Connor's Wedding
| "Connor's Wedding" | |
|---|---|
| Succession episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 4 Episode 3 |
| Directed by | Mark Mylod |
| Written by | Jesse Armstrong |
| Original air date | April 9, 2023 (2023年04月09日) |
| Running time | 62 minutes |
| Guest appearances | |
| |
| Episode chronology | |
| List of episodes | |
"Connor's Wedding" is the third episode of the fourth season of the HBO satirical comedy-drama television series Succession , and the 32nd episode overall. It was written by series creator Jesse Armstrong and directed by Mark Mylod, and aired on April 9, 2023.
Plot
En route to Connor's wedding, which is to take place aboard a yacht on the Hudson, Roman receives a call from Logan, who is about to board a plane with most of the Waystar management (minus Gerri and Hugo) to Sweden to meet with Mattson - despite having told Connor he would attend. Logan tells Roman that Gerri is to be fired for mishandling the fallout from the cruises scandal as soon as he returns, and gives him the unsavoury task of informing her.
On arrival at the yacht, Roman reluctantly gives Gerri the news, and she responds with muted anger. Roman then calls Logan to inform him and, when the phone goes to voicemail, proceeds to leave an angry, expletive-laden voicemail. Shiv and Kendall arrive, and the three are ushered into an upstairs room. On the way up, Shiv rejects two phone calls from Tom. Connor tells them that the upstairs area is where they can wait so that they don't have the same room as Logan when he arrives. Realising that Connor isn't aware of Logan's plans, Shiv is nominated to give Connor the bad news that he won't be coming. Once she leaves, Roman receives a call from Tom. Thinking that he is calling to ask if he has talked to Gerri, Roman answers rudely. However, a panicked Tom informs him that Logan collapsed in the plane's bathroom, and that he is unresponsive.
Shock sets in as Tom communicates with both Kendall and Roman about the situation, informing them that the plane staff are performing chest compressions and gets them to talk to Logan in the hope that hearing their voices will make a difference. Kendall wants to talk to the pilots, or dial in his father's doctor, but when he realises that neither option is possible, he goes to find Shiv to give her the news and get her to talk to Logan as well. When Tom finally has a moment to himself, he calls Greg to tell him the news, and asks him to go to the office to delete some files.
As the realisation that their father will not survive begins to sink in, the siblings eventually realise that they need to inform Connor, and Shiv and Kendall do so together. Connor is emotionally numbed to the news, but goes to see Willa to discuss calling off the wedding. On board the plane, the senior executives begin to go through the timeline for Logan's passing, knowing that news of his death will have serious effects on the market. Hugo and Gerri are briefed on the situation, and Hugo informs the grieving siblings that a statement is being drafted by Karolina, but they insist that they will draft it themselves. They discuss whether they should keep the plane in the air a little longer in order to decide the next steps, but Roman is adamant that their father be seen by a doctor as soon as possible. Kendall tells them that they need to tread very carefully, because what they do on that day will form part of an historic narrative.
Connor and Willa ultimately decide to go ahead with their wedding, with only a handful of guests present. The siblings are flown by helicopter to Teterboro airport, where the plane has landed, and Logan has been pronounced dead. Seeing that a swarm of photographers are waiting, the siblings hold a brief press conference to issue their statement and announce their father's death. Outside the lounge, Roman shows them how far the stock price has plummeted after their announcement. Shiv leaves with Tom, and Roman goes to view his father's body. Now alone, a grieving Kendall watches from a distance as his father's body is removed from the plane in a body bag.
Production
The episode features a half-hour long take, shot on 35mm film. To accomplish the unbroken take, they concealed camera magazines across the set, and kept a third camera body behind a door, to ensure that at least one camera was always running and the other camera was running to be quickly re-loaded. Mark Mylod, the episode's director, told Variety that they shot "dummy" scenes with Brian Cox in later episodes as a misdirection in order to preserve the surprise of Logan's death.[1]
Reception
Critical reception
"Connor's Wedding" received critical acclaim. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an approval rating of 100% based on 19 reviews. The website's critical consensus states, "The King is dead. Long live Succession."[2]
Scott Tobias of Vulture gave the episode 5 stars out 5, calling Culkin "particularly devastating" and praising his characterization in the episode for "quietly [turning] Roman into James Dean in East of Eden type, adding layers of melancholy and self-loathing to the expected arsenal of nasty put-downs and quirky sits."[3]
References
- ^ Kate, Aurthur (April 10, 2023). "'Succession' Director Mark Mylod on How Long That Death Was in the Works and How Episode 3 Almost Ended". Variety . Archived from the original on April 11, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
- ^ "Succession: Season 4, Episode 2". Rotten Tomatoes . Archived from the original on April 11, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
- ^ Tobias, Scott (April 9, 2023). "Succession' Recap: Heavily Fuckin' Delayed" . Vulture. Archived from the original on April 10, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.