Succession season 4 premiere: For Logan, ‘nothing is the same as it was’

In the premiere episode of Succession season 4, the Roy children are in a mansion and the mood is cheery. Roman, Kendall, and Shiv are talking about their new idea, The Hundred, a supposed disruptor media brand that seems like it’s still very much in the early stages.

The three take part in their usual spats, bickering back and forth, but the atmosphere seems different compared to last season. This time, they’re united under a common banner.

Unlike before, the arguing leads to plans, bids and upward momentum. It’s Logan’s birthday and the mood cannot be more different.

The media tycoon still has his Waystar Royco and GoJo deal ostensibly green-lighted (“ka-ching,” according to Cousin Greg’s plus-one), but the party seems tense and filled with contrived happiness. Logan’s attendees put on brave faces and eventually, Logan elicits his signature, blunt charm with the line: “why is everybody so fucking happy?”

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Really, Logan should be the one who’s happy. The man entirely focused on winning has, up to this point in the episode, pretty much only defeated enemies in the way, like his children, for instance.

However, Logan didn’t seem as triumphant as he did when he landed the Waystar-GoJo deal to the ire of the Roy children in the season 3 finale. He seemed somber, which might make sense when you try to look at Logan as an actual person and not a blood-hungry monster.

This is a man who has lived a life entirely driven by ego. He would stop at nothing to be at the top.

The consequences either didn’t apply to him or didn’t affect him as he got there. Now, things are starting to set in.

Logan is out to dinner with Colin, a bodyguard, and he starts to get sappy. “You’re a good guy. You’re my pal,” he says to Colin when the two are at a restaurant.

Colin responds with thank yous. Usually, Logan reserves these speeches for Kendall, or whichever other Roy kid was most popular with him that day.

But now it’s time to make things weird with Colin. Logan has a void to fill.

“I’m a hundred feet tall,” Logan tells Colin. Then, Logan rambles a bit about how humans all have to operate in various marketplaces in this thing we call life.

“Nothing tastes like it used to, does it? Nothing is the same as it was.”

Logan reaches a boiling point with his kids trying to use him for fortune and prestige.

Though, they were his kids. Logan still only has people in his life who are using him, only now there is considerably less emotional connection.

He so desperately wanted his kids to earn his respect instead of asking for it, to make something of themselves. And Logan thought they’d be nothing without him.

But what is the patriarch without them? Logan is someone who constantly gives off the impression that he’d never need anybody in his life.

In this episode, he felt so human because that didn’t seem to be the case. At one point during the episode, Logan looks around at a tense room.

He calls for someone to try and be funny, maybe even roast him. Logan thinks the room is dry and wants to liven things up.

His employees couldn’t conjure any legitimate jabs, besides Greg who asks where Logan’s kids are on his birthday. His kids are working together to make a bid on Pierce Global Media.

Towards the end of the episode, it seems like the trio got one over on their old man with a large offer for a company he wanted too. Through Tom, Logan calls to “congratulate” them, throwing in a heavy dose of ridicule as he does so.

Kendall hasn’t looked this happy since the start of season 3. Shiv seems as confident in her professional life as she is unconfident in her marriage.

And Roman is still Roman. The three Roy siblings have abandoned their cutthroat rivalry for the top of Waystar Royco, in favor of working together.

Despite holding the reins of the empire, Logan finds himself isolated. Sure, he had a point, the trio did just say the highest number.

But the father of the family may have misjudged both his kids’ business acumen and their role in his life.

What are your thoughts about the season 4 premiere episode of Succession? Share your answers in the comments below, we’d love to read them!

You can watch Succession season 4 on HBO Max.