The real reason Shiv and Roman have attended Kendall’s party is to track down the elusive tech inventor Lukas Matsson, with whom they are hoping to arrange a deal. Succession, episode 4 recap: Adrien Brody leaves the Roys in dire straits.Succession, episode 5 recap: The Roys have hit their rich-jerk peak – suing Greenpeace.Succession, episode 6 recap: Roman tangles with a trendy online fascist, because of course.“ Yes, you can take it home.” Roman, perhaps un-ironically, frantically pumps his fist.
“Call me old-fashioned,” he tells Kendall, when they meet up in the VIP area to trade barbs, “but I think you should ask someone’s permission before you construct a giant replica of their vagina.” “Roman, relax,” Kendall replies.
“And you’re implying it’s massive, so you might wanna, you know… tighten my mother’s vagina.” It remains to be seen whether this event will have the effect of exposure therapy on Roman’s rampant mommy issues, although based on several conversations he has after it occurs, it seems unlikely. “So I’m inserting myself in my mother’s vagina right now, is that what’s happening?” he deadpans, stepping in and out of the pink, billowing entrance tunnel to Kendall’s fortieth birthday that – according to a female staff member dressed as a nurse – permits attendees to be “born into the world of Kendall Roy.” “This is my mother’s cooch, just so you know,” he adds to the nurse, as he, Shiv, Connor, Tom and Willa head into the party. This week, Roman finally gets to live his greatest, maybe wettest dream. It’s interesting that he likens his ex-wife’s partner to an action figure – Ken himself is plastic, but he’s far less “plastic Jesus” than he is a battered doll, a child’s plaything cursed with just enough awareness of his fate to know how meaningless it is to spend your whole life being forced to act out never-ending wars with other toys. If the loneliest Roy is just as desperate and as ego-driven as his brothers and sister, he also seems cognisant of the Faustian bargain of being a Roy. She and every other viewer who feels for Kendall against all of their best instincts will have, it is safe to say, an awful time of it this week. “I just worry about him,” she said sadly, furrowing her brow with what seemed like genuine angst. A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine confessed to feeling scared for Kendall, even as she knew that all the Roys were fundamentally bad people. There are many funny moments in this week’s episode, but it is also possibly the saddest yet to air, a scouring hour of television that exemplifies the show’s tendency to shift on a knife-edge from hilarity to almost unbearable cruelty. In the end, he neither raps nor does the Billy Joel performance (which was meant to end with him being hoisted aloft and crucified, in a reference to his “plastic Jesus” status).
Would he rap again, I wondered, a chill running down my spine? Would I be forced to watch Ken Roy “spit bars” in a paternal diss track? What exactly did he mean when he declared his desire to “go nut-nut, pure excess, full bore, yeah?” after the actual performance at his 40th? I have to confess: when I was initially sent the first seven episodes of Succession’s third season, I held off watching this one after seeing Kendall Roy, rehearsing for his birthday party, covering Billy Joel in the cold open.