Succession “Retired Janitors Of Idaho”

Unlike some of the Geeks around here, I don’t mind spoilers quite so much.  With something like Succession, as big a hit as it is, it would be very difficult to avoid ’em.  As a result, I am well aware how season three ends.  I’m more inclined to mostly see how such endings are foreshadowed anyway.

Point is, I am enjoying the ride even knowing how it ends.

Take this episode, where the shareholders meeting finally happens, where the Bear Hug thing is finally resolved, and where Kendall makes an ass out of himself.  That last one is at least every other episode of Succession anyway.  However, things are resolved in a way that doesn’t actually change anything.  The people in charge are still in charge, and the forces working against each other are still going to.  If anything, it looks like Kendall only needed one episode to kill the family rabbit.

However, this is an episode that showed old men in charge.  That includes Ewan, a man who finally made good on his promise to cut Cousin Greg out of the will for Greg’s general wishy-washiness.  All that means is if anyone thought Greg might be the good one, he’s thinking about suing Greenpeace by episode’s end.

Like I said, this is really about two old men going at it.  That would be Sandy and Logan.  Sandy is wheelchair-bound, talking only through his daughter Sandi in a manner that, yes, does make it seem as if Sandi might actually be doing all the talking herself.  Sandy wants things that Logan is never going to be willing to give up, and one of those (veto power on who succeeds Logan) is something Shiv and Roman aren’t going for either.  Sandy also demands Logan give up the corporate jets for the family.

Wait, as rich as those people are, they can’t just get personal jets?  They have to be owned by Waystar?  I am sure there’s some tax-related reason for it, but for the life of me, that’s what I thought when that one came up.

Oh, and Stewy was quite certain Sandy was really making these demands as he creatively refers to Sandy as the world’s angriest vegetable.  That might have been the episode’s highlight, right up there with Roman being reminded not to swear at the president and Connor actually asking for a job with the company in a manner that suggests he thinks he might be able to dictate terms.

So, Logan should be able to deal with this?  Well, he can’t.  He has a urinary tract infection, and it is affecting his mind.  He thinks Kendall is Frank, Shiv is Marcia (and that didn’t go well for her the first time he thought that), and Tom is one of his sons.  He’s babbling.  He thinks there’s a dead cat under his chair.  Roman has to talk to an angry President because he’s still coherent enough to do so while being someone the President at least likes somewhere in the general neighborhood of Logan.

Connor keeps volunteering to talk to the president.  He is ignored, and rightfully so.

The deal, giving extra board seats to Sandi and presumably Shiv, is worked out by the two daughters.  Sandy, allegedly, likes it, and Logan is too out of it to object until it’s too late.  But, bottom line, it’s all about how some old men with personal grudges against each other really control all the money.

Now, if the younger characters can figure that out, then they might be in business.