‘Succession’ Season 3 Episode 6 Review: ‘What It Takes’ — Spoilers

[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “Succession” Season 3, Episode 6, “What It Takes.”]

It’s time to speak about Tom.

Over the previous few seasons, considered one of “Succession’s” most curious early characters has seen the zeal zapped from his eyes. Bear in mind his marriage ceremony evening? When he finds out Shiv (Sarah Snook) slept together with her sleazeball coworker Nate (Ashley Zukerman)? Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) is so charged up — excessive on the massive evening’s romantic vibes, his newly minted household spirit, and the current data that his seconds-old partner prefers an open marriage — that he will get into Nate’s face and threatens to “pay males to interrupt your legs,” claiming that “if I’m going to jail, which I gained’t, so be it.”

Protected to say, that man not exists. Now, he’s the corporate Christmas Tree — a walking-and-talking, but uprooted-and-dying, gaggle of branches put aside for any at-risk worker who must unload their “baubles of company wrongdoing.” (Macfadyen, all the time in peak type, actually nails that line.) Even Greg (Nicholas Braun), Tom’s seemingly everlasting whipping boy, has the gall so as to add his personal felonious decoration to the less-than-festive spruce. “I’ve determined of late to not tarry an excessive amount of with hope,” he tells Kendall (Jeremy Sturdy), who’s nicely on his strategy to a equally demoralized state.

However for as soon as, I believe it’s affordable to be outraged on Tom’s behalf; to want he might escape this exorbitant punishment even when he’s executed subsequent to nothing to earn an exemption. Usually, when “Succession” characters screw up, the squirming we do as viewers members is as a result of we’re torn between an emotional attachment to those folks (as folks) and an mental understanding that they’re the rot of the civilized world. We might really feel for them as human beings, however we additionally know they’re a part of the issue. Tom definitely is, having executed Logan’s bidding lengthy sufficient (and compelled Greg to do his), however the easy reality stays: He isn’t liable for the cruise scandal. He inherited it blindly when he took over the division (at Logan’s behest) and was dropped unceremoniously into the “death pit” by his predecessor.

Matthew Macfadyen in “Succession”

Macall Polay / HBO

What Episode 6, “What It Takes,” illustrates is how ineffectual the scandal and all it entails may very well be on Logan (Brian Cox) and the corporate at massive. Final week, they compelled the President of the US into early retirement; this week, they’re selecting a brand new one. Not that way back, they had been fretting over an FBI raid; now, Logan is “joking” with the performing Vice President about firing the deputy lawyer common answerable for the investigation. All season, Crew Logan has been in “beast mode,” making an attempt to outlive Kendall’s assassination try; in Episode 6, Kendall’s solely talked about when Roman (Kieran Culkin) finds out their mom is getting remarried.

Logan, and other people like him, don’t face penalties. They farm out their penance to whoever can take up it, and on this case, that’s Tom. By making this “lengthy glass of water” the brand new patsy, Jesse Armstrong and his crew are expertly stirring our collective ire. Kendall’s focused comment about what’s taking place with the case — “5 years go by, and it’s, ‘Hey, no matter occurred to the massive investigation into the unhealthy folks?’” — sounds a bit too acquainted to the overall social sentiment towards white collar criminals; that regardless of a widespread need to see the perpetrators punished, they gained’t be. “Succession” isn’t working in want success. When you can chuckle on the wealthy and highly effective’s stupidity and pettiness, this isn’t the present to look at if you wish to vicariously expertise the satisfaction denied to us in actuality. It’s right here to make us really feel the burden of what truly occurs, and Tom is the chosen device to twist the knife.

Not solely does Logan deserve his comeuppance, however Tom getting it as an alternative makes any conceptual understanding of justice really feel that a lot nearer to a private slight. Our private attachment has been strengthened over weeks and weeks of lamentable, relatable assaults on our prison-bound ATN head. Tom has been overrun at work (out-shouted by his personal anchors), betrayed by his unhappy excuse for a finest pal, Greg, and made into an absolute joke by the lady he fell in love with. (“I fell in love together with your sister, that’s what occurred,” he tells Kendall, in what looks as if an trustworthy sentiment for a backstory we’re not all that acquainted with.) The recent tamale has burned by her nation mouse, whether or not it’s telling him she desires an open relationship on their marriage ceremony evening, dishonest on him nicely earlier than that, or encouraging him to be Logan’s sacrificial lamb within the first place.

Tom is so pathetic, so crushed down, so emotionally bullied into his present state that it’s essentially the most he’s ever felt like considered one of Logan’s youngsters. And he’s misplaced the need to battle again. He’s loads like Kendall firstly of Season 2, when the once-ascendant son is performing as Logan’s lapdog as a result of he’s too scared to do the rest. Maybe his assembly with Tom in Episode 6 may have the identical impact on Logan’s newest patsy. Will Tom’s concern of Logan and waning love for Shiv trump his need to remain out of jail? Or will he crew up with Kendall, slicing ties with a household he’s not sure to by blood? By placing Tom on the middle of such questions, “Succession” doubles our funding within the consequence. Logan and his firm must face lasting penalties for the scandal as a result of it’s their fault, but additionally as a result of we will’t allow them to hold throwing the closest, saddest sack below the bus as an alternative. The stakes aren’t hypothetical; they’re actual, and so they really feel actual — as actual as Greg’s “countless salty fitness center mat” and all the opposite tasteless meals Tom will likely be consuming (at no cost!) all too quickly.

Grade: A-

The Roy-al Rumble

With Kendall clearly on the ropes, essentially the most intriguing second in one other episode gained by Logan is considered one of non permanent ambiguity. After Kendall makes his case to Tom, making an attempt to get a “massive fish” to come back over and plug up the holes in his sinking case, they share a tough fact. Tom says, “Having been round a bit, my hunch is that you simply’re going to get fucked. As a result of I’ve seen you get fucked loads, and I’ve by no means seen Logan get fucked as soon as.”

Is that line extra essential to Tom or Kendall? Tom could must say it out loud, so he can belief within the plan he’s already put into motion, however Kendall is at a turning level: He might nonetheless again off and search refuge from expensive previous dad. Issues aren’t wanting good (he fired his legal professionals, my god), and he’ll need assistance if he’s going to maintain preventing his father. Kendall makes certain to get an image of Tom within the car parking zone (as proof they’ve met, for future blackmailing functions I assume), however did he hear what Tom mentioned? Did he actually hear it? If he did, that line might have extra to inform us about Kendall’s place shifting than Tom’s — is it time to throw within the towel? Or will he discover his second wind?

“Succession”

Macall Polay / HBO

Greg Sprinkles

Greg: “Some man with an undercut simply known as me Soy Boy?”
Tom: “Oh, don’t fear Greg. It is a good, secure house the place you don’t need to fake to love ‘Hamilton.’”
Greg: “…I like ‘Hamilton.’”
Tom: “Certain you do. All of us do.”

That is only a excellent trade, and excellent exchanges need to be transcribed for the world to understand, even when they’re already enshrined in audio-visual type by the individuals who truly mentioned them.

Oh, and main props to Soy Boy for casting his preliminary poll for nobody and in opposition to one very unworthy particular person: “I believe I owe it to my nation to say, I don’t assume you need to crown– or make Connor president.” Even the man being hoisted aloft by the clowns of “the Elephant’s Asshole” for suing Greenpeace can’t abdomen the thought of President Connor Roy. By no means reduce the Greg window, of us. By no means.

Shiv Present on the Fuck Manufacturing unit

Shiv didn’t enter this episode in an excellent place, and he or she’s worse off exiting it. Having been vehemently scolded by Logan on the finish of Episode 5 (for, you already know, doing her job / saving the corporate), Shiv tries to make peace together with her father on the best way to the Future Freedom Summit. He performs alongside, however quickly it’s clear Logan has no intention of following his daughter’s steerage.

Her high choose, Salgado (Yul Vazquez), is a non-starter; Shiv will get shut down or ignored each time she brings him up. In the meantime, Logan enjoys toying with Vice President Boyer (Reed Birney), however he might by no means respect a person like that — who feigns having ideas about as successfully as he feigns having any energy at this Summit — nor does Logan get pleasure from taking the “cleanest” possibility. He loves the battle, partially as a result of if he wins, he will get all of the credit score. That makes Menken (a devilishly charismatic Justin Kirk) all of the extra interesting. Menken could also be a fascist who preaches “medicare for all, abortions for none,” however he is aware of how you can get folks riled up and, most essential, he is aware of when to bend the knee. Certain, he says “fuck ATN” and claims Logan’s empire is “not related,” however that’s for present; when push involves shove, he delivers (and opens) a can of Coke for the kingmaker. And that’s sufficient.

It’s greater than sufficient to ship Shiv storming away from her father and towards… her brother? Logan’s lingering look that ends the episode appears to be gauging the identical query we’re meant to ponder as an viewers: Did he push her too far? The final time Shiv received pissed at her dad was within the premiere, when he gave the CEO gig to Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron). Then, she went to see Kendall. Will she go to him once more, now, when he’s in want of an enormous fish to present the DoJ and he or she’s once more infuriated together with her father? The one-two punch of personal humiliation final week and public repudiation this week might ship her into vengeance mode. Kendall is all too acquainted with that aspect of his sister. However maybe this time, it should work to his benefit.

Sanna Lathan and Jeremy Sturdy in “Succession”

Macall Polay / HBO

The A+ F-Bomb

It’s one value repeating: “Having been round a bit, my hunch is that you simply’re going to get fucked. As a result of I’ve seen you get fucked loads, and I’ve by no means seen Logan get fucked as soon as.” – Tom, standing his floor… for now.

Finest Line That Might Nonetheless Air on ATN

There are literally a whole lot of choices this week, so within the spirit of the straw ballot, we’re going to award three high finishers:

3. “I’m apprehensive about jail. I simply really feel that due to my bodily size I may very well be a goal for all types of misadventure.” – Greg, acknowledging his peak might make him a goal for greater than ridicule if he geese into a jail cell

2. “Our winery! Ooo– oh, it’s a screw high.” – Tom, getting the primary trace that his “earthy,” “vegetal” wine might not be as much as snuff.

1. “Local weather mentioned I used to be taking place. Local weather mentioned I ought to simply step apart. I assume I’m a local weather denier.” – Logan, rubbing salt in Shiv’s wounds as he decides to again her worst nightmare, Menken

“Succession” debuts new episodes each Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.

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