“Connor’s Wedding” Is an Instant Classic

Spoilers for Succession ahead.

Logan Roy is dead.

Rather than attend the event that gave this episode, “Connor’s Wedding,” its name, Logan Roy, played ferociously by Brian Cox, instead chose to fly to Sweden to broker the sale of his company. It was a classic Succession move that resulted in a Succession shocker: While on the plane, Logan suffered what might have been a heart attack and could not be revived, even after a half hour of chest compressions performed by the emergency-trained flight crew while his executive team looked on and his children struggled to find final words to give him over speakerphone.

And thus the entire landscape of a beloved HBO series underwent a mind-boggling shift three episodes into the fourth and final season.

Written by series creator Jesse Armstrong, the episode brilliantly defied all expectations in large part by keeping Logan and his demise largely off screen. Brian Cox only appears in the cold open, which is intentionally, sneakily pedestrian considering what’s about to happen immediately after the credits. Logan, overflowing with his usual bluster, is focused on the business at hand, as moves to reinvigorate ATN: “Clean out the stalls, strategic refocus, a bit more fucking aggressive!” he announces, having just ordered the firing of longtime top Waystar Royco execs Gerri and  head of ATN Cyd Peach.

That’s the last we hear of him, fittingly ruthless and profane, making moves that will strengthen him and no one else. And then he dies, with little ceremony, and everyone around him turns to the new business at hand: advancing their agendas in a post-Logan world.

Tom Wambsgans calls Logan’s children from the plane as a flight attendant performs chest compressions. After his soon-to-be ex-wife Shiv ignores multiple calls, he finally reaches the Roman. Perturbed  after axing Gerri on his dad’s orders, Romulus has just gotten off the phone, having left his father one last voicemail, which he closed with, “Are you a cunt? Give me a buzz.”

Story continues

As Logan’s children each grapple with the news in their own way and deliver their farewells to their dad, who probably can’t hear them, Armstrong creates a symphony of conflicting emotions. Roman is a ball of denial, refusing to believe Logan is actually dead. Sorrow and regret spreads all over Kendall’s face. He will not absolve his father, but he will tell him he loves him. “I can’t forgive you,” he says, stuttering. “But it’s okay and I love you.” When Shiv finally makes it to the phone, she crumbles and calls him “daddy.”

And Connor? Well, the other kids wait a few beats before telling Connor, who is supposed to be getting married, and whose immediate reaction is shockingly honest. “He never even liked me,” Connor says before quickly taking it back and saying that he never got the chance to make his dad proud. It’s a stunning, almost endless sequence, which director Mark Mylod has revealed was largely filmed in one, near-30 minute continuous take.

But in true Succession form, the sorrow morphs into something a little more craven. On the plane, Tom and the rest of the Waystar staffers, led by the industrious head of PR Karolina, start crafting a plan of action for communicating Logan’s death even before he is officially dead. Once news of this trickles down to the kids, they realize that for all of their mixed emotions, they have to—or want to—start thinking strategically about their roles in the company’s future.

Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, and Kieran Culkin in tonight’s shocking episode of *Succession*.

Courtesy of HBO.

“Connor’s Wedding,” is darkly funny at times, but it’s also often deeply upsetting. In each of the children’s reactions—and the fabulous performances from Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin, and Alan Ruck—you can see the trauma Logan imposed on them. There is love there in their goodbyes, but also evidence of decades of manipulation, which will follow them as they both mourn and make their power grabs.

Logan’s death also makes the the previous episode’s ending—the first and last scene Logan and the kids shared this season, and in series chronology, their first time seeing each other in at least three months—all the more brutal. The Roy brood’s last real moment with their father (save for Roman) was one where they met his attempts to reconcile with an understandable disbelief, and took pleasure in backing him into a corner, holding the fate of Waystar’s sale at their mercy. Logan’s last words to his children were: “I love you, but you are not serious people.”

Let’s take a moment here, though, to appreciate one beautiful thing about “Connor’s Wedding”: It actually happens. We get a glimpse of Connor and Willa embracing after exchanging their vows in front of the handful of folks left behind—not, notably, any immediate family or Waystar execs—after the event is officially canceled. And we know it’s real, because Connor and Willa have had a true heart-to-heart, like they have perhaps never had, and seemingly no one among Logan’s family has maybe ever had, either. She admits that his money and stability do mean something to her, and she also promises not to walk away, at least not yet, as they both dissolve into giggles.

The specter of Logan’s death has hovered over the series since the pilot—which ended with him being rushed to the hospital, and not fully recovering for the next five episodes. His health problems had since faded into the background, with Armstrong and Cox cleverly making him seem stronger than ever in these first two episodes of season four.

Why kill him off so early in what we now know is the final season? Well, now Armstrong and his writers have seven episodes to play out the aftermath and fulfill the promise of the show’s title: Tell us who will succeed Logan Roy for control of his empire. As long as Logan was breathing, he wasn’t going to let one of his descendants—or one of his sycophantic employees—run Waystar. Now that he’s dead, someone will succeed—or maybe they will all fail trying.

One thing is certain: Logan’s death will probably be remembered as one of the all-time great television episodes, a Big Moment that stayed true to Succession’s gallows humor while also excavating the pain at the hearts of these miserable people. RIP, you old bastard.

Originally Appeared on GQ