Succession power rankings: We’re prepared to project a winner

In "America Decides," Roman and Shiv wage an ideological turf war behind the scenes at ATN, while Kendall sits uncomfortably in the center

PublishedMay 16, 2023

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Adam Godley and Kieran Culkin in Succession — Adam Godley and Kieran Culkin in *Succession*

Well, that was exhausting. What Roman calls a “night of good TV” felt more like being carried away by a tornado, without any idea of when or where it would drop us back down to Earth. Yes, “America Decides” left us feeling pretty queasy, but with no doubt about who would lock in the top spot on our Succession power rankings this week. The runner-up wasn’t hard to pick either, though we can’t say we felt good about it.

As usual there was a lot of movement up and down the rankings. Some of the characters with momentum coming into the episode after last week saw their fates change dramatically. Others got temporary bumps that might give the impression of an upswing, but don’t count on it. While these rankings are usually open to interpretation, we had a concrete metric to apply for this one, with a handful of people having a significant influence on the presidential election, and the future of the country. We know how that turned out, so let’s see how it affected the rankings.

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10. Daniel Jimenez

Previous ranking: None

For a while, practically right up to the end of this episode, it looked like Jimenez (Elliot Villar) might be able to pull out a win in this presidential election. Boring speeches aside, the polling was strong for him, Nate seemed confident in his boss, and even ATN was giving him the advantage early in the evening. On the emoji scale, we have to agree that four smileys beats two eggplants and a flag. So what happened? Voter intimidation, a fire at a vote counting center in a blue-leaning district, and one fake phone call by Shiv derailed his campaign at the 11th hour. If only he were willing to make the same kind of backroom deals as his opponent, he might have been the one making the victory speech at the end of the night.

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9. Tom Wambsgans

Previous ranking: 10 (up one spot)

The only reason Tom isn’t in last place this week is that there’s one person who had a worse night. It was close, though. Losing an election is only slightly worse than being accused of “undermining democracy,” as Tom was on a PGN broadcast at the end of the episode. With ex-ATN head Cyd Peach out there “spitting poison like a fucking king cobra with an iPhone,” Tom’s reputation is already on shaky ground. We know that it wasn’t ultimately Tom’s call to swing the election for Mencken, but if someone has to take the fall for it, he’s the most likely candidate. And Shiv won’t be inclined to help him out this time. Not after his reaction to her pregnancy reveal was to question whether it was even real, then avoid her for the rest of the night. Of all his missteps in this episode, that was probably the most consequential.

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8. Siobhan “Shiv” Roy

Previous ranking: 9 (up one spot)

Like Tom, Shiv’s slight move up the ranking this week isn’t necessarily an indication that she’s on the rise. She edged him out only because her humiliations in this episode were less public. Early on, Tom tells Greg that information is like a bottle of fine wine: “You store it, you hoard it, you save it for a special occasion. And then you smash someone’s fucking face in with it.” Little did he know that he would be the one getting his face smashed in with the news that Shiv is pregnant. That might have been her only successful power play in this episode, considering that her attempt to intimidate Greg into silence backfires (never trust Greg!). She’s unable to be honest with Kendall when he shares a rare moment of vulnerability with her, and then lies about getting Jimenez on board to kill the GoJo deal. Now the sibling alliance is over and Shiv has to watch from the sidelines as smug Roman and his fascist candidate take a victory lap.

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7. Darwin

Previous ranking: None

ATN’s fictional counterpart to MSNBC election data guru Steve Kornacki did his best under tremendous (and unethical) pressure from his corporate overlords to push the narrative in their preferred direction. Darwin (played with affable decency by Adam Godley) tried to appease them and compromise with phrases like “pending call” and an on-camera explanation for why the network was making calls prematurely. And what thanks did he get for trying to keep ATN out of a legal and ethical quagmire? An eyeful of wasabi and lemon-flavored La Croix, courtesy of cousin Greg.

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6. Connor Roy

Previous ranking: 3 (down 3 spots)

Alas, Kentucky. Alas, vanity. Connor shan’t become that. What shall he become after losing the election, though? Ambassador to Slovenia? Vienna for lunch, Venice for dinner, and Dubrovnik for breakfast? Willa doesn’t hate the idea. Sorry, Conheads. He stuck it out for as long as he could, but even he had to face the music at some point. Whether or not his concession speech actually made a difference in the election, he got what he wanted out of it. When you’re that rich you don’t have to worry about the consequences of an authoritarian taking power in the U.S. You can just flee the country and never look back.

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5. Lukas Matsson

Previous ranking: 8 (up 3 spots)

It must be tough for someone like Matsson to sit on the sidelines and watch an election unfold the way it did in “America Decides,” especially knowing that his deal to acquire Waystar Royco hangs in the balance. Still, he’s got Shiv Roy firmly in his corner and that’s no small thing. She might have been a little wobbly about screwing over her brothers before, but she’s more determined than ever to make the deal happen. He’s still got an obscene amount of money, a certain amount of influence, and the “slim reaper” to do his bidding, so we’re not counting him out yet.

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4. Greg Hirsch

Previous ranking: 7 (up 3 spots)

We should have known this would be a satisfying Greg episode when he responded to Tom’s rant about how high the stakes were for him on election night with, “I’m feeling pretty good.” He’s in Matsson’s circle now after a night of “monstrous” partying, reluctantly dancing with old men, and drinking things that aren’t normally drinks. Greg will do whatever it takes to grab onto whatever small slice of power is available to him, even if that means risking evisceration by sharing his knowledge of Shiv’s alliance with Kendall at the exact wrong moment. Speaking of timing, the wasabi incident may not have been intentional, but it had the effect of taking Darwin out of the conversation long enough to allow Roman to go around him and get the Wisconsin call up on the ATN screen without any caveats. Plus, it gave us one of the all-time great scenes of utter ridiculousness in Succession’s history, so Greg should get some credit for that alone.

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3. Kendall Roy

Previous ranking: 1 (down 2 spots)

Kendall was on a roll for a couple of episodes, but he spent most of this one cautiously sitting on the fence while his two siblings duked it out over superficial ideological differences. In a moment of vulnerability, he opens up to Shiv about his ambitions, and she tells him what he wants to hear—that he’s a good guy. What he really needs to hear, though, is that backing Jimenez would be in his own personal best interest (never mind the repercussions on his daughter and others like her). She tells him that too. When he finds out it’s a lie, and that she’s been secretly on Matsson’s team this whole time, he’s forced to reconsider everything and side with Roman. In the world of Succession, the fate of the entire country comes down to a broken relationship between a brother and sister. What’s scary is that it feels so plausible.

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10 / 12

2. Roman Roy

Previous ranking: 6 (up 4 spots)

Roman gets the award for climbing up the power rankings the most this week, though it’s a hollow victory. In doing so, he fell completely off the list of Succession characters we actually like (it’s not a long list). To be fair, he’s been a true asshole since the beginning, we just conveniently overlooked it. Thank you, Roman, for reminding us what show we’re watching. His zealous embrace of Mencken kicked into high gear in “America Decides.” As Roman saw the opportunity to be a kingmaker he became the voice of every gaslighting, alt-right troll with bad faith arguments over who was responsible for voter intimidation and ballots going up in smoke in Milwaukee. He pushed his weight around in order to shape the narrative for his preferred candidate and, thanks to a gross miscalculation by Shiv, he got his way. We sincerely hope he comes to regret it.

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1. Jeryd Mencken

Previous ranking: None

After teasing us with all the name dropping, we finally got our first appearance of Justin Kirk this season as Jeryd Mencken. Kirk plays Mencken as a smooth operator with a cunning twinkle in his eye, so you can easily buy his populist appeal, but also recognize that there’s a darker character lurking behind the mask. He’s a smiling fascist, whose capacity for malevolence is not to be underestimated. And he might just be the next president of the United States of America. There’s still a thorny court battle ahead, and with only two episodes left we may never know the final outcome. But none of that matters as much as the narrative, furthered by Mencken’s somewhat premature victory speech. We already have a pretty good idea how this plays out.

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