the "boars on the floor".
- I Resemble That Remark!: Logan’s doctor warns him that his meds might cause paranoia and irritation to which Logan immediately proves correct.
- Kick the Dog: After outing Roman as being the one responsible for tipping off the Pierce family to the buyout, Kendall suggests another round of 'Boar on the Floor' as a punishment.
- Mirror Character: Logan and Shiv both hurt someone they love’s feelings, Shiv in the midst of wanting to be the “new sheriff” with Tom as her deputy like Logan is CEO and Kendall is his lapdog, and immediately claim they’re just joking.
- The Mole: Logan is increasingly paranoid over having "snakes in the [basket]", as someone close to him spoke to the biographer and the Pierces knew about the leak ahead of time. The two turn out to be unrelated — Mo, a dying executive, talked, while Roman unwittingly leaked it by asking Tabitha to contact her friend.
- Moving the Goalposts: Logan lets Gerri off the hook for being honest about the acquisition, but when Greg tries to do the same, Logan makes him a "boar on the floor". When Greg protests, Logan retorts that the rules are that there are no rules. Whatever rules there are, though, Logan is making them. This is downplayed in that it's very heavily implied that Greg was simply following Gerri's example in saying he has doubts about the acquisition rather than genuinely being honest about his own feelings.
- Pet the Dog: Tom keeps Greg's secret even when the pair are humiliated and interrogated by a seething Logan.
- Professional Butt-Kisser: Kendall is very bad at hiding that if anything negative is said about the Pierce deal then he’ll go report to daddy, so Karl, Gerri and company push down any concerns and act like they love it. He ends up selling them all out anyway.
- Take That!: It's Greg's first time on a private plane, and it's like he's in a very white, very wealthy band. "It's like I'm in U2."
- You, Get Me Coffee: Blink and you’ll miss it, but Kendall has gone from heir apparent to getting Logan coffee. Guess he learned how to actually make some.
