Reaction Review: Succession Season 4 Episode 3: Connor's Wedding
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
EPISODE SUMMARY
Warning: major spoilers for Succession season 4 episode 3, “Connor’s Wedding”, are throughout the entire review. Reader discretion is strongly advised.
The number one rat, Roman Roy, gets a call from his treacherous father Logan. The father-of-the-year is encouraging Roman to come to ATN in order to make a decision, but Roman is conscious of Connor Roy’s big wedding, which is finally here. Logan starts to throw Gerri under the bus (keep in mind that Roman and her had somewhat of a thing, albeit one sided, for a while), and Roman is tasked with firing her. Ouch. Meanwhile, ATN press is there to cover Connor’s wedding, and all of the Waystar RoyCo employees and other Roy family gremlins are there. Willa is also present despite her cold feet during the wedding rehearsal. Well, Tom actually is awaiting Logan on the runway where a private jet (going anywhere but Connor’s big event, aka Stockholm to see Lukas Matsson) sits. Logan also promises that he will deal with Siobhan, much to Tom’s pleasure.
Speaking of, Siobhan approaches Roman at the wedding, who is clearly on edge because of the handful of mind-fuckery that his father has dropped on him. Roman finds Gerri quite quickly, and she is still quite disgruntled about the Roy child’s perversions of the past. Roman squirms before asking Gerri to talk soon, but the latter begins to pick up on something: she knows right away that she is out, because she knew there was a reason why she didn’t go to Europe with everyone else. She skulks away with good reason. Roman also doesn’t feel thrilled about what he has just done.
Roman tries calling Logan and begins questioning if he is being screwed with, but he only reaches his answering machine; he rants anyway. Kendall spots him and Roman tries to put on a face as they both spot Willa, who seems to be dealing with the big day far better on the actual day of. Siobhan knows about Logan’s trip to Stockholm. She keeps getting calls from Tom as well, which she ducks. Connor is under the misapprehension that his father will show up, and the other Roy kids are trying to figure out who will tell him the bad news: they settle on Siobhan. Tom tries calling Roman instead, and the urgency is apparent: Logan is allegedly sick. Logan is short of breath and locked in the bathroom. He may have had a heart attack. Frank Vernon, COO, thinks the kids should speak with Logan in case this is the last time they get a chance to. Understandably, the Roy sons are panicking.
Roman finds it difficult to speak to Logan, and Kendall, whilst expressing his love for his father, also acknowledges that he can never forgive him. Siobhan is nowhere to be found, sadly, and Kendall has to go fetch her. He finds her and lets her know right away. By the time that Siobhan gets to the phone, it’s too late: Logan is possibly dead. She tries to talk anyway, but she worries that he is dead and that this isn’t worth it. She proceeds, and while she declares her conflicted love for him, we finally cut to his body. This is for real. He is laying down, shirtless, and most likely gone.Tom reassures the Roy kids that his breathing and heart has stopped, so this isn’t looking good, despite the fact that crew members on board are still doing chest compressions. Kendall makes some calls to try and get his and his father’s separate doctors to meet the plane when it lands. Kendall calls Frank next demanding to speak with the pilot. Since the pilot can’t speak, Frank reveals that they’ve turned the plane around and are coming back. Nonetheless, Frank says that he is sorry: another confirmation that Logan is likely already dead.
The Roy kids reconnect after the fact. Siobhan is bitter that she missed her chance to talk with him. The kids have to approach Connor’s wedding gathering to reveal the bad news, but they have to confront Connor first. Connor seems to be more annoyed that his day has been ruined, remarking that “he didn’t even like me” before back pedalling. Roman keeps reiterating that no one is certain that Logan is dead because they haven’t seen him, and that he doubts the people on the plane with him. In the air, Karolina is already trying to create an announcement about his passing. Kerry is shaken up. Karolina instructs Kerry to rest up so they can create the presser alone; Tom thinks Kerry is happy, not saddened. Speaking of Tom, he pulls himself aside to call Greg to let him know the bad news; in typical Greg “the Egg” fashion, he is the last to know. Tom demands Greg to do some tasks, including deleting important information and promising that good things will come his way; Tom subsequently cries, but is also trying to find ways to protect himself at the same time. Meanwhile, the inquisitive date Greg has seems to have been on her phone texting the whole call, and she has clearly overheard the conversation, and she asks “Do you think your uncle is going to make it?”, before clarifying she means to the wedding.
Tom calls Kendall next to tell him that they have stopped attempting CPR. The boat that everyone is on for the wedding begins to disembark from the pier. The Roy kids find out about the statement and they call Karolina to find out why they aren’t involved. The board members on the plane explain that the Roy kids were “estranged” and felt that it was likely in Logan’s best interests not to include them. Connor discusses the situation with Willa, and they both agree to cancel at first. Connor actually wants to go through with the wedding deep down, worried that Willa will walk away from him should they cancel. He then asks her: “are you just with me for money, Willa?” She admits that, while the money side of things makes her secure, she is happy with Connor and won’t walk from him.
Throughout this all, Roman has expressed interest in seeing Logan’s phone before anyone else gets to it (really, he wants to clear that voicemail he left for him); after nearly-almost firing Gerri, he may be fearing that she will use his backstabbing against him and the other Roy kids and separate them. Speak of the devil… Gerri stops by with Karolina on the phone: apparently a reporter already knows about Logan’s death and there is a rumour stirring (clearly, Greg’s date has spilled the details to her own sources). They will have to make the announcement soon before details are misconstrued. Kendall is already thinking ahead, concerned with what will transpire the day their father died (and afterwards). Siobhan states one thing: the kids have to be on the declaration of death. The kids agree that they themselves will draft the statement from scratch; Hugo Baker has been asked to tell the board members that they can edit the draft, but the statement will come from them. Next thing is to decide what will happen with Lukas Matsson and the GoJo deal.
The plane finally lands, and an ambulance rushes to receive Logan. The Roy kids are there as well, having jetted their way over. Paparazzi are nearby because of this simmering rumour, so everyone has to figure out a way to successfully get Logan off of the plane. They wind up revealing the news to these press members to get them away. Meanwhile, Siobhan is going over the written statement one last time. The Roy kids all go out to face the journalist wolves and make the hardest announcement of their lives. They only answer one question: their role in the shifting of the company. Siobhan — on the spot, mind you — promises that the Roy kids will help shepherd the next phases. Tom consoles Siobhan quietly, but they soon separate.
Roman notices that the Waystar RoyCo stocks have already started to plummet. Roman wants to go see their father’s body. Siobhan and Tom head off together Kendall can’t bring himself to go closer and stares from afar. Connor and Willa actually follow through with their wedding, to a very small crowd: it doesn’t matter. With everything that has gone on and all of the motives that people have, there are clearly some suspicious as to how natural Logan’s death was. Then again, this could have been just a stroke of bad luck in a series that is full of twists and turns; Succession has somehow savoured and delivered its biggest blow yet three episodes into its final season.
FIRST REACTION
Who the fuck expected this? I mean, in an episode titled “Connor’s Wedding”, no one, and I mean no one, predicted Logan Roy’s death (not in this episode at least, and I guarantee it). I think everyone figured Logan was going at some point, given his ailing health and huge amounts of stress. It’s excruciating that the last conversation most of his kids had with him was a rough confrontation. Connor had tried to cool down the situation to no effect. Kendall and Siobhan stood their ground. So did Roman, but Roman eventually talked with Logan a couple of times afterward in private (including at the start of this very episode). Kendall was able to talk to his father one last time at least: Siobhan had the worst send off as a result, given that she was too late to the phone after he passed. She also was ducking Tom’s calls when he was trying to get to her first, so her missing out on her father’s final moments alive really is her own fault. Damn.
This episode is exceptional for the obvious reasons (the major twist, the emotional acting, the minimalist, realistic, poignant storytelling used to convey such a heavy situation), but I must point out some of the parallelisms here that take it to an even higher tier. Connor worries that Willa is only with him for the money. Meanwhile, Kerry’s still-ambiguous reaction mirrors what Connor and the rest of us fear: a loved one that’s there just for the money once an older, wealthy partner croaks. We can’t be certain that Kerry actually was disguising joy (she’s terrible at conveying emotions after all: don’t forget her brutal news anchor audition), but there’s a very good chance that she was in cahoots with Logan for her own selfish reasons (let’s face it: most people on Succession are).
”Connor’s Wedding” brings us full circle to the ending of the pilot episode: wondering who actually will be next in line to take over Waystar RoyCo, ATN, and et cetera. The difference is that we’ve had hours of character building, political and business-based arson, and other forms of shifts that make the stakes different than when we first meet the Roy family. This isn’t an opportunity, outside of the obvious examples (Tom seems to be scheming a little too much already, and Kendall appears to be thinking too far ahead for us to be comfortable), and mostly everyone is actually heartbroken that Logan is dead. We are too. Remember when you first started watching Succession and everyone sucked? Now we have gotten attached to shitty people. It’s funny how great writing can do that to us. What’s next for Waystar RoyCo and ATN? Who knows, but Succession has never been more up-in-the-air, and I say that confidently. We have seven (!) episodes left, so I feel sure that the show is going to get hideous while it deals with the resolution and aftermath of this episode (now the fangs and claws really will come out worse than ever before).
Finally, kudos to all of the Succession cast and crew that feigned their surprise that this was going to be the final season: there is no way you can think that after shooting this episode, especially if Brian Cox is no longer in the series from here on out (that in and of itself makes me want to rewatch the entire series from the start yet again, as I figure out who the actual protagonist is [maybe Kendall, then?]). The cast truly is made of great thespians if they kept straight faces and sold this story in their various interviews. I usually try to wrap up these recaps with some sort of prediction or anticipation for what comes next, but I have no idea what to think after this. The only thing I know for sure is that “Connor’s Wedding” is one of the best episodes of television of Succession and of the past few years. Let us never take for granted that this series is ending early, because it is clearly concluding on such a high note.
Final Grade: 5/5
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.