Succession power rankings: "One head, one crown"

With the election looming, the GoJo deal in flux, and tensions running high, every move in "Tailgate Party" is crucial

PublishedMay 9, 2023

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Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin, Jeremy Strong

We wouldn’t really say anyone won this week’s episode of Succession. All the usual power players made strategic errors in “Tailgate Party,” and everyone got a little bloodied. And some made more grievous miscalculations than others. Following the center of power in this episode was like following the ball in a shell game; it didn’t stay in any one place for long.

The war between the Roy boys and Matsson heated up, as the “failsons” pivoted to their latest plan to “bleed the Swede” by getting regulatory agencies involved. Roman’s digging also led them to Ebba, who’s back in this episode and, as many predicted, may be the key to bringing Matsson down. Meanwhile, Shiv has her own agenda, but gets blindsided on both professional and personal fronts, and Connor’s decision to stay in the race or drop out may actually be a deciding factor in the presidential election. After an episode with a lot of ups and downs, here’s where everyone landed.

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10. Tom Wambsgans

Previous ranking: 4 (down six spots)

Tom started the episode in a pretty solid position—back with Shiv, still in charge at ATN, and hosting the Roy family’s traditional election eve party full of influential figures. It all started going wrong the moment he gave Shiv the gift of a scorpion trapped in glass, a heavy-handed metaphor with mean subtext. Exhausted and stressed out, he’s forced to not only welcome the guy who Shiv cheated on him with into his home but to listen to everyone at the party speculating about his impending firing. It’s all too much, and leads to that explosive confrontation on the balcony in which he and Shiv finally air their long-standing grievances against each other. It was necessary for them both to move forward, but may have crushed any chance that they could ever do it together. Tom ends the episode exhausted in bed, but wide awake.

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9. Siobhan “Shiv” Roy

Previous ranking: 1 (down eight spots)

Shiv has the biggest fall from grace in this episode—and possibly all season—sliding from the top spot almost all the way to the bottom (she still has the edge over “striving and parochial” Tom). She saw her chance to cozy up to Matsson in Norway, and as a bonus got to stick it to her brothers for squeezing her out. That worked out well for a while, and even for most of this episode it looked like she’d safely secured the top spot for herself at Waystar Royco after the merger. Then Matsson’s facade came tumbling down, and her prospects with it. Had she not been blinded by the glow of power she might have seen all the red flags waving from the GoJo camp. How long until her brothers find out she’s been playing both sides? Tom’s not wrong, Shiv will be fine. She’s a Roy. But being fine is not the same thing as being happy. When he says she’s broken, he’s not wrong about that either.

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8. Lukas Matsson

Previous ranking: 3 (down five slots)

There was always something a little slippery about Lukas Matsson. He pushed a little too hard, wanted the deal a little too much. It’s the kind of thing Logan would have sniffed out during the negotiations, but his kids aren’t savvy enough to catch on without help. Turns out, Matsson needs the Waystar Royco acquisition to cover some “funky” accounting that could get him into real trouble. According to Ebba, he’s not even a real coder. His entire image is as fabricated as his India numbers. Away from his home turf he’s nothing but an agent of chaos. He starts off well enough at the party, charming the right people, then undoes it all in a public pissing contest with Kendall. When he insults New York in front of a bunch of New Yorkers you can feel him losing the room. His homophobic comment is the sour cherry on top. Team Matsson isn’t looking so strong anymore.

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7. Greg Hirsch

Previous ranking: 6 (down one spot)

We’ve got to take a moment to appreciate this classic Greg line about Matsson’s feelings towards him: “I guess he occasionally has expressed a distaste, un, in the past, for my particular flavor of me.” Greg turns it around in this episode, though, after boasting to Matsson about his newly discovered talent for firing people. “I thought you were backwash at the bottom of the gene pool, but this is something else,” Matsson tells him. Greg says that HR picked him for the job because it looks like he cares, but he doesn’t. That earns him the nicknames “slim reaper” and “butcher with a smile” from Matsson and Oskar, though it’s not clear whether they’re mocking him or genuinely impressed. For now, Greg is passively hedging his bets (rather than actively, which is what got Shiv in trouble) so whether Team Matsson or Team “Ken-Ro” comes out on top, Greg will be right there on the inside like the cockroach he is.

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6. Roman Roy

Previous ranking: 5 (down one spot)

Roman was already spiraling before this episode, so even though he continues his downward slide in “Tailgate Party,” he doesn’t have far to go. He’s forced to concede that Kendall’s presentation was a success, apologizing for his “wibble wobble.” And even though Kendall’s not concerned about the blowback from from his firing spree, Roman still wants to smooth things over with Gerri. He fails at that, too. He can’t even convince Connor to drop out of the presidential race, clearing the field for Menken. The only thing Roman accomplishes in the episode is digging up dirt on Matsson (through a third party) and his weird relationship with Ebba, which uncovers his real Achilles heel. Still, Kendall doesn’t give him any credit. Roman’s about to learn what Shiv already knows, that no matter what Kendall says, he isn’t keen to share power with anyone.

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5. Ebba

Previous ranking: None last week, at 9 after episode 5 (up four spots)

We don’t yet know everything that’s happened between Matsson and Ebba, but whatever the extent of it, his mistreatment of her could lead to his ultimate downfall. He says (right in front of her and everyone else at the party) that he’d like to fire her but he can’t because “she’s created and fostered this situation in which I find it very difficult to do what I want.” It’s bad enough that he keeps sending her frozen bricks of his own blood—possibly hair and other things too, according to Roman’s guy—but apparently that’s the least of his worries right now. Ebba is so thoroughly disgusted with Matsson that she gives Roman and Kendall everything they need to blow up the deal and take him down with it. Sometimes the real power resides where you least expect it.

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4. Gerri Kellman

Previous ranking: 8 (up four spots)

In one brief scene with Roman—her only real scene in the episode—Gerri lays out how much power she has in very clear terms. Of all the things he said to her in the last episode, his biggest mistake was accusing her of being bad at her job. She might have let everything else go, but not that. Now she’s determined to prove to him just how good at her job she is. In pure business terms she lays out everything she’s going to be asking for, including “eye-watering sums” of money and control of her own narrative. And she has the “many, many” dick pictures he sent to her to hold over him as leverage, in case he gets any ideas about countering that narrative. Just to twist the knife a little more, she leaves him with a reminder of what he gave up by treating her as disposable: “I could have got you there,” she says, with a little, scoffing laugh. “But nope. Nope.”

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3. Connor Roy

Previous ranking: None last week, at 10 after episode 5 (up seven spots)

Connor’s campaign for president seemed like a ridiculous pursuit in the beginning, now it might have actual consequences on the outcome of the election. The polls are showing such a close race that Connor’s one or two percentage points may pull enough voters away from Jeryd Mencken and swing key states in favor of his opponent, Daniel Jimenez. Mencken wants Connor to drop out, and is willing to trade an ambassador position in exchange for the favor. Connor entertains his offers for a while, first Somalia (“little bit car-bomby”) then Slovenia or Slovakia (it’s a no on the Slo’s), before seriously considering Oman. Ultimately, he decides to take Willa’s advice and stay in the race. At least he has a partner he can count on who doesn’t think he’s a joke, which is more than you can say for any of his siblings.

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2. Nate Sofrelli

Previous ranking: None

You may remember Nate (Ashley Zukermanas) as the political consultant who once dated Shiv, then hooked up with her again while she was engaged to Tom. So the fact that she didn’t warn Tom that he was coming to their tailgate party until the last minute was kind of messed up. But that’s not where Nate’s real power is in this episode. As someone with powerful political connections he can influence how much regulatory scrutiny is focused on GoJo’s acquisition of Waystar Royco. That makes him valuable to both sides. Shiv tries first to get him on board with Matsson, then Kendall comes in with an offer to give Nate’s boss Jimenez favorable ATN coverage if he makes the deal go away. Nate seems very uncomfortable with the whole thing, but does leave Kendall with some good advice: “I’m not Gil. You’re not Logan. That’s a good thing.” If only Kendall would listen.

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1. Kendall Roy

Previous ranking: 1 (up one spot)

Kendall nearly secured the number-one spot last week after his successful Living+ presentation at the investor’s meeting. He climbed back to the top again this week, though it has less to do with anything he himself accomplished than merely taking advantage of Matsson’s self-inflicted wounds. He and Roman got lucky in uncovering Matsson’s malfeasance through Ebba, yet Kendall sees it as his own personal triumph. Not content to let the deal fall apart on its own and take the win, he thinks he might be able to pull a “reverse Viking,” which isn’t as kinky as it sounds. “What if we could slow this down and we eat Matsson’s lunch? Bigger than Dad ever was.” Could Kendall be flying directly into the sun on wings made of wax? Maybe, but unfortunately he’s alienated just about everyone who would bother to tell him so.

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