The final season of HBO’s dynastic family saga returns on Sunday.
“Why is everybody so f—ing happy?”
Succession’s Logan Roy (Brian Cox) is taking stock.
Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin, and Jeremy Strong in ‘Succession’.Claudette Barius/HBO
“Nothing tastes like it used to, does it?”
he laments over dinner in thefourth and final seasonpremiere.
“Nothing’s the same as it was.”
Justine Lupe and Alan Ruck in ‘Succession’.Macall B. Polay/HBO
During a tense negotiation, he surveys his room of minions with disappointment.
“Nobody tells jokes anymore, do they?”
“Everything I do,” he growls, “people have a go at turn against me.”
World domination comes at a price.
But is it worth it?
That’s the unspoken question hanging over Logan and his children this season.
The possibility of healing shimmers on the horizon, but years of ingrained distrust linger.
“I have to look after myself because nobody else will,” Shiv tells her brothers.
They don’t rush to correct her.
“No, Ken,” he snaps.
“It’s just, that’s getting f—ing old.”
That’s the fear, of course.
The four of them veer dangerously close to having an honest conversation about their childhoods.
This isn’t to saySuccessionis going soft.
Mired in creeping disillusionment, Logan still feeds on the terror of others.
His siblings protest, of course, but history is not on their side.
