With the thrilling piano tinkle of the show's opening music, we are back for the fourth and final season of Succession. And the season opener ‘The Munsters’ delivered all the sly manoeuvring, family dysfunction and dark, foul-mouthed humour we have so missed.
Season three ended with that twist: Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) betrayed wife Shiv, and foiled the Roy siblings’ plan to block their father Logan (Brian Cox) from selling the family empire, Waystar Royco, to tech mogul Lukas (Alexander Skarsgård). Season four picks up 48 hours before that deal is due to go through - and in typical Roy style the family are scheming, wheeling and dealing to the end...
Succession S4 Ep1 plot recap
It’s Logan’s birthday, but the birthday boy’s mind is not on the celebrations (‘why is everyone so fucking happy?’). Only eldest son Conor (Alan Ruck) - still clinging on to his presidential bid - and his fiancé Willa (Justine Lupe) are at the party.
The other kids - Shiv, Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) - are absent, busy pitching for funds for their new media venture The Hundred - ‘Substack meets Masterclass meets The Economist meets The New Yorker’, an ’indispensable, bespoke information hub with high-calorie info-snacks’ - a grand plan which Shiv eventually concedes is ‘kind of bullshit’.
When Tom calls to let Shiv know he has met up Naomi Pierce (Annabelle Dexter-Jones), of the rival Pierce media family, Shiv is rattled. Partly because her husband may be dating/sleeping with her brother’s ex (we learn Shiv and Tom are on a trial separation), partly because she realises Logan may be about to acquire the Pierce company. Which, of course, immediately has the three siblings wondering if they should buy it.
‘This is not about getting back at dad-but if it hurts him it doest bother me,’ Shiv muses.
‘Just think about how funny it would be if we screwed dad over his decades long obsession?’ Kendall adds. And with that, they’re private-jetting to meet the Pierce family.
Back at the party, Tom and Greg (Nicholas Braun), aka The Disgusting Brothers, are serving up some of the funniest scenes of the episode. When Greg 'has a rummage' with his date Bridget in one of the guest bedrooms - Tom convinces Greg he’s inadvertently made a sex tape as Logan has cameras in every room, prompting Greg to confess to Logan. Bridget is promptly escorted from the property.
Meanwhile, the Pierce negotiations bounce back and forth via a series of increasingly fraught phone calls, ultimately resulting in ’the kids’ offering a conversation-ending $10 billion to secure the deal. On speakerphone Logan delivers his verdict to his children: ‘Congratulations on saying the biggest number you fucking morons.’
The tone shifts as we see Shiv back at her apartment. She and Tom decide to call it quits for good in a sequence which reminds you how much emotional heft Succession can have. Sarah Snook delivers an acting masterclass as Shiv desperately tries to hide her pain, which threatens to bubble over despite her efforts to keep them in check. She says one thing, but the look on her face says something entirely different.
We end the episode with Logan pensive, watching one of his own TV channels and calling a producer to berate them: ‘who is this guy, he looks like a ballsack in a toupe’. Clearly, the cogs are whirring: having lost out on Pierce, he’s planning his next move. And you can bet it’s going to be devastating.
The best quotes from Succession S4 Ep 1
'We could hear you better if you took dad's cock out of your mouth' - Roman to Kerry, as they try (and fail) to negotiate a birthday phone call to Logan
'You're a mean old bastard' - Greg's attempt to roast Logan
'Butter my beanpole!' - Logan's advisor Karl on learning The Kids are the rival bidders for the Pierce deal
Watch Succession S4 on Sky Atlantic, Mondays at 9pm, or subscribe to NOW to catch up on all episodes