REVIEW: ‘Succession,’ Season 4 Episode 6 — “Living+”

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Succession Season 4 Episode 6 follows the non-stop momentum of a stellar season thus far. The weight of Logan Roy’s death is touching every facet of the Roy siblings’ lives. Manifesting in stupidity from both Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) during negotiations with Matsson, Shiv (Sarah Snook) rises to the top, making moves while her brothers neglect to keep her in the loop. From Shiv being pregnant to Roman freaking out at a Norwegian mountainside, this episode continues to explore whether or not Ken and Rome can actually live in their father’s footsteps.

Riding off of the high of Matsson’s offer, Roman and Ken are blindsided by power. In particular, Roman becomes more ruthless and demanding in his attempts to garner respect from his father’s old advisors. Unable to handle criticism, his temper tantrums cause visible tension and anxiety with every character he interacts with. Succession Season 4 Episode 6 is brutal in its ability to make me cringe at my screen. Not only is Roman embarrassed, but also his CE-Bro Ken is completely absorbed in the theatrics of launching a new realty asset called Living+.  Ken is back, baby, in the world of balling and bangers that circle us back to showcase how he has not grown since season one.

It’s almost indescribable how grief has rooted itself within each character and their work. Alongside Roman’s antics, Kendall’s grief for his father is thrown into the upward energy of showmanship. Viewers get the embodiment of peak Kendall Roy. He is feverish about putting on his Living+ show. He wants a whole house built on the stage in less than 24 hours. He has custom-made jackets for him and Roman to don on stage together as they promise potential investors eternal life.

As boisterous and fascinating as Ken is, it’s brought back to reality by the whole room cringing at his performance when an edited Logan appears on an overhead monitor. To make matters worse, Matsson (played by the charismatic Alexander Skarsgard) tweets out an inflammatory holocaust reference in order to tank Ken’s performance. It’s difficult to get through the scene as the camera spans the room of silenced reporters with awkward close-ups of Ken. All of Ken’s advisors are on edge, frantic to save the performance from tanking their stocks and public reputation.

While Kendall and Roman fail to meet expectations of competency, Shiv is the standout character alongside her estranged husband Tom (Matthew Macfadyen). The person who saves Kendall’s disastrous performance is Shiv playing nice to Matsson. Sarah Snook gives such vitality and rigor to Shiv’s movement all throughout this season but it stands out in Succession Season 4 Episode 6. She wants to trust her brothers but sees how they are so distracted by power that they cannot wield it. Instead, she acts as an inside consultant to Matsson to ensure that he’s placing his money safely within her family’s company. Matsson may call the CEO-Bros stupid, but he knows that Shiv is not.

Feeling powerless, scheduling in her brief moments for grief, Shiv takes business as seriously as she ever has, with the caveat of not having anyone to lean on. With extraordinary writing and great chemistry between Snook and Macfadyen, this loneliness in Shiv is solaced by Tom. While Tom betrayed Shiv in one of the show’s most shocking moments in season 2, Shiv is desperate for comfort. Her cries are always intense to witness, but viewers know that she’s never weak in showcasing her emotions. Tom and Shiv pivot the power scaling through their rekindling as he comforts her and joins her during the Living+ performance.

Succession Season 4 Episode 6 is crafted so well that by the end of the episode, I’m actively rooting for Shiv and Tom to get back together. It’s clear that despite the grief, Shiv is the only Roy who is invested in keeping power and not taking the business, and Tom, in a feat of honesty, expressed that he would do anything to keep his wealth status. It’s difficult to know whether or not Shiv is actually invested in her marriage to Tom or just knows that she can use him to get what she wants. However, that’s why Succession excels in character writing and genre.

In the end, Succession Season 4 Episode 6 returns viewers to notes of each character that feel familiar with the stakes of business higher than they’ve ever been. In a volatile episode, the ball remains in Shiv’s corner, with the fate of Kendall and Roman hanging on purely by nepotism threads. Cringe-inducing and tantalizing, season 4 continues to shock and surprise me with its interesting character writing and dynamic storytelling.

Succession Season 4 Episode 6 is streaming now on HBOMax, with new episodes on HBO every Sunday.