Season 4, Episode 8: “America’s Decision”
The day before Logan Roy died, he sent a fiery declaration of war to ATN staff telling them what to expect from the network. The speech further angered the populist rhetoric he has delivered many times before, arguing that news should always be candid and unpretentious. He wanted the anchors to tell viewers “truthful” things that no one had ever said on television. He wanted ATN to be, in one word, ‘spicy’.
In this week’s action-packed, nerve-wracking episode “Succession,” Logan’s kids are like the presidential race between Republican Jerryd Menken (Justin Kirk) and Democrat Daniel Jimenez, and old people are themselves. Discuss what you want them to do. (Elliot Villar) ends up in some battleground states. The big problem was in Milwaukee, where a ballot-counting facility fire burned enough votes to turn Wisconsin from blue to red.
What would Logan have done? Would he have maintained his “no brass on the battlefield” policy and left all ATN messages to the data geeks on the decision desk? Did they use the opportunities presented to shape the story in such a way that the Menken faction (and thus the Roy family) would be the big winners of the night?
But asking what would Logan do misses the real heart of the matter. It was clear from Logan’s defense against ATN that he doesn’t care if his network broadcasts the facts. He preferred “truth”. This has a more flexible definition depending on who is telling it.
On this election night, two conflicting truths surfaced in the ATN executives, represented by Jimenez supporter Shiv and Menken supporter Roman. Whenever Shiv tries to change the subject to something like a Menkenite saboteur in a “victory van,” Roman yells “False flag!” And rebranded the spooky vehicle as “Fun Bus”. Lloyd’s is at a dead end.
Given that ATN already has what Tom calls a “unique perspective” on the news, Roman has a definite edge. Other networks have suggested that Menken’s thugs may have burned Milwaukee’s votes, but ATN has floated theories such as an “electrical fault.” (Romans would prefer “Arsonbombing of Antifa.”) At one point, ATN’s Tucker Carlson-like anchor Mark Ravenhead (Zach Lovidas), during a report for the station that purportedly neutralized They attacked the left for ranting and trying to turn fire on their problems. political advantage.
Kendall and Tom are allied with Roman to some extent. He is hesitant because Kendall is not a fan of Menken. When he tells Roman he fears what the Mencken regime will mean for his adopted daughter Sophie, his brother teases Roman that he cares about the ideals of American pluralism. Roman compares their entire argument to when they were kids, when Kendall played the sober older brother to buy chicken for dinner, while the whining Roman wanted steak.
Kendall asked, “You ate a lot of chicken when you were a kid, so you have to choose fascist?” And he’s joking, but that kind of persistent disdain is what guides tonight’s decision-making.
As for Tom, he’s been under pressure to silence his critics by scoring high marks in ATN’s election coverage. Until he gets there, he endures touchscreen glitches and Roy’s barrage of barrages into off-limits areas of the newsroom. Tom still tends to side with Roman, perhaps because it puts him at odds with Shiv, who doesn’t approve of his vicious altercation at the tailgate party. Even when she tries to win him back by telling him she’s finally pregnant with her own child, he says another “tactic” is that she’s not lying to her. and stab her.
Shiv is having a rough time overall on election night. As the night changes Menken’s ways like a nightmare, she bonds with Kendall. It mirrors the poignant season 2 scene where Kendall confides in her that he will never be chosen to run Logan’s company. Here he listens to Shiv’s argument that ATN could slow Menken down. Their decision desk guru Darwin (Adam Godley) knows where Milwaukee’s votes went from historical data and exit polls. They could put Darwin on camera and have him explain why ATN doesn’t expect a winner in Wisconsin.
But two things get in the way. The first is that Kendall really wants the next president to scrap the GoJo deal, so Roman claims Menken will. So Kendall asks Shiv to persuade his ex-girlfriend Nate again to make the same promise to Jimenez. Instead, she simply pretends to make a phone call and lies to Kendall that Jimenez’s people are willing to consider his proposal. This creates a second set of failures. That’s when Kendall calls Nate to repeat more clearly what she claims Shiv said.
There are some amazing renditions in this episode, many of which involve people going back and forth on the phone, at one point switching one phone to another so that the people on the phone can talk to each other. I even held it up to my face. But the best call sequence is Kendall’s call to Nate, which flows almost inaudibly behind the window of ATN’s giant office, with Shiv staring at it with a look of horror. After Kendall receives a call from Nate that Shiv never called, she walks in to talk to Greg. It is Greg who knows that Shiv is consulting with Mattson.
Feeling betrayed by his most trusted brother, Kendall speaks cold words to Shiv and tells Tom to call Menken. ATN is trying to help elevate an authoritarian to America’s most powerful public office because one spoiled brother is snorting.
This episode is incredibly funny, but it comes uncomfortably closer to real-world politics than is typical of “Succession.” While the show has always featured characters and ideas inspired by real-life politicians, creator Jesse Armstrong primarily serves as the backdrop for the Roy family drama, and for the blind eye of those in power. I use these as a way of satirizing arrogance. But how the election unfolded here looks so much like the specifics of 2016 and 2020 that it may bring up bad memories for those sweaty and frustrated that night.
That’s fine, but Roman might “ironically” make racist comments in the newsroom, or assure Shiv that “nothing will happen” when terrible people come to power. No, because Armstrong shows here that the pettiness of the Roy family and its ilk really does have an impact. For this family, it’s all about winning in the moment, whether or not it turns into a loss later. That’s what their father taught them. “Take what you can, when you can, and let someone else clean it up.”
So when the night was over, ATN called the Wisconsin and Menken presidential races, without having Darwin explain that this was all “pending,” as Logan Roy could have understood. In deaf language, Roman summarized what happened.
“Had a great TV night.”
due diligence
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Tom also had a terrible election night, ending with Greg handing him his cell phone and saying, “A lot of important people want to shout at you.” But this is a great episode for fans of the morbid Tom and Greg dynamic. Tom doesn’t want anyone but Greg to have the “Greg” he needs, he keeps a lanky squire on hand and relies on him for everything from the moment he takes a sip of cocaine (Tom: “No way. .Do not go inside)” book. ) to a double-shot coffee. Tom says that Greg can’t control his sleepiness, Tom got the results wrong in Colorado, China invaded Taiwan, the world exploded, and “we’re back in the amoeba.” Draw a doomsday scenario.
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One of Tom’s non-Greg assistants made the mistake of bringing bodega sushi into the office, which Tom canceled (“My digestive system is basically part of the constitution tonight!”), but Greg ate haphazardly, eventually leading to wasabi stains. in the eyes of Darwin. Greg makes things worse by pouring lemon lacroix on the affected area. (“Not so lemony!” he insists.) True to Tom’s dire warnings, the Roy family begins to make the decision to call elections for Menken only when Darwin is temporarily incapacitated by food. It was when
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When Connor learns that Kentucky has been lost (“Oh, Kentucky, Willa… I’m sorry, it’s vanity”), Connor rushes to appease Menken and offers to “bend in his direction.” There, we have a wonderful spectacle of Conor giving a tense opening speech in front of a billboard with the campaign slogan, “Enough!”
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Just because ATN declared Mencken the winner doesn’t mean the election is over. The Milwaukee mess needs to be resolved. And Wisconsin could switch to Jimenez and it would all be over. In other words, even with regards to “successions,” big deals remain unresolved.
