Reaction Review: Succession Season 4 Episode 5: Kill List
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
EPISODE SUMMARY
Warning: major spoilers for Succession season 4 episode 5, “Kill List”, are throughout the entire review. Reader discretion is strongly advised.
Kendall is jamming to Jay-Z’s “Takeover” (a very appropriately named song), much like he was getting hyped in the pilot episode: he has never been so ready. He is welcomed back to Waystar RoyCo for the first time in a while, and he is already calling the shots and being pushy. Hugo Baker is already coming up with a ton of ideas, and Kendall is shooting most down. He gets a warm round of applause when he arrives, and he finds Roman — who was clearly already there (perhaps Kendall was fashionably late?) — awaiting him (Roman claims to have been early). Amid discussions, Gerri and Karl arrive, and Siobhan is not far behind: business appears to be running as per usual. Then there’s Frank who bursts in with concerns about the GoJo deal. Kendall questions if they should play hard to get, but Gerri advises against that.
Greg welcomes Tom on the runway, and both are a part of this Norway (note: not Sweden) retreat that GoJo is putting on. Tom converses with Greg and states that he isn’t concerned about ATN (which was once going to be all his not that long ago): he is more worried about the Roy kids ousting him entirely from all things Waystar. On the plane over to Norway, Kendall instructs Hugo to alert him if and when anyone is plotting against Logan (and, ultimately, the Roys). Siobhan wants to help with the GoJo deal, but Kendall and Roman state that they’re working on it alone; Kendall does request that Siobhan “cut[s] Tom’s throat” instead (so maybe his fears are valid). Tom is in the next room wide-eyed and paranoid. Everyone else is chilling and discussing GoJo and the Norwegian retreat; Gerri uses this as an opportunity to claim the GoJos “soft” for being Europeans that can’t stand up against ruthless Americans like the Roys. We’ll see.
On ground, Kendall is still analyzing metrics. They arrive at the Matsson property and have to be golf-carted to the main premises. With Roys eventually on foot, it begins to storm (pathetic fallacy, perhaps?). When at their rooms, Kendall calls Roman to complain about the small size of his room. He gets a message about the upcoming negotiation meeting, to be reached by gondola lift. Frank and Karl go about final preparations with the Roy kids. Kendall writes down “144” on his clipboard’s paper, basically stating that they’re aiming around that number (144 million) and that’s all that they are worrying about. Connor calls Roman in the mean time to discuss how Marcia wants to bury Logan in a kilt. Connor asks for complete control about how Logan will be presented at the funeral; to shoo him away, the other Roy siblings agree and hang up on him.
Back at the main headquarters, Tom begins parlaying with the GoJo employees, clearly trying to plant himself there in case the Roys discard him in the near future. Onto more important things, the Roys arrive at Lukas Matsson’s meeting. They don’t want to mess around and choose to cut straight to business. Matsson notes how the entire Waystar boardroom — and Siobhan — have arrived while he is solo. It’s clear that Roman and Kendall have their own approaches as they begin to talk over one another. Matsson is far more headstrong. Roman begins the negations saying that the offer is good but it doesn’t match the valuation they had in mind; Matsson retaliates stating that the Waystar RoyCo stock plummeted. Matsson counter offers, stating that he wants to buy all of Waystar RoyCo for “one single dollar”. He professes to be kidding, but there’s clearly some sort of truth behind his joke. He wants to buy ATN as a part of the deal, and Roman instantly refuses, stating that Logan placed it off the table. Kendall is interested in the price, and Matsson claims it’s 187 (million). The two Roy kids freeze, then Roman eventually states worries that it doesn’t work. Matsson sees through Kendall, and he can tell that he, unlike Roman, is actually interested. Roman asks for a break in the conversation.
Roman relays the deal with the rest of the board. Siobhan has prematurely left, so the Roy boys go to discuss the offer with her. While walking, Kendall and Roman discuss the logistics. Siobhan discusses problems with ATN (a through-line to the upcoming election), but she gets interrupted by the news of the potential deal. Siobhan says to go for it, even though ATN was Logan’s “pride and joy”. Ultimately, Siobhan is pro deal, Roman seems against it, and Kendall is undecided: a harbinger of how things may go with Waystar RoyCo decisions from here on out. Meanwhile, Tom asks Greg for some intel with the Roys. Greg brings up a GoJo “kill list”, which catches Tom off guard. While Tom goes surveilling, Greg goes to the Roys and offers to help come up with a counter offer. He wants to call him and the three Roy siblings “the Quad Squad”: something the others are clearly uncomfortable with. Speaking of unsuccessful integrations, Tom sits at Matsson’s table and instantly tries to sell himself. In the distance, Siobhan takes note of Tom. Greg comes to Tom defeated.
Kendall approaches Matsson when the GoJo team gets a little too edgy with their jokes about the Roy family. Matsson states that he’s bored and killing time until he gets a counter. So here it is: Roman states the deal is good as long as they keep ATN. Matsson proclaims that the Roys don’t actually want ATN because of what’s to come, while he and his team can save it. Kendall feels like they stand to los a lot of value with the ask for a 50-50 ownership split if Matsson messes up, but the latter makes his case. Kendall says that Matsson doesn’t “understand” what he is buying. Matsson calls the Roy kids a “tribute band” and begins to get visibly agitated. The Roys leave the table defeated after offering to make another meeting with the board.
Later on it starts to rain again. Matsson begins to talk alone with Siobhan. He tells her that he doesn’t like to fuck around and just wants to be told a number. He also wonders if there actually will be a deal, which Siobhan assures him that there is. Kendall and Roman watch the nighttime dance from afar and begin to revisit the deal. Kendall goes for the kill: he wants to tank the deal. Not just ATN: all of it. Kendall wants to “run the ship” despite having been co-CEO for literal days. He thinks Matsson is a bad fit that will drive Waystar RoyCo and ATN into the ground. Roman wants to bring this up with Siobhan, but Kendall worries if she will make him sway his opinion. Roman isn’t convinced, though. He wants to be firm: this is what Logan would have wanted. However, Roman wants to trick Matsson into walking, so at least if they tank the deal it’s his own fault and not the Roy kids. After some coaxing, Roman is in. They agree with a hug.
Siobhan continues to talk with Matsson with drinks in hand. Siobhan tells him that a “bump” would get the deal: small increases in money will land Waystar RoyCo and ATN. Matsson offers some drugs, and then begins to go into the whole “how is your relationship?” deal (clearly, Matsson has something on his mind). Siobhan is honest and tells him that they are divorcing. Matsson has his own story: he was seeing someone and he sent her some of his blood to try and make a joke (a whole half of a litre, too). He continued to send the blood, and she finally got offended enough to the point of no return. As to not be cancelled, he’s going to lawyer up and destroy her before word gets out. Siobhan feels like the deal can’t go through if Matsson gets a bad reputation via the media. She tells him outright to stop sending people his blood (that’s a good place to start), not to fire the girl (who is a head of one of the GoJo departments), and defuse the situation. Matsson then follows up stating that Siobhan is like her dad: not judgemental and can take a joke.
Kendall lures Greg to go about releasing a rumour about GoJo, as to tank the deal. The next day, Siobhan approaches Kendall about the negative news about GoJo’s retreat, and she instantly calls bullshit. Roman knows about Siobhan meeting up with Matsson alone. Kendall tells the board the new “deal”: 146 million for just Waystar RoyCo, or ATN can be bundled in with a “crazy premium”. Tom is clearly jealous about Siobhan having a solo talk with Matsson, and she uses the opportunity to compare a real person with how wimpy Tom is. Ouch. On the gondola lift, Connor has sent a text message of Logan's corpse. Kendall doesn't want to see it, but Roman has seen it and is clearly shaken up. The two Roy men meet Matsson alone on the zenith of a mountain. Matsson asks outright: are the Roys for real? He knows that the press is their doing, the film they've been working on isn’t great, and he knows that they're purposefully tanking. Kendall starts backpedaling. Matsson goes for the kill, saying that Logan was easier to deal with despite being a prick. He also says that Logan would be embarrassed with his kids. He will go directly to the board to get what he wants. The Roys don't like this.
Roman brings up how Matsson asked when Logan was going to die and how it affected them. He finds it disrespectful that they couldn't even have days to grieve, he even blames Matsson for “killing” Logan because of the pressure. He flat out says that they won’t go through with the deal. Matsson finishes telling Roman that he has “fucked" Waystar RoyCo. The Roys leave via gondola lift; Matsson departs much more quickly in his helicoptor ride (clearly not offered to the Roys at any point). On their private plane back, Frank gets a call from Matsson. There's a revised offer: 192 million. Somehow, somehow, the deal is still on. The Roy boys clearly didn’t think this far ahead, and everyone applauds them for their strategy (even though Roman clearly wanted out out of spite, but hey). Siobhan talks with Tom privately about ATN and future moves before asking Tom for dinner. Matsson calls her privately and asks for a photo of Kendall and Romans faces: they look hurt. The “kill list” leaks online, and we find out it's a series of getting removed. Hugo, Karl and Frank are on there. Gerri and Tom are safe. The Roys cheers to a successful deal, all clearly with different thoughts in their heads.
FIRST REACTION
Here’s another typical episode of Succession build up for what is to come, but in this spectacular final season, even this setup episode is glorious. In this hour, we get glimpses of the Roy kids actually running the company themselves, and it’s kind of a rough look. Kendall is too hard headed because he feels like that’s how a CEO must be (to Matsson’s point, Logan was stubborn but he had an actual endgame in mind, whereas Kendall just has steps towards other outcomes without actually knowing what to do afterwards). Roman is a ticking time bomb that gets way too personal; he is right about Matsson’s callousness, but he can’t ever let this stuff get in the way of business when it could fundamentally destroy everything that his late father worked towards (even if immorally). Siobhan seems to be the most with it, but she’s also having to operate behind closed doors in order to assume control in her own way; it doesn’t help that Matsson clearly has a thing for her, but we have yet to see how far this will go.
We get a miniature bombshell at the end of the episode with the removal of some key supporting players like Frank, Karl, and Hugo (just like that, as well); Gerri, who Roman was in the midst of firing before the death of Logan, stays on board. Funny how that works. I love a good Succession retreat episode (we get one per season, I feel), and “Kill List” doesn’t disappoint as what is likely the final one. We know that these retreats are always cutthroat in their own way, and we get an insider’s look at how warped these business moguls are. If it’s not “boar on the floor”, we have Matsson literally sending litres of his own blood as a gag. There’s also all of the molly dropping, sauna boiling, and other goings-on, and the board members (particularly Karl) try to curry favour by taking part in at least some of them (Karl goes the full monty); Karl getting dropped is kind of hilarious in a sadistic way. He had to do all of that for nothing. Ouch.
All in all a terrific episode of Succession in a season that seems to be dishing out nothing but hits. As the series draws to a close, it is evident that even the expository episodes are nerve-wracking, intense, hilarious (Matsson calling the Roy kids “Scooby-Doo” worthy and graduates of the Hanna Barbera school is so cruel but outright comedy gold), and fascinating. It’s clear that resolution is far from close. The Roy men still want to somehow claim Waystar RoyCo as theirs. Siobhan wants to blindside by any means necessary. Tom is more pathetic than ever as he tries to weasel his way back into a posse of any sort. Greg somehow seems less embarrassing, but he too is struggling to get anywhere (for now). We haven’t even spent a week post Logan’s death and the knives are already coming out in full force.
Final Grade: 4.5/5
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.