Tag: succession
Succession: The Roy children announce a new acquisition at Investor Day
‘Succession’ Season 4, episode 6: What the hell is Living+?
If you watched Succession‘s recent episode and found yourself wondering what the hell Living+ is and why Kendall (Jeremy Strong) is promising everyone they can live forever, you’re not alone.
Episode 6 of Succession is largely concerned with the Roys announcing this new product at their annual investor meeting, with Kendall in charge of the official introduction. This, of course, entails the typical amount of Kendall bloviating, as well as indecipherable phrases like “integrated everyday character IP life enhancement.”
Putting Kendall’s convoluted monologue aside, the easiest way to understand Living+ is to compare it to a production studio trying to get into real estate. Living+ is basically if Disney decided to create its own branded, gated communities, which — shocker — it already has.
What is Living+?
A concept that Logan (Brian Cox) concocted and was working on up until his death, Living+ is Waystar’s real estate brand that aims to bring their cruise ship experience onto land. It would mean that Waystar would start building gated communities that are all about the Waystar Studios (and ATN) experience. We understand from Kendall’s speech that Living+ communities prioritize security and fun to create a safe haven for their residents.
But what does all of that look like? Well, you can expect a Living+ community to have beautiful homes, plus built-in security systems, with its residents always a second away from enjoying everything Waystar. Living+ members would also have the luxury of interacting with Waystar’s finest movie and TV characters, not to mention advanced screenings for Waystar films and shows. Plus, Waystar’s parks would be right around the corner.
To visualize this, we can compare Living+ to Disney’s Golden Oak, a residential community located within Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, or Storyliving by Disney. At Golden Oak, the Disney-obsessed get to live in large, affluent communities with park access, a shopping center, and unmatched Disney benefits.
You might not see Mickey in the Living+ neighborhood park, but you would see Waystar’s puppy mascot that Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun) threw up in in Succession‘s pilot episode (you know the one).
Living+ dips into Black Mirror territory thanks to Kendall.
While Logan’s original vision for Living+ is already pretty dystopian, Kendall amps it up by tenfold when he pitches “Living+ Support.”
Using Waystar’s links to advanced tech and pharmaceutical industries, Kendall promises to offer Living+ residents with “privileged access to life enhancement therapies.” Meaning that anyone living in a Living+ community would get unmatched access to the best doctors, therapists, dermatologists — you name it. They’d also have a more affordable access to medicine, with deliveries for anything they’d need showing up right at their doorstep.
Through Living+ Support, Kendall promises that all residents living in a Living+ community can live longer and add years to their lifespan thanks to Waystar. The entire idea of Living+ and Living+ Support sounds like something we’d see in a Black Mirror episode, if we haven’t already, and is essentially a community where everyone can bond over their love for Waystar, ATN, Logan Roy, and healthcare.
Would you want to live in Living+?
‘Succession’ Season 4, episode 6 features a surprise Logan Roy cameo
Succession Season 4, episode 6 opens with pretty much the last person you’re expecting to see: Logan Roy (Brian Cox), seemingly back from the dead.
Is it a flashback? A memory? Nope, it’s an old video clip recorded for Waystar Royco’s Investor Day before Logan’s death, in which he speaks about the company’s plans for a new product called Living+, while casually berating the staff members behind the camera (“You’re as bad as my fucking idiot kids!” he bellows at one point).
It’s not initially clear why interim co-CEO Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) and his team are watching the footage in the present, but it ends up playing a pretty key role in the episode. So what exactly happens, and what’s the real significance of Logan’s cameo?
Why is the Logan Roy video so important in the episode?
The whole episode has a mild Black Mirror feel to it, with Waystar’s Living+ (essentially, a luxury retirement home that aims to prolong the lives of residents through Waystar’s health and technology connections) feeling like something straight out of the mind of Charlie Brooker. Logan’s cameo is very much in keeping with the Netflix show’s dystopian handling of technology, as Kendall and Greg (Nicholas Braun) quickly find an editor to manipulate the footage of Logan to say exactly what Kendall wants him to — basically deepfaking his own dad.
Kendall and co-CEO Roman’s (Kieran Culkin) aim in the episode is to continue trying to tank the GoJo acquisition deal, this time by inflating the potential worth of Waystar Royco so much that GoJo CEO Lukas Matsson’s (Alexander Skarsgård) $192 per share offer appears no longer good enough. Using manipulated footage of Logan allows Kendall to do this without angering the company’s CFO Karl Muller (David Rasche), who gives Kendall a strict pre-presentation lecture about not giving Mattson any numbers he hasn’t personally approved.
Kendall’s workaround, therefore, is to get his dad to say them for him, with Logan’s comment about a “significant boost to the earnings of our parks division” suddenly becoming “double the earnings of our parks division”.
In the audience, Karl doesn’t look convinced. But Logan is the one man he’d never question, and Kendall knows this.
Why does Roman keep watching that deepfake of his dad at the end?
As well as the video of Logan becoming a key weapon in Kendall’s arsenal, it’s also something Roman turns to at the very end as a strange mixture of comfort and self-flagellation. After abandoning his brother to do the Investor Day speech alone (essentially because he predicts it’s going to be horribly received), Roman doesn’t know how to handle it when the reaction to Ken’s speech is actually largely positive. He’s already spent the episode questioning his decisions after being berated by Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron) for firing Waystar’s studio exec, and Kendall’s speech reception is the straw that breaks the youngest Roy’s back.
In the car on his own, Roman watches an edited meme of his father’s video in which Logan says, “I’m convinced that Roman Roy has a micro dick and always gets it wrong.” Listening to the clip over and over again, he closes his eyes and holds the phone close to his ear. It’s an expression of his unprocessed grief, a means of self-punishment, and a way of highlighting the low opinion Roman has of himself — something that’s clearly been drummed into him over the years by an abusive father who continues to haunt him from beyond the grave.
Succession is now streaming on HBO Max, with new episodes airing at 9 p.m. ET Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.
Succession season 4, episode 6 release date, time, channel, and plot
Succession: The Roy children head to Sweden to try and close the Waystar Royco merger
‘Succession’ Season 4, episode 5: Why did some people escape the ‘kill list’?
So did the right Roys take over? Judging by Succession Season 4, episode 5, which sees a tense renegotiation of the deal Logan Roy (Brian Cox) initially struck with Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) to sell Waystar Royco, the answer appears to be a firm no.
While interim CEOs Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) are busy trying to do everything they can to sabotage their own deal in an attempt to cling onto power, Shiv (Sarah Snook) casually outmanoeuvres everybody to get exactly what she wants — and in doing so, she also seals the fate of a number of other characters who escape Matsson’s “kill list”.
But what exactly is the “kill list”, and why do some people avoid it while others don’t? Let’s recap.
What was the “kill list” in episode 5?
Whenever someone new takes over a business, there’s always the potential for restructuring and redundancies. The looming Matsson deal in Succession is no exception, and it’s clearly on the minds of the main characters in episode 5.
“I have it on good authority there’s a kill list,” says Greg (Nicholas Braun) to Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) at one point. “Like eight, nine names. It’s evolving.”
Later in the episode, after Matsson’s made his final offer to acquire Waystar Royco including ATN, the list comes through — and almost everyone flying on the plane, including the likes of Hugo (Fisher Stevens), Karle (David Rasche) and Frank (Peter Friedman), is at risk. The only notable exceptions? Karolina (Dagmara Dominiczyk), Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron), and Tom. So why did those three survive, while the others didn’t?
Credit: HBO
Why did some people survive Matsson’s “kill list”?
In a nutshell, they’ve all got one person to thank: Shiv.
It all goes back to the private conversation Shiv has with Matsson, where he asks for her advice on the deal and the very strange, very creepy situation he’s got himself into with his former girlfriend and current Head of Comms (basically he’s been sending her bricks of his own frozen blood as “a joke”).
At one point Matsson asks what Waystar’s Head of PR, Karolina, is like. Shiv’s response? “Oh, she’s good. Yeah, she’s solid.”
Later, after offering her advice on the whole blood situation, Shiv also tells Matsson, “Gerri would be good on this.”
Given that Matsson clearly likes Shiv and takes her advice onboard (he ends up offering Kendall and Roman the “meaningful bump” in money she suggests to him, despite Roman’s pretty understandable outburst at Matsson on the mountain), is it any coincidence that Karolina and Gerri, the two names Shiv speaks favourably of in their meeting, are ultimately excluded from the kill list?
And then finally, there’s Tom. You’d think he’d have been first on the chopping block, but it’s clear from Shiv asking him to go to dinner with her at the end of the episode that she still wants him in her life. Matsson most likely keeps him because of something Shiv says to him that we don’t see.
The whole episode, ultimately, is a lesson in how much power Shiv can wield — and why she’d clearly be a better fit for the CEO job than either of her brothers.
Succession is now streaming on HBO Max, with new episodes airing at 9 p.m. ET Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.
‘Succession’ Season 4, episode 5: Breaking down the GoJo deal
Following the sudden death of patriarch Logan Roy (Brian Cox) and his equally shocking funeral, the Roy kids are back in the family business. In the fifth episode of this fourth (and last) season of Succession, the Roys have made their way to Norway to meet up with GoJo’s CEO Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) in an attempt to secure the deal once and for all.
There’s a whole lot of numbers and stock talk being thrown around, in between the typical insults, bickering, and babygirl villainy, but don’t fret. We’re here to break down the GoJo deal in really simple terms and what episode 5’s ending really means for Kendall and Roman (Kieran Culkin).
What was Logan’s original deal?
Credit: Macall Polay/HBO
Season 3 of Succession kicked off with Waystar Royco planning to buy GoJo, a booming tech company that’d help modernize Waystar. Logan and Roman were particularly interested in GoJo because the acquisition would help Waystar enter the streaming market by revamping their streaming service, StarGo. It’s kind of like if Walt Disney decided to buy YouTube to make Disney+.
The plan eventually changes, with their first being an option for a potential merger on the table, but then that’s scratched out when Matsson offers to buy Waystar instead. Logan likes the idea and agrees to the deal that’d see GoJo buying Waystar and its subdivisions, including parks and cruises, Waystar Studios (their production company), and StarGo. News outlet ATN, however, would not be included in the deal and would stay under Logan’s ownership. Long story short: Logan keeps ATN, Matsson takes everything else and leaves Logan with a giant cash settlement.
Earlier in Season 4, we watched Logan attempt to rally the troops at ATN, where he expresses that his passion has always been news and that he’s ready to dedicate himself to fixing ATN. But the deal with GoJo (and the future of ATN) hits a roadblock when the kids decide to rally the board to vote against the deal, arguing that Matsson’s cash settlement isn’t enough. We know Kendall, Roman, and Shiv (Sarah Snook) were just hellbent on screwing their dad over, but their power play backfires when Logan gets on a plane to see Matsson and, well, dies instead.
What is the new GoJo deal?
Credit: Graeme Hunter/HBO
Logan’s death changes the whole playing field, with Waystar’s stock dropping by 20% after his passing and regaining only 10% of it after Kendall and Roman were announced as co-CEOs. As Matsson aptly points out in episode 5, why would he pay more to buy something that’s currently on sale? So he suggests a new deal. Rather than paying more for Logan’s original deal — let’s call it Waystar standard — he suggests buying Waystar and ATN for $187 billion. Think of it as the Waystar deluxe package.
In this new deal, Matsson would essentially own all of Waystar. Naturally, it’s a huge decision for the kids who’d not only be giving up ATN, their dad’s favorite child, but his entire legacy, which they’ve been desperately trying to be a part of since Season 1. Kendall and Roman scramble to find a counter-offer, which at one point includes tanking the deal — meaning they’d stay CEOs until further notice (wouldn’t Kendall love that?) — but eventually they get into a giant fight with Matsson where Roman pours his heart out.
While Roman thinks their fight obliterated any chance for the deal, it does the exact opposite, with Matsson bumping up the price to a whopping $192 billion. The Roys have no other option but to agree. At the start of episode 5, they were ready to settle for anything between $144 to $146 billion, and that spicy $192 billion adds a whole extra $50 billion to their bank accounts. Sure, these feel like silly little numbers on a screen, but a casual extra $50 billion is a sum of money I can’t even compute.
So, what’s the state of the GoJo deal now? Well, Matsson is officially set to buy Waystar, its subsidiaries, and ATN for $192 billion, and is already planning his takeover through employment cuts. Shiv is thrilled by the news, while Kendall and Roman look depressed as ever.
What’s going to happen next?
Credit: David Russell/HBO
Succession loves a plot twist, so there’s a chance that Kendall and Roman might not agree to this new deal. It’s hard to imagine why they wouldn’t, but episode 5 also sets up the upcoming presidential election, which ATN could have a major role in. Kendall and Roman both voice their apprehension towards a European taking over an intrinsically American news outlet, fearing that he might tank ATN’s “credibility” with its ride-or-die, Fox-esque audience.
ATN’s involvement in the upcoming election might mean that the boys will still try to maintain some control over the news network by any means necessary. There’s also the Pierce Global Media elephant in the room — remember the bidding war the kids get into in Season 4’s first episode? While Logan initially wanted to buy Pierce so he could merge it with ATN, rendering him the sole owner of one massive news conglomerate, the kids made the highest bid for PGM for, quite literally, shits and giggles. It’s a little bit ambiguous what, if anything, has happened with PGM since then; if they have successfully acquired Pierce, it’s unclear if it will be under their sole control or if it will be merged with ATN after all, thereby going to Matsson as part of that deal.
If Pierce does go to Matsson, he’d be the exclusive owner of two of the biggest news outlets in America, right on the precipice of a high-stakes election, which means entirely one thing — shit’s about to go down. It’s hard to tell whether or not the new GoJo deal will be a big win for the Roys…or a crushing loss.