Succession’s depictions of immediate grief will go down in TV history
"Connor's Wedding" leaves the Roy siblings reeling, offering portrayals of coping with a sudden shock that are rare for the medium
TV Features Colin
“Can you breathe without a heart?” It’s a ridiculous question that Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin) is allowed to sincerely ask because he learned his dad might be dead. Nothing makes sense for him anymore in Succession’s pivotal season four outing, “Connor’s Wedding.” As aptly described in William Hughes’ fantastic recap: The world has ended. Episode three is all about the unexpected grieving process. It sweeps the rug out from under the Roys and the audience because it is, in fact, not about the eldest sibling’s nuptials (although that does happen). Instead, the HBO drama finally pulls off what it’s been leading up to since it began—remember the premiere featured Logan Roy having a stroke in a helicopter? Well, Succession finally killed him off—RIP to the OG. In the process, “Connor’s Wedding” becomes an instant classic.
It’s unsurprising that (proud method acting hater) Brian Cox’s fictional figurehead is out of the picture. Logan had to exit so one of his kids—which one, we still don’t know—could take over. Logan’s demise is neither a bombshell nor remotely heartbreaking; the man was in his ’80s and, as Rome puts it, a monster. The execution of his death, however, will go down in TV history. Succession delivers a flawless hour with exemplary performances, brutal writing, Mark Mylod’s pointed direction, and Nicholas Britell’s crushing music. These combined elements hit hard because Logan’s four children crumble in precise and gutting ways. “Connor’s Wedding” is a sudden shock to the system because of their real-time handling of the vacancy Logan leaves in his wake.
Plenty of TV shows, like Six Feet Under, Sorry For Your Loss, and Dead To Me, focus rather remarkably on the long-term trauma of death. Similarly, notable episodes from The Sopranos, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Grey’s Anatomy, This Is Us, and Jane The Virgin (to name a few) agonize over the aftermath of a loss that slowly stretches out across a season or the entire show. “Connor’s Wedding” feels potent because it makes a winning choice to spend most of the episode from Roman, Kendall’s (Jeremy Strong), and Shiv’s (Sarah Snook) perspectives in what feels like slow motion. And the maneuver is a raging triumph.
We don’t need to see Logan dramatically clutching his chest, his seemingly lengthy final exchange with Kerry (Zoe Winters), or how everyone dealt with it on the plane before Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) calls the siblings. The action happens off-screen. We get to chew on the immediate and confusing grief that follows because, much like his children, we don’t see the details of how Logan met his bitter end. Believe it or not, Succession proved that doesn’t matter. The urgent tragedy lies in the wreckage he leaves behind. And his kids display it.
The physical and emotional distance from their father as he’s getting chest compressions 30,000 feet in the air is discerned right away. Roman is in utter denial; a helpless Kendall goes into action mode; Shiv retcons to her younger self. Everyone forgets about Connor (Alan Ruck)—whose wedding they’re at, mind you—until he arrives to complain about cake. Connor’s reaction is essentially a “fuck you” because he proceeds to get married without an audience on the day his father dies. Their varied yet equally heartbreaking responses key into who they are as people and their distinctive relationships with Logan. Succession retains consistent character traits in the face of a catastrophe. That’s why it works.
Roman breaks down first. You can’t blame him because his last words to Logan might be “Are you a cunt?” via a scathing voicemail. He spends the entirety of “Connor’s Wedding” in denial, yelling at Shiv to stop saying he’s dead until it’s confirmed, wondering if Logan can breathe if his heart fails. His withdrawal is a deep cut. Roman suffered his father’s physical abuse the most, but he’s the least ready to accept Logan’s fate until witnessing him in a body bag. They’re all unprepared to exist without yearning for his approval, even amid an all-out war.
Look at Shiv’s immediate reaction: “I can’t have that yet,” she says with tears streaming down her face, shaking as she begs him on the phone not to go yet. She succumbs to arrested development in that minute, returning to calling Logan “daddy” affectionately. Time hasn’t stopped for her; it’s gone backward. She’d rather her mum die than him because at least she knows how to disassociate from Caroline (Harriet Walter). That’s why she suggests keeping the plane in the air “for an extra beat.” She’d rather he float above than deal with it on the ground. She does literally walk away when the plane lands, too.
When reality hits Kendall on that cursed boat, Logan’s number-one boy doesn’t know what he can do. So he calls Jess (Juliana Canfield) and Frank (Peter Friedman), hoping to get the best doctors. Frank gently telling Kendall that the pilot can’t talk because he’s flying is one of the saddest dialogues of the episode, followed by Ken’s weak command to ensure he turns around and lands the plane safely. Feeling helpless is an undeniable aspect of grief—you’re only left with your feelings, and the person you most want to express them to is gone. What’s left is a gaping hole. Succession aced this beautiful, scary depiction.
Connor is further proof. “He never even liked me. I never got the chance to make him proud of me,” he heartbreakingly says after the news is (finally) broken to him. It’s a stunningly self-aware response and not as surprising after last week’s “I don’t need love; it’s my superpower” speech. Once again, Succession ensures his reaction is in line with who Connor is as a person—he’s taken aback by Logan’s demise, sure, but he’s more worried that if he doesn’t marry Willa (Justine Lupe) despite this, she’ll walk away. And so he gets a weirdly happy ending on the day his dad meets his maker.
The remaining episodes of the fourth and final season will undoubtedly follow up on how the Roy kids handle their grief. With the immediacy out of the way, they will jump back into the business of it all. They already do in “Connor’s Wedding” as they draft a statement to compete with Karl (David Rasche), Karolina (Dagmara Dominczyk), Frank, and Tom. Oh, Tom, who barely got time to process being the polite go-to guy between his dead “protector” and his ex-wife. All he could muster was a teary “I’m not okay” to Greg (Nicholas Braun). Was it a breakdown or a selfish thought? Maybe both. (Also, Colin’s [Scott Nicholson] few seconds looking bereft at the airport was quite the gut punch, right?)
Succession will never be the same again. “Connor’s Wedding” will go down as one most talked about episodes of Jesse Armstrong’s drama, and rightfully so. In the most Succession of ways (biting humor and one-liners like “He’s heavily fuckin’ delayed”), the show dealt with the pulverizing torment of losing a parent, especially one with whom you share a troubled history—so much so that Kendall’s difficult goodbye included “I can’t forgive you, but I love you.” It’s the kind of raw truth Logan would’ve appreciated.
The installment accurately captures the gutting onslaught of grief, a smorgasbord of chaos, disbelief, and distress. One day you’re telling off your dad in a karaoke bar; the (literal) next, you’re calling it a family function because you’ll never hear him say, “I love you, but you’re not serious people” again. You’ll also never win that final kiss from daddy. And damned if that all won’t make us weep, even if we hated Logan’s guts.
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So, how many times in one day will the AV Club spoil this shocking twist in a headline?I’m betting at least once more.
Seriously. They’ve currently got three articles (including the review) “above the fold” so to speak, and if you know even the minimum about the show, it’s easy to piece together exactly what happened based on all three headlines/intro blurbs. Like, come on. I just went over to The Ringer to see how they handled it, and holy hell, it’s so much more deftly done. Like, night and day levels of getting an overall point across for those who’ve watched it without actually spoiling anything.
Congrats on remembering the ringer exists. I totally forgot them.
I’m betting on “IS LOGAN ROY REALLY DEAD??”
What’s this?
Linguistically Lacerating Logan Losing Lease on Life?
“HOW THE CAST OF DON’T WORRY DARLING REACTED TO DEAD LOGAN ROY’S DEATH WHEN HE DIED IN EPISODE 3.”
(Slideshow 1/47)
We catch up with Teresa Gabagoul from The Real Housewives of New Jersey on her reactions to Logan Roy’s death.
Continuously typing up poorly written dreck like this instead of reviewing and recapping the tons of movies and shows out there that they ignore.
If you don’t want to know what happened on one of the most talked about shows on TV, I would suggest staying off websites whose job it is to talk about the most talked about shows on TV
I have no problem with them having articles about it, I just think it’s possibly a sub-optimal choice to have the headlines of said articles spoiling the shocking event. Because, as you say, people might decide to stop coming to this site the day after any series they watch but were late watching an episode of, and some could even decide they can get along fine without the site anyway.
Their headlines come up in google searches, so your idea isn’t very practical.
But what else will they bitch about, besides loud neighbor-music and poop bags on their Nextdoor app?
I was surprised last night when I saw they restrained themselves with the review title. Now I see two arguably spoilerish headlines on the front page.
“AV Club doesn’t give a flying fuck about fans.” – Logan Roy, probably.
It seriously should not be so difficult to construct leading, but not tell-all, article headlines. It’s a failure of the editorial staff (if there even is any here) most of all.
What’s really curious is that the AV Club has featured three articles about the episode so far on Tuesday, with none of the headlines being the least bit spoilery, making their trio of increasingly-spoilerish headlines on Monday seem more like an active choice.
I found out when I opened my Apple News Feed on my phone and they (Apple or someone, not the AV Club) ran a mock obit for Logan. Amazing episode even if I knew what was coming.
It’s a good show
Yes but will the corpse get a good sex scene
Logan Roy: Dead & Loving It!
With who – Chuckles the Clown? I think not.
“Gee, I wonder what happened on Succession last night?”
It’s unsurprising that (proud method acting hater) Brian Cox’s fictional figurehead is out of the picture. There’s AV Club mocking Jeremy Strong’s approach to acting since that Vanity Fair article 2 years ago. And once again dredging up Cox’s present and past views on the process. How many times are you going to beat that dead horse, AV Club? We’re clearly on our fifth horse since the others turned into a cranberry muck. Do you think this is clever? This must make the 15th/20th time this has come up. What the fuck difference does it mean for you? Do you think Strong gives a good goddamn what you or AV Club thinks? Because the proof is in the series and however he got there, however he achieves his process is nothing but a payoff for the viewers. See also Dustin Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix, Natalie Portman, Marlon Brando, Daniel Day Lewis, Rosamund Pike, Heath Ledger, etc. etc. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: end transmission::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
So weird to go on and on about it. The poor fucker was struggling most of his career, finally has his shot at greatness, and is working as hard as possible to deliver good performances… and succeeding. I don’t care if he has to sacrifice crickets to Satan before every take. Fine with me!
He did come off like a disruptive asshole in that profile though. In one instance he was playing a kazoo while they were filming a take. He also seemed to be ok with two hundred people being tear gassed to improve his performance. In general he was trying to annoy the actor playing a judge who didn’t like his character, for the performance. That’s shitty. He gives a great performance but so do other people on the show, and they don’t need that bullshit. You could argue that if you can’t play an asshole without temporarily becoming one in real life, you’re not really acting at all. While shooting the 1968 protest scenes, Strong asked a stunt coördinator to rough him up; he also requested to be sprayed with real tear gas. “I don’t like saying no to Jeremy,” Sorkin told me. “But there were two hundred people in that scene and another seventy on the crew, so I declined to spray them with poison gas.” Between takes of the trial scenes, in which the Yippies mock Judge Julius Hoffman, played by Frank Langella, Strong would read aloud from Langella’s memoir in silly voices, and he put a remote-controlled fart machine below the judge’s chair. “Every once in a while, I’d say, ‘Great. Let’s do it again, and this time, Jeremy, maybe don’t play the kazoo in the middle of Frank Langella’s monologue,’ ” Sorkin said.
You’ve done the impossible: made me sympathise with Sorkin.
That’s obnoxious, but I have to admit the mention of the remote controlled fart machine made me chuckle.
Sacrificed crickets?? Cancel him…..
“Do you think Strong gives a good goddamn what you or AV Club thinks?”Well, there was that time when Kurt Sutter called them the “VD Club” after they trashed one of his shows.
Well, his shows are shitty with a few decent episodes sprinkled in.
At this point I’d be surprised if AV Club didn’t write like this.
I really hope this episode didn’t ruin my ability to enjoy Rupert Murdoch’s death when it comes.
Exactly what I said after the episode was over! 🤣
An instant-classic episode, for sure… love that they showed 90% of it from the kids POV.The episode reminded me that, so often, the deaths of those you weren’t as close to as you wanted to be are often the hardest. There won’t be any more chances to resolve conflicts between you, which is a hard pill to swallow.The shot of bodyguard Colin looking utterly lost without protectee/protecter Logan was definitely a punch in the gut.
Culkin has been great throughout ‘Succession’, but this episode may be his crowning achievement. All of the coping mechanisms Roman uses to get through life – the profane insults, the affected disdain, his self-deprecation – abandon him here. He’s left experiencing real pain that he has no idea how to process, and Culkin shows exactly how raw it all is for his character.
“And damned if that all won’t make us weep, even if we hated Logan’s guts.” I always look at him as a man from another time, era, generation, whatev.. Complicated, difficult and calculating, but can’t say I hated his guts.
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer fictional character.
The headline for this article in android google news feed explicitly calls out Logan’s death. Fuck you and your needless spoilers. This site is now banned in my source list, and reported as well. Fuckers.
The AVClub owes its readers for an apology for the RIP Logan Roy video you posted the day after this episode aired. As an entertainment journalism outfit, your readers deserve better than this and you need to address it.