Succession season 3, episode 1 recap: Roy family at war

Succession is back and we’re thrust straight into the lion’s den following the explosive season 2 finale. WARNING: Spoilers.

WARNING: Spoilers ahead for Succession season 3 episode 1

After one of the most explosive TV cliffhangers in recent memory, Succession is finally back with the first episode of its third season.

We’re thrown straight back into the lion’s den after Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong), who we were led to believe was going to take the blame for Waystar Royco’s wrongdoings, blindsides his father Logan (Brian Cox) during a live press conference in the gripping season 2 finale.

After Kendall agreed to be the scalp amid claims of sexual abuse and various other illegal misdeeds related to the cruise division, he musters up the killer instinct his father didn’t think he had, hurling all the blame on Logan in his quest to become CEO.

Now everyone is scrambling. People are going to need to take sides in this high-stakes internal war that has been bubbling since the very first episode.

Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun) is firmly Team Kendall, a (somewhat) handy ally given he’s in possession of some damning paper trails.

Stream Succession season 3 only on Foxtel. New customers get a 10-day free trial. Sign up at foxtel.com.au

Kendall is out for blood. Picture: HBO/Foxtel

Kendall’s siblings Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) are – at least on the surface – on Team Logan for now, which is mostly convenient given they’re all together in Europe when the news breaks.

Logan gets Kendall on the phone – via his staffer – and pleads for him to consider retracting his statements, and to cite mental illness as the reason for his explosive press conference.

Kendall warns Logan he’s going to co-operate with government officials regarding the claims and that it would be wise for him to step down.

How does Logan take it?

“I’m going to grind his f***ing bones to make my bread,” Logan passes on to Kendall.

“OK … well … tell him I’m going to run up off the f***in’ beanstalk,” Kendall says.

Logan’s camp gathers to devise their next move, where Roman suggests discrediting Kendall as a junkie who is responsible for the media company’s wrongdoings.

Team Logan decides to discredit Kendall.

Over the pond, Kendall attempts to rally his dad’s troops to his side as he calls them all one by one, while Waystar general counsel Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron) is unsuccessfully trying to get the White House to stay firmly in Logan’s corner.

After their failure to secure assurance from the US President, Logan decides he needs to temporarily step back as CEO and flee somewhere where there’s no extradition treaty with the US, as he sends Shiv, Roman and Gerri to New York to deal with the fallout.

Logan relies on Shiv to hold the fort. Picture: HBO/Foxtel

While he promised to elevate Shiv to the top job in season 2, Logan pulls a dicey 180 and tosses up between Gerri and Roman as fill-in CEO.

Despite asking him to go in to bat for her, Shiv’s husband Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfayden) betrays his wife and supports Gerri and Roman for the gig.

Roman desperately launches a pitch for himself during a private phone call with Logan, but as soon as he hangs up the phone, Logan immediately tells his camp: “Roman’s out.”

Meanwhile, Shiv is tasked with rallying the support of well-connected lawyer Lisa Arthur (Sanaa Lathan) to provide legal advice to Logan, but fails to close her as she’s already committed to Kendall.

As such, Logan names Gerri his temporary successor.

Strap in friends. There may be a dazzling level of wealth porn on this show but it’s about to get ugly.

Succession is streaming on Foxtel

Foxtel is majority-owned by News Corp, publisher of this website

Originally published as Succession season 3, episode 1 recap: Roy family at war