The major character death that happens in âConnorâs Weddingâ isnât the most shocking or significant in TV history. It probably wonât make many lists of âbiggest plot twistsâ when sites like this one draw them up in the years to come. Nobody died in incredibly dramatic fashion â by having their head chopped off or driving their car off a cliff. It didnât even shake up the playing field so radically that you could credibly say everything has changed. For the most part, the people with the most money and power still have the most money and power.
And yet ⌠everything has changed for these characters, and theyâre only just now starting to live in that new reality. So hereâs whoâs up (Willa!), down (Logan!), and holding steady (Kendall!) in this weekâs rankings with a familiar face leaping back onto the list in the very top spot.
1.
Death, undefeated
Back in my power rankings for the season premiere, I joked that death should win all power rankings ever, because itâs ultimately undefeated, but now that Logan Roy is dead, I feel like I was onto something. Death really is the ultimate victor, huh?
Thereâs something remarkable about the way this episode warps itself around Loganâs death in exactly the way your life warps itself around an unexpected death. There are the early moments when the death seems impossible. There are the moments when it seems to settle over the charactersâ shoulders like a suffocating cloak. And then there are the first moments after, when plans to move forward with funerals and the like are hatched. The episode serves as an incredible feat of writing and directing from Jesse Armstrong and Mark Mylod, respectively, and every member of the cast gets a moment to shine.
In conclusion: Death is back on top where it belongs! A 14-way tie for last place should follow, but I will respect the rules of the game and rank everybody else. Just know: Theyâre all going to die someday. Just like me. Just like you. Have a great power rankings, everybody!
2.
Willa, resigned
Do I think Willa got her dream wedding? No. Do I think she truly loves Connor? Also no. Do I think she lucked out getting into the Roy family just as Logan was getting out? Absolutely. Itâs hard to say there are âwinnersâ in this episode (outside the ultimate winner: Death), but Willa definitely comes out of it having gained the most and lost the least.
3.
Connor, clear-eyed
Even Connor realizes that Willa doesnât love him so much as she sees him as an enormous security blanket. So when his dad first chooses to ditch the wedding, then decides to die on the same day, itâs easy to see why Connor briefly worries that if they postpone, Willa wonât go through with the marriage. She almost didnât the very night before!
Yet of the four Roy children, Connor is the one who most immediately understands that his fatherâs death frees him in certain ways. His initial reaction to hearing the news is to grandly proclaim that Logan never liked him, and though he immediately tries to take that back, he soon settles into a place where heâs happy to admit that Logan wasnât the great dad the other Roys will vaguely genuflect toward. Thereâs a value to being clear-eyed when a person you have complicated emotions about dies, and Connor has the clearest eyes of all.
And because he does end up marrying Willa, he has a full heart, too. Aw! (No! Donât âAw!â This marriage is a terrible idea!)
Finally: Connor wanted nothing more than to inject his wedding into the news cycle, and it looks like he got his wish. He just keeps winning!
4.
Gerri, unscathed (for now)
For the first few minutes of this episode, it really seems like the plot will center on Logan turning the screws to Roman until he fires Gerri at Connorâs wedding, the old man testing his sonâs loyalty once again in excruciating fashion. Itâs a smart feint because itâs exactly the sort of farcical plot Succession might devote an episode to and because it plays off the long-simmering whatever between Gerri and Roman, a flirtation that curdled when he kept sending her dick pics after she asked him not to. (Then, memorably, he sent a dick pic to his own father. Great eulogy fodder, Romulus!)
Itâs also a smart feint because now Gerri knows Logan wanted her out, and she knows Logan had persuaded Roman to soften her up for the kill, which means she knows Logan had begun peeling Roman off from the Siblings Roy alliance. The rest of the people on Loganâs plane also know he wanted Gerri out, so sheâs not likely keeping her job much longer. But she lives to fight another day, and in this episode, thatâs enough.
5.
Kendall, level-headed
Maybe this is me reading my âSuccession is about abuseâ idea into places where it doesnât belong, but didnât Kendall seem almost relieved in this episode? Sure, heâs initially shocked when he learns that Logan died, and heâs gutted for a few moments. Yet when itâs his turn to say something to his dad on the phone, he eventually gets to, âI canât forgive you.â
After that, he turns into simultaneously the best and worst versions of himself. Pro: He seems like the only Roy who has an eye on what to do next. Con: He also spends a lot of time talking about how this moment will be written about in their memoirs and concludes with âLetâs grieve or whatever but not do anything that restricts our future freedom of movement.â A classy guy!
Still, this is a man who spent three seasons trying desperately to get his dad to love him back, and now that burden is lifted. The episodeâs final shot shows him staring into the middle distance, processing something, looking closer to catharsis than he has in a good long while.
6.
That random journalist Greg (probably) tipped off
You go to one party to cover the Connor Roy campaign, start flirting with a tall drink of water, then possibly get the media-news tidbit of the year! The episode should have brought this woman back just to have her say, âWhat a scoop!â
"Connor's Wedding"
An American Titan
âSuccessionâ ends an era.
7.
Roman, gutted
I wrote last week that Roman is the one Roy who seems at all concerned with the family as a family. So even though Ro is the Roy most obviously going through it this week, he gets points for actually seeming like heâs feeling a single feeling, deep down inside himself somewhere. Heâs sad! He misses his dad! Also heâs guilt-ridden! He worries the message he left where he chewed out his father (well, as much as Roman ever can do that) might have killed Logan!
Mostly, this single feeling manifests as Roman insisting that his father isnât dead until a doctor says he is, but at least heâs feeling something. Roman: crossing the bar of low expectations for three weeks running!
8.
Shiv, blinkered
I no longer know what to do with my beloved Siobhan Roy! Sheâs all over the place! When she finds out Logan died, she says, âI canât have that,â like she suddenly realizes she ordered the wrong thing. And on the phone, she weeps and calls him âDaddy.â She seems like she might really be destroyed by this.
But then the walls go up, the compartmentalization kicks in, and sheâs talking about delaying her fatherâs corpse landing at Teterboro Airport so the company can keep its stock price from collapsing before the markets close. When itâs time to read the statement the Roys have prepared for the press, she does so, with appropriate grave solemnity, but then she answers a question from reporters about if the Siblings Roy will be involved in the transition from Logan to post-Logan Waystar in the affirmative.
Some part of Shiv cannot stop playing the game. I increasingly think sheâs the most like her dad and all the more dangerous for it because she doesnât yet realize she is. Once she harnesses her innate awfulness, sheâll be formidable. For now, though, sheâs all over the place.
But at least she seemingly reconciles with Tom for at least an hour or two!
9.
The guests of the Roy-Ferreyra wedding
You get to attend a wedding on a boat (granted, one with inadequate cake) and be present for the extreme outskirts of a major news story that, nevertheless, threatens you in absolutely no real way? Sounds like a pretty great party to me! Thatâs what makes it weird that so many of them seem to have bailed when we see Connor and Willa get hitched at the end. I guess some people just donât appreciate a trainwreck.
10.
Tom, undefended
So far, season four has seen Tom riding high, secure in his position as Loganâs right-hand man. Even if that new status cost him his marriage, well, whatâs a marriage in the face of wealth and power? Not all that much!
Tomâs position isnât entirely dependent on his attachment to Logan. The other Waystar board members do seem to appreciate what he has to say, and his ability to finally, painfully admit that Kerry wasnât very good at being an anchor in âRehearsalâ suggested that while he might not cut through the bullshit, he can find the long way around it, then mosey on back to deliver some lukewarm, reheated truths. Which is more than the Siblings Roy can say!
But, câmon. Tomâs position is so dependent on his attachment to Logan. When he starts crying in this episode, some part of him is sad, sure. But even more of him is petrified. And who can he still turn to? Who can he always turn to?
11.
Greg, Gregged
Do we know that Greg spilled the beans on Loganâs death to the press? We donât. But that scene where heâs trying to extricate himself from talking to the journalist heâs been flirting with sure ends in a way where youâd expect him to say, âOkay, so you canât tell anyone about this, but âŚâ If that ever comes to light, it wonât reflect well on our favorite sentient redwood.
Tom says that Greg just got lucky, because a powerful man who hated him just died. And maybe thatâs true. But Tom also says earlier in the episode that he has lots of guys he can use for his âGreggingâ now that heâs powerful, and itâs as though Greg is just realizing how expendable he truly is to this entire family. Just in time for the familyâs power dynamics to change completely!
12.
Colin, emptied
That brief shot of Colin at Teterboro, framed against the sky at dusk, looking like a lost little boy, might encapsulate the feeling of watching this episode in its entirety. Itâs like he, too, has realized how much of his life has been built around a single man whoâs no longer here.
Anyway, do you think one of the other Roys will bring Colin on as bodyman? Or is it time for him to update his LinkedIn and get out there to find another billionaire to guard?
13.
Logan, dead
The dudeâs fucking dead! I donât know what to tell you! Pretty hard to win the power rankings when youâre dead! But something tells me Loganâs unseen presence will continue to haunt the season and cause his children to make terrible decisions, all Shakespearean-like. Just a hunch.
14.
Kerry, alive but somehow losing to a dead guy
If Tomâs position is entirely reliant on his attachment to Logan, then Kerry no longer has a position, because the man she was an assistant to is dead. No wonder she leaves the side of Loganâs corpse laughing nervously and talking about how âwildâ the experience was. (Karl calls her âChuckles the Clown,â and I appreciated the showâs tip of the cap to another iconic TV death.) Kerry, we were all rooting for you. Okay, I was rooting for you. But I now admit: That was wrong.
15.
The cake, inadequate
The cake at Connor and Willaâs wedding is maybe fine for display, but itâs totally inadequate for serving! Gross! Get it out of here!
Okay, the No. 15 slot is usually a joke, but this episode is so masterful that it takes even a seemingly goofy rich-person outburst from Connor and gives it an immense sense of weight and history. Connor hates the cake because itâs what he calls a âloony cake.â When Logan had Connorâs mother sent to a mental institution, he placated his eldest son with cake. And then Connor only ate cake for, like, a week.
And so a joke turns incredibly, desperately sad. Logan was awful to his children. Just awful. But now heâs gone, and they have to live in the ruin he made of their lives, comforted by their immense wealth but lacking in love, compassion, or empathy. Succession has always carried in its very title a promise of one generation giving way to the next. But what happens when the prior generation had nothing of real value to give? Weâre going to find out.
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