There’s more of Connor and Willa’s wedding that didn’t make it into this week’s Succession

The Succession episode titled "Connor's Wedding" was a little more concerned with, uh, some other stuff

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There’s more of Connor and Willa’s wedding that didn’t make it into this week’s Succession
Justine Lupe and Alan Ruck in “Connor’s Wedding” Graphic: David Russell/HBO

[This post contains spoilers for season four of Succession.]

Though it’s unclear as to whether or not Connor “First Pancake” Roy will be making a play for control of Waystar Royco, the actual firstborn failson of Logan Roy has stepped into the spotlight in the past couple of Succession episodes. Actor Alan Ruck, known for his iconic role in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, has gotten some devastating material to work with that drives home just how messed up this family is. (We’ll never look at Victoria Sponge the same way again, provided that Great British Bake Off makes good on that promise to get back to basics.)

Though Connor was absent for the gut-wrenching centerpiece of season four’s third episode, in which his younger half-siblings Kendall, Roman, and Shiv frantically deliver their last words to their dying father—because of course he was—this particular hour of television was still titled “Connor’s Wedding.” His relationship with reluctant fiancée Willa has been on the edges of Succession’s central plot since the first season, and amidst the devastating, real-time grief, there was something kind of sweet about seeing their low-key, intimate nuptials. While we only get the briefest glimpse of the ceremony, which was only attended by a handful of guests rather than being the presidential campaign stunt that Connor had in mind, Ruck shared in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly that we could have seen more.

“What was interesting was, in the script, it just said, ‘Connor and Willa are at an altar, and they’re pronounced man and wife, and they kiss and embrace,’” Ruck recalls. “That’s all it was, an eighth of a page. Then, when it came time to do it, [director] Mark Mylod was saying things like, ‘I need to feel everything that’s happened today, I need to feel that pain, I need to feel some of that sadness.’ We did have vows, and he said, ‘I would love it if you guys got emotional during the vows.’ So, between takes, I just said to Justine, ‘I never would have been able to do this show without you,’ and she burst into tears, and she was like, ‘Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!’ So we were definitely in that place, and I think what Mylod was doing was just getting us to that place, that emotional place, so he could snatch a moment of it, and then that’s what we used.”

Getting emotional probably came naturally, given that the beloved series is coming to an end after this season. And hey, The A.V. Club recently named Connor and Willa as the healthiest relationship on Succession for a reason! The bar is incredibly low, but we’ll still raise a hyper-decanted glass to the happy(?) couple.

The fourth and final season of Succession airs Sundays on HBO.

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