How Succession made us cry for an old white sadistic scumbag billionaire

(Spoiler alert. You have been warned)

With all HBO shows leaving Hotstar this year, the streaming service lost out on a major opportunity to cash in on the Succession Season 4 bandwagon. The final season has just dropped three episodes so far and has gone on to shock audiences beyond belief (even as the Indian viewers had to resort to other “Internet sources” to watch this season now).

The Red Wedding in Game of Thrones and Hank’s death in the Breaking Bad episode Ozymandias pale in comparison to the shock value boasted by the latest Succession episode Connor’s Wedding. Given the Shakespearean theatrics of Succession, one would expect that even if the foul-mouthed billionaire Logan Roy were to die, he would have a theatrical exit. 

ALSO READ: Succession adds a modern twist to Shakespeare's King Lear

Instead, screenwriter-showrunner Jesse Armstrong and director Mark Mylod resorted to the mother of all anti-climaxes not only giving Logan an off-screen death but also not showing his corpse till the very end. From his trademark “f**k offs” to his deviously selfish tactics to secure his business empire from his power-hungry children, Logan made for quite a character study. 

More than just a parody of a rich mogul as The White Lotus and Triangle of Sadness would showcase, Logan was and will always be a curious case of human fear. No matter how vulgarly threatening he could have been with his co-workers and own children, the ageing supremo of Waystar Royco clung on to his empire till the very end. 

ALSO READ: The White Lotus Season 2 Review: Binge-worthy cocktail of sex, style, and a little substance

And with his fear coming out in raging outbursts, one doesn’t need to be a medical expert to deduce that old age and his anger issues might have taken the life out of him. Armstrong has still not revealed the cause of Logan’s death but with the shocking news of his demise and its equally shocking aftermath, it’s Mr Armstrong who is having the last laugh. 

Throughout the entirety of Succession so far, Armstrong and his staff of writers made us scorn at Logan’s villainy. And why wouldn’t we? Not only could he single-handedly overturn global politics and economics like a Rupert Mudroch or a Donald Trump stand-in but he was also quite the antithesis of a good parent. His children like the “d**k-pic” sending Roman and the drunk driver-turned-full time sadboy Kendall are no saints either but it can be argued that they are the way they are because they had a wretched father like Logan Roy. 

Just take into consideration how a denial-struck Roman thinks that the sudden death in Episode 3 is one of Logan’s twisted pranks or experiments to test his children. This is just one of the many instances that showcase the iron grip with which Logan literally “ruled” over his successors. 

ALSO READ: Succession Season 4 Episode 3 Review: Why are we mourning the reckoning of TV's worst tyrant?

Villainous lead characters aren’t new to 21st-century American television. The Sopranos kickstarted a new wave of antiheroes with James Gandolfini playing the mob boss Tony Soprano to such perfection that he was “good at being bad”. Tony himself was a product of a troubled childhood but obviously, that’s no excuse for his criminal life. The Sopranos gave way to Mad Men’s Don Draper and Breaking Bad’s Walter White, both trailblazing antiheroes in their own right. 

And while the womanising capitalist Draper had his fair share of red flags, Walter at least had a genuinely empathy-worthy backstory. His struggle from being an unknown chemistry teacher to a meth lord is quite the underdog story. So, even if he goes on to become a bad husband and an even worse mentor to Jesse, Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan still made us root for him. 

Armstrong, on the other hand, made us hate Logan’s very existence right from the start. Yes, his cleverly-written sarcastic jabs were comedic gold and his villainy reached entertainingly new levels with every episode but he hardly had any redeeming qualities. He might have been a self-made man like Draper or Walter, but we have just seen him from his uber-rich, grey-haired days. 

With Logan stooping to new lows, the audiences waited for a truly dramatic closure to his life. But a cinematic death complete with close-ups on his dying face is something that the audiences would obviously indulge in with sadistic cheer. 

And given how subversive Succession aims to be, Armstrong just pulled off a mastermind move in robbing us of entirely that! Theatre veteran Brian Cox, who has had no dearth of goosebump-inducing monologues, got some of Logan’s most terrifying moments in the first two episodes of Season 4. 

It felt more than obvious that Cox would get many more lines that would make him eat up the entire scene with a visceral hunger. Instead, Succession reminded us that death can come knocking at your door at any moment (especially if you’re old). 

In the end, Succession has been a perfect slow-cooked meal plated by Armstrong and Mylod (who interestingly also directed last year’s culinary thriller The Menu). The pilot episode itself hinted at Logan turning 60 and getting a health scare, hinting at his inevitable death. We end up savouring the episodes after it, waiting for the final kick. And when the final kick hits us, we are unable to handle the taste (and the aftertaste). A few hours after having witnessed this historical episode, I still feel that aftertaste.

Logan Roy, you were a scumbag but you will be missed. 

PS: Never use an aircraft’s washroom. You might just end up dying in the most unexpected way.