#gosh this is making me want to rewatch succession again hahaha

[pynkhues]

Where do you think Logan and Marica are relationship-wise by the end of S3? Are we to assume the romantic part is basically over, and it's now more of a mutually beneficial partnership than a traditional marriage? Given Kerry's presence and Marcia's seeming indifference to her, it makes me wonder. Or maybe she knows something the siblings and the audience doesn't re: Kerry and Logan.

I'm really curious about it too, actually.

This is a bit of an aside, but I am so fascinated about the show's decision to slowly shut us out of Logan's POV in s3, in no small part because I'm pretty sure it timed with Logan shutting both Kendall and Shiv out. It makes for a really compelling shift in terms of narrative power, and I think – arguably – makes the case for Kendall and Shiv being the characters with the true foot in the door of Logan's inner life.

Roman was undoubtedly the favourite child of s3, but the fact that we were never granted Logan's true POV during this season in the way we were in s1 and s2 I think backs up what Shiv said to Roman in the car in 3.09. Logan never truly took Roman seriously because he thought there was something wrong with him, whereas both Kendall and Shiv were genuinely weighed by Logan, and also have an emotional 'in' to him that Roman and Connor don't. We could speculate all day about why that is (although I do, as always, put forth the case that both Kendall and Shiv remind him of Rose), but alas, haha.

Not getting his POV though in the second half of s3 really shut us out of so many of Logan's interpersonal dynamics, and especially his respective relationships with Marcia and Kerry.

I'm actually inclined to think that neither Marcia nor Logan really know what their relationship is anymore, but that they're both clearly wounded. One of my favourite things about their dynamic is that I think they're both two extremely traumatised people who, out of necessity, have become ruthless survivors, and it was in that that they found a very real human connection. I really do think they were in love, but I also think Marcia was right when she told Logan at the end of 2.08 that he broke something by betraying her trust. I think she could've tolerated an affair, but not the partnership Logan tried to have with Rhea, and definitely not being shut out.

In that sense, I think the wound has been a gaping one, and her return to him in s3 is one of murky motivation. Yes, she wants to secure her financial future, and she certainly wants everyone around them to know that Logan fucked up, but I think she also genuinely circled being a partner to him again, first through floating the idea of exposing what Kendall had done at Shiv's wedding, and later through playing the face at Caroline's wedding while Logan schemed upstairs. Similarly, I think Logan wanted Marcia back – something I thought was loud in 2.10 in particular – but when she was cold, he likely retreated.

Logan doesn't like to face the ways that he's hurt people he loves – god, just think of the therapy session in 1.07 – and he tends to attack, then retreat, then pretend it never happened at all. I think what probably happened as a result was that Marcia and him circled each other after getting back together, but she was still wounded which made him self-defensive, and so he pursued a relationship on the side that was easy aka Kerry, and Marcia doesn't care because Kerry's sort of nothing.

Rhea was a threat because Rhea was a cockroach too. She knew how to climb up the cracks and survive the bombs. We haven't seen a lot of Kerry, but she seems young and opportunistic, and like the type of woman who takes Logan at his word (like how she thought he'd remember his uti meds – we even have the direct parallel there with how much Marcia protected him after his stroke), so I think Marcia probably thinks Kerry's not much of anything but a passing fancy to an old man.

So yeah – I think she and Logan remain unaddressed. I think Marcia's priority was in securing her financial future, and that of her children, and obviously Logan's priority was in the picture of her back at his side, but I do think there's something real between them. It's just the wounds of them are festering, both together and apart, and they're both waiting for the other to press a salve to it that they never will.

Or maybe a better metaphor – they're not finished, but the book of them is lying open between them, and both are playing blind.

[pynkhues]

I got so excited seeing you post about Succession, I am absolutely obsessed with everything about that show from the writing, to the performances, to Kendall fucking Roy. Would love to hear any of your takes or analysis on the Roy siblings.

Oh my gosh, me too, anon. I'd been watching the eps a few at a time and when I got halfway through s2, I started watching them one at a time just because I didn't want it to end! It's been a crazy long time since I've done that, and it was such an invigorating feeling to enjoy a show that much to want to draw it out again. I finished s2 a few days ago and am halfway through a rewatch already, haha, and I am SO. HYPED. for s3.

It's so well written and like you said, the performances are top-notch (Jeremy Strong ridiculously deserved his Emmy last year, oh my god), and just the pay off with plotlines and character arcs is unreal, even if that pay off often hurts. I think it does such a great job of showing how filthy rich they are too, but making no part of their life aspirational? Which is a hard line to walk. They're all so miserable and traumatised and disconnected and lonely and they're destined to stay that way because they have no emotional tools to do or be otherwise. It hurts, but it's so frequently what they deserve too, and that gets so tangled up and twisted. I love it.

And man, the Roy kids!! Putting some broadstrokes analysis / opinions under the cut, because omg, I feel like I'll be talking for 1,200 years otherwise, haha.

Connor Roy

Legit obsessed tbh. When I was growing up, my mum was a huge Spin City fan, so she used to park me and my sister on the floor in front of it with toys while she watched, and as a result I think I have this really warm response to Alan Ruck, haha. He's fantastic in this, and lends the right amount of vulnerability to Connor.

I love that there's this push-pull with him as kind of an outsider, but also not? Like he's there at the table, to borrow the phrase from Tom, but there's very much this feeling that it's a courtesy or formality to Logan's previous family (and god, I'm dying to know more about his mum / Logan's first wife), but that doesn't stop this deep rooted need that Connor shares with his siblings for their father's validation.

I think a lot about what Connor says to Kendall in the s1 finale about how anyone can have a million dollars, but right now, with Logan's empire, they're somebody. It's this sort of tangled disconnect from reality (anyone can have a million dollars??) but also his desire to be seen broadly, but more specifically seen as Logan's son, that I feel really grounds Connor's arc, and I feel like he's just going to get louder and louder about it, especially with his presidential run getting closer.

Kendall Roy

Okay, okay, okay, I know that he's an absolute nightmare and a terrible human, but oh my goooooddddd, I love him as a character. I saw it in somebody's tags on a gifset, but I love this set-up where Logan keeps Kendall on the shortest leash, but it's a leash all of his siblings, despite themselves, want to be on. That's awful, but so indicative of the toxic way that Logan's raised his children.

There's also a great quote from Jeremy Strong somewhere, and I can't find it now, but to paraphrase, he said that the whole family is raised on this idea of strength and power, and Kendall's sort of a case study in strength not being his native language. It's so true, and I think Kendall's smart and resourceful and quick on his feet, but he's also so often desperately trying to wear a costume of who he thinks he should be.

I don't think he's weak (in fact, I think he's really resiliant), but he's definitely a fragile character and an addict, who nakedly needs nurturing that no one is willing to give him, least of all his mother (which, god, that scene when he tries to talk to her in the UK destroyed me) so instead he pretends to mould himself into the perceived image of his father and fails every time.

It's brutal to watch, especially when you see other characters know that and use it to manipulate him. Hell, his own father pretends to nurture and protect him (and I think kind of genuinely does too? But it's so warped?) the whole of s2, and it brings Kendall closer than ever before. It's painful, and affecting, and it's just this manifestation of trauma in a hopeless, cringe-inducing package, haha.

Roman Roy

Another nightmare baby I tragically love, hahaha. I actually think Roman's had one of the most interesting arcs on the show and one of the few that seems to be positive? Like his tendency to not take anything seriously so that he never truly fails was pretty fun in the first season, but to see that evolve into someone who's green but has great gut instincts, and is good when he lets himself be and when he lets himself try, is really invigorating narratively, especially as the other characters all slip further down morally and/or stagnate.

I'm loving the way that it's sort of cannibalising itself though too with him and Geri's relationship suddenly, um, pivoting, hahaha, and especially the way she's honed in on him getting off on being demeaned. There's something really fun about the one character clawing his way up masturbating to being told exactly how low he is.

Plus Kieran Culkin is a gem.

Shiv Roy

Sarah!! Snook!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've had a huge crush on her since Not Suitable for Children so was already totally delighted to see her in this, but oh my god, she's so good, and Shiv is so awful in so many wonderful ways. I love that she's kind of like Kendall in the way she pendulums between extreme competence and the most mortifying self-sabotage, and the way she's a very specific sort of insecure. Logan never asked her, y'know? Not really, and the way she knows she's his favourite, but knows that being his favourite without the validation of succession doesn't mean anything.

In a lot of ways, she encapsulates the show's themes and Logan's abuse in the best way, because she has what her brothers want. Her father loves her more openly than he does any of them, but that love isn't enough, because Logan's made sure it never will be. It's not a true love after all, because Logan loves them, but he loves none of them more than himself and his legacy, and being given the latter is what they've all been convinced will make them happy when it never will.

Nothing will.

It's just so good and so painful, and I'm in love with it all.