‘Succession’ Episode 9 Recap: Hang On, Siobhan

Shiv Roy is getting married, and Succession got her the greatest gift of all: a really good episode with her at the heart.
Yes, excitingly, Succession has almost — almost — solved its Shiv problem. And it is, or has been, a problem. The character has never amounted to much beyond being the running back advancing the plot ball down her particular part of the field. She’s not funny like Tom or Greg or Roman or even Conner, and despite her ostensible interest in politics-as-horserace rather than politics-as-meaningful-vector-for-shaping-people’s-lives she’s not driven, and therefore frustrated by failure, like Kendall. She’s certainly not the larger-than-life ogre her father is. She’s just kind of…there, not getting any good jokes, not having any compellingly warped ideas or ambitions, and with no compellingly noble ones either to compensate. Thus the yeoman’s work put in by actor Sarah Snook to make Shiv feel lively and reactive has been largely in vain.

Now, however, Shiv is at the center of nearly all the converging storylines. It’s her wedding everyone’s gathered for, obviously, so she’s somewhat literally the star of the show. As such, she’s dominating the family discussion in a way she hasn’t before, particularly in regards to the will-he-or-won’t-he status of Logan. Daddy Dearest disinvited himself when they had a falling out and then reinvited himself when she didn’t come crawling back and he couldn’t figure out a way to avoid the wedding that made him look good in the press.
Shiv is also responsible for brokering the big truce between Logan and one of his only real adversaries in the outside world, Senator Gil Evis. She pulled this off by successfully wheedling the secret cruise-line sex-crime cover-up scandal out of her groom-to-be, Tom, and extorting the company over it. This puts her fiancé’s life somewhat literally in her hands should anything go awry, given his role in the cover-up.

Of course, she’s also cuckolding the guy with Nate, her singularly unappealing ex-boyfriend and current colleague on the Evis campaign. Because the guy is dumb enough to constantly put his hands on her the night before her wedding, both Tom (who at first allows himself to be persuaded he didn’t see what he saw) and Greg (who does not, and who won’t let Tom do so either out of his own dorky sense of obligation) are wise to the affair. The wedding itself hangs in the balance.

And even if it does go off without a hitch, it’s also set to be the staging ground for the launch of Kendall and Stewy’s hostile takeover bid. Originally slated for a week and a half afterwards, the timetable has been moved up after a reporter contacted their partner in crime Sandy Furness about a potential maneuver — a leak Sandy and Stewy believe, or at least say they believe, can be traced back to Kendall approaching longtime family consigliere Frank for advice. Advance press will sink them, so it’s now or never.
In the interim, we get an episode full of cutting banter between various parents (“they’re all assholes” about sums it up), some gorgeous upper northern hemisphere lighting in the wedding’s English setting courtesy of director Mark Mylod, and most importantly a real showcase for the show’s three inarguable breakout stars: Jeremy Strong as Kendall, Matthew Macfadyen as Tom, and Nicholas Braun as “Greg the Egg,” the one oh-so-frightfully-beastly insult lobbied by the kids’ British mom that truly sticks. These three performances are simply in a class by themselves, even when compared to turns I actually really get a kick out of, like Kieran Culkin as impotent horndog Roman.

Braun is so good at portraying (possibly improvising?) Greg’s perpetual state of flummoxedness that his garbled manner of formal speech — “Is there doubt afoot?” — has become the stuff of catchphrases in spite of itself. Macfadyen is just as strong cruelly toying with Greg or barking at the help as he is tormenting himself over whether or not Shiv is cheating on him; he makes it clear that neither side is the “real” Tom, because both stem from the same underlying insecurities and bottomless need to feel validated. And watching Strong sidle into faceoffs with Brian Cox’s Logan or Eric Bogosian’s Gil or especially Natalie Gold’s Rava is straight-up thrilling at this point, like watching a man who’s always half a step behind what the coke and adrenaline in his bloodstream and the butterflies in his stomach are making him say try and catch up in real time. I could watch a bonafide Tom and Greg antibuddy comedy, or an actual prestige drama about Kendall. For the first time since the pilot, I think it’s possible Succession might be able to do both.

Sean T. Collins (@theseantcollins) writes about TV for Rolling Stone, Vulture, The New York Times, and anyplace that will have him, really. He and his family live on Long Island.

Watch Succession Episode 9 ("Pre-Nuptial") on HBO Go