Might be nice to get a shot of you and Roman
on the candid shot. "Stepping up."
"CE-bros" is kinda the bad version.
Shall we, maybe, not do the bad version?
We pick up a couple of threads in episode five.
Kendall going into work,
which we dropped in the pilot.
Yeah!
That's what he was doing.
He was going into work
and thought he was going to become the boss.
And that's what you see him doing,
is being co-boss with his brother.
In the writer's room,
we have a board of scenarios that we could do one day.
A product launch. A corporate retreat.
And that seemed to marry
very happily with this episode.
Excited to get a feel for Scandinavia
and some hotties.
It offers comic opportunities,
we get everyone together.
It's not a trip to the Guggenheim, Greg.
Find out who they like.
Everyone else, welcome to the lime pit.
Roman's in a particular state of mind.
The day after the wake, I think I've gotten through it already.
I pre-grieved, maybe. And I feel like I'm fine.
And then, Matsson pulls this move.
You know, it's almost like
and they're trying to survive the cut.
KIERAN CULKIN:
And just to show, "Well, he's gone now.
I'm the one and only."
And that's just not a really good feeling.
Ambush. You took the bait. Fattened for the kill.
LUKAS MATSSON:
ROMAN ROY: It's not like our dad died yesterday.
It was a couple of days ago, so...
JESSE ARMSTRONG:
in this episode is that initial negotiation
between Matsson, Kendall, and Roman.
And I love the way in which they, all three parties,
weaponize humor, truth, obfuscation.
I feel like I'm going to the checkout during a sale
and getting asked to pay more.
Alex gave us a counterforce.
In a way, he takes the place of Logan.
Not just as an antagonist,
but as an actor with such gravitas and power.
-I do want ATN, though. -Okay.
If you don't have anything to push up against,
if you don't have that friction,
then you don't have drama.
You don't have anywhere to go.
ARMSTRONG:
maybe you wonder, "Can these guys do it?
Are they going to be able to be anything near
what their dad was?"
And I don't think it's conclusive.
They don't seem to nail it.
But they maybe have their own way of operating,
which is, in the end, not a total failure.
I'm not sure that that works.
It works.
ARMSTRONG:
And I guess ever since the moment that Logan died,
Tom is in a potentially precarious position.
Because his protector, who he betrayed his wife
to get closer to, is suddenly gone.
Keep your eyes out. Okay? If I need a pawn sacrifice,
I'm going to give you the eyes.
As everybody's starting to re-strategize,
I think Greg sees Tom as a weak point
for maybe the first time in the season.
He's really trying to figure out where to land here.
Tom asks him to be his punching bag
in front of Matsson.
He's not really willing to do that.
He kind of wants to give it back to Tom.
S'il vous plaît! Tell us more.
No.
NICHOLAS BRAUN:
are kinda shifting.
Kendall's taking him under his wing,
pushing the quad agenda with the siblings.
What's up? Want to sling some ideas around
within the safety of the Quad.
Not sure if it's working, but gonna keep saying it.
What?
You want it to be catchy, you know, easy to remember.
Quad. Family Quad. Three siblings plus one!
The Roy patrol. The-- The old team.
The-- The-- Da family.
Da fuck?
KENDALL ROY:
And I don't want to stop. I mean, do you?
I think Kendall is the one who's more on maneuvers
for the company.
I think we tank the whole deal. Kill it. Blow it up.
And Roman is happy to go with that idea.
Because I was really hoping someone
would come up with a plan that would entail
telling Matsson to go fuck himself.
Kendall has one. Great! Let's get rid of this guy.
Roman, when he goes to this meeting,
I think he thinks, "We're gonna bullshit him."
Act real sweet, act like this is going well,
and we're gonna stab him in the back later.
Your dad. I mean, he was a prick,
but at least he knew what he wanted.
CULKIN:
And this was not according to any sort of plan.
I think he'd be embarrassed if he saw you two now.
His two big boys.
CULKIN:
it would be defending Dad's honor,
but also a personal affront to the entire family.
That he's using death to show how powerful he is
and make a cool business move.
And the little sarcastic jabs would be almost okay.
I think to Roman, it's a little bit like,
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can make that joke too. Very clever."
But you just drag us out here,
you inhuman dogman, you.
Easy, brother.
I think that's where Roman is.
It's, "Oh, you're using this as a power move right now."
He even says that to Matsson.
He's like, "You couldn't wait..."
A few days. You actually couldn't do that for us.
"...a day." Couldn't let us just bury our father,
and then we can do the business.
We're not selling to you. We are gonna grind you down.
CULKIN:
that's sort of happening.
So, when we're shooting in Norway,
I'm sure it was very beautiful,
but all it did was sort of accentuate how
miserable I was.
And when we got to the top of the mountain,
I didn't even, like, see it until we finished shooting.
And I think it's because Roman was so hyper-focused
on having to talk to this guy.
And the setting could have been anywhere.
We could have been in the bathroom.
Yeah, I fucking hate you.
CULKIN:
We went, like, down to the base, and I went, "Wait a minute."
People were telling me it was beautiful up there.
So I went and took a stroll back up
to the top of the mountain and go,
"Oh, wow! It's really lovely up here. This is great."
But I just couldn't see it.