‘Succession’ Season 4 Episode 7 Recap: “Tailgate Party”

First, a correction to my previous Succession recap: Logan traditionally hosted a party not on election night, but on election eve, which: of course he did; anyone he’d want to be there would be too busy on the actual night, not to mention how quickly the festivities could sour once it was called — even when all the guests occupy such elevated positions that no outcome will ever materially affect them. 

ANYWAY: Tom and Shiv are co-hosting at their place, which is just one indicator that the frost between them is thawing; the other is that they’ve been boning like crazy since we saw them last. Tom seems to think all this means they’re fully back together and is shmooping around, bringing Shiv a breakfast tray and a gag gift: a lucite-encased scorpion paperweight, “because it’s funny!” A flummoxed Shiv: “Who’s the scorpion?” “You, I guess,” says Tom. “I love you, but you kill me, and I kill you.” Not because scorpions also like to “play Bitey”? I’m not sure I would give Shiv a projectile that could draw blood if she threw it at me, but then, Tom makes a lot of choices I would not. 

Meanwhile, Shiv’s tepid response to Tom’s gift is of a piece with her general sense of reserve with him (aside from exchanging filthy texts about how great the sex was): she’s more concerned about running information from her oblivious brothers straight to Matsson. They want her to invite her ex Nate to try to get him to use his professional connections to have the Justice Department kill the deal over regulatory concerns? She will (and she’ll even give Tom a heads up about it, allowing him to be as cool with Nate as he can), but she’s also going to tell Matsson to come and impress all the “thought leaders.” If her goal is to prove how normal Mr. Macht Frei actually is in person, it’s a gamble I wouldn’t make, but Shiv’s choices also diverge rather starkly from mine.

The party is…disgusting? I realize it’s too late in the day to hope anyone will stop treating American politics like sports, but the rot of calling it a tailgate party permeates the whole event, from sliders with flag toothpicks to a “guess the [electoral college] split” game. The guest list is made up of the “Journal op-ed ogres,” “crypto-fascist right-wing nutjobs,” and “venture capitalist Dems and centrist ghouls” that made up Logan’s ideological range. And these monsters can’t even count on getting wasted on top-shelf booze since Tom is trying to get rid of the terrible wine from his German vineyard. Before long, Kendall’s made a bad night worse with a speech: after reminding everyone that no matter the election outcome, “we’re all gonna stay friends,” he calls for a moment of silence in Logan’s memory…

…which is when Matsson and his entourage (Oskar and Ebba) disruptively arrive, shocking Roman and Kendall, since Shiv obviously hadn’t warned them that he was coming. (The cover story is that Logan invited him, which seems doubtful but also can’t be contradicted.) Given that there’s “too much peanut butter” between Matsson and the CEBros, Kendall asks Shiv to run interference while also shit-talking Matsson to everyone who’ll listen. Pinky’s on the case!…

…and finds Matsson openly accusing Tom of kissing his ass. “No, I’m not kissing your ass, Lukas!” Tom guffaws. “You’re too smart, you’d spot it a mile off!” Good lord, Tom, even a tech bro can parse that one. Shiv has barely given Matsson his instructions, though he anticipates some of her advice — “Don’t scream ‘people are data’ and stick my dick in the guac?” — when he points out Ebba. Shiv asks how she is, and when Ebba answers, “Uh, who cares,” that should probably be Shiv’s cue that a Matsson charm offensive is destined to fail? 

But it’s too late to get rid of him, so his first actual target (under Shiv’s close supervision) is Nate, who tells Matsson that Daniel Jimenez, the Democratic nominee currently favored to win, worrie that tech will “data-mine us to death.” Matsson airily wonders if Jimenez would prefer that corporations be run by “failsons” who’ll do all the same stuff Logan would, only worse. Shiv adds that Matsson is “actually pretty amenable” to input on corporate policy, and when mention is made of major leadership changes Matsson might make at the top of the company, Nate guesses that means Tom, and no one contradicts him. Scorpion! Bitey!

Then it’s Kendall’s turn to take a crack at Nate. After the briefest of pleasantries, Kendall promises that if Nate can get the deal killed, ATN will lay off Jimenez for his first hundred days in office. “Man, I forgot how eager you were to get laid at a party,” Nate murmurs. Oh Nate, you have no idea how fast Kendall would rip off even his brownest sweaters for you if you could save him from his own disaster.

Back to Shiv, who pulls Matsson aside to compliment his performance so far. He shrugs off her praise, since everything he’s dealing with just amounts to “money and gossip.” “That’s everything,” she agrees. But before they go back out, she wants to him to promise her a “very, very, very significant role” after the deal goes through. “Wow,” he comments drily. “Three ‘very’s.” She lists her attributes: “I know the company, I know everything, I know my way around, I’m collaborative, I have the name. I am— I’m hot shit and I’m ready to go.” She’s right not to list emotional intelligence, since it’s clear to me from Matsson’s face that he doesn’t actually think these are among her strengths…

…but he vaguely says he’d hate to lose her, so they can circle back on this. Shiv allows herself to be put off, because having believed her father when he promised her much more and delivered much less didn’t actually teach her any lessons that stuck.

Shiv then rejoins Tom just in time for a party guest named Scott to tease Tom about his plans to imperil democracy the next day. Shiv reassures Scott by calling Tom “Mr. Mild,” strictly a “one-pepper menu item.” Scott takes a step further, alluding to the possibility that Tom is leaving ATN, but when Tom expresses surprise, Scott backpedals that he may have heard wrong. Oh Scott, Tom being the last to know should prove absolutely that it’s true! (It’s not, necessarily — at this point, Shiv seems to be lending Tom cover with her token-liberal cred and playing whatever part she thinks Kendall and Roman expect her to with people who don’t really matter to her — but since she didn’t read Tom all the way in on the night’s scheme, the result may be the same either way.)

Roman’s oppo researcher has just relayed the story about Matsson sending his blood to Ebba, and Kendall’s about to tell Nate (money and gossip!) when Nate excuses himself: he’s not comfortable being there, or with the way Kendall’s working him. This just cues Kendall to try working him more, but Nate is firm: “quote” “That’s fucking right.” – Logan’s restless ghost, probably.

Kendall and Roman then find Ebba, smarting on the balcony after Matsson’s latest humiliation (on which more below). Kendall wanted to make sure she was okay “on a human level” (as opposed to…?), and she’s more eager than usual to denigrate her boss, who’s “not even a real coder” and whose employ she’ll be leaving in February anyway. Roman guesses it’s blood-related, but that’s the least of Matsson’s worries, she says: “India!” She’s reticent to tell them any details, but then Kendall bums a smoke and I guess once she knows he’s down she has to give in…

…because then Roman and Kendall are pulling Shiv away from low-key negging Tom with another Jimenez-friendly guest — Tom isn’t responsible for an ATN headline about positive Jimenez polls being “a Communist plot” since “Tired Boy” can’t be across everything, even as Tom himself “jokes” that they like to “keep things peppery” — to tell her what the issue in India is: Matsson’s grossly inflated GoJo’s subscriber numbers there. “I fucking knew he was a bullshitter,” Kendall gloats. “I’m telling you. New money.” Wow, this one-generation-removed-from-abject-poverty motherfucker sure has forgotten everything he saw when he was dating A PIERCE, huh.

And when Shiv pulls Matsson aside yet again, he readily admits that this (money and) gossip is true: “If there were two Indias, it would make sense.” Since the board could absolutely withdraw from the deal over this, Matsson should get ahead of it, but he dismissively says he doesn’t want “forum monkeys” to short his stock: even if it does eventually come out, it’ll get lost in the “deal dazzle” of the Waystar acquisition, and by the next quarter, the numbers will be real. (If Ebba’s planning her exit before the end of it, that’s one person who doesn’t think they will be.) It’s bad, but it’s funny too, right? And she can face it? Still horrified, Shiv says she’ll just build another India. “That’s my girl!” says Matsson…

…and when we see him again, he’s needling Kendall about there being nothing to do in this “second-world” city: “Nothing happens in New York that doesn’t happen everywhere.” Fakest of smiles pasted to his face, Kendall suggests that Matsson put that on a mug and sell it in Rotterdam, since he’s heard Matsson might need a new revenue stream. And then it’s a dick-measuring contest: Matsson mocks Kendall’s Living+ presentation and wild revenue estimates; Kendall counters that Matsson’s subscriber numbers are “literally unbelievable.” Matsson isn’t bothered, since he heard Kendall’s numbers are “gay.” Trying to save face with the blue half of the party, Kendall calls that joke “homophobic” (as opposed to…nonsensical?), but Matsson is unbothered: “Just let the wave hit you. Float out.” (A suggestion that Matsson has his own oppo guys still digging in on Kendall and his brother, given Kendall’s history of aquatic difficulties?) Finally, Matsson gets Kendall to say in front of all these witnesses that he loves the deal — “Biggest overpay in history!” — and they hug on it before Matsson departs. Hey, maybe he got a tip about that karaoke place Connor likes!

Seems like the money should start heading out from the party now that its main character has left and no more gossip is likely, but since they don’t, Tom tells Shiv he’s going to bed. When she nags him to stay up a little longer, Tom testily admits that he’s actually tired from everyone discussing his imminent firing. Seems like at least one co-CEO is bullish on him?

Then it’s Tom’s turn to get pulled aside by Shiv. On the balcony, he tries to drop it, and since she’s not actually interested in how Tom feels, she readily changes the subject to her bad bet on Matsson. Wearily, Tom tells her, “You’ll always be fine.” She gasps that she turned on her family for Matsson, and Tom decides to drop dropping it, pointing out how she spent the night telling the 40 most important people in America that Tom’s job is in danger, and will not accept that it was “a tactical joke”; in his opinion, Shiv will always be fine, not because she is rich beyond any of our imaginings but because she’s “a tough fucking bitch” who always does what she needs to. Shiv thinks that sounds more like Tom, and when he asks if they should have a real conversation, she feigns shock that he’d want to talk frankly with “a scorpion,” calling him a hyena, a street rat, and a snake, pretending she’s bought one for him to wear as a tie: “Why aren’t you laughing?” That would certainly be too peppery for Tom. He’s from Minnesota!

Tom pushes through with some accusations that should not shock Shiv: she’s selfish, she doesn’t think about Tom, and she never should have married him. Shiv spits that he proposed when her father was dying and accepted in order not to hurt Tom’s feelings; furthermore, he was only with her to get close to power. When Tom yells that he’s with her because he loves her, it’s one of Matthew Macfadyen’s best line readings ever: we can hear both how true it is and how much he wishes it weren’t. But Shiv — again, lacking emotional intelligence — accuses him of “fucking [her] for [her] DNA,” to create a “ladder” out of his “parochial” family, and yells that he betrayed her, he reminds her, “YOU WERE GOING TO GET ME SENT TO FUCKING PRISON.” (Her recollection is that he offered to go to prison, which…not exactly?) Tom’s killing blow: she’s incapable of love, probably shouldn’t have children, has hurt him more than she can imagine, and no amount of approval he’s given her can make up for what Logan withheld, because she is “broken.” Shiv’s attempt to get anything back by claiming that she doesn’t like Tom and that he never deserved her is undercut by her tears. For god’s sake, Tom, don’t wait to be fired, just quit!

Inside, Kendall tells Frank about India, and proposes that Frank join him in a “reverse Viking” move: Waystar will acquire GoJo, not the other way around. It’s a ruthless end-run that will probably cut out both Shiv and Roman: “I love them, but I’m not in love with them. One head, one crown.” “One head, one jester cap” is also true.

After taking a moment alone on the balcony, Tom goes back inside and loudly tells all the guests he’s going to bed and they need to leave. When this is met with droll laughter, he is quite clear on his way out of the room that he really means it. “Fuck Tom,” says Shiv. Sorry, lady, I think that phase of your life may really be over this time…

…and after the caterers have returned the condo to its pristine pre-party state and turned off all the lights, Shiv sits alone in the master bedroom, contemplating her future…

…while Tom does the same in the guest room that still also contains an empty coat rack. For god’s sake, Tom, have enough self-respect to get a damn hotel room!

Margin Calls

• The political is personal: Kendall’s ex-wife Rava gets her first appearance this season in the cold open, meeting Kendall outside a coffee shop to tell him their daughter Sophie doesn’t want to go to school; on the weekend, a stranger on the street wearing merch promoting ATN star/Nazi Mark Ravenhead brushed past her a little close, and given that Sophie isn’t white, she felt there was a racial dimension to it. Instead of rushing straight over to see her, Kendall blames Rava for letting Sophie, a tween who’s lived in New York her whole life, onto a city sidewalk; if this causes Kendall any introspection about the toxic asset he’s trying so hard to hold onto, we don’t see it. (And no, I don’t count the “we’re all gonna stay friends,” which he would have said to all the trash party guests regardless of how the day had begun.)
• Last rights: Over breakfast, Connor tells his siblings he’s continued to check in on Logan’s corpse (the morticians must just love these visits), and gives an update on plans for the actual service: they want to bring it in at “a tight 90,” so probably only one of them needs to speak. None of them volunteers in the moment, but then Roman meets up with a still-wounded Gerri at the party. After he incorrectly guesses that her attendance means she isn’t still upset with him for impulsively firing her, she lets him know that, actually, she’s expecting a settlement in the “eye-watering” range, and that if anything contradicts her narrative, she’ll leak his dick pics…and by the end of the party, Roman is ready to take on the responsibility of eulogizing the father — possibly to convince her, finally, that he is “as good” as Logan, whatever that may possibly mean to him.
• Connor may actually be important?: Roman hears from Mencken’s campaign that Connor is, somehow, polling well enough in some states that he and Mencken might split the electorate and swing them to Jimenez, so they’re hoping Roman can convince Connor to drop out in exchange for a diplomatic posting. Believe it or not, Connor is not tempted by the offer of being Mencken’s ambassador to Somalia; and believe it or not, but Roman doesn’t think Mencken will consider Connor qualified to represent the U.S. at the U.N. or in South Korea. Connor is interested enough in Oman to run it by Willa, who says (a) everyone she knows is appalled by Mencken (Willa doesn’t have an opinion on him herself?), and (b) Connor’s suggestion that she’d have diplomatic immunity such that she could run over pedestrians on the sidewalk isn’t the deal sweetener he thinks it is. In the end, Connor opts to refuse the deal on the advice of the only person at the party who doesn’t think he’s a joke. That the only healthy, functional relationship belongs to Connor and Willa continues to be the gag of the season!
• “This is wrong”: Greg — who, within the past few days, has already had to tell Kerry she’s not going to be an ATN anchor, and to feed negative Matsson stories to a friendly reporter — continues to be the family’s go-to guy for unpleasant jobs; this time, he’s getting on a Zoom with dozens of ATN employees to read off a script obliquely letting them know they’re all fired and ignoring such comments in the chat as “This is wrong.” At least his boss is very sensitive to these staffers’ plight.
  
  
  
  At the party later, Tom advises Greg to try to cozy up to Matsson, since staying loyal to his cousins is a professional dead end. Greg does have more emotional intelligence than Shiv, so he knows Matsson doesn’t like him (though if he didn’t, Matsson calling him “Gary” would have done it). Only when Kendall directly orders him to does Greg get anywhere near Matsson, and actually manages to ingratiate himself by inserting himself into a dispute between Matsson and Ebba: when Matsson says he’d like to fire Ebba, Greg says he could; he’s fired tons of people lately. Even though this termination doesn’t actually occur, Matsson has to revise his opinion that Greg is just “backwash in the gene pool,” but wonders if it doesn’t feel “a little bit shitty” after Greg has done it. Not really, according to Greg: “HR says I’m the right guy for the job because it looks like I care, but I don’t.” “Not a good person,” Matsson assesses. Greg claims he is, but “you gotta do what you gotta do.” Yeah, that’s what your grandpa thought, too.

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.