Anyone excited for the final season of Succession? *Spoiler alert*

The company can still be sold to Matsson. In fact I'd imagine it will be, or at least that he will try to buy it; he's in the midseason trailer, anyway. He might try for a hostile takeover; if the share price remains low, presumably he'd be able to buy it quite cheaply? So the siblings wouldn't walk away with much (by their standards).

Yep I realise the deal is still on (cue scenes of fabulous Nordic scenery in the trailer, although it would be a very spooky trip across the Atlantic in that plane). This was just in reference to @TanyaandGreg wishing this season had started with the Matsson deal already done, but wondering if it had been, would that remove the central conflict of this season, i.e. who gets to head up Waystar now. Who succeeds.

I'd expect Matsson to want to reduce the price and put ATN back into the deal. I would think the kids will want not to sell (as they didn't at the wedding until betrayed by their mother) and the old guard wanting to sell so they can cash out. Tom trying to play both sides against the middle as usual.

Oh, I see! So basically two dramas going on: do they or do they not sell, and who, if they end up not selling, succeeds...

And what happens to Logan’s share of the vote, etc now, and how that sways things. Most of the business stuff has gone over my head previously to be honest, I’m just here for the quips!

I don't think the business stuff is really the point of the show, @slamfightbrightlight . It's more like the backdrop to the conflict between the characters, their rivalries and their greed.

Whoever inherits Logan's share of the business becomes a very major player all of a sudden. You'd expect it to be divided equally between the four kids, but the trailer doesn't suggest it's that straightforward. It could be Marcia and she's been kept out of the trailer on purpose. It could be Kerri and the kids try to challenge it legally.

I'd love Marcia to come back. I asked this earlier; sorry to bang on, but it's puzzling me – what happened with her and Logan? I thought she was negotiating a divorce last season, but then I read an article saying she decided to stay with him. But then in an earlier ep this season (Logan's birthday, I think), Kerri or someone says she's 'gone shopping in Milan for ever'.

I rewatched today on my commute. My favourite bit is when Connor joins them at the top of the boat and just sobs 'what happened' and then Roman hugs him and that whole scene is just magical. Also Roman hugging Shiv just after she gets off the phone 'by his ear' - he would be such a great guy if he hadn't been spoiled by the money.

Kerry definitely said Marcia was shopping in Milan 'forever', presumably meaning she and Logan were separated. I've looked at various recaps for Episode 2 of Season 3, where she was negotiating with Logan (like this one) and it's sometimes described as a divorce negotiation and other times not. I think it wasn't, it was a deal not to leave Logan in return for a fat wodge of cash and definitely some kind of preferment for her son. If Marcia doesn't return they've surely got to make some reference to her, either that she's there but off screen or has refused to come back because she was cut out of the will or some such.

I had a look for a transcript of episode 2 and she said "for my return to be public, I will need my role on the trust finalized, Amir's prospects assured, my daughter taken care of, and improvements in my financial position." Her lawyer then refers to "very, very large numbers".

Thank you! Interesting. I wonder if Logan would have/could have changed the arrangements Marcia had negotiated for, in favour of Kerry, who was so recently on the scene and always looked like she’d be a flash in the pan even before he died.
Then again, there was that stuff about Logan when he’d started sleeping with Kerry drinking smoothies with whatever fertility-boosting substance in them, and this being Succession you have to assume that, like Chekhov’s gun, it wasn’t incidental.

Did you see this today?😃😃https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/rupert-murdoch-jerry-hall-divorce-ann-lesley-smith-succession-b1073699.html

That’s brilliant - and suggests some former partners might have been spilling the beans?

Jesse Armstrong has said he took some of the inspiration for Shiv giving the statement from Ghislane Maxwell’s statement after her father died.

I can't believe Murdoch would give Succession the free publicity, so suspect the clause was much more general and was a 'gag clause' on discussing their marriage or the Murdoch family with any form of media, or writing a memoir or similar. To be honest I suspect that kind of NDA was in their pre-nup - and thinking about it, Connor should probably have put that in his with Willa! (And Shiv with Tom?).

I wonder if there will be a massive reveal now about the true state of Waystar Royco, with financial and sex scandals uncovered. The media would be on an en masse deep dive!

Yes, I wondered similar @IClaudine , in line with the Maxwell death as @slamfightbrightlight mentioned. The house of cards fell apart when Maxwell drowned, loans were called in and the whole thing collapsed. I was trying to remember when it was that Waystar had a 3 billion dollar loan but that was back in season 1 when Logan was first ill, I'm assuming things aren't going to fall apart that spectacularly; Matsson does mention he is basically raiding the company for parts the way you would a car that's knackered but I think that's because the company is wounded from the scandals already.

You do have to wonder if any employees are going to start talking now that Logan isn't around to terrify them into silence.

Can anyone remind me why Logan split up with Marcia (who I thought seemed like a reasonably good egg)?

I think because he was messing about with the Holly Hunter character (Rhea?).

Aah yes. That’s right - but there was no big showdown. She just seemed to drift off.

did anyone else think that it seemed a bit fake to start with, Tom calling about Logan being “very sick”. He seemed so calm
about it and it was an odd way to tell the siblings that their father was dying. I thought it was some sort of hoax to start with…

'He seemed so calm
about it and it was an odd way to tell the siblings that their father was dying. I thought it was some sort of hoax to start with…'

Totally. I was sure it was some kind of sick joke or test. There was no warning whatsoever, apart from Logan being in his 80s! It was so brilliantly done - that's how it goes, everything is fine and normal until suddenly it isnt

I guess we will never see what happened on the plane prior to the phone call. We know that Kerry apparently spoke to Logan first 'quite a bit' (not sure where Shiv heard that) so he may have been initially conscious. Tom had already called Shiv several times before Roman eventually picked up, so at the point he started calling Logan could have appeared ill and not effectively dead. You wouldn't call someone and tell them their father had died unless you were completely sure that he was dead (and they were all pretty hesitant to say it before the flight crew called it and stopped compressions).

It was Karl's idea for Tom to call, I think he says 'in case it's the last chance' which is when Kendall and Roman really start freaking out.

They were all in shock on the plane, and I would guess also freaked out about being up in the air in a fairly confined space, not wanting anyone to panic.

What was really odd were the Greglets at the back of the plane, they didn't seem to know what was going on at all.

'I guess we will never see what happened on the plane prior to the phone call.'

Shiv asked Tom to join her in the car at the end of the episode and said something like 'so tell me again what happened...'. I reckon she's planning to grill the hell out of him so she knows who to blame. They're all so angry and vindictive, as well as heartbroken, I think there will have to be finger pointing and some kind of vengeance, even as a grief displacement activity

Nah … Shiv called to Tom at the end because she wanted to go home with him. Google suggests ‘hysterical bonding’ is something that happens specifically after infidelity - but it’s a natural reaction to any stressful event, or after a period of separation. She just suddenly needed to be with her husband - we could see that when they hugged.

(IMVHO!)

Tom was brilliant wasn’t he (the character). Really showed his mettle there - kind, calm, thinking quickly, giving the bad news firmly but without room for misinterpretation….. I wouldn’t have thought that would be in his skill set.

I know a popular theory is that Kerry is pregnant but would that really change anything? The baby might be entitled to money but I don’t seem that it would have any affect on control of Waystar, which is what it’s all about really.

Not that the Roys are the Murdochs of course but there was a dispute over how Murdoch's (much) younger children with Wendy Deng could eventually inherit a share of the business, voting stock being the main issue (some details here). So they could tap into that story but Deng was a wife, not a mistress, the children in question are now young adults - it doesn't feel like there's really time left for Succession to develop that plot.