‘Succession’ Season 3 Episode 6 Recap: “What It Takes”

After the thrill ride that was “Retired Janitors Of Idaho” (Succession Season 3 Episode 5) producers may have felt we’d need a breather with an episode that’s a bit more sedate; only on Succession would an episode about a cabal of wealthy GOP elites conspiring to choose the next president of the United States be a relatively chill moment in the season.

Logan and the family members who work at Waystar (plus Hugo) take a private jet — I guess they didn’t have to give them up after all, PHEW! — to Virginia, where a shadowy group of Republicans are convening for the Future Freedom Summit, organized by super-donor Ron Petkas (Stephen Root). And with “the raisin,” aka POTUS, having now publicly announced that he’s not running for re-election, the stakes are extremely high: the election is just six months away and the ballots for Super Tuesday have already been printed, so the candidate is actually going to be determined at the convention. (There hasn’t been a contested convention in the U.S. in decades, but series creator Jesse Armstrong is British, and in the parliamentary system, wrangling among candidates at a party leadership conference is common; one wonders whether Armstrong just wanted to create a situation where such frantic dealmaking could occur, regardless of its real-world plausibility.) Since ATN unmade the current lame-duck president, all the aspirants to succeed him are very aware of Logan’s presence. Here’s who’s in the running to become America’s Next Top Chief Executive:

• David Boyer (Reed Birney) is the sitting vice-president. Everyone seems to think he’s fine, but no one is that excited about him. Ron has noticed that he compulsively licks his lips, so he hopes Boyer would be able to control that during a debate. Boyer is the only one who directly approaches Logan to request his support; Logan is vague to Boyer’s face and mocks him after the conversation for cravenly ambushing him.
• Jeryd Mencken (Justin Kirk) has apparently gotten pretty far letting his youth and good looks disguise the extremity of his far-right policy positions; Shiv initially dismisses him as a tiresome YouTube provocateur, and his jokes about sending dissenters to some sort of camp creep out even Roman. At a cocktail party, he burnishes his rebellious reputation by loudly dismissing ATN and referring to Logan’s icon status in the past tense: “He’s no longer relevant.” Shiv seems certain this will sink his chances.
• Rick Salgado (Yul Vazquez) goes straight to Shiv, his most receptive audience, to pitch himself not only as the sensible adult in the room of the otherwise bonkers party, but also as the only candidate who, if he wins, promises to remove Logan as Waystar’s CEO and install Shiv in Logan’s place, even if Salgado has to send Logan to prison to do it. Officially, Shiv treats this offer as a joke…

  …but she’s intrigued!

• Connor Roy has found at least one Conhead at the summit, and has also brought Maxim Pierce (of the Season 2 Pierces) as his policy advisor. Logan doesn’t initially rule out Connor’s viability as a candidate, but mostly seems to be humoring him. Hey, shouldn’t Connor be in Europe running cable right now?

Back in New York, the time has come for Kendall’s interview with the DOJ, and he is basically a nightmare client for Lisa: he barely participates in a prep session the day before; he is insufficiently apprehensive when she tells him that the papers he provided aren’t as “explosive” as he suggested they were, particularly given that Waystar is now “co-operating” by turning over billions of pages’ worth of paperwork; and he tells her to “try harder” for him. So it’s no surprise that he doesn’t blow anyone away at the meeting: “You acted high-handed, and defensive, and then oscillated to wildly over-familiar and glib,” Lisa tells him exasperatedly. “You sometimes undermined my status and didn’t appear to be frank about your own involvement.” When we see him next, he’s telling a horrified Comfry that Lisa, “a toxic person,” is no longer representing him, and turns his attention to planning the huge birthday party he first mentioned to Josh in “Lion In The Meadow.” (Prediction: Josh will not be attending this “Weimar meets Carthage meets Dante meets AI and antibiotic-resistant superbugs”-themed event!) But he’s still thinking about whether he could help himself by getting someone up the chain at Waystar to turn on Logan, and — after several previous calls went unanswered — has Jess acquire a new phone, a call from which Tom finally answers.

Tom hasn’t been having a great time at the Future Freedom Summit, probably because he’s consumed by dark thoughts of his own future freedom’s curtailment. His colleagues at ATN have started calling him The Christmas Tree because one can just hang one’s own crimes off Tom’s branches; over a terrible middle-of-the-night diner meal of the sort Tom has started trying to acclimate himself for, even Greg asks to hang his own crime ornament off Tom, and Tom morosely agrees — no quid pro quo required. Tom also isn’t getting any comfort from Shiv, who’s sick of Tom inconsiderately bringing up his fears of incarceration all the time. So even though he hasn’t ever been that close to Kendall, Tom may be more receptive now than he has been previously to a clandestine meeting when Kendall shows up in town. Kendall seems to think Tom is going to be an easy sell, but though Tom does say he’ll think about it, he adds that he has no confidence in Kendall: “Because I’ve seen you get fucked a lot, and I’ve never seen Logan get fucked once.” Before getting back in his car, Tom adds, “Do you know what they’re doing up in his suite? They’re picking the next president.”

They are, and it’s not going well for Shiv, who’s finally had to abandon her illusions that this isn’t actually how the process works and strenuously argues against Boyer (won’t win), Mencken (is a fascist), and Connor (is Connor). Even Greg — who’s been permitted to stay as long as he’s quiet — is moved to speak up against any plan that sees the Roys “crown— or make Connor president.” Eventually, each of the non-Roy prospects come to the suite to kiss Logan’s ring. (We don’t see Salgado in there, but we do see him walking out loosening his tie just as Tom returns from seeing Kendall.) Logan spends the most time with Boyer — after a very late-night summons from Logan, who also amused himself by “jokingly” asking Boyer to bring him a Coke or, failing that, to fire the Deputy Attorney General. Logan is most excited by Boyer’s promise not to interfere in Waystar’s acquisition of a tech company called GoJo (which we first heard about when Kendall mentioned it to Josh in “Lion In The Meadow”). But at the same time, Roman is in the bathroom with Mencken, trying to feel out how seriously Mencken holds his wildly reactionary positions. He is mildly alarmed when Mencken admits that, as a free thinker, Mencken has no problem adopting views of all kinds of philosophers — St. Augustine, Franco, “H.” But he knows Logan wants to back a candidate who will “get it” and who will “pop,” and decides Mencken is it. Before leaving, Mencken grabs a can of Coke off Logan’s own table and brings it to Logan; he heard Logan wanted one.

Startled but pleased, Logan thanks him. “Anointed with a Coke,” Mencken says smugly on his way out. Shiv is sincerely terrified, warning Logan that Mencken’s dangerous…

…but it seems like he actually was anointed: the next morning, Logan calls Shiv over to join the rest of the family for photos with Mencken. She tries to refuse, but Logan’s not asking. When she capitulates, on the condition that she not stand next to him, Logan coos, “You win, Pinky. You win.”

Doesn’t seem like it!

Margin Calls

• Kerry + Roman: When Roman notices Logan, on the plane, showing Kerry insulting memes of his adversaries, Roman confidently tells Shiv that they’re sleeping together. (Marcia…still hasn’t been seen since a brief legal meeting in “The Disruption.”) Shiv doesn’t believe it, but over the course of the episode, as Kerry inserts herself in multiple conversations before retiring with Logan to his bedroom after Mencken’s unofficial coronation, Roman seems to have been right — or, as he gloats, “Looks like your polling was off again, Shiv.”
• Caroline Getting Married: Speaking of Logan’s ladies: a Brexit psycho at the summit congratulates Roman on his mother Caroline’s engagement to a Peter Munion. This is the first Roman’s heard about it or him — Logan knows the name and describes him as a “seat sniffer” who’s been hanging around Caroline for “40 years.” Note for the Armstrong-heads: a character on one of his other shows, the British political sitcom The Thick Of It, featured a Tory politician named Peter Manion, but when Roman Googles Munion, he finds the owner of a chain of senior citizens’ homes who is definitely not played by Roger Allam. Roman later reports that Caroline would love to see everyone at their Tuscan wedding. Watch this space!
• Roman, Film Producer: As part of her case to keep Roman from making any big decisions during the summit, Shiv reminds Logan that the only noteworthy thing Roman ever did at the company’s movie studio was “the movie Dr. Honk, about the man who could talk to cars.” THE PEOPLE DEMAND FOOTAGE!

Television Without Pity, Fametracker, and Previously.TV co-founder Tara Ariano has had bylines in The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Vulture, Slate, Salon, Mel Magazine, Collider, and The Awl, among others. She co-hosts the podcasts Extra Hot Great, Again With This (a compulsively detailed episode-by-episode breakdown of Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place), Listen To Sassy, and The Sweet Smell Of Succession. She’s also the co-author, with Sarah D. Bunting, of A Very Special 90210 Book: 93 Absolutely Essential Episodes From TV’s Most Notorious Zip Code (Abrams 2020). She lives in Austin.

Watch Succession Season 3 Episode 6 on HBO Max