‘Succession’ Season 4 Episode 8 Recap: “America Decides”

Once we are able to look back on the whole thing, the plot structure underlying the Succession Season 4 timeline are probably going to be a topic of even more discussion than we’ve already seen. A preposterous number of Major Events have been happening, relentlessly, and if we feel breathless, it’s because the characters haven’t been able to slow down either, not even to grieve. I get it as an artistic choice (if not necessarily one that I personally think holds up to much logistical scrutiny). If I kind of hate it…is that the point?

And speaking of hating it: “America Decides”! In that the entire series is about politics — corporate, interfamilial, interpersonal — any time an episode revolves around electoral politics, I slog through them with a lot of bitterness. The show’s satire of, say, media consolidation is pessimistic while still maintaining some degree of playfulness. Maybe it doesn’t seem like it to a series creator who isn’t American, but the divisions in real-life American politics feel, for me, too vast and too terrifying to joke about, even if the joke is what a joke it all is to the people who are actually in charge. 

All that said: here’s what happened. (Hating it though I did, I watched it through twice, because I am a professional and respect my audience, unlike some people in fictional media that I am about to tell you about.)

It’s Tom’s first election night as ATN’s Head of Global Ratfucking or whatever title he got when Cyd was pushed out. Apparently he was paying attention before he was in charge, because he knows the way to get the boffo ratings he’ll need in order to avoid getting Peached himself is to promulgate specious rumors guaranteed to scare the angry old people who make up their core demo. For instance: the woman he heard about who voted 40 times for Mencken’s Democratic opponent, Jimenez (Elliot Villar), though a producer named Pam says they looked into her and didn’t find her credible. Pam’s not the only adult in the room tonight: there’s also Darwin (Adam Godley), who runs ATN’s decision desk, determining when and how to call each state. (Another rumor Tom has heard is that Darwin wears adult diapers on election night, but Darwin gently assures Tom that there’s always time for a bathroom break.) 

While Darwin is briefing the team, Greg tells Tom how his night went after the tailgate party: he went out clubbing with Matsson and Oskar, and after Greg drank things that aren’t traditionally drinks, Matsson forced him to dance with an old man. Amid all this decadence, Greg got the impression that Matsson and Shiv have some kind of side deal — does Tom know anything about that? Tom feigns ignorance, then gives Greg one of his patented business lessons: “Information, Greg. It’s like a bottle of fine wine. You store it. You hoard it. You save it for a special occasion. And then you smash in someone’s fucking face with it.” At this point, I am not sure whom I’d like to see smashed in the face first. Back to Darwin: exit polls show that the race is tighter than expected, but that Jimenez will win. No one in the room can spread that around, though, because any leaks that affect election turnout will lead to ATN’s ejection from the national election pool. Oh Darwin, surely you can trust in the integrity of anyone so ethically bankrupt they would work for ATN!

“Information, Greg. It’s like a bottle of fine wine. You store it. You hoard it. You save it for a special occasion. And then you smash in someone’s fucking face with it.”

Cut to: Tom telling Kendall, and Kendall telling everyone within the sound of his voice. Shiv is confident, but concerned about reports that Mencken supporters have been picking up ostensible Jimenez voters to bus them to the polls, and then leaving them stranded, including a child. “False FLAG,” Roman bleats, to give us all an idea of the level of discourse he’s prepared to engage at as well as what side he’s on. 

While Shiv sidebars with Matsson (promising him that the election will go their way and Jimenez will wave through the GoJo deal, and hearing with some anxiety that Matsson shared some privileged information with Greg the night before) and Nate (they’ll keep in touch through the night’s returns), Kendall gets a call from Rava, concerned that a car is following theirs. After asking for its plate number, Kendall confirms that it’s the good kind of following: this is a security detail he hired for them after the street shove incident. It’s unclear whether he forgot to tell Rava or if he never intended to, but she isn’t thrilled; she’s also as worried as Shiv is about the scattered reports of voter intimidation by Mencken loyalists. Kendall, unconcerned about ATN’s place in the national election pool, assures Rava that Jimenez is going to win, loudly adding to Sophie — though he’s not on speaker, since his earlier request to speak to her went ignored by Rava — “I won’t let the world push you, okay, sweetie?” No spoilers, but this claim will be important later!

Next, Kendall calls Nate, who’s with the presumptive president-elect — not quite chilling, since he’s also getting reports about all the voter intimidation and would like the 24-hour cable news network Kendall owns to cover that, please. Kendall claims he has to recuse himself from editorial decisions (this claim will be important later too!); then he has Nate pass him to Jimenez, who deftly parries Kendall’s nakedly opportunistic hints about him blocking the GoJo deal once he’s president. Guess Nate warned him about Kendall trying to get laid even at parties he’s not physically present for.

Elsewhere, Roman has been summoned to Mencken’s war room, and both he and we get face time with the candidate for the very first time this season. (Justin Kirk’s name was in the credits for the previous seven episodes, though, so shouts to his agent!) “We still think we can win, but I am very focused on losing,” Mencken tells Roman. “If I lose, I want it correctly characterized as a huge victory,” in that he “overperformed.” Roman is all about using ATN to help Mencken sell that narrative, because he lost his daddy last week and needs a new one.

Back at the office, Tom needs a pick-me-up, and since Greg is refusing to deliver the coffee Tom wants because Greg thinks that sort of thing is beneath him now, Tom’s going to have to settle for “some of what [he] asked for,” and do a cheeky bump of cocaine behind (appropriately enough) a whiteboard, and also bully Greg into doing some too on the grounds that “it’s medically good for your brain!” Then he notices a couple of trays of “bodega sushi” abandoned on the table, which Greg said some other flunky sent for. Appalled at the notion that Greg could think Tom would sully his precious GI tract with that kind of trash, he busts Greg back down to gregging for the night. Next stop: Greg is footstool.

And then there’s a fire at an election facility in Milwaukee. With Nate on speaker in the phone in her other hand, Shiv calls Tom to ask why ATN isn’t covering it, and does not agree with him that “just because something is on fire doesn’t make it news.” The siblings then turn on each other, with Shiv very reasonably attributing this specific election interference on Mencken’s brownshirts, and Roman, returning from Mencken’s suite, breezily blaming “antifa,” and ignoring Shiv when she yells at him that he can’t just win every argument by claiming false flags. She’s about to see how wrong she is! Spoiler!

Here’s where the night starts to turn, because the destruction of these ballots is, at least in the near term, favorable to Mencken, since they would have overwhelmingly gone to Jimenez; his team is going through all the expected steps, sending what Nate calls a “SWAT team” of lawyers to Milwaukee to make sure election law is followed and putting Jimenez on camera to project calm and endorse the system. But all Mencken has to do is have an aide ask Roman to “help with the narrative,” meaning: enlist ATN personalities to start telling outright lies about the situation. Almost immediately, the newsroom is swarming with Roy kids pushing their conflicting agendas in direct contravention of one of Logan’s big rules — “No brass on the battlefield” — and resisting Greg when Tom deputizes him to get rid of them.

Once they have all returned to their private conference room, Shiv has just said the vote in Wisconsin won’t be certified until the absentee ballots have been counted when Roman bursts in and announces that Mencken says they’re done: they have won Wisconsin. “If Mencken wins, it’s the end of the world,” Shiv intones, but all Roman cares about is that Jimenez won’t block the GoJo deal if he wins. Shiv appeals to Kendall — “fearless fighter of the good fight” per his own styling in the premiere, remember — to say there’s actually more to this election than that, but he won’t, because unfortunately that was always just bullshit!

It then falls to Darwin to explain what happens now, knowing that the actual answer — that nothing is going to be resolved, possibly for quite a while — isn’t going to satisfy anyone he’s speaking, some of whom want the country not to slide into fascism, and some of whom want to make exciting TV…

…which commences immediately with a Ravenhead editorial, using a very Tucker Carlson voice to attribute the fire to Democratic forces who knew Jimenez was losing, and flatter the audience as too smart to fall for official explanations. Back on the newsroom floor, Shiv accuses Roman of feeding Ravenhead talking points (though presumably the anti-trans sentiment — which is both hateful and irrelevant — was just Ravenhead riffing). However, Shiv actually cares about what is happening and is getting sincerely angry and scared about it, which means — spoiler again — she’s already lost this fight.

Shiv does take a break from losing to pull Greg aside and confront him about what he may have heard from his night partying with Matsson. When he demurs, she asks, “Do you find me attractive, Gregory?” “I don’t, um, think of things such as that,” Greg stammers. When he doesn’t engage, even after she brings up his membership in the Disgusting Brothers, she warns him that if he tries to fuck her (in a business sense, despite how the conversation began), she will kill him. Greg hesitantly asks what she’s willing to pay for his silence; Shiv offers to let him keep all his internal organs instead of having her rip them out of an incommodious orifice. Spoilers yet again but you simply hate to see someone exhibit so little strategic acumen!

And then: Roman reports to Kendall that Mencken has volunteered to block to GoJo deal in exchange for ATN’s support tonight. (Note: this is in an offscreen conversation, so we don’t actually know if it’s true.) He heads straight in to Tom’s small conference room to start bullying Tom and Darwin into calling Wisconsin for Mencken. Darwin is predictably wary; less predictable is that Tom hesitates, too. At their resistance, Roman backpedals slightly, suggesting some kind of soft call, which Darwin could explain on camera. Darwin seems like he’s softening, extracting a concession from Roman and Tom that his appearance could be accompanied by a graphic making clear that this is just a “pending call,” but when he moves Greg’s bodega sushi tray off his computer and opens it up, rubbing his eyes, he finds that he has been temporarily blinded by Greg’s bodega wasabi; Greg’s attempts to improvise an eye was with a can of seltzer are unsuccessful when he turns out to have grabbed one that’s lemon-flavored…

…but Darwin’s vision is none of Roman’s concern as the control room pushes through a Wisconsin call for Mencken with absolutely none of Darwin’s caveats. “And there goes the blue wall,” an anchor declares, as Kendall feels very bad about it!

As the night goes on, Mencken wins Arizona, the last battleground state. Now ATN is “boxed in” by the Wisconsin call, because they can’t call Arizona without also calling the whole election. Roman is, obviously, ready to do it, but Kendall’s not so sure, and wants to revisit Wisconsin. And just in case we weren’t entirely sure that the fate of the country hinged on decades-old resentments of a tiny group of bitchy, incompetent billionaires, Roman says this is just like when they were kids: if he wanted steak and Kendall wanted roast chicken, they’d always have chicken. Kendall claims it’s because their parents knew Roman would throw a tantrum if he was thwarted, and they didn’t want him to think that behavior actually got results. WELL, now all those roast chickens are coming home to roost, because Mencken’s promised interference in the deal is all Roman cares about, and Kendall’s vague defenses of American pluralism and even his invocation of Sophie getting bumped by a Ravenhead fan fall on deaf ears: “Nothing matters, Ken. Nothing fucking matters. Dad’s dead, and the country’s a big p**** waiting to be fucked.” If they sit on their hands, their chance will slip away.

And speaking of getting boxed in: PGN calls Arizona for Mencken. Kendall, seeming to have an actual crisis about the larger political implications of his personal campaign against the deal, sidebars with Shiv. Sometimes he feels like he should “do it,” meaning run Waystar alone, but he doesn’t want to endanger “the family thing” they have going now, but also Mencken’s kind of Roman’s guy and Kendall feels threatened by that relationship. Shiv appeals to his own self-regard: he’s “a good guy.” He doesn’t think he’s a very good father, and even in her desperation to stop Mencken tonight, all Shiv can manage is that Kendall tries. Could she try Nate again and see if he’ll match Mencken’s deal? Sure she can!

Cut to Shiv faking a phone call to a phone company recording.

When Shiv returns, Roman sees straight through her fake recap of her fake call; if his was also fake, it’s at least more plausible than hers. Unsatisfied by her report, Kendall steps out to call Nate himself, over Shiv’s objections…

…and we watch her see Kendall catch her in her lie, then head straight to Greg, who smashes her in the face with the information he’s been hoarding.

So when Kendall confronts her, Shiv can’t do much; she’s clearly lost the moral high ground, so any attempt to get Kendall back on her side on principle is futile, and the night is lost: ATN calls the election for Mencken. His acceptance speech is loaded with dog whistles about politics having become “the scorched marketplace where cunning men haggle for the best price,” and “Don’t we long, sometimes, for something clean, once, in this polluted land?” Trying to convince himself, Kendall says Mencken’s “a guy we can do business with.” “We just made a night of good TV,” Roman shrugs. “Nothing happens.” “Things do happen, Rome,” Shiv murmurs darkly. But in this case, he is right: this was just a show, and nothing is going to happen for him. As far as the effects of this election beyond the presumed death of the GoJo deal, it’s purely a No Real Person Involved situation.

In the episode dénouement, Pam tells Tom that the question of who actually wins Wisconsin will take months to decide. That means we will never know, so if you really cared, surprise! That’s not what the episode was actually supposed to be about. What Tom probably cares more about at the moment is that all the other news organizations are savaging him personally over ATN’s irresponsibly early Wisconsin call.

As she stomps out of ATN HQ — already displaying a story-high celebratory Mencken graphic in the lobby — Shiv calls Matsson and informs him that they’re going to be releasing his “funky numbers” now and fuck her brothers with them.

And on the drive home in the middle of the night, Kendall calls Rava and asks to speak to the kids; obviously they are asleep, and Rava doesn’t even bother refusing his offer to come over and wait up for them, so he says he’ll just see them all at the funeral tomorrow. Once he’s hung up, Kendall tries again to make himself the victor of the night’s events, telling his driver, “Some people just can’t cut a deal.” Here’s hoping that both Shiv and Jimenez’s lawyers can cut a bitch!

Margin Calls

• Cyd: Though we don’t see Cyd, her spirit hovers over the night: Tom knows she’s been trashing him all over town, and Pam negs Tom over his choice to wear dress shoes on a night when he’s going to need to be very mobile, as opposed to Cyd’s more comfortable footwear. I hope wherever Cyd is, her feet are up and cozy and that she’s reading a comic novel instead of watching any cable news network.
• “Dismiss”: Not that we necessarily needed more evidence that Kendall sucks as a manager, but we get it, as he repeatedly phones Tom to remind him to do his job well without citing any specifics, since he is unqualified to do so. (Tom’s barely more competent himself — lest we forget, the head of this news organization came over from Cruises — but at least he’s been in the office more than four times this year.) A multi-level panic over a malfunctioning touch screen also highlights all these nitwits focusing on absolutely the wrong thing.
• Goodnight, Conheads: As polls close on the east coast, Maxim tells a hopeful Connor that if anything’s going to happen for him, it’ll be in Kentucky…moments before the very first state called for either candidate turns out to be Kentucky going to Mencken. Connor takes a moment to absorb the disappointment before calling Roman to try to revive the offer of an embassy, even giving an unhinged concession speech that indicates he supports Mencken now. Part of me is disappointed that we didn’t get to meet either of the ex-running mates Connor mentions or find out how they let him down, but the other part of me agrees with Connor’s campaign slogan: “Enough already,” indeed.
• Father Knows Best: In the night’s early going, Shiv pulls Tom aside to apologize for some of the things she said (which ones, babe?) in their fight at the tailgate party, and then get annoyed when he declines to reciprocate. Defending her shitty behavior by reminding him that her father died last week doesn’t get her any sympathy either, since as Tom correctly replies, she hated Logan. With nowhere else to maneuver, Shiv decides now is the time to blurt that she’s pregnant.
  
  Tom’s face is a symphony as he vacillates between happiness and suspicion, finally landing on the latter as he asks if that’s even true, or just another tactic. Shiv seems to know on some level that this is a fair question, but that she also doesn’t have to answer it honestly when he’s being shitty about it, so she just exits the conversation. Which will Tom know first: that he’s going to be a father, or who actually won Wisconsin?

Television Without Pity, Fametracker, and Previously.TV co-founder Tara Ariano has had bylines in The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Vulture, Slate, Salon, Mel Magazine, Collider, and The Awl, among others. She co-hosts the podcasts Extra Hot Great, Again With This (a compulsively detailed episode-by-episode breakdown of Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place), Listen To Sassy, and The Sweet Smell Of Succession. She’s also the co-author, with Sarah D. Bunting, of A Very Special 90210 Book: 93 Absolutely Essential Episodes From TV’s Most Notorious Zip Code (Abrams 2020). She lives in Austin.