Succession doesn’t try to hide that Kendall, Roman, and Shiv are all fighting for Daddy’s (that’s Logan) love. Often compared to King Lear, Succession takes the inverse and makes the children fight for their father’s love after he refuses to step down.
In this final season, we’re going to take a look at each episode and see whose actions make them Daddy’s Favorite of the week. In the first episode of the season, “The Munsters” gives us an immediate answer to who Logan has in his circle to confide in.
Daddy's Favorite: Colin
When Logan (Brian Cox) needs a break from the overwhelming loneliness of his birthday, he gets some air with his trusted bodyguard, Colin (Scott Nicholson) right behind him, as always. Quietly imposing, sure, Colin is an employee paid to protect Daddy, but in a type of scene we are seeing the first time, it’s not hard to imagine that Logan has had these conversations with his physical shadow. And I mean, when Daddy says “You’re my best pal”, I have to treat it as law. So, Colin, you are Daddy’s number one boy! Congrats!
Second Favorite: Kerry
Somehow Logan’s appointed “friend, assistant, and advisor” is clearly high up in the Daddy’s Favorite rankings this week, but is it only because she’s really the only one left? Apparently, his wife Marcia (Hiam Abbass) is in Milan shopping (forever), and aside from Connor (Alan Ruck), his eldest son from his first marriage who is too busy worrying about his struggling presidential campaign, poor Daddy is now estranged from his other children – Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Roman (Kieran Culkin), and Siobhan (Sarah Snook) a.k.a. Shiv. Kerry (Zoe Winters), however, does get a spotlight to demonstrate her usefulness to the audience as Logan’s no-bullshit attack dog who dresses down Greg for bringing an unvetted rando as a date. Kerry still maintains this hardiness while ignoring the kids’ immature name-calling as she negotiates them giving Daddy a birthday call.
Roasting Terms: Greg
Even though Greg broke one polite society rule after another by bringing a rando “from the apps” (who not only brought a “ludicrously capacious” bag to Logan’s birthday party but also asked Logan for a selfie) he might have actually gotten a little begrudging smile from Logan after he confesses to fooling around with said date in one of the guest bedrooms. (This conversation happened off-camera, so we’ll have to take Greg’s word.) Logan uses Greg to fill the kids-shaped hole in his heart when he asks people to roast him. Weirdly, Greg might have gained even more brownie points with Logan in the weeks to come by almost filling the punching bag role of Daddy’s children. Having a sort of “honorary kid” privilege, Greg can most safely attempt to roast Daddy (at Daddy’s request, of course), pulling straight from the Roy book of birthday burns: “Where’s all your kids, Uncle Logan? On your big birthday?”
Good Terms: Tom
Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) gets some kind of assurance from Logan that regardless of what happens to Tom’s marriage – if they’re good, they’re good. Tom, who is separated from Shiv after betraying her, Kendall, and Roman last season, is now possibly facing divorce and is worried about his status at Waystar and with Logan himself. However, that “good” status quickly makes Tom susceptible to dropping ranks in future episodes if (and when) Daddy realizes that Tom inadvertently tipped the kids off this time, regarding the Pierce deal.
Shiv
Daddy distances himself from Shiv so much that he refers to “your wife” when ordering Tom to get info on what moves his children are making. Learning that he’s entering a bidding war with his kids, he realizes that it’s probably Shiv driving the negotiations with Nan Pierce (Cherry Jones) to buy Pierce. With previous attempts to buy Pierce, Nan has made it clear that he prefers to deal with Shiv and this precedent places Shiv lower than Kendall or Roman. Earlier in the episode, Shiv claims that their attempt to buy Pierce is “not about getting back at Dad” but “if it hurts him, it doesn’t bother” her. Of course, she’s probably more mad at Tom for his betrayal at the end of last season, but this spite drives her to kill Daddy’s white whale. At the end of the episode, Logan finally contacts the kids to berate their, yet again, awful business acumen.
Connor
Logan is not thinking about Connor at all. No one points out that Connor is one of Logan’s children and is at that birthday party. It wouldn’t have been worth it for anyone to point it out but Logan asking to be roasted comes from a place of missing their shitty witticisms.
We’ll see how these rankings shake-up in the next episode, as Daddy sees all and is not afraid to let anyone know how they have failed him.