“What’s Good is to Eradicate Hope”
This week on Succession, the gang went shopping for a new president. After “the Raisin” announced his plans to step down, Waystar Royco seems to have all of the pull needed to mint the next Republican candidate. What ensues is a showcase of Succession backroom trickery and a painfully accurate depiction of the media class’ enabling of fascism.
Hugo and the Roys head down to DC to attend the “Future Freedom Summit”, a sort of buffet of conservative politicians angling for representation by the media. Greg gets called a “soyboy” by a guy with an undercut, and we are off to the races. Champion of character actors Stephen Root appears as Ron Petkus, the organizer of the Summit and sort of second fiddle to Logan. It’s unclear how much play the Roys have in the Summit, but their involvement is clearly important.
The safe bet at the outset is Vice President Boyer (Reed Birney), a “steady old plow horse”, a clean option who also wants to limit Big Tech’s reach. Of course, Logan wants Big Tech off his own ass, so he’s ready to dance with Boyer. But he seems a little too eager to court Logan, eats vegetarian, and does a “lip-licking thing”, so the Roys have their doubts.
Then we meet Senator Rick Salgado (Yul Vazquez), a slick Rubio type, willing to sell out his Latino identity (this man would laugh at the term Latinx) for a good price. He positions himself as a bit of a moderate, embracing populist economic ideals in order to bring “diverse” voters to the tent of conservatism. Ultimately, he’s just a boomer Reagan acolyte who happens to be of Cuban descent. He’s center enough for “libtard corporate observer” Shiv to get behind, and offers a quid pro quo that puts Shiv in charge of WaystarRoyco. But the rest of the Roys are left cold. For Logan, it’s likely because he isn’t white enough. But that’s just my assumption.
And then, there is Jeryd Mencken, chillingly played by Justin Kirk. A clean-cut member of the alt-right, he’s of the “owning the libs” school that Salgado so derides. He smartly approaches Roman at the bar and pitches his grim philosophy, which to Roman is just “a couple of cool guys having some disgusting fun”. Logan has started to mint Roman as a mouthpiece of sorts for the company, and it seems like Roman (and therefore ATN) is on track to get in bed with a fascist.
Meanwhile, Connor continues to pitch himself as an option. His only backup in this crusade is a “Conhead” from Oklahoma, Panhandle Pete. Willa stands near, writing her next play on her phone.
Meanwhile, back in New York, Ken and Lisa are building his depositions for the DOJ. It seems that, thanks to Waystar’s corporate slipperiness, the shredded papers don’t actually hold that information, once you factor in maritime law and crimes committed outside the DOJ’s jurisdiction.
Sanaa Lathan returns as Lisa Arthur and absolutely crushes the legal-business jargon. Kendall is trying to keep it all under control, but again, he has no idea what’s happening. After the deposition, Ken throws a temper tantrum in the hallway, accusing the DOJ of pretending “they’re on the side of justice [and] the whistleblowers”. This turns out to be all an elaborate show to “put a rocket up their asses”. Once again, Kendall really thought he did something. Also, he’s been ghosting Greg about the “burning”. How dare he.
Tom continues his spiral about going to jail, and calls Greg in the middle of the night to meet at a diner. They meet up, and Tom offers to hang Greg’s corporate malfeasance on the “Christmas Tree” of his own crimes. Greg is happy to avoid jail, and there is no quid pro quo. Tom is hopelessly devoted to Greg, willing to take the fall for him, specifically.
Shiv is incredibly bored by Mencken’s “YouTube provocateur bullshit”, so he urges her to read Plato in response. Anyone who has read Plato knows this is a non-answer! It seems that Logan is ready to make his final decision, bringing up the legitimate possibility of a Connor Roy run minted by ATN. Greg, who is in the room but has “minimiz[ed] the Greg window”, is used as a litmus test of sorts, representing the general populace. He has no interest in Connor, who gets tossed. Logan attempts a trick on Boyer, asking for a can of Coke and the firing of the Deputy Attorney General. Boyer either doesn’t get it or doesn’t want to bend to Logan’s will, so he’s out.
Mencken and Roman are hanging out in the bathroom and Roman is trying to find the good in his new golden boy. He seems to have an aesthetic obsession with fascism, declaring, “fascists are kinda cool, but not really”. Mencken’s politics are that of appropriation, willing to borrow from Franco, Travis Bickle or even “H”.
His views of race relations in this country are built off of an analogy of a garden, tended by the same kind of person for decades, newly taken over by “new guys on a truck playing their boombox”. He wants a slow integration of non-whites into the country, for us to “take a beat” before officially letting go of a white ethno-state. Horrifying. But Roman sees Mencken as having rockstar “box office” appeal, and then Mencken delivers (and opens) Logan’s Coke. Who needs the other more? ATN or Mencken?
ATN is old-guard corporate media, and Mencken represents something new and fresh and terrifying. But Mencken could also use some legitimizing. Sound familiar?
Kendall calls Tom in the middle of the hotel-room summit, and asks to meet him. They meet at the same diner that Tom met Greg at, as Kendall attempts to get Tom over to his side by protecting him. Tom is resigned to his fate, but tells Kendall he is staying out of fealty to the family, and especially Shiv. Ken speculates that Shiv will not be waiting around for Tom after he gets out, and Tom chillingly informs Kendall, “you’re going to get fucked. Because I’ve seen you get fucked a lot and I’ve never seen Logan get fucked. Once.” This exchange leans into the true fear of Logan that all in the family have. Tom is just the only one to talk about it. Logan’s power is immense and immovable. As Tom leaves, Kendall takes pictures of him in a half-baked attempt at blackmail.
When Tom returns to the hotel, he sees Greg being hoisted on the shoulders of the assembled fascists. A picture is truly worth a thousand words! The next morning, Logan has officially embraced Mencken. Shiv refuses to take a family picture with the candidate, and Logan turns threatening once again. Will this be what it takes for Shiv to finally jump ship? Probably not, but if she and Tom had a single meaningful conversation, you would think that they would join Kendall.
It seems like Roman’s strategy of building a “deep state conspiracy hour but with a fucking wink” for Mencken is working. ATN gasps for relevance, and Mencken is an attempt at shaking that up. Of course, Roman is not and has never been actually politically engaged. After all, his biggest hit at Waystar Studios was something called Dr. Honk.
I don’t think he is fully cognizant of how dangerous giving a literal fascist like Mencken an inch will be. But that’s how it happens!!!!! The slope is slippery.
So much great stuff in this episode. Fantastic scheming dialogue, some great scenes of rich dicks talking in rooms, and so much color for the characters! Kendall’s “Weimar meets Carthage meets Dante meets AI and antibiotic superbugs”-themed birthday party (next week)! Caroline’s wedding to Peter Munion (“the seat sniffer!?”) that no one in the family seems to know about! Greg’s Adidas tracksuit!
The infighting is so powerful. Shiv technically knows what she’s talking about politically, but Logan and Roman have no faith in her because of her perceived failure. Her vote should count for more as she insists, but it doesn’t. She correctly diagnoses Roman as a “dirty little pixie whispering swastikas in Dad’s ears”, but Logan has no moral hangups about dipping a toe (or foot) into fascism.
Logan’s boys-clubbiness continues to manifest itself in weird ways, showing Roman but not Shiv a meme and passive-aggressively including Greg in the candidate-minting. He is literally impossible to predict, and his decision-making skills are deteriorating. Or maybe he’s always made bad decisions, but was always rich enough to cover his own ass. Also, he’s probably fucking his assistant Kerry. Good for him, I guess!
The weaving of characters and plotlines in this episode was just fantastic. Kudos to Will Tracy (former editor of The Onion and writer for John Oliver) for perfectly distilling what makes the show work so well, as well as capturing the dark heart of the machinery of current-day conservatism.
Next week’s episode will be thrilling. Kendall’s birthday party looks like a Lorde song come to life.
