In case it had not been clear, we warn that the topic contains substantial spoilers about the fourth season of Succession. And is that the HBO Max series has reached its climax with 4×03, the chapter entitled Connor’s wedding in which, beyond a wedding, a very long-awaited death is celebrated.
That’s right, after four seasons of waiting, finally comes the moment that was announced since the teasers of Succession: the death of Logan Roy. The fiction is about how Roy’s children, good kids who have always had everything, inherit his company and how they manage it. But so far we have not reached the most awaited moment, when they finally have to decide what will happen after the death of the father.
Succession pulls off a Game of Thrones
The episode begins with the obvious, with what the very title of the series announces: a wedding. Connor and Willa get married, and they do it in style. Husband and wife rent a boat to perform a very flashy ceremony, since Connor is doing so well in the polls. And there’s the whole family; celebrating the wedding each in their own way, from doing business to firing people and/or communicating, as in Gerri’s case.
But before the ship has even set sail, the first hints of what is about to happen are already emerging. Shiv keeps getting calls from Tom, but rejects them again and again, until finally Tom calls Roman, and communicates what no one and everyone expected at once. “Your father is very sick”, he tells him. “Very, very sick”. At the worst possible moment, the long-awaited death arrives.
This is not the first time that a wedding signifies death in Succession. It is a usual resource for fiction, since by its very caliber it seeks to relate the moments of death with those of greater hope, and it is something that inevitably takes us to the Red Wedding of Game of Thrones. Well, although there was no massacre here, without a doubt what happened is on a par with George R.R. Martin’s series.
With a very interesting exercise in staging, the chapter takes us to the point of view of the children. We see small glimpses of Logan Roy’s almost inert body, but we travel to his descendants, to find out at the same time as all of them what is happening. We live, therefore, their own journeys, and we are surprised both by what they communicate to them and how they act.
The most virtuous decision of the episode comes with a scene of 28 pages of script, no more and no less, which was shot without pauses in the shooting: it was all in a row and the result is spectacular. Despite not being a sequence shot, as it has editing, it is a great scene shot with three cameras that even changed between them to change film rolls, since it is recorded in analog (35mm). Undoubtedly, it is clear that they wanted to take advantage of the most expected death of the series to show their virtuosity.
The scene begins when Roman receives the first call from Tom, in which he tells him that his father is not well and is very sick. At this point, we start to see the reactions of each of the characters: Kendall says she can’t forgive him but loves him anyway, Roman doesn’t know how to act, Shiv comes off as a scared little girl, and Connor has the damn responsibility to stop or go through with the wedding.
The resolution of the episode is a marvel, and makes it clear why Succession is the hottest series and one of the most lauded of recent times across the streaming platform landscape. Only three episodes into the fourth season and we already have the best of the year; much will have to improve the following ones to surpass it.
In addition, finally comes the plot twist that everyone has been waiting for a long time: the death of the father that leaves the children orphaned and with many decisions to make. For which side will the scales tip now? Will a nice alliance that leaves well the memory of the father arrive? It is not clear, although we still have half a season to find out.
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