Did Succession make a grave mistake in waiting so long to bury Logan?

This story contains spoilers for the season four episode of Succession, Church and State Every week The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald will be recapping the latest episode of Succession. You can listen to our recap podcast here.

The good thing about a Succession episode like Church and State is that it gives me the chance to scour the internet searching for famous quotes about death that I can then base this recap on.

There are plenty to choose from, many great minds have mused on the meaning of death, but it was this from historian and philosopher Samuel Johnson that felt most fitting.

“It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives,” wrote Johnson. “The act of dying is not of importance; it lasts so short a time.”

Didn’t we already say goodbye to Logan Roy? Credit: Marija Ercegovac

We’ll get to the first bit later because the consequences of how Logan lived were on garish display in this episode. Between the scathing eulogies and the post-election chaos on the streets of New York City, it was proof that the poison does drip through to those left behind.

But let’s begin with the second part: “The act of dying is not of importance; it lasts so short a time.”

Does it, though? Because watching Church and State, Succession’s penultimate episode, death seemed to drag. Logan’s funeral is the moment we’ve all been waiting for but, if we’re honest, it feels like we’ve been waiting too long.

Much has been made of showrunner Jesse Armstrong’s commitment to this season’s structure. Season four represents ten consecutive days in the Succession universe, with each episode occurring across a single day. It’s a rigid device to wed yourself to, and Armstrong should be lauded for taking the risk.

However, it comes with the potential for pitfalls and timeline issues. For the characters on the show, Logan has been dead six days, but for audiences, that represents six hours of plot across six weeks, six episodes of moving the story forward and setting the scene for a thrilling finale.

Since Logan died in episode three, we’ve holidayed in Norway, experienced the Living+ fever dream, survived a turbulent house party and witnessed a deeply concerning presidential election.

Given everything that’s happened in this season of Succession, the death of Logan Roy is ancient history, so to find ourselves thrust back into grief mode felt jarring and out of sync.

It wasn’t that the episode was boring or bad, very few are (except you, Living +), it just arrived too late in the game. There has been so much to process that Succession forced us to deal with Logan’s death weeks ago.

But let’s go back to Johnson and his observation that “it matters not how a man dies, but how he lives.”

The legacy of Logan Roy is largely to blame for the unrest playing out in the streets of New York as the siblings travel to the funeral. Crowds have gathered to protest the election call by ATN, and the reality of that decision seems to mostly bother Kendall, who is also dealing with the fact that his family are fleeing the city because it’s too unsafe.

Meanwhile, Roman the Showman is unfazed, more focused on delivering his eulogy, intending to light up the sky while also reminding the mourners that he is his father’s son.

“Don’t I remind you of him, just a little bit?” says Roman while practising his speech in the mirror. A boy can dream.

As the siblings travel by car (what, no chopper?) to the funeral, Shiv chooses this moment to finally reveal her pregnancy. It’s been a long time coming, but you can understand her hesitation given Roman’s response. “If I see you breastfeeding, you know I’ll have to jerk off.”

Always nice to catch up with your estranged mother at your father’s funeral.Credit: HBO / Binge

Before they arrive, Kendall asks for a funeral truce, no bickering, no backstabbing, no business. “Today is just today,” he says. But of course, today is not just today.

With the future of WayStar still on the line (and with Mencken and Matsson both in attendance), today is about tomorrow. Add to that the sea of blast-from-the-past faces at the funeral - Hey, Sandy! Hi Stewie! Welcome back, Caroline! - today is also about yesterday.

The return of Caroline is particularly poignant given we hadn’t seen her since the season three finale when she double-crossed the kids. Within two minutes, she figured out Shiv was pregnant and invited Kerry (yes, she is also there) to sit with her, Marcia, and a woman called Sally Ann, who she introduced as “my Kerry.”

Witnessing the women in Logan’s life sitting together at his funeral is strangely touching, doubly so when Marcia jokes, “At least he won’t grind his teeth tonight,” and they all laugh.

That’s about as heartfelt as it gets though, because most people don’t seem too fussed that Logan is gone. Karl claims to “miss him”, which Gerri dismisses as Stockholm syndrome. At the same time, Cousin Greg (who rushes to the funeral on a Citibike) is more worried about meeting Mencken than farewelling his uncle.

Roman promises to tee up an introduction if Greg can keep Logan’s brother (and his grandfather) Ewan (James Cromwell) away from the stage. Greg says he has it under control, which always means the opposite and right on cue, Ewan storms the stage for an impromptu eulogy.

Sadly, James Cromwell aka Ewan Roy did not end his eulogy with “That’ll do pig, that’ll do.”Credit: HBO / Binge

As far as eulogies go, it’s pretty dark. He briefly recounts Logan’s life, including insight into the guilt Logan felt over the death of their youngest sister from polio.

But then it’s straight into a good old-fashioned scorching. Among the highlights are Ewan’s claims that Logan “wrought the most terrible things, darkened the skies a little, and closed men’s hearts.” He then reminds the room that Logan “was not a generous man, and he was mean; he fed a certain kind of meagreness in men.”

The irony is that no one felt more meagre in Logan’s presence than Roman, and he takes to the pulpit, visibly rattled by Ewen’s eulogy. He begins by stumbling over his words, and you can almost hear Logan barking at him from beyond the grave.

A lifetime of feeling not good enough returns to haunt him when it matters most.

For all his bravado, Roman the Showman begins to crumble, blowing his big moment and breaking down. Despite his claims of pre-grief, Roman hasn’t even started to process the loss of his father.

“Is he in there? Can we get him out?” sobs Roman when he catches sight of the coffin.

It’s a heartbreaking scene and yet another addition to the Kieran Culkin For All The Awards campaign, but also a reminder that Roman is nothing like Logan, even if he so desperately wants to be.

We then enter a game of anything you can do, I can do better, with Jeremy Strong and Sarah Snook serving up their own award-worthy speeches.

Strong goes first as Kendall steps in to finish the job, reeling off a laundry list of things Logan built in his lifetime: cruise ships, amusement parks, newspapers, and TV stations. But he also can’t avoid his own Daddy issues, describing his father as a “brute” whose awful ambition “could push you to the side.”

Strong is always in control of Kendall’s inner turmoil, both distressed and awed by the impossible benchmark his father represented.

Snook is equally impressive in delivering Shiv’s eulogy, painting a picture of a man who didn’t know how to handle the women in his life. She recalls playing outside Logan’s office with Roman and Kendall, constantly getting in trouble for being too noisy.

Anything you can do, I can do better. Jeremy Strong and Sarah Snook both delivered big moments in Church and State.Credit: HBO / Binge

“He kept us outside, but he kept everyone outside,” she says.

The kids were a distraction to his business then, and nothing much changed for the rest of their lives.

Following the funeral, there’s a quick trip to the mausoleum that Logan picked up for a pretty penny. According to Connor, he bought it from “a dot-com pet supply guy” for five million dollars.

But Logan is barely in the ground before the story shifts back to the endgame: the future of WayStar. Kendall is a man on a mission, promising Hugo millions of dollars worth of scraps from the table if he agrees to be his attack dog. Hugo signs on enthusiastically with a “woof woof.”

Then it’s time for the wake, and it’s here Succession sets the scene for how things will play out next week. Shout out to Nicholas Britell’s hauntingly ominous score for letting us know it’s about to get very dark very fast.

Kendall continues his hiring spree, retaining Colin as his bodyguard on the proviso he stops seeing a therapist. He makes his way to Mencken for a check-in, but it’s clear that the President-elect doesn’t feel that indebted to ATN.

When Kendall asks if he intends to kill to WayStar-Gojo takeover, the response from Mencken is cutting: “I thought you were the sound system; now you want to choose the track?”

Thanks for electing me, sorry I can’t hold up my end of the deal! Mencken makes it clear to Kendall that he won’t be an ATN puppet.Credit: HBO / Binge

Their conversation is cut short by Greg (did he rehire the Citibike to get to the wake?), but Kendall has heard enough. They’re no longer safe with Mencken.

Meanwhile, Shiv and Matsson are working their new angle: ease Mencken’s ideological fear of a foreign takeover by installing a US CEO at WayStar. An US CEO like Shiv, perhaps?

Working alongside Mencken is a dramatic turnaround from Shiv, considering she decried him as the end of democracy last week. But is anyone surprised?

“Our audience loves Jeryd, and I respect the audience,” Shiv explains by way of justification, shedding what was left of her conscience.

By this stage, Kendall is going full Logan, taking Roman to task for leaving them in bed with Mencken, minus the leverage. “You f—ed it, it happens, you thought you were Dad and you f—ed it.” Despite Roman’s protestations, Kendall is blunt and to the point; they blew it, but they can fix it—time to take Shiv on at the board level and end this once and for all.

The episode ends with the Graybeards laughing at a video of Roman sobbing at the funeral before he steps out into the night and inserts himself into the chaos of the protests.

Craving punishment for his mistakes, Roman begins clashing with the crowd, copping a beat down at the hands of the people.

“You have no f—ing idea”, he screams at the protesters, though he might as well be talking for all of us. All that remains is Succession’s 90-minute finale and what happens next is anyone’s guess.

Succession is dropping new episodes every Monday on Foxtel and Binge.

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