Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Succession Season 4.With only three episodes left, HBO’sSuccessionis poising itself to come to a nuclear-level finale, especially considering all the “money and gossip” that was thrown around at the Roy election tailgate party on the most recent episode. The pressure and some all too familiar backstabbing causes Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Tom’s (Matthew Macfayden) relationship troubles to reach a boiling point. As Tom stares blankly into his bedroom ceiling, it seems as though he and the viewers are coming to the same conclusion, to survive he will need to betray his wife once more.
The tailgate episode started off innocently enough, with Tomgifting Shiv an epoxy-encased scorpion as a ‘joke’ gesture. In the early episodes of this season, there was hope that the relationship between the two may be salvageable. That all changed after the now-infamous balcony argument where Tom and Shiv decided to air everything out. The scene is already getting the Emmy nod treatment on social media, but it also leaves Tom with a loss of all hope that Shiv has any consideration for him moving forward. What Shiv may not realize is that Tom now once again holds information that couldderail the plans she has to run Waystar Roycoif Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) acquires it.
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Tom Knows What Kendall and Roman Do Not
It is already abundantly clear that Tom wants to, at the very least, maintain his position as head of ATN. The recent (now extinguished) rekindling of his intimacy with Shivhas allowed him to be privy to her planto work Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) for information on their moves surrounding the Matsson deal, and Matsson in securing a place at the post-Gojo deal Waystar. Tom now holds a key piece of information, as he can loop the Roy brothers in on Shiv’s duplicity and effectively seal her fate in getting barred from any inside information. After all, Shiv isn’t technically co-CEO with her brothers, an early season 4 move that has its clear disadvantages.
Tom doesn’t necessarily know all the details of Shiv and Matsson’s conversations, but he knows enough — starting with the fact that Shiv was the one who pushed Matsson to go to the tailgate in the first place, and that Shiv has openly admitted she was siding with Matsson behind the scenes is enough to get Kendall and Roman to ask questions. Tom was initially supporting Shiv’s side of the battle because he thought she was going to help him stay off the post-deal kill list. It only takes a couple of hours at the tailgate for Tom to understand that Shiv has no intention of going to bat for him in that regard, and in fact, is allowing the opposite narrative to persist. If Tom does choose to use what he knows against Shiv, he still has to trust that Kendall and/or Roman will help him out in the way Shiv could not. Although there isn’t much to suggest that Kendall and Roman would keep him at ATN, the odds are starting to seem better.
There Is Nothing Stopping Tom From Exposing Shiv
Now that the balcony fight has come and gone, Tom doesn’t have any reason to be loyal to Shiv anymore. The marriage is in shambles and the only hope of it being salvaged to some degreeis in the baby that Shiv is carrying. Since Shiv isn’t revealing to anyone that she is pregnant — perhaps for strategic reasons, as it could be used against her aspirations to run Waystar after the acquisition by Matsson — there is not much to incentivize her to stay with Tom. After all, she is ultra-rich, and splitting custody if she chooses to keep the child would not be that difficult. If Tom does eventually find out, he may not be affected at all in the way we would expect considering Shiv isn’t someone he believes could be a good mother. There’s also the theory that the baby isn’t even Tom’s in the first place, which would definitely take away some of the impact of that revelation.
Everything points to the idea that Tom’s back is against the wall. He can’t grift his way out of this situation without some kind of value he can use to transact his way back into security.As the teaser for Episode 8 reveals, Tom certainly has something to say about divulging information at the right time. Since there is no one left to suck up to, Tom’s choices are scant, and he just lost whom he thought was his most loyal supporter in Shiv. If his exit from the tailgate did not say it already, he is done playing the bench for people that would not even let him wear the mascot costume. With Matsson’s disdain for Tom only growing week after week, he is going to do the one thing that worked last time: support the winning team and hope it lands him on his feet somewhere. Without needing to worry about Shiv, given everything that happened on that balcony, all he needs to do is find the right time to strike.
Successionis gearing up to have an intense finale. Whether Tom is able to pull off the ultimate ass-kiss is still yet to be seen — but when the cards fall, be sure he isn’t going to stand idly by and let himself fade into the background. Everyone around Tom is on the attack, and it is best he gets with the program and forgets about other people’s feelings, something that he usually has no issue with, except with Shiv. Know that Tom is going to be here until the bitter end.
New episodes ofSuccessionSeason 4 are available to stream on HBO Max.
