The Caliphate takes to the mountains for ‘tightrope walking on a straight razor’ on ‘Kill List’

[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Succession, Season 4 Episode 5, “Kill List.”]

What could be more beautiful than a trip to Norway, to discuss a daring new era of business while looking out for beautiful forests and vast mountain hills? A lot of things, if you ask Roy’s brothers at the end Succession this week. The post-Logan top has turned ugly for just about everyone involved, as Alexander Skarsgård’s Mattson continues to subtly play the Waystar Royco top – at this point, apparently for his own amusement.

The episode opens in New York, with Kendall arriving on his first day as co-CEO to the tune of Jay-Z’s “Takeover” (when it comes to dropping needles, this show do not miss). But after entering the office for some applause, Kane and Roman’s time as the most powerful men in the building is cut short by a summons from Mattson.

advertisement

Getting Waystar and GoJo’s top executives together at a mountain resort is good news for the pending Waystar sale, but it also means that the next few days will lead to some epic maneuvering to get status and approval, because the only guarantee that comes with acquisitions like this is That not everyone will still have a job, aftermarket.

So while the “old guard” of execs worry about who from Waystar might be expendable, given GoJo’s current executive lineup, Roman and Kendall prepare to take on Mattson: They’re mainly concerned that he might ask questions about the movie studio, which is implied Nicknamed “Money Burners” thanks to the studio’s massive buttress that is currently in need of a relaunch. (“Sleeping robot in a cave—how’s that a quarter of a bill?” A very fair question, and a lot of people outside of the movie business might as well ask it.)

However, Mattson wasn’t interested in movies — instead, he wanted ATN, the news network that Logan desperately wanted to maintain control of, which led to his exclusion from the original takeover deal. Succession He’s never been shy about drawing parallels between ATN and Fox News, but the brutality of Mattson’s comments about the news network serves as an obituary for the embattled real-life network: “It’s not complicated — it’s a lot of yelling… Small men, big veins, fat wallets… In the long run, I don’t think the news for grumpy old men is working. Good parts, bad brand.”

advertisement

Succession