Succession Season 4 Didn't Literally Kill Anyone This Week, But It Might As Well Have

This post contains spoilers for the fourth episode of "Succession" season 4.

Funerals can bring out the worst in people, and in the cutthroat world of "Succession," it should come as no surprise that a wake in honor of Logan Roy (Brian Cox) wouldn't be safe from the Roy family's penchant for emotional bloodbaths. Surprisingly, the Roy siblings stood strong, relatively united with the exception of a side scheme or two. Instead, it was two women who vied for a place on Logan's arm in life who ended up at odds after his death — and just one who clearly came out on top.

Only a few days ago, Logan's assistant-turned-girlfriend Kerry (Zoë Winters) was one conversation away from becoming ATN's newest and worst news anchor. She was also a member of Logan's inner circle, by his side, albeit shakily, as he died. Now, in the wake of the titan of industry's passing, Kerry appears in the latest episode of "Succession" looking no more important than a bug on Marcia's (Hiam Abbass) shoe.

Kerry appears at Logan's house, which now apparently belongs to Marcia, in a short but memorably cruel scene mid-way through this week's episode. Much was made of Kerry's crying-and-smiling response to Logan's death last week, both by fans and by characters like Tom (Matthew Macfayden). Personally, I don't think it's particularly likely that Kerry expected a big inheritance or that she — as some have guessed — was fooling around with Logan when he died.

Rather, the third episode seemed designed to demonstrate varied reactions to grief, and if any character would reasonably get the giggles, it would be the one who's new to the family and young enough to be bowled over by the idea of her lover suddenly keeling over. When Kerry calls Logan's death "weird," she may as well be talking about the entire last year or two of her life. Unlike the rest of Logan's team, she's not slyly thinking ahead about how to secure her position, and her rattled reaction makes her weak when the sharks come out.

And they come out pretty much immediately, surrounding Kerry the second she walks into the building. Greg (Nicholas Braun) is especially despicable here, taking his "go all-in with whoever seems the most powerful" schtick to an outright rude level as he heckles Kerry to Marcia. Marcia, for her part, has pretty much staged an off-screen coup that gave her control of Logan's assets and his security team, and when Kerry tearfully asks to go upstairs to get her things, Marcia sics them on her.

The Kerry scene seems especially brutal because she is clearly genuinely upset about Logan's death (and maybe her out-of-reach medication), and very few other people seem to be. "Look who's crawled out of the woodwork," Greg sneers, and he's not the only person who frames her as a phony gold-digger.

Marcia refuses to allow Kerry upstairs, perhaps because she refuses to acknowledge any hint that Logan took another lover after her, but if she thinks Kerry has some calculated plan, she's mistaken. Roman (Kieran Culkin) eventually hands Kerry a bag that she promptly drops, one that seems to include medications and makeup. As they pick it up, she whispers a desperate yet disheveled plea for him to check whether Logan had made any arrangements for the two of them.

In the wake of Logan's death, everyone around him is motivated to lie about their status in his life, but again, this sounds sincere if financially motivated. Kerry thinks Logan might have left a note about his plans for them, and it sounds like she even murmured something about a ring. But the heir with the best story wins, and Marcia's obvious lie — that she and Logan weren't estranged and were still extremely close — trumps Kerry's maybe-truth, simply because she rehearsed it better and said it early and often.

In the end, Kerry is a bit of an ambiguous character. It's possible to watch this episode and see Tom, Greg, and possibly Marcia's perspective: that Kerry is an unstable gold-digger who's desperate to stay relevant and cling to power without her protector. Yet it seems much more likely to me that Roman's sympathetic read on her is more accurate. She's genuinely hurting, but she also has no clue how to run with the Roys, and the fact that she never really made allies in the family when Logan was alive means she's easy pickings when it comes time to whittle down the pool of people in the running for a bit of his legacy.

It was immediately obvious that some characters' positions in the show's game of CEOs would change radically with Logan gone, but the swift and cruel dismissal of Kerry feels like the first chess piece knocked off the board in a whole new game. You can all but hear the "K.O." sound effect as she's led from the building; Marcia may as well have hired someone to kick the poor woman on her way out the door. "Take her out the back, Billy, that's always nice to hear," Roman says sarcastically after Kerry's been marched from the premises. Kendall (Jeremy Strong) is also put off by the encounter, appearing with a simple declaration of "Jesus" as Roman audibly attempts to shake off the exchange.

Marcia may have easily won this one-sided showdown, but she's also more unlikable than ever. "We're calling her a taxi to the subway so she can go home to her little apartment," she spits, revealing exactly how little she thinks of Kerry. Logan's latest girlfriend was never particularly likable, but she didn't do much to warrant becoming a punching bag, either. In the larger context of the series' endgame, the efficient dismantling of Kerry feels like an example of the "Succession" wheel of fortune's swift and constant turn. Nothing is certain in a post-Logan world, except for the fact that nothing is certain. It's a lesson the Roy kids will have to learn quickly, lest one of them end up taken out the back door, too.