Succession “Mass In Time Of War”

The fate of Waystar continues to hang in the balance, but that’s every episode of this series if you think about it.

Much of this episode focuses on Kendall meeting with his three siblings, proposing they all work together to overthrow Logan.  That each of his siblings seemed to show up independently of each other is irrelevant as Logan frets over his position and how much power Kendall can amass to hurt the old man.

So, this time around, I want to focus on doing the right thing and what that means on Succession.  This is the thought that occurred to me when Cousin Greg openly worried that he was doing the right thing.  Sure, Kendall says he’ll take care of Greg, but Greg’s biggest worry is that he’ll be dragged before Congress or go to jail or something.  Plus, Kendall doesn’t exactly have a good track record of taking care of people.

But does anyone on this show really know how to do the right thing?  Greg wants to, and of the various members of the family, he may be the one who most likely means it, but he’s still kind of a hapless idiot, so it may not count for much.  Instead, he goes to his grandpa for help, and that means the return of Ewan, my favorite Roy.

Now, what does the right thing mean to these characters?  To Logan, it seems like being in the right doesn’t matter so much as his having a public image of doing the right thing.  Has he ever done the right thing?  If he has, it’s been by accident, and that sure seems apparent when Marcia shows up and he has to buy her off to maintain a public appearance.

What about Kendall?  Well, not really.  His pitch to his siblings is full of meaningless buzz words, and if any of them are even tempted to go along with his plans, the fact he proposes to put himself (at least on paper) as the CEO puts an end to that.  Plus, Logan sends a box of donuts that may or may not have been poisoned.  And even if Kendall was trying to be nice and make up with the three of them, he lashes out at each one in turn.  He could have at least have let Connor have a donut if he was so concerned after all…

Then again, Kendall would probably screw it up if he did get Shiv and Roman on board, but he isn’t wrong that Logan would at least turn on his three sons if the mood suited him.  Shiv is something of a wildcard as far as that goes.

But what about Ewan?  Does he do right?  He’s a cold and distant figure to Greg even at his best, and he does get Greg an attorney, one who promises to keep Greg out of jail and possibly still employed.  However, this guy also wants to use this case to strike back at the capitalist system.  So…Ewan is using Greg to suit his own purposes?  That’s a real Roy thing to do.  Ewan isn’t that much different from Logan as he lets on.

So, is anyone here doing the right thing?  I have no idea, but then again, I don’t think they do either.