Logan Roy is dead.
It happens on a plane. Not in a grand Shakespearean monologue or a dramatic shootout, but over a toilet while his kids are partying on a boat. If you’re looking for the moment the "Golden Age" of modern TV peaked, Succession Season 4 Episode 5 (actually titled "Connor's Wedding") is basically the undisputed heavyweight champion. It’s messy. It’s loud. It feels like someone punched you in the stomach and then asked you to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
Most shows wait for the season finale to kill off their lead. Jesse Armstrong didn't. He dropped the bomb in episode three, but by the time we get to the fallout in the middle of the season, the reality finally starts to sink in. We’re watching a corporate car crash in slow motion.
The Chaos of the Roy Family Grief
The thing about this episode that people still talk about is the realism. Usually, when a TV character dies, there’s music. A slow violin. Maybe a montage. Here? It’s just phones. Just frantic, garbled calls from a private jet where a flight attendant is performing chest compressions on a billionaire.
Kendall, Roman, and Shiv are trapped on a boat for Connor’s wedding—a wedding no one actually cares about—while their father dies in the air. It’s awkward. Roman can’t stop saying "I think he’s okay," even though he clearly isn't. Shiv looks like she’s about to throw up. Kendall tries to be the "CEO of Grief," taking charge because he doesn't know how else to exist.
Honestly, it’s the most accurate depiction of how bad news actually travels. It’s never a clean break. It’s a series of "Wait, what?" and "Are you sure?" and "Who else knows?"
The camera work in this episode is frantic. It’s handheld, zooming in on sweating foreheads and trembling hands. You feel like a voyeur. You feel like you’re standing on that deck, awkwardly holding a champagne flute while the most powerful family in the world loses its sun. Without Logan, the planets start spinning out of orbit immediately.
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The Business of Death at Waystar Royco
While the kids are falling apart, the "Old Guard" is already moving. Gerri, Karl, and Frank are on the plane. They’re literally standing over a corpse while discussing the stock price. It’s cold. It’s disgusting. It’s exactly how it would happen in real life.
If the stock market opens and the world knows Logan is dead without a plan, the company loses billions. It’s a math problem.
- The Problem: Logan hadn't signed the final papers for the GoJo deal.
- The Conflict: Lukas Matsson is a wildcard who smells blood in the water.
- The Reality: The "kids" aren't ready, and the board knows it.
We see the immediate pivot from "Dad is dead" to "How do we spin this so we don't go broke?" Tom Wambsgans is in a precarious spot. He was Logan's bagman, his terminal-side companion, and now he’s a man without a protector. His phone call to Shiv is one of the few moments of genuine, albeit twisted, human connection in the entire series. He’s terrified. She’s devastated. They’re still toxic.
Why "Connor's Wedding" Changed Everything
Connor Roy is the forgotten son. He’s always been the punchline. So, of course, his wedding is the backdrop for the most important event in his family’s history.
Alan Ruck plays Connor with this heartbreaking stoicism. When he’s told his dad is dead, he says, "He never even liked me." It’s a line that cuts through the corporate jargon and the "strategic grieving." It’s the simple truth that most of the characters are too busy maneuvering to admit.
The episode doesn't have a traditional structure. It doesn't have an "Act 1" or "Act 2." It’s just one long, sustained panic attack. Director Mark Mylod and the writers basically decided to film it in long takes, sometimes 20 minutes at a time, to keep the actors in that raw, vibrating state of shock.
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Experts in grief counseling often point to this episode as a masterclass in "anticipatory" vs. "sudden" grief. The Roys had been waiting for Logan to die since the pilot, yet they were utterly unprepared for the silence that followed.
The Power Vacuum and the GoJo Deal
Everything in Succession Season 4 Episode 5 leads back to the GoJo merger. Without Logan’s iron fist, the deal is a mess.
Lukas Matsson, played with a terrifying tech-bro energy by Alexander Skarsgård, isn't a sentimental guy. He sees an opportunity. He sees three children who are emotionally compromised and a board of directors that is terrified of a plummeting share price. This is where the shift happens. The show stops being about "Who will Logan pick?" and starts being about "Who can survive the vacuum?"
Kendall starts to see himself as the successor.
Roman starts to spiral into a weird, aggressive form of denial.
Shiv starts to realize she’s being pushed out by the "boys' club" again.
It’s brutal. It’s brilliant. It’s why we watch.
What You Should Do Next
If you’re reeling from the events of the Roy family saga or just rewatching the series to catch the details you missed, there are a few things to keep in mind to fully appreciate the craft of this episode.
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First, go back and watch the background characters. The way the staff on the boat and the plane react tells the real story of the Roy power dynamic. They are terrified not for Logan, but for their jobs.
Second, look at the timeline. The entire episode happens in almost real-time. It’s a pressure cooker.
Finally, pay attention to the lighting. As the sun sets on the boat, the literal "sun" of the Roy empire has gone out. The shift from the bright, artificial party lights to the cold, blue dusk is a visual metaphor for the future of Waystar Royco.
Practical Steps for Your Rewatch:
- Watch the "Inside the Episode" featurettes. The creators break down the "three-camera" setup used to capture the long takes on the boat. It explains why the performances feel so frantic and unrehearsed.
- Track the stock price mentions. Every time a character mentions the market or the "numbers," it’s a tell for who is actually grieving and who is already calculating their next move.
- Listen to the score. Nicholas Britell’s music in this episode is sparser than usual. The silence is a character of its own.
The Roys are now in a world without a center. The king is dead, and the clowns are left to run the circus. It’s the beginning of the end, and it’s spectacular.