Succession: Kendall, Shiv, Roman and Connor Roy on hand as father Logan Roy is laid to rest in NYC

Succession’s episode Sunday saw the funeral of Logan Roy in New York City, in the aftermath of the election night which saw conservative news network ATN prematurely declare the winner of the presidential election in controversial fashion.

The show, the second-to-last episode of Emmy-winning HBO series, features an extended ensemble cast of characters joining the Roys – Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook), Roman (Kieran Culkin) and Connor (Alan Ruck) – as final farewells are given to late Waystar Royco CEO (Brian Cox) in the Big Apple.

The event is attended by a cavalcade of the show’s supporting cast across all four seasons, as relatives, business associates and politicians are seen in previews for the penultimate episode of the feted series from creator Jesse Armstrong.

Among the relatives seen at the ceremony include Logan’s widow Marcia Roy (Hiam Abbass), Logan’s ex-wife Lady Caroline Collingwood (Harriet Walter) and her husband Peter Munion (Pip Torrens), Connor’s new wife Willia (Justine Lupe), Logan’s brother Ewan Roy (James Cromwell), Ewan’s daughter Marianne Hirsch (Mary Birdsong) and grandson Greg Hirsch (Nicholas Braun).

The business associates present at the funeral include Waystar senior management mainstays Frank Vernon (Peter Friedman), Gerri Kellman (J. Smith-Cameron) and Karl Muller (David Rasche), and PR execs Karolina Novotney (Dagmara Dominczyk) and Hugo Baker (Fisher Stevens); and GoJo CEO Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgard), who is battling Kendall and Roman for control of the company. 

Shiv watches news as protestors are outside of ATN protesting the election call.

Roman is seen watching the news reports while practicing his speech at the church lauding his late father.

Roman receives a call from Ken, who asks him if he can get Mencken to turn the volume down, but Roman says to let him be.

Stores are seen boarding their windows as Kendall’s ex-wife Rava (Natalie Gold) calls him to let him know she is worried about the civil unrest, and will not be attending the funeral with their two children Sophie and Iverson.

Kendall orders his driver Fikret to drive to Rava’s in three minutes and says he will figure out the fines and violations.

Shiv encourages Matsson to release his off-kilter Go-Jo statistics, but he is resistant to.

Kendall has a screaming match with Rava outside of her home, which he calls ‘hysterical bulls***.’

Kendall tells Rava that their daughter is not doing well, and she stresses to him she does not consider the event safe.

Kendall tells Rava that he will seek court measures to keep them from leaving the city and stands in front of their vehicle in an effort to keep her from leaving.

Greg and Tom review a newspaper detailing the election controversy, with Tom saying he’s tarred with the Mencken brush.

Greg says he wants to leave for the funeral and Tom is waiting on a meeting. Greg encourages Tom to let Mencken know that he made the ultimate call to crown him.

Roman boards a vehicle with Kendall and Shiv saying ‘it’s party time ‘ – as they head to the ceremony.

Kendall says, ‘It’s just a great f***ing day’ as he tells his younger siblings about Rava’s decision.

Roman says that their mother invited them for a ‘Caribbean air clear,’ and tells her brother’s she’s pregnant.

‘Is it mine?’ Roman joked, after which Shiv clarifies that the child is with her estranged husband Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen).

Jess tells Kendall that there is a gathering near the park, at which point a group of protestors slam on the windows of the vehicle the Roys are riding in.

Kendall and Jess meet up, and he tells her he wants to meet up with family lawyers and that he is seeking custody. He notices that Jess has a meeting with her, but she tries to delay.

Jess tells Kendall that she wants to talk about her situation, as she wants to move on to another position. Kendall asks her why and she says it feels like time.

Kendall says its kind of ridiculous and says he’s given her extraordinary access, and she won’t get that anywhere else. He tells Jess it’s ‘f***ing dumb’ and that she’s being dumb, adding, ‘Nice timing Jess.’

Hugo tells Kendall he has learned that Matsson has revealed GoJo’s discrepancy numbers.

Connor tells Shiv he wants to read his own eulogy, which Shiv says will leave them open to legal liability.

Roman encourages Kendall to work the room to curry support with the powerful attendees, then makes an off-color remark about wanting to bed Logan’s widow Marcia.

Roman tries to woo Frank onto his side businesswise, but is met with a cool response.

Greg rides a bicycle to the funeral and asks Roman to introduce him to Mencken.

Roman tells him to keep an eye on his grandfather, which he agrees to in exchange for meeting Mencken.

Gerri asks Frank, Karolina and Karl if they are glad Logan has died. When Karl says he misses Logan, Gerri chalks it up to Stockholm syndrome.

Caroline greets Ken and Shiv, and immediately clocks Shiv’s pregnancy. The two have a chilly exchange with few words, as the kids still resent their mother over her betrayal of them at the end of season three.

Peter joins her and Caroline jokes she thinks he brought his autograph book to the event.

Shiv approaches Matsson and his inner circle of Ebba (Eili Harboe) and Oskar (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson), and they debate whether or not Mencken will emerge victorious and how it would impact their sale.

Shiv says that he should offer him an American CEO and says she should be put into the role.

Lukas remarks on her pregnancy but Shiv says she will work through it.

The hearse Logan is in arrives at the church, to which Roman calls ‘Showtime.’

Logan’s mistress Kerry (Zoe Winters) is on hand at the event, and Caroline invites her to sit with her. Kerry has brought her brother and attorney to the services with her.

Caroline then recruits another one of Logan’s former mistresses, Sally Anne, to meet Marcia, and all four of them sit in a front pew at the chapel.

‘God Logan would hate this,’ Caroline says, to which Marcia says, ‘At least he won’t grind his teeth tonight,’ and all four of the ladies exchange a knowing glance, with Marcia surprisingly comforting a weeping Kerry, whose presence up front has startled Hugo.

Greg encourages Tom to come to the funeral, but Tom cites the outbreak of news at ATN, saying he will get there as fast as he can.

Greg greets Shiv and Matsson – who beams at him and says, ‘Hey sexy’ – and Greg tells Shiv that Tom won’t make it. Greg offers to be a pallbearer, but Peter tries to assume the responsibility unsuccessfully.

Logan’s casket is walked down the aisle as violinists play, with Ewan, Greg, Frank, Karl and Logan’s four kids accompanying the casket down the aisle.

Ewan walks up to speak at the podium, with Greg, Shiv and Roman unsuccessfully trying to stop him.

Ewan immediately addresses the disrespect, saying, ‘What sort of people would stop a brother speaking for the sake of a share price?’

Ewan speaks about his perilous journey with Logan from Scotland to Canada when they were small children.

‘We came across, the first time, during the war, for our safety,’ he said. ‘They told us children… That if we spoke, or coughed, or moved an inch, that the U-boats would catch the vibrations through the hull, and we would die in the drink, right there in the hold.

‘Three nights and two days, we stayed quiet. A four-year-old and a five-and-a-half-year-old speaking with our eyes.’

Ewan then said that Logan was sent to a better school, and when he arrived home from school, his sister Rose had been born.

Ewan said that Logan felt guilty for bringing home the case of polio Rose died from.

‘I don’t even know if that’s true – but our aunt and uncle certainly did nothing to disabuse him of that notion – they let it lie with him. I … loved him, I suppose. And I suppose some of you did too, in whatever way he would let us and we could manage.’

Ewan ripped into the late media mogul for his life’s work to a shocked congregation, saying, ‘He has wrought the most terrible things.’

He called Logan greedy, stingy and mean, saying, ‘He made but a mean estimation of the world. And he fed a certain kind of meagerness in men.

‘Perhaps he had to, because he had a meagerness about him … and maybe I do about me, too. I don’t know. I try, I try. I don’t know when … but some time, he decided not to try anymore – and it was a terrible shame.’

Ewan wrapped up in saying, ‘Godspeed, my brother – and God bless.’

A confused Roman headed to the pulpit, insulting Frank after he checked it he was OK.

Greg told his grandpa Ewan, ‘That was a good, hard take that you gave.’

A rattled Roman took the pulpit and stared at the casket, telling his concerned siblings that he cant do the eulogy. He began weeping and asked while looking at the coffin, ‘Is he in there? Well, can we get him out?’

Kendall pinch hit giving the speech on Roman’s behalf while improvising in hopes of singing Logan’s praises after Ewan ripped him.

Kendall said, ‘How much I know. But … I knew my father. You know, I’ve said it. I’ve said it. And it is true, what my uncle said. Yeah, my father was, um … a brute. He was, he was tough. But, also, he built … and he acted.

‘And the money, yeah, the money. The lifeblood, the oxygen of this wonderful civilization that we have built from the mud. The money, the corpuscles of life gushing around this nation, this world, filling men and women all around with – with desire.’

Kendall said that while his father ‘had a terrible force to him,’ and ‘people might want to tend and prune the memory of him to denigrate that force’ pointing at Ewan – he hopes he has the same force in him.

‘That magnificent, awful force of him, but my God, I hope it’s in me,’ Kendall said. ‘Because if we can’t match his vim, then God knows the future will be sluggish and gray.’

Kendall wrapped up in saying, ‘There wasn’t a room, from the grandest state room where his advice was sought to the lowest house where his news played, where he couldn’t walk and wasn’t comfortable.

‘He was comfortable with this world. And he knew it. He knew it and he liked it. And I say amen to that.’

Kendall received an ovation from the guests after delivering his speech, while Roman remained visibly emotional in the pew.

Shiv then got up to speak, as a teary Roman watched her.

‘It was … hard to be his daughter,’ she said. ‘You know, he was hard on women. You know, he couldn’t – he couldn’t fit a whole woman in his head. But he did okay. You did okay, dad.

‘Uh, we’re all here and we’re doing okay. We’re doing okay. So, goodbye … my dear, dear world of a father.’

The crowd was then seen leaving the church, while Hugo apprised Kendall of Shiv’s plan to be appointed CEO to placate Mencken into letting the GoJo merger go through.

The siblings and crowd arrived at the graveyard, showing a massive mausoleum Logan spent $5 million on.

‘Pop sort of … I think he didn’t wanna go in the ground,’ Connor said. ‘

Shiv replied, ‘You serious? Was he in a bidding war with Stalin and Liberace? Right?’

Seeing Logan’s tomb loaded into the mausoleum, Shiv said, ‘I’m intrigued to see how he gets out of this one,’ while Roman said it was ‘too much’ and made a beeline inside his limo.

Shiv asked Karl and Frank, ‘How bad was Dad?’ to which the veteran businessmen tried to comfort her with a short answer.

‘What you saw was what you got,’ Karl said.

Kendall tells Hugo to spread the story that ‘Matsson’s acquisition doesn’t have the support of key members of the family’ and that he’s ‘trying to steal the company for a song’ and the ‘board is souring on the deal.’

Kendall promises Hugo a lucrative payday in his efforts to spike the Waystar deal, saying, ‘You can come, but it won’t be a collaboration, okay? You’ll be my dog.

‘But the scraps from the table will be millions – millions,’ to which Hugo replies, ‘Woof, woof.’

Kendall approaches Colin and asks how he is doing – ‘I hear you were talking to a headshrinker,’ he said – to which Colin says, ‘That’s supposed to be confidential.’

Colin – one of the few people aware of Kendall’s involvement in the death of a waiter at Shiv’s wedding in the first season – reluctantly agrees to Ken’s offer to work for him moving.

Kendall and Mencken speak for the first time about spiking the GoJo deal, and Mencken looks to get the upper hand in the battle of the strong personalities.

‘Oh, I thought you were the sound system – now you wanna choose the track?’ Mencken said.

Kendall noted how it was time for Mencken to make good on his promise to Roman to kill the deal, at which point Greg interjects himself into the discussion.

Kendall noted how it was time for Mencken to make good on his promise to Roman to kill the deal at which point Greg and Connor interjects themselves into the discussion to promote themselves.

Roman approaches the table and is mocked by Mencken for him emotional outburst – calling him the ‘Grim Weeper’ and ‘Tiny Tears’ – as it appears increasingly unlikely Mencken would make good on any of the promises he made them on election night in exchange for their support.

Shiv pulls him away and steers him toward a conversation with Matsson.

”m gonna keep this brief cause, uh, we’re both quite busy,’ Matsson tells Mencken. ‘I want Waystar. I want a piece of the news. I want sports, archive, library, IP, talent, all that good stuff.’

Mencken told Shiv, ‘Whatever our frictions, there was an ideological sympathy with your dad.’

Matsson says that he could provide Mencken with a broader value than Kendall and Roman, saying, ‘It’s either a couple of tiny men in your pocket, or a gateway to broad and growing cultural influence.’

Matsson tells Mencken that he could present Shiv with the CEO position, asking, ‘Would that help make things feel a bit more culturally aligned?’

Mencken is whisked away by an aide over an issue pertaining to Ohio, as unrest is seen in the streets of New York City.

Tom finally arrives at the gathering, with Shiv calling him out for blowing off Logan’s funeral, telling him, ‘Whole new Tom, you would never have dared not come to his funeral when he was alive’ to which Tom said, ‘Yeah, well, the thing about your dad is that, um, he’s lost quite a lot of influence over the past few days.’

Caroline approaches him and Shiv and taunts both about their strained relationship and pregnancy.

‘Well, if it wasn’t such a total f***in’ disaster, it would be a dream come true,’ Tom tells Caroline.

Tom apologizes to Shiv over not being there, noting that he has not been sleeping and working constantly, breaking out in tears.

Shiv advises an exhausted Tom to go to their apartment and get rest. Matsson calls her up to let her know Mencken will play ball with them, and she will probably be the CEO.

Kendall tells Roman about the situation and says he will need Roman’s help to make some moves.

Kendall tells Roman he ‘f***ed it’ Mencken, but Roman says they can hurt him with ATN.

‘I should have stopped it, so I blame myself, but it’s on us, dude, OK?’ Kendall tells Roman. ‘We don’t wanna say bye-bye to Waystar… we have to get f***in’ real and fight Shiv at the board. The Roy boys versus Shiv the Shiv.’

A frenetic Roman storms out of the party, after which Karl plays the other executives a circulating recording of Roman weeping during the eulogy.

Roman heckles protesters as morons and is physically attacked amid the chaos, at which point the episode concludes.

Next week’s episode marks the series finale, airing on HBO Sunday at 9/8c.