Not only does Logan deserve his comeuppance, but Tom getting it instead makes any conceptual understanding of justice feel that much closer to a personal slight. It’s here to make us feel the weight of what actually happens, and Tom is the chosen tool to twist the knife. While you can laugh at the rich and powerful’s stupidity and pettiness, this isn’t the show to watch if you want to vicariously experience the satisfaction denied to us in reality. “Succession” isn’t operating in wish fulfillment.
Kendall’s targeted remark about what’s happening with the case - “Five years go by, and it’s, ‘Hey, whatever happened to the big investigation into the bad people?'” - sounds a bit too familiar to the general social sentiment toward white collar criminals that despite a widespread desire to see the perpetrators punished, they won’t be. By making this “long glass of water” the new patsy, Jesse Armstrong and his team are expertly stirring our collective ire. They farm out their penance to whoever can absorb it, and in this case, that’s Tom. Logan, and people like him, do not face consequences. He inherited it blindly when he took over the division (at Logan’s behest) and was dropped unceremoniously into the “death pit” by his predecessor. Tom certainly is, having done Logan’s bidding long enough (and forced Greg to do his), but the simple fact remains: He isn’t responsible for the cruise scandal. We may feel for them as human beings, but we also know they are part of the problem. Typically, when “Succession” characters screw up, the squirming we do as audience members is because we’re torn between an emotional attachment to these people (as people) and an intellectual understanding that they are the rot of the civilized world. 'The White Lotus': Everything You Need to Know About the HBO Seriesīut for once, I think it’s reasonable to be outraged on Tom’s behalf to wish he could escape this exorbitant punishment even when he’s done next to nothing to earn an exemption. 'Landscapers' Review: Olivia Colman and David Thewlis Put on a Show in HBO's Twisted True Crime RomanceĤ5 Directors Pick Favorite Horror Movies: Bong Joon Ho, Tarantino, del Toro and More 'Anne Boleyn' Review: Jodie Turner-Smith Dominates in Bland AMC Historical Drama “I have decided of late not to tarry too much with hope,” he tells Kendall (Jeremy Strong), who’s well on his way to a similarly demoralized state. Now, he’s the company Christmas Tree - a walking-and-talking, yet uprooted-and-dying, gaggle of branches set aside for any at-risk employee who needs to unload their “baubles of corporate wrongdoing.” (Macfadyen, always in peak form, really nails that line.) Even Greg (Nicholas Braun), Tom’s seemingly permanent whipping boy, has the gall to add his own felonious ornament to the less-than-festive spruce. Remember his wedding night? When he finds out Shiv (Sarah Snook) slept with her sleazeball coworker Nate (Ashley Zukerman)? Tom ( Matthew Macfadyen) is so charged up - high on the big night’s romantic vibes, his newly minted family spirit, and the recent knowledge that his seconds-old spouse prefers an open marriage - that he gets into Nate’s face and threatens to “pay men to break your legs,” claiming that “if I go to jail, which I won’t, so be it.” Over the past few seasons, one of “Succession’s” most curious early characters has seen the zeal zapped from his eyes.