"Too Much Birthday"
"Holy shit. Gang's all here."
Lukas: Well, I guess I do have one question, though.
Roman: Yeah, hit me up.
Lukas: When will your father die?
Roman: Yeah, hit me up.
Lukas: When will your father die?
At Waystar Royco, Logan's inner circle has heard through the grapevine that Kendall might have overpromised, and that they might not have to face severe consequences. Tom is at first ecstatic that he doesn't have to go to prison, even trashing Greg's office. Logan is already planning next steps: Lukas Matsson, who owns a streaming service Waystar Royco wants to acquire, is dodging the deal. Since they know he'll be at Kendall's garish 40th birthday party, Logan sends his children there.
Despite his team going all-out on his birthday planning, Kendall is unhappy, and is further thrown by the arrival of Shiv, Tom, Greg, Roman, Connor, and Willa. Roman gives him Logan's present — an offer to buy Kendall out of the company for over two billion dollars. Kendall bars Shiv and Roman from the exclusive "treehouse" where Lukas is hanging out, though Roman eventually wrangles his way in, and manages to charm Matsson back into conversation.
Meanwhile, Shiv is unhappy at being left out of the maneuver to buy Kendall out. Tom is unusually somber about not going to prison after all, which is revealed in his conversations to Greg. The latter also spends the episode trying to ask Comfry out on a date, which she accepts.
Tropes
- Aimlessly Seeking Happiness: Much of Kendall's downward spiral features him desperately attempting to find something genuine and heartfelt in his shallow, self-indulgent party. It climaxes in him tearing apart the extravagant, expensive gifts from his guests in an attempt to find the sincere presents from his children.
- Alone in a Crowd: Though bustling with activity, Kendall's birthday venue is a hollow affair for the man of the hour. His (bitterly estranged) siblings primarily show to cut a deal with Matsson, and Kendall wanders the party either on his lonesome or flanked by flunkies, friendless and spiralling. He ends the night reduced to tears and wishing he were home.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Lukas asks Roman the unsaid Driving Question of the series: when will Roman's father Logan die, and what will happen when he does? Roman is thrown by the answer but manages to somewhat salvage the situation.
- Birthday Episode: The episode is centered around Kendall's birthday party.
- Coolest Club Ever: The party location Kendall had built for his birthday his a pretentious decadent narcissism-fest, featuring attractions like an inflatable vagina tunnel, a treehouse and a burning recreation of Ken's office.
- Crucified Hero Shot: At first invoked, then defied. Kendall had initially planned to sing a song while attached to a cross from the rafters as part of his party, since he is positioning himself as a Waystar Royco martyr, then decides against it at the last minute because it looks tacky.
- Didn't Think This Through: Played for Drama. It's obvious to Naomi at least that Kendall's mania is fizzling out, and he starts to realise that recreating his deeply traumatic childhood in a garish party is a bad idea.
- Everyone Has Standards: Shiv and Kendall have been very hostile to each other over the last few episodes, with both of them being angry at how the other has aligned themselves, but even she's appalled that Waystar has taken to bullying Kendall's kids, her niece and nephew. She also tries to get Roman, who's Drunk On Power in being Logan's new favourite, to lay off as Kendall has clearly been crying.
- Excrement Statement: Roman invites Lukas to pee on his phone to show how slowly the Waystar streaming app loads.
- Flipping the Table: Variation. Upon hearing that he might not go to prison, Tom keeps it in until he gets to Greg's office, at which point he flips the table out of excitement.
- History Repeats: Kendall fresh off a breakdown, and Roman very aware that he's finally in the limelight, recreate their father's abuse of each other, with Shiv uncomfortable in the background, giving a look into their childhood dynamic of being daddy's attack dogs and Shiv having to be quiet and "good".
- Hypocrite:
- Kendall calls Greg a parasite who leeches off the Roy family, while it's glaringly obvious he wouldn't have a career without his family name.
- Kendall also blames Berry and Comfry for the party feeling like "an asshole’s birthday party" despite "[his] thing from the very first meeting was that it shouldn’t feel like an asshole’s birthday party" even though not only were all of the party's excesses all his ideas but it's very clear that he only keeps Berry and Comfry to act as his personal yes-women.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Kendall labels Greg a Roy family parasite. While cruel, Greg has spent the series bouncing between patrons, whether "Uncle Fun," "Grampa Grumps," or Kendall himself.
- Kick the Dog: Roman really goes out of his way to be a dick here, from his relentless antagonism to Kendall to defending bringing Kendall's kids into it to outright pushing Kendall to the ground to humiliate him. Even Shiv is disgusted by him.
- Last-Second Word Swap: After his breakdown trying to look for his kids' present, Kendall says "I wish I was... home". Jeremy Strong heavily implied in an interview
that what Kendall really meant to say was "dead". - Loads and Loads of Loading: In-Universe, apparently the problem with Waystar's streaming app, StarGo. It takes forever to load, and Roman and Lukas (a streaming service tech mogul they're hoping to buy out) make fun of it. Lukas pees on the phone as it loads to test it out and it's still loading by the time he's done.
- Manchild: Kendall duels his little brother, the reigning champion of this trope, for the title in this episode.
- Never Trust a Trailer: The marketing played up the Cringe Comedy, making it look like a Sequel Episode to "L to The OG" and saying it's Kendall at his most Kendall, which definitely isn't a lie, as he ends the night breaking down crying.
- Parental Sexuality Squick: The entrance to Kendall's party is a puffy pink hallway, at the end of which a woman dressed as a nurse congratulates them at being born. Shiv and Roman, Kendall's full siblings, are disgusted at how this means they've been walking through their mother's vagina.
- Pooping Where You Shouldn't: One of the fake front pages Kendall made makes fun of how his older brother Connor shat in a bag. Connor fires back that he only did so on a camping trip that he took Roman and Kendall on because their father couldn't be bothered.
- Shout-Out: The title comes from a The Berenstain Bears story which also contains a Birthday Party Goes Wrong plot.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Misery abounds for the birthday boy, but hey, Greg scores a date with a cute girl Tom and Kendall agree is far out of his league!
