Greg(ory) on a citibike was great

Wondering if the finale will break with the 1-day per episode format. Looked like several different locations in the preview.

Not sure how they can resolve the Mencken blocking the Gojo deal storyline, he's not even elected yet and it will be contested for months in the courts. So I don't really see him having a big part I'm how it all shakes out. That's why I'm having a hard time thinking "Tom becomes CEO" is how it ends.

Plus I'd imagine he was originally thinking he might be the one doing the eulogy, so could have had some ideas in his head already for things he might say. But yeah he's been pretty good on the fly, he handled the audience Q about Matsson's holocaust joke at the Living+ presentation really well for example.

i understood it to be that he wasn't really 100% on the fly but rather using roman's notes and essentially gave his version of what roman was going to say, hence the stalling and note taking etc

Mencken simply has to make clear (which he more or less has done already) that he isn't going to block the deal, at least not if there is an American CEO. At that point, there isn't any seriously regulatory impediment and it is really a board decision about whether to accept the deal on economic grounds.

I didn't read it that way at all. He seemed to deliberately put Roman's notes away after looking at them briefly.

And it is almost impossible to imagine Roman delivering that eulogy.

Yeah, I thought it was really clear that he spent about two seconds trying to go forward with Roman's eulogy before realizing that was a bad idea that would never come off well, at which point Roman's entire speech hit the cutting-room floor.

Yeah. Also, Ken's eulogy was a rebuttal of sorts to Ewan's eulogy. Roman obviously had not heard Ewan's eulogy when he wrote his notes.

Tom becoming CEO and jumping over Shiv while the whole Roy family is left on the outside looking in because they got checkmated by Menchken, Madson and Tom seems so inevitable that I have to think it probably isn't happening. It is just TOO obvious. It was so telegraphed last episode.

Reminds me of BB when it felt kinda obvious Walt dies/Jesse escapes unless they just wanted to go uber uber dark

Kendall has pretty consistently been shown to be good at the ole corporate doublespeak stuff. He fools the Vaulter people, they put him on TV, the Congressional hearing he does well, living plus deal. He’s an all style no substance dude who is good for speaking in generalities and platitudes, knows the right buzzwords etc.

on a second viewing i see he never went back to the notes so i rescind my initial belief he was doing roman's speech

Face it. Logan’s death is the day Ken has been waiting for for thirty years. It seems to have awakened a competence in him that he could never have with dad’s eyes looking down on him.
Living+ and then this eulogy is proof that he’s a new man who is no longer a laughing stock. of course he’s turning into Logan. The only people he has left to talk to are his servants. But on the outside he does stay winning

I kind of think Ken sees Mencken as a lost cause. His new main plan is to convince the board to side with him. They could conceivably finish the series without going back to Mencken. Roman f’d it and that’s that.

I do think we’ll see a scene where Mencken explicity shuts down Roman but I dont think it’s completely needed for the main plot to resolve

How exactly did Roman mess it up? I know he did, but it wasn't really said how he dropped the ball? Just trusting Menchken by propping him up when he isn't totally on board with them?

Is Menchken disloyal or something? Why isn't he just gonna do what they want when ATN delivered him the W?

He is a politician

Was this part of a trailer or preview before the season aired as somehow I had a memory of this shot?


Because they really have polar opposite personalities?

Because he is not as comfortable with Kendall as he is Roman so has to make it seem he's playing the impartial game. Like I've said before Kendall is really a leaning D but can go R for his own interests which he has done here by calling the win for Mencken but it still makes Mencken hesitant to give him any absolute assurances even though it would be political suicide if he didn't given ATN's viewers would represent a lot of Mencken's base

menken backing off his support doesn't make any sense to me

at the very least, he'd wait until the 11th hour

right now he's basically giving them plenty of time to turn the election against him and his buddy h

1. He made the call without forcing Mencken to somehow commit to killing the deal. Maybe withhold the call until he makes some kind of public statement? Of course, none of the siblings saw this at the time anyways, so Kendall is partially just using the benefit of hindsight to stick it to him.

2. He crumpled into a puddle at the eulogy in front of Mencken who obviously took his man card away and gave it to Kendall afterwards. So lack of respect/fear that Roman can do anything to punish Mencken.

ATN can’t backtrack now on the call so Mencken doesn’t really need them anymore; I guess.

ATN already poured the concrete for him by calling Wisconsin. He can slow play to keep ATN from turning on him in the immediate term. Also, he is the Republican nominee. ATN has a Republican viewers. It isn't that easy for ATN to just turn on him. You saw that with Fox and Trump.

Also, if the merger goes through, why would ATN turn against him. New management isn't going to care whether he broke a promise to Kendall and Roman.

We also are supposed to believe that, in exchange for nothing, Roman put the reputation of the network at risk by inducing ATN to make a bullshit early call of the election in favor of Mencken.

It doesn't seem like ATN would have much of a reputation to protect, but I think we are supposed to believe that it is moral equivalent of Fox, except with twice the reach of Fox.

Pre finale - I think for HBO series, I have Succession right up there in that second tier just slightly behind GoT, Sopranos, and The Wire. I didn't always feel that way, but the last two seasons really vaulted it up for me. Hopefully the finale isn't disappointing and leaves a bad taste.

yeah, I get all that. But it is kinda weird that the whole "FOX made Trump but now Trump is so big and powerful FOX must bend the knee to him and he has all the leverage" aspect of the Menchen/ATN relationship and Menchen motives wasn't really shown on air. He's just kinda talking to shiv/matson and seems totally fine with them with no real fallout with roman. We're supposed to believe this is because Roman cried at his dad's funeral? ehh

It certainly is better than its 8.8 rating on IMDB



Maybe if it wasn't for his crazed escapade out in the middle of a riot there may have been some hope for redemption but not now - he's Kendall's puppet if he wasn't already but confirmed now. And if someone suggested before that Kendall was probably prepared for that eulogy speech which could explain why he was so eloquent because he knew Roman would choke after seeing how he reacted to Mattson on top of the mountain after Mattson called Logan a prick. Kendall reacted like yep that's true but Roman just couldn't accept it even though everyone really could - Roman is probably 15 years behind Kendall when it comes to maturity

By the way, Shiv immediately hopping into bed with Menchken puts to bed the debate we had ITT that she was supposedly genuinely concerned about the country during the election and not just playing on people's fears for her own pursuit of power.

There's grey area there. I'm more inclined to think that she has some surface-level beliefs that are sincere but entirely shallow and easily compromised if it can benefit her.

Not that it matters much. Whether she was 100% pretending and manipulating or whether she was simply selling out some of her beliefs at the first sign of resistance, she's a ghoul like the rest either way.