Like under the impression that ken's taking the company down and so she's over here panic buying
nutribullets and buying a lot of krugerrands like a very particular currency and she never even
drinks the smoothies. Hey guys, Pete here. Succession is back for season three and we got our first
episode that was titled "Secession". It's a table setter where not a lot happened if you really
think about it but there's still a lot to unpack. You got some good memeage, and straight-up white
bronco era OJ Simpson callbacks. Complete with the dark joke from Kendall, "Who said I never killed
anyone?: which is dastardly even if he's the only one that gets it. And just real quick i have to
throw out a spoiler warning. If you're not caught up then this video won't be for you. Can't have any
weevils in the flower sack and with that out of the way let's slide the sociopolitical thermometer
up the nation's ass and take a reading, let's get into it. Season 3 starts right where things
were left following Kendall's press conference at the end of season 2 where he turned on his
father on national TV. Accusing him of complicity in the cruise scandal that's threatening to see
the Roys lose control of Waystar Royco and he's got the documents from Greg to prove it.
His sliding into an empty bathtub is a nice parallel with the season 2 premiere where he
was submerged in a hot tub at a scandinavian rehab. This time there's no one there to look after him
and as the episode unfolds it becomes clear that he didn't have a plan for the aftermath of his
bombshell allegations. So much so that he hadn't considered that Karolina might not jump on his
train or that the company might lock him out of the building. He's mostly got buzzwords and
nowhere to go. There's another nice nod to season 2 here the phone call between father and son.
Logan calls what Kendall's doing a "decent move". he calls it out for what it is a play and that
does back up the idea that in the finale when he was watching the press conference he was
proud of his number one boy. I said that not much happens in this episode, in light of the situation
no one in Logan's orbit can do anything except wait and see what he does. Sure they can strategize
and scheme, that's always a joy to watch, but at the end of the day he's the one with the
power and everyone else is motivated to preserve whatever they already have in relation to that.
Kendall is the one exception. he decides to establish his operation center at Rava's
place. you really start to see him getting high on his own hype when he tells her that he kind
of did it for them, implying that he kind of did this all for his family. The big thing he's able
to accomplish, the one thing that seems to be in his favor, he hired this new lawyer Lisa Arthur
who by the fact that everyone else in the family was also trying to hire her is obviously a name
and it does sound like a win for him and that she's there because of what he's trying to do.
She lays things out pretty plainly telling him that "this is a quite complex situation to progress
because as i understand it you want to take down your dad without implicating yourself
and without damaging the company to the extent that you lose control at your shareholder meeting."
the government is going to want to talk to him and Lisa seems like the only one he might be able to
count on to be looking out for his best interest i mean he's got Greg whose loyalty might overshadow
his incompetence but I kind of think there's a possibility he'll just go back to work tomorrow.
as he's taking these meetings Kendall is visibly intoxicated. he's in what looks like a manic state
and I think at least right now he's actually not using coke or any other drugs. he's quite
literally getting high from the process and this really comes across in the meeting he has with
the two women who are going to be taking over his social media, I guess they're communications people,
who are clearly professional and are there with a plan that they can't even get out because he keeps
interrupting them. he's talking about getting some Bojack guys and the lampoon kids and getting his
Twitter feed going and this is the side of Kendall we've seen in the past. so what Kendall was able to
do was create this situation where his father is truly vulnerable. the way that he reacts throughout
the episode makes it clear that this is something that he's worried about. he can't even get the
president on the phone at this point because it wouldn't look good if that was on the white house
logs and in talking with their representative Gerri isn't able to get any kind of assurances.
this has brought people over to Kendall's side at least a high-powered lawyer and the communications
team and deep down neither one of them, father or son, cares about the actual crimes that happen
during the scandal with cruises. Llogan decides to go on the offensive at one point he says he's
gonna go full [ __ ] beast after brushing aside every suggestion saying that he should cooperate
or try to make some improvements and put a good face on it. he does realize that he's gonna have
to step back from the CEO role agreeing to put someone else in there but it's pretty obvious
that he still wants operational control and he's just looking for someone to act as his puppet. the
choices come down to Roman, Shiv, and Gerri. Roman comes so close it does seem like his father was
thinking about it earlier in the episode he said everything that his father wanted to hear him say
but on the phone when logan doesn't say yes right away Roman pivots saying that he'd be willing to
work under Gerri and kind of putting her forward and that doesn't mean as soon as he gets off the
phone Logan says that Roman's out. and for what it's worth i do think he was about to say yes
and he just blew it. because they were friends Shiv is sent to talk to Lisa about becoming
Logan's lawyer. other than some weird tension that comes up whenever she tries to get her to be her
personal lawyer nothing really comes out of it because she's already talked to Kendall. that takes
Shiv out of the running for the CEO which means that only Geri is left so she eventually gets it.
which interrupts Roman's trying to take things to the next level with their relationship they were
in a hotel room together and Roman was really going for it he says things like "I'd lay you
badly but I'd lay you gladly" and that he's like a young fighter raw and still hungry. all of that
gets put on hold after she gets the call Roman decides to call Shiv to rub it in and then she
tells her driver that she had a change of plans which i guess is indicating that she's gonna
go try to talk to Kendall now to examine her possibilities. things come to an end with Logan
walking outside of the hotel looking determined to bring Kendall down. the stage is set and we can
imagine where it goes from here. the conversation between Frank and Carl on the plane earlier comes
to mind when they were talking about him being the comeback kid. hard to say how the current situation
stacks up against say the tabloid suicides, when they nearly went kablooey because of Argentina,
the Tiananmen accommodations. or that black cloud after Sally Anne but Logan would have never
gathered the power he has if he wasn't a survivor. knowing how his last two attempts played out and
seeing Ken's behavior in this episode the third time going for daddy doesn't feel like the charm.
I guess it's more of a question of what he's able to scare up on Logan as he crashes and burns
and as Naomi pointed out last season, "watching these people melt down is the most deeply
satisfying activity on the planet earth." I guess as far as going full [ __ ] beast is concerned
the implication is that he'll expose kendall's involvement in the car accident and the waiter's
death. this isn't so cut and dry though Logan played an active role in covering up his son's
criminal act, which is of course also a criminal act. I'm actually not sure how he could follow
through with that and i guess we'll have to wait and see. some other things on the sidelines here.
Tom was mostly a fish out of water this episode. he ended up with frank and logan and we saw that
things still aren't resolved between him and Shiv as they were saying goodbye. he really seemed like
he was out of his element with no one there for him to punch down on. not much Connor at all but
that conversation with Willa was something in the middle of everything else that's going
on he's still trying to figure out how to salvage his investment in the play. he's looking into doing
some marketing that would exploit the whole hate-watch angle pushing in a irono-cycle
and capitalizing on all the negative reviews to bring in the hipsters and [ __ ] I'm looking
forward to seeing Gerri in the CEO role she's one of my favorite characters to watch because she's
really good at being just as slimy as everyone else but appearing to be otherwise limiting her
own exposure which I imagine being the head of the company will make a little bit more difficult.
you got a feel for Kenall's ex-wife Rava. there was a pretty straight line progression from kind of
inappropriate to just completely out of line in the way things were happening there. especially
with Naomi. so I imagine that will all come to a head soon the two-year break seemed to really give
the writers some time to get the quips and the one-liners laser focused. this was a solid episode
that did a great job picking things up after the high of the season 2 finale. so many hilarious bits
that make it one of the funniest episodes in a show that has a lot of them. Greg being peak
Greg, a trip to Sarajevo to avoid extradition, a brief battle to be the temporary replacement, and
a whole lot of potential for shifting allegiances to keep things lively. one of the things i wonder
about with this show is how far can you stretch the family dynamics before things get stale.
so I like the idea of shifting the focus towards the corporate crimes because this is an
area where it's clear that no one really cares about the victims and you can imagine Kendall
playing towards that somewhat cynically. trying to differentiate himself from his father when they're
all basically the same it seems like there's some potential there. mystery razors, reverse banjos, and
panic buying cougarands and nutribullets there's a lot of little threads here to pull on later
and that seems like a good place to leave things let me know in the comments where you think
things are going and what you're hoping to see please like this video if you enjoyed it please
subscribe to my channel if you haven't already and thanks for watching i'll talk to you soon