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

I took the compression socks to be Karl and Frank not wanting a DVT like Logan?

Was that the longest piss in the world Mattson was taking? 😂

WTF with Tom hitting Shiv’s ear??? I was not expecting that 😱

Shiv has totally done the boys over. Deffo pretended to take the coke, not sure about the booze tho….

The blood thing will come back again at a later date I reckon.

Yes - it was Karl and Frank’s very specific, new found fear of mile high death that made it funny.

But Tom and Shiv … Oh my. Like five year olds playing kiss chase in the playground - she calls him a name because she doesn’t know how to ‘be nice’; he pulls her pigtails just because he likes her. It was the most awkward flirting I’ve ever seen. But clearly they have their own language …

I laughed out loud at Tom pinging Shiv's ear then was immediately mad at both myself and him!
Loved the socks.
Shiv is in there with Madsun but I worry he'll jettison her??

Mattson, sorry!
And on second thoughts, he's not daft enough to get drunk and tell Shiv secrets...why did he tell her about the blood?

The frozen blood story. He’s definitely not daft enough to tell Shiv something so scandalous. And Shiv is not daft enough to think that he would. So….I’ve no idea what is going on!

This good, @GreenClock …

https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2023/04/24/succession-season-4-episode-5-review-death-wrestling-ogres/amp/

This was the best episode this season by far! 😅 Fantastic writing and acting by everyone. Mattson was awesome 🤩 Roman and Kendall (and Connor 🤣) were so true to form and like little boys playing dress-up as

Also, on a side note Alexander Skarsgard is brilliant in Big Little Lies

Mattson is just so bloody horrible. Such a massive creep. The blood story was weird, even for him!

Poor old Roman. It's all getting a bit much for him

LOVED Geri's pep talk on the plane ☺️ Love Geri full stop

Tom and Greg were even more cringe than usual in this episode 😂

Brilliant and awful

Actually … Possibly my first, tiny criticism of the season - I didn’t believe Gerri’s Viking speech. It gave the impression of being evisceratingly well written, and it was beautifully delivered - but I didn’t believe it. I didn’t believe - and now I’m thinking maybe I’m just wrong - that Gerri would harbour those exact feelings about European life. Social security, too many holidays … Really?

Obviously she must be ferociously intelligent, wily and hard headed to have maintained her position at Waystar Royco - but, even given the company’s right wing leanings, I’d never really understood her as a rabid republican.

And it was just too … perfected. I don’t think Lucy Prebble was credited as one of the main writers for Ep 5 - but it felt so theatrical; characters on stage get to deliver epic monologues as standard, screen naturalism makes such speeches less … organic.

I thought that was Gerri trying to rally the troops the way Logan would have done. They're all trying to fill the gap he has left and I suspect they were all aware that they were outmatched by Matsson, who clearly is a psycho. You can sort of even see why he didn't cut the kids a break given he found his dad after he died by suicide (and presumably at a relatively young age as well).

I do think the blood story might be true - telling Shiv may be an acknowledgement of the fact they aren't bound by the rules of civilised behaviour like the rest of us.

Succession does seem to do best when the characters are confined to one location - the boat in episode 3, the house in episode 4.

Fuck! What a pissing contest. Literally.

I felt so sorry for the Roy kids being so totally outplayed by psycho hottie Mattson. ( AS is chilling). Even their clothes are wrong next to Mattson's casual hoodie.

Kendall's poor face when hearing " You are a tribute band".
Roman goaded into losing his cool
Siobhan thinking she has outplayed everyone.

Also such brilliant lines:
Tom of Siobhan?
It's a parts job
Your shoes are too white??
The half litre of blood
Tom making fun of Sundar ( prob Pichai, Google CEO)
Turning like Peking Duck...

It is such a great piece of art. The way the acting, casting, music, fashion and script come together.

I agree, Gerri was delivering that pep talk in a kind of arch way, she knew it was a pep talk and they needed one, but didn't necessarily believe it.

The peking duck line might be my favourite in the whole four seasons of succession. So so perfect.

I felt bad for Roman. He was saying what we were all thinking but he hasn’t learned (or doesn’t care) that business isn’t about feelings. Also, the wearing of the cardigan was such a touch. Totally unremarked upon but spoke volumes about where he’s at in his head.

I immediately want to watch every episode again as soon as they finish. The indignation of those on the kill list contrasted with Frank and Karl who couldn’t care less as long as they’re getting rich, was a total treat 😆

Is the price Mattson offered the share price or $192 million/billion?

'I immediately want to watch every episode again as soon as they finish'

Me too! So many brilliant lines, whizzing towards you every second ☺️

I think from the excellent Forbes article that @MayIDestroyYou linked to above, it's $192 per share. God knows what that equates to in actual money? And btw if I were the kids I would be super wary of still holding stock (couldn't understand that, you sell the shares but get shares back in return?? So actually only selling half the shares?) - I wonder if that's how Musk 'bought' Twitter, in which case his antics causing the value of the company to plunge must be causing great dissatisfaction among the shareholders!

I have to go and read analysis of it afterwards as it's so fast!

So the boys tried to play the big dog and were outgunned but Mattson. Who also read Shiv like a book and flattered her ego by pretending to bring her inside says she's like their dad. He's made such a big offer they can't refuse it.

Loads of great touches like the compression socks!

AS is so gorgeous.

Amazing scenery. Loved the power play of him getting a helicopter off the mountain and letting them cable car down.

I think Kendall did pick up on that - said if he tanks ATN (and I actually think Kendall was right in saying Mattson doesn’t know the US news landscape and making it Bloomberg/IKEA-ing it to fuck or whatever he said 😂) will destroy it as a news contender) then they lose out as shareholders.

I thought he'd offered Shiv something at the company too.
Or does she just think she has something on him now because of the blood story? I don't think that's true – or, if it IS true, he's told her because he has a plan for how he's going to use it/her. I can't work out what that might be though.
Is Matsson's PR chief in on something with him? Perhaps they concocted the blood story between them? In hindsight, their exchang when she said if Matsson shafted her it would just all go in her book or she'd need a massive pay-off, seemed like it might have been a deliberate setpiece. Shiv gave her and Matsson a very quizzical look after she said it; does Shiv know/suspect the story is a load of old hooey?

So what happens now? Is the deal formally accepted? There's still, what, four eps to go, so there's a lot still to happen.

I think he offered her ATN.

Deal has to go to the board. There’s still Marcia and Ewan to factor in!

Excited about, not excited for. Unless you are an American

I thought the PR-in-Chief was the one he was sending the blood to?

This episode was hilarious - the contrast between all the hip young Gojo Scandis and the corporate American power suits. And Hugo looking like a turtle 🐢 rinsing the buffet. 😂