WiC Watches: Succession season 2
Succession 202 Kendall and Lawrence. HBO
Episode 202: “Vaulter”
Kendall carries out his father’s bidding in what is arguably the best episode of Succession to date. Shiv tells Tom about the CEO position which causes some tension between the newlyweds, and Roman makes a play to undermine his brother, but it backfires.
Logan Roy is trimming the fat from Waystar Royco in order to avoid a hostile takeover from his biggest enemy. He’s tasked Roman and Kendall — who are now co-Chief Operating Officers — to take a look at the company’s digital platform, Vaulter.
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The brothers each take a different angle. Roman has his team look into Vaulter’s books while schmoozing employees after-hours to see what secrets they’ll tell him while drunk. Meanwhile, Kendall does all his legwork himself, knowing exactly what to look for. This job is personal for Kendall, as he’s the one who orchestrated Wastar’s acquisition of Vaulter in season 1 — a move that was his crowning achievement before it all went belly-up for him in the finale.
Lawrence Yee (Rob Yang) despises Kendall but knows he has to play nice with Logan’s son or else risk getting fired from the company he created. Kendall and Roman take what they’ve found back to their father. Roman reveals the employees at Vaulter are about to unionize and suggests his dad should gut the company.
Kendall takes another tack, telling his father that Vaulter is already a hollow shell, but that he can turn it around and make it a major contributor to Waystar’s portfolio. Logan considers both options but tells Kendall to gut the company as Roman suggested. You can tell Logan is having Kendall do the dirty work as some sort of abusive mental torture in order to keep his son in line.
Succession 202 Kendall and Greg. HBO
For the big day, Kendall becomes a coked-out dead-eyed zombie. He cooly and efficiently slaughters the nearly 100-person staff of Vaulter, all the while telling them he is keeping them on board.
Meanwhile, Greg and Tom start their new jobs at ATN, the news branch of Waystar. Tom is sharing a leadership role with ATN’s news director (Jeannie Berlin), who completely obliterates him in a private meeting the two have after Tom is introduced to the staff.
ATN is obviously an analogue for Fox News (owned by the Murdoch family) and neither Tom nor Greg are happy about the network’s overt racism and catering to the 1%. Tom raises these concerns with Berlin’s character, who immediately shuts him down.
Succession 202 Tom and actress Jeannie Berlin’s character. HBO
Tom is having a bad episode all around. He also finds out Shiv was offered the CEO position by her father in the premiere. For some weird reason, Tom had it in his head that he was being groomed to take over as CEO, and when Shiv tells him her happy news, he mopes around like a sad puppy. I have to be honest: it’s really quite enjoyable to watch.
Speaking of Shiv, she tells Gil — the presidential candidate she’s working for — to fu*k right off after he reveals himself to be a two-faced jackass, accepting a jet from her father’s people while preaching he’s for the common man. Shiv quits, although Gil claims he fired her first.
Succession 202 Tom and Shiv. HBO
Let’s check in on Connor Roy, the eldest son who does nothing but live off his trust fund. On, and he’s running for president, because why not?
Finally, let’s talk about Roman Roy. If Kieran Culkin doesn’t get an Emmy nomination next year for Best Supporting Actor, then the 2020 awards ceremony should be automatically considered invalid. In every single episode of Succession, Culkin is a shining light of narcissistic sarcasm, delivering witty, razor-sharp commentary on everything happening within the Roy family.
Succession 202 Shiv and Roman. HBO
In “Vaulter,” Roman verbally destroys, yet again, Kendall. He and Shiv hilariously team-up on Tom during a couple’s dinner, and he brings actual intel about Vaulter that makes sense…instead of the usual tripe he spews.
In the final moments of the episode, we see Kendall stop off at a corner bodega where he buys some cigarettes and a white lighter. The camera lingers on his hand choosing the white lighter, which seemed odd until I looked it up. There’s a whole theory about famous people (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain) overdosing and being found dead with a white lighter in their hands or on their person. With Kendall’s heavy drug use and drinking, I can see him following suit before the season 2 finale.