‘Succession’ Season 4 kicks issues off with a Season 1 callback

It’s our final first day at Succession college. 

The ultimate season of HBO’s exceptional hit on billionaire echelons who’ve develop into the web’s favourite fancam materials is lastly right here, and issues are kicking off with a well-known festivity. Like its Season 1 pilot episode, the ultimate season of Succession is wrapping issues up the identical manner it began, with Logan’s (Brian Cox) birthday. However issues are wanting fairly completely different this time round. 

In between Logan’s birthdays, we’ve had a slew of divorces, courtroom instances, tried coups, and familial betrayals. Naturally, that’s affected who’s gotten an invitation to Logan’s unique Waystar Royco–authorised birthday bash. 

It’s formally the start of the top of the Roy-verse, and Succession‘s masterful full-circle second employs Logan’s birthday as nice comparative floor to see simply how a lot has modified for the reason that pilot. Who’s nonetheless allowed to get a slice of the Logan funfetti cake, and who’s begging to be on his visitor record?

Right here’s every thing that’s modified between Logan’s b-day extravaganzas previous and current, and what it reveals about the place the household’s headed. 

Logan’s birthday within the pilot episode noticed the household happy-ish and collectively. 

Plotwise, Succession‘s pilot episode primarily untangled Logan’s choice to greatestow all his belongings (together with Waystar) upon his third spouse, Marcia (Hiam Abbass). Birthday-wise, Succession‘s pilot episode was a full-fledged household affair the place our ragtag gang of Roys had a home-cooked (five-star) lunch and even performed some softball — household enjoyable on all ends! 

Within the pilot, Logan’s eightieth birthday laid out the blueprint for the way issues work whenever you’re a Roy. We acquired to know the household. We acquired to see their mansions. And we shortly discovered that of Logan’s 4 kids, Kendall (Jeremy Robust), Shiv (Sarah Snook), and Roman (Kieran Culkin) have been the principle three gamers up for the Waystar throne. At this level, all three have been nonetheless shut sufficient to their dad — albeit a sophisticated type of shut — to indicate up for his birthday with presents in hand and speeches prepared. 

Alongside the core 4 Roys have been the newly minted Roys — Tom (Matthew Macfayden), Shiv’s associate and soon-to-be husband, and Greg (Nicholas Braun), an estranged cousin on the lookout for a slice of that Logan pie. The pair have been initially on the sidelines, two cubs determined for validation from a household of lions, however all of that has modified by Season 4.

Each ounce of the dynamic launched to us in Succession‘s pilot episode is a factor of the previous; every thing we knew about Kendall, Shiv, and Roman’s relationship to their dad is now a reminiscence. Lengthy gone are the times of glad engagements, Logan lunches, or a household sport of softball. The Roys are extra fragmented than ever, and Logan’s birthday in Season 4 works to indicate that divide. 

Logan’s birthday in Season 4 is a scorching pile of household drama. 

Tom and Greg at the moment are Logan’s right-hand males.
Credit score: Macall B. Polay / HBO

After Season 3’s explosive finale, the Roys are primarily cut up up into two groups: Group Logan, which incorporates Tom, Greg, and Logan’s eldest son, Connor (Alan Ruck); and Group “New Gen Roy,” as Kendall so proudly cash his allyship along with his siblings Shiv and Roman. The schism is woefully obvious, with none of crew New Gen Roy current at Logan’s birthday. As an alternative, the trio is miles away, planning on shopping for an organization Logan needs, whereas the patriarch is in some swanky penthouse in New York celebrating his birthday with colleagues who worry him. 

The siblings finally enter a bidding battle in opposition to their dad throughout his birthday, they usually win with a whopping nine-billion-dollar deal. However shares and monetary fluff apart, Logan’s birthday in Season 4 is extremely miserable. None of his favourite youngsters are literally there. None of his grandchildren are there. Shiv and Tom at the moment are mainly on the cusp of divorce. And Logan’s not-so celebrating his birthday along with his youngsters, who’re hellbent on destroying him. 

The vacancy of Logan’s birthday speaks volumes about what he’s performed to his youngsters, and what they’re able to do to him. His birthday in Season 4 felt extra like a battleground than the familial bash it did in Season 1, and its battle cry isn’t ending there. Tom and Greg now have prime seats on the Logan desk (stunning, I do know), and Kendall, Shiv, and Roman have banded collectively, with Logan’s eyes ex’d out as their sigil. 

Taking a look at Logan’s birthdays previous and current, we absolutely see the scope of simply how a lot betrayal has occurred, what it modified, and what’s at stake. Whereas the children had needed the CEO seat in Season 1 and blew out their dad’s candles collectively, in Season 4 they need his total empire dissolved and are sparking a flame positive to burn the entire cake. Succession‘s choice to finish issues the identical manner it began units us up for the divide between the Roys reaching new heights — effectively past awkward birthday events. 

Prepare for much more betrayal, backstabbing, and unhealthy birthdays, as a result of the New Gen Roys are right here, they usually’re able to eat up the entire buffet. 

Succession is streaming on HBO Max(Opens in a brand new tab), with new episodes airing weekly on Sunday at 9 p.m. ET.