‘Succession’ Season 3 Premiere Rises and Falls: Kendall Cements No. 1 Boy Status as Logan Scrambles

On the one hand, Kendall spends most of “Secession” careening around New York City with an expression one can only describe as “Ronald McDonald having a manic episode.” On the other, Kendall spent the entire second season as Logan’s lapdog in a self-loathing fog of absolute misery. This is a good day for Kendall — an occurrence as rare as Logan expressing a single sincere feeling — and as such, must be celebrated.

Sure, there’s no way Kendall comes out of this thing clean, and as Waystar’s PR head Karolina (Dagmara Dominczyk) somehow has to remind him, his public betrayal means that he’s going into this corporate knife fight without his usual company resources. For now, though, watching Kendall cash in all his chips is a thrill — no matter how inevitably doomed it all may be.

As Frank and Karl admit in one of their hushed sidebars, Logan sure looks — to use a technical term — fucked. He’s still muscling through a hostile takeover crisis, his shareholders are well and truly spooked, and now Kendall’s thrown Logan into the fire for the federal government to pick over at its leisure. For as propulsive as the rest of this episode is, Logan feels extremely stuck, both narratively and physically, as his jet hops from one far-flung city to another. In between Logan’s blustering threats and Cox’s perfectly calibrated growls, Logan looks genuinely nervous in a way he never has before. Logan Roy would never go down without a fight, but for the first time, it seems entirely possible that he just might go down.

Yes, I know we’ve already talked about Kendall, but! A moment like Kendall responding to Greg describing their escape from paparazzi as “OJ, except you didn’t kill anybody” with a grinning “who says I didn’t kill anybody?” is ridiculous enough to merit a second look. Is it good that Kendall’s finding a way to laugh about plunging a waiter to his untimely death in a frigid pond? No, I wouldn’t say so. It does, however, mark a welcome and significant departure from his dead-eyed shuffling of Season 2, when he felt so hopeless that his only respite was staring down at the street from the tippy top of a skyscraper. Plus, knowing how much Jeremy Strong absorbs the pain of his characters, it’s at least a relief to know that he might get the chance to have some actual fun this season, after all.

Karolina, who already had Waystar’s most thankless job before Kendall literally ripped up her script on national television, had a particularly tough time. Not since the dog days of “boar on the floor” has this show featured a more purely humiliating moment than Kendall kicking Karolina out of his car once he realizes she’s probably still on Logan’s side. She can’t even get Greg to join her! Just an embarrassment all around.

Kendall’s ex-wife Rava (Natalie Gold) has been through it. When Kendall isn’t actively messing with her life, he basically forgets that she (and their two children) exists at all. So when he shows up at her doorstep out of nowhere to set up camp away from prying eyes, Rava couldn’t have been too surprised. Her exhausted, careful smile as she let Kendall inside said everything. Throwing Kendall out would be more trouble than it’s worth, so what else can she do but just, step aside and let him get on with it?

It’s pretty bleak stuff, but Rava’s shortening fuse throughout the episode is a pointed reminder of Kendall’s carelessness. Credit here in particular to Gold, who delivered one of the episode’s best line reads with a sighed, “it’s fine, it’s like when someone breaks something beautiful, and it reminds you that nothing lasts.”

Ever since he stumbled into the inner Roy circle, fresh off a disastrous run as a theme park mascot that ended in vomit spewing out of his costume’s eyes, Greg has done his level best to understand the wealthy world he now inhabits. And yet, not even two seasons of eating ortolan with Tom and damning champagne as “drinkable” while floating on a palatial yacht prepared Greg for the moment he accidentally opens a bottle of priceless wine because he failed to notice the dust on it. So, another hit and a miss for Greg there, but knowing him, he’ll just keep stumbling his way up, anyway.

No commodity is as hot in “Secession” as a good lawyer, especially as Kendall and Logan both set their sights on winning over esteemed esquire Lisa (Sanaa Lathan), an erstwhile friend of Shiv. Kendall’s presser has sent everyone into panic mode to the point that Shiv even bursts into Lisa’s office just for some basic advice. And yet it’s Kendall who wins out as Lisa calmly takes her expertise to his side — at least for now. Lathan, bringing an atypically measured energy to the “Succession” proceedings, is an immediately sharp addition to the cast. It should be fun to see her (and her excellent glasses) get into the nitty gritty work of turning Kendall’s haphazard plan into something legally viable.

Shiv’s had a weird year. She went from the high of Logan offering her CEO to the low of spilling the beans in the worst possible way at Tern Haven. Then, she sunk to the somehow even lower point of Tom saying the sad, he’d be without her would probably be less painful than the sad he is with her. (Truly one of this show’s most devastating lines, which is saying quite a lot.) But she still managed to end it on decent professional terms thanks to her willingness to convince a sexual assault victim to remain silent, egg Logan on to sacrifice Kendall, and generally sell her shredded soul to Waystar.

In “Secession,” though, Shiv’s back on her heels. Blindsided by Kendall’s move and furious about it, Shiv spends most of the premiere trying to get her feet back on solid ground. She tells Tom she loves him, only for him to reply with, “thanks.” She makes a (probably) sincere appeal for help from Lisa, only to realize that Kendall got to her first. She knows she has a shot at being interim CEO, only to whiff it. Shiv’s closer than ever to having the kind of power she’s always wanted, but somehow still further from getting it than ever before.

Twenty-four hours before Kendall’s big move, Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) was a dead man walking on the edge of irrelevance, marital humiliation, and possible prison time. Now, he’s brushing off Shiv’s blunt attempts to smooth things over with something approaching conviction. He’s flying on the main jet as a member of Logan’s “war council” and using his leverage without completely embarrassing himself. Tom’s chronic lack of chill should restore the natural order of things soon enough, but at least for today, Wambsgams is doing just fine.

To paraphrase Logan: who? Oh, right. Anyway —

In the Season 2 premiere, the Roy family sat around a table and listened to Logan dismiss the idea of Gerri becoming CEO as a joke. But in the Season 3 premiere, who should beat Roman and Shiv to the top job than Gerri Kellman (J. Smith Cameron) her very self?

Honestly, Gerri’s the clear and obvious choice to steer Waystar through this unprecedented crisis as Logan takes a ceremonial step back. Logan’s so obsessed with the idea of keeping his business in the family, though, that it still takes all his kids actively blowing it for him to admit it. Gerri’s long deserved the shot, even if she’ll need to rely on every ounce of expertise she’s got to steer the company through the storm in one piece. Cameron also deserves the bigger role that Logan’s decision now bestows upon her character. Her portrayal of Gerri as a savvy, salty businesswoman has long been one of the show’s breakout performances, so it’ll be a treat to watch both Cameron and Gerri step into the role of CEO.

Also, in an irresistible twist: Gerri’s ascendance happens at least in part because of interference from a certain pocket-sized Roy, who continues to maintain his vice grip on my (and her) blackened heart.

Roman’s come a long way since masturbating onto his office window out of sheer boredom in Season 1. Even as he’s learning how to use his natural charm to both read people and lure them into lucrative deals, though, he’s still so obsessed with gaining his father’s approval that he can’t quite help himself from getting into his own way. After making the bold move of calling Logan to ask for the CEO job directly, a moment of silence stretches too long for his liking and suddenly Roman panics, undercutting his own case by shrugging that maybe he’s not ready after all, whatever, don’t worry about it.

However: Roman’s hesitation also comes with a suggestion that Logan set him up underneath “an older hen” like Gerri. As Roman trips over himself and accidentally on purpose hands his crown to Gerri, one of the show’s most intriguing and deliciously twisted relationships is solidified in gold.

And lo, our patience for new “Succession” was richly rewarded.

It’s not that I thought the show might back off Roman and Gerri (aka the “Mole Woman and the Rockstar”), whose psychosexual flirting, a singularly fun dynamic, was borne of Culkin and Cameron’s undeniable chemistry. I just didn’t dare to dream that Roman’s seemingly off the cuff suggestion that the two of them take over Waystar might actually happen. Gerri’s got a hell of a job ahead of her as Kendall and the feds close in, and Roman, as per his own untimely admission, isn’t quite ready to step into his father’s shoes after all. Together, though, they just might have something special that no one would see coming.

For as out of left field as the Gerri and Roman pairing may sometimes seem, it really does represent “Succession” at its slyest best, not to mention its sharper narrative instincts. It builds upon everything we already knew about the characters — Gerri’s pragmatism and wry sense of humor, how Roman’s deep sense of shame collides with his loquacious charm — and brings out something new and undeniably compelling. Gerri brings out a side of Roman that wants to be taken seriously; Roman brings out a side of Gerri that wants to be seen as something other than Logan’s reliable righthand. Neither quite knows how far they can take it at this point. As per that hotel room interlude, Roman, at least, is ready and willing to push the boundaries just a liiiiittle bit further than they’ve already been pushed.

On the surface, Gerri’s focused on the job at hand. And yet that perfectly timed little glance up at Roman after he makes his most overt suggestion so far, right before Logan calls to offer her the top job, suggests that their coy power plays are far from over — for which we can all be grateful.