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"Connor's Wedding"
Succession episode
Episode no.Season 4
Episode 3
Directed byMark Mylod
Written byJesse Armstrong
Original air dateApril 9, 2023 (2023-04-09)
Running time62 minutes
Guest appearances
Episode chronology
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"Connor's Wedding" is the third episode of the fourth season of the HBO satirical comedy-drama television series Succession, and the 32nd episode overall. It was written by series creator Jesse Armstrong and directed by Mark Mylod, and aired on April 9, 2023.

The episode, taking place primarily at Connor and Willa's wedding, follows the Roy children and Waystar's senior executives as they react to the evolving news of a grave health crisis faced by Logan.

"Connor's Wedding" received unanimous critical acclaim, with many calling it the best and most shocking episode of the series, as well as one of the greatest episodes in television history.

Plot

En route to Connor's wedding, which is taking place aboard a yacht traveling New York Harbor, Roman receives a call from Logan, who is about to board a plane with most of the Waystar management (minus Gerri and Hugo) to Sweden to meet with Matsson - despite having told Connor he would attend the wedding. Logan tells Roman that Gerri is to be fired for mishandling the fallout from the cruises scandal[a] as soon as he returns, and gives him the unsavory task of informing her. Before boarding the plane, Logan tells Tom that Cyd will be fired as well.

On arrival at the yacht, Roman reluctantly gives Gerri the news, and she responds with muted anger. Roman then calls Logan to inform him and, when the phone goes to voicemail, proceeds to leave an angry, expletive-laden message expressing his frustration with his father for manipulating him and using him as a pawn. Kendall and Shiv arrive soon after; the brothers task Shiv with telling Connor that Logan will not be attending the wedding. While Shiv is away, Roman gets a call from Tom saying Logan is gravely ill and is currently receiving chest compressions on the plane, having presumably suffered a massive heart attack. Tom places his phone by Logan's ear to give the panicked brothers a chance to say goodbye to their dying father. Kendall brings Shiv into the room and Roman tells them that Logan's heart has stopped and he is not breathing. Shiv immediately breaks down crying, but Roman tells her to speak to Logan in case he can still hear her, and she begs him not to die. Kendall calls Frank, who tells him he believes Logan has died.

Meanwhile, onboard the plane, the senior executives begin to go through the timeline for Logan's passing, knowing that news of his death will have serious effects on the market. Tom privately calls Greg to relay the news, and orders him to discreetly delete all electronic items pertaining to the planned firings of Cyd and Gerri. Tom stresses to Greg the importance of keeping the news secret until the markets close, but asks to make it known when the time comes that he was by Logan's side when he died. He admits to Greg that he is "not okay" and sheds tears after hanging up with him.

As the realization that their father will not survive begins to sink in, the siblings go to inform Connor, who is emotionally numbed to the news and goes to see Willa to discuss calling off the wedding. Hugo and Gerri are briefed on the situation; Hugo informs the grieving siblings that a statement on Logan's passing is being drafted by Karolina, but the siblings cannot agree on whether this is a good idea. Kendall asserts that their next actions must be unimpeachable, because what they do on that day will form part of an historic narrative, and that their "freedom of movement" must be preserved. The siblings decide they will be the ones to issue a statement ahead of the board meeting the next day, during which the future of the company's leadership will be decided.

Connor and Willa ultimately decide to go ahead with their wedding, with only a handful of guests present. The siblings leave the boat and are flown out to Teterboro Airport, where the plane lands and Logan is pronounced dead on arrival. A swarm of press is present; Shiv reads to them the siblings' statement on Logan's death and adds that she and her brothers plan to "be there" as the company moves forward. Roman sees that Waystar's stock price has already plummeted. He goes to bid farewell to his father while Shiv leaves with Tom; Kendall watches from afar as the paramedics load Logan's body into an ambulance, fighting back tears.

Production

Brian Cox made his final regular appearance as Logan Roy in the episode.

"Connor's Wedding" was written by Succession creator and showrunner Jesse Armstrong and directed by Mark Mylod in his fourteenth episode for the series.

Writing

"Connor's Wedding" features the death of Logan Roy, an event alluded to since the beginning of the series; Armstrong felt there was a "promise in the title" of the series that Logan's life as character was finite, and that someone would have to succeed him.[1] Armstrong initially planned to kill off the character in the first season itself, before reversing course and writing the rest of the series around the drama between Logan and his children.[2]

In killing off Logan early in the final season, Armstrong first raised the idea to Mylod as early as pre-production for the third season.[3] Armstrong was keen not to place Logan's death at the end of the season, stressing the importance of depicting "how the death of someone significant rebounds around a family".[4] Mylod felt that placing Logan's death at an unexpected point in the season created "great drama out of mundanity - you know, the inconvenience of it all."[3] Armstrong was furthermore intent on portraying Logan's death off-screen, intending to "capture a feeling of death that people experience in the modern era, of separation of communication over phone and email".[4] He elaborated that "people can be a bit adrift if you are in a different physical space from the drama of whatever is unfolding."[5]

Actor Brian Cox was pleased with Armstrong's decision to kill off Logan - and end the series - after four seasons, stating, "the problem with a lot of television, particularly American television, is it goes past its sell-by date."[6] Cox was informed of his character's death by Armstrong prior to the start of production on the fourth season;[7] Armstrong admitted to feeling regret over "the slightly personal feeling of [Cox] not being there all through the journey."[5] Mylod revealed that the series filmed "dummy" scenes with Cox in later episodes as a misdirection in order to maintain secrecy about Logan's death.[3]

Filming

The majority of the episode was filmed onboard a yacht overlooking New York Harbor; Mylod and Armstrong wanted the episode to be set in an area where it would be difficult for the characters to communicate,[2] and Mylod felt the boat and its location were symbolic of the characters' emotional circumstances. He stated: "On the one hand, you have all the freedom of the water and the harbor and the great adventure of New York City out beyond. But at the same time, these characters are trapped in this little glass cage, in this VIP room, trapped in their grief and in their frustration of not being able to get the knowledge or comfort they seek. That, to me, was the perfect visual juxtaposition."[8]

For the sequence of the siblings learning of Logan's death, a 28-minute long take was filmed, though not presented that way in the episode.[4] Since the series is shot on 35 mm film, whose reels only last ten minutes, extensive preparation had to be performed in order to accomplish the unbroken take. According to Mylod, camera operators concealed camera magazines across the set, and kept a third camera body behind a door, to ensure that at least one camera was always running and the other camera was running to be quickly re-loaded. Mylod described the process as "an extraordinary ballet between the cast and the camera crew".[3] Macfadyen, meanwhile, called in from London to perform Tom's lines to the siblings over the phone, while his scenes as Tom inside the private company jet were filmed on a soundstage. For the shot depicting an unconscious Logan receiving chest compressions, a stunt double was used, with Cox's head digitally composited over the shot in post-production.[3]

Mylod revealed that the scene of the siblings hugging each other at the end of the episode was unscripted.[3]

Reception

Ratings

Across all platforms, the episode was watched by 2.5 million viewers upon airing, making it the series' most-watched episode to date. The title was previously held by the season four premiere, "The Munsters".[9]

Critical reception

The performances of Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook and Kieran Culkin were widely acclaimed by critics.

"Connor's Wedding" was universally acclaimed, with critics praising the performances of the central cast, Armstrong's script, Mylod's direction, and the series' surprise decision to kill off Logan early in the final season. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an approval rating of 100% based on 19 reviews. The website's critical consensus states, "The King is dead. Long live Succession."[10] "Connor's Wedding" also acheived a perfect score of 10.0/10 on IMDb, making it only the second television episode in history to receive such a score after Breaking Bad's "Ozymandias".[11] It has since maintained the score after over 10,000 votes.

William Hughes of The A.V. Club gave the episode an A, calling it "the payoff to four entire seasons of Succession". He commended Mylod and Armstrong for "allow[ing] the middle of this entire episode to devolve into [a] mix of confusion, interspersed with moments of awful, crystal clarity". He also reserved high praise for the performances of Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook and Kieran Culkin for "each giving portrayals of worlds now profoundly unmoored", singling out Culkin's as the "hardest-hitting".[12] Scott Tobias of Vulture gave the episode 5 stars out 5, calling Culkin "particularly devastating" and praising his characterization in the episode for "quietly [turning] Roman into [a] James Dean in East of Eden type, adding layers of melancholy and self-loathing to the expected arsenal of nasty put-downs and 'quirky sits.'"[13] Noel Murray of The New York Times praised the "absolutely harrowing" and "nerve-racking" middle sequence depicting the siblings reacting to Logan's death, and noted how the episode managed to include moments of dark comedy despite its dour tone. Murray further lauded Alan Ruck's performance for "wringing pathos from Connor's realization that neither the American voters nor his family really care about him", praising the "uncommonly touching" scene between he and Willa.[14]

Sophie Gilbert of The Atlantic, who felt the series' "cyclical" premise had grown rigid in the previous season,[15][16] applauded the series' decision to finally kill off Logan, feeling it allowed Succession to function "in a new mode, without Logan’s contaminating physical presence."[17] Several critics praised Armstrong's decision to depict Logan's death off-camera.[12][13][18][19] Gilbert felt it reaffirmed the character's humanity after several seasons establishing him as a larger-than-life presence, and called Strong, Snook and Culkin "extraodinary" in portraying the siblings' "chaotic shock".[17] Judy Berman of Time wrote of Logan's death, "It’s a fitting demise, because it captures the whole point of Logan as a character: he makes monstrous decisions from on high and then leaves everyone around him to cope with the consequences." Berman felt the episode "excels in detailing how each of the show’s true main characters receive and react to the news", and praised the "emotional turmoil" conveyed by Strong, Culkin and Snook throughout the episode.[18]

Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone described "Connor's Wedding" as "an episode that TV historians will be analyzing and praising for a long, long time." Sepinwall praised Strong, Culkin, and Matthew Macfadyen for the "affecting" scene where Kendall and Roman first hear the news of Logan's ill health from Tom, while naming Shiv's reaction the episode's "most devastating and powerful moment", writing "it is extraordinary to watch Sarah Snook hold nothing back on that phone call scene." Sepinwall felt the episode lived up to the series' inherent promise of Logan's eventual death, writing, "Armstrong and company made sure the episode was able to meet the moment, in part by demonstrating how the Roy kids were not able to do the same."[20]

Notes

  1. ^ As depicted in "Too Much Birthday" and "Chiantishire".

References

  1. ^ "The End of "Succession" Is Near". The New Yorker. February 24, 2023. Archived from the original on February 24, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  2. ^ a b Seitz, Matt Zoller (April 10, 2023). "'It Needed to Be an Unbroken Performance'". Vulture. Archived from the original on April 10, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Aurthur, Kate (April 10, 2023). "'Succession' Director Mark Mylod on How Long That Death Was in the Works and How Episode 3 Almost Ended". Archived from the original on April 11, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  4. ^ a b c "Succession | Inside the Episode: Season 4, Episode 3 | HBO Max". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2023-04-11. Retrieved 2023-04-11.
  5. ^ a b https://archive.fo/hjU1r
  6. ^ Considine, Austin (April 10, 2023). "How Brian Cox Felt About That Big Episode 3 Twist in 'Succession'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 10, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  7. ^ McHenry, Jackson (April 9, 2023). "Brian Cox Is Happy You Know That About Logan Roy Now". Vulture. Archived from the original on April 10, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  8. ^ Shachat, Sarah (April 10, 2023). "How 'Succession' Trapped the Roy Family in a 'VIP Room' of Grief in Episode 3". Archived from the original on April 11, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  9. ^ Hailu, Selome (April 10, 2023). "'Succession' Reaches Series High of 2.5 Million Viewers With Shocking Episode 3". Archived from the original on April 10, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  10. ^ "Succession: Season 4, Episode 3". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  11. ^ "TV Episode, Rating Count at least 1,000 (Sorted by IMDb Rating Descending)". IMDb. Archived from the original on 2023-01-02. Retrieved 2023-04-11.
  12. ^ a b "Succession recap: The world ends". The A.V. Club. April 10, 2023. Archived from the original on April 10, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  13. ^ a b Tobias, Scott (April 9, 2023). "'Succession' Recap: Heavily Fuckin' Delayed". Vulture. Archived from the original on April 10, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  14. ^ Murray, Noel (April 10, 2023). "'Succession' Season 4, Episode 3 Recap: Long Live the King". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 10, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  15. ^ Gilbert, Sophie (October 15, 2021). "The Best Show on TV Is Stuck". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on November 22, 2021. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  16. ^ Gilbert, Sophie (December 13, 2021). "A Perfect—And Cyclical—'Succession' Finale". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on April 1, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  17. ^ a b https://archive.fo/5esVz
  18. ^ a b https://archive.fo/W6fXe
  19. ^ Travers, Ben (April 10, 2023). "'Succession' Review: Episode 3 Changes the Game with a Shocking, Brilliant Twist — Spoilers". Archived from the original on April 10, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
  20. ^ Sepinwall, Alan (April 10, 2023). "'Succession' Season 4 Shocks Audiences, Dropping Its Biggest Bomb Yet". Archived from the original on April 10, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
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