Kill List (Succession): Difference between revisions

"Kill List"
Succession episode
Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 5
Directed by	Andrij Parekh
Written by	Jon Brown Ted Cohen
Featured music	"Takeover" by Jay-Z
Original air date	April 23, 2023 (2023-04-23)
Running time	60 minutes
Guest appearances
Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson as Oskar Gudjohnsen Eili Harboe as Ebba Juliana Canfield as Jess Jordan Patch Darragh as Ray Scott Nicholson as Colin Christian Rubeck as Andreas Bloc Kristofer Kamiyasu as Rasmus KeiLyn Durrel Jones as Remi Brian Hotaling as Mark Rosenstock

"Kill List" is the fifth episode of the fourth season HBO satirical comedy-drama television series Succession, and the 34th overall. It was written by Jon Brown and Ted Cohen and directed by Andrij Parekh, and aired on April 23, 2023.

The episode follows the Roys traveling to Norway for GoJo's annual corporate retreat, where they hope to finalize the acquisition deal with Lukas Matsson.

Plot

Kendall arrives at Waystar for his first day as co-CEO with Roman, who introduces him to their new advisors, while Karl and Gerri arrive to probe for details on the brothers' strategy; Shiv is invited to the meeting shortly thereafter. Gerri learns GoJo wants Waystar's entire executive team to attend their annual corporate retreat in Norway to assess their cultural fit, which they take as a sign that Matsson is indeed interested in going through with the Waystar acquisition.

En route to the meeting in Norway, Connor calls his siblings to shed light on a dispute with Marcia over how to present Logan's body at his funeral, which they dismiss for later. Kendall reminds the team that their floor on the acquisition is $144 per share. Waystar's senior executives meet their GoJo counterparts while Matsson summons Kendall and Roman to negotiate privately with him. Matsson surprises them with an offer of $187 per share for Waystar's whole operation - ATN included - which was not part of the original terms. Kendall and Roman are uncomfortable, seeing as ATN is Waystar's profit center and Logan's prized possession, but Shiv is content to give it up due to the network's right-wing politics, while the senior team is eager to push the sale through for the increased price. Shiv additionally informs her brothers of a potential scandal involving ATN's close relationship with Jeryd Mencken's presidential campaign.

At a team-building event later in the day, the siblings sit down with Matsson to renegotiate the terms of the deal, unwilling to give up ATN. Upon hearing Matsson's proposal to rebrand the network, Kendall argues he fundamentally misunderstands the business, but Matsson refuses to budge, invoking the siblings' inexperience and Waystar's tarnished brand. Roman eventually agrees to pass on his offer to the board, but that night, Kendall tells him he wants to sabotage the deal, since he enjoys running Waystar. Roman is initially apprehensive about denying their father's dying wish to complete the sale, but eventually agrees to go along; neither of them inform Shiv. They agree that Matsson must be manipulated into backing out of the deal himself, since calling it off themselves would cast doubt on their leadership to the board. Kendall later tasks Greg with leaking to the press that Waystar and GoJo's teams are not getting along.

Shiv, meanwhile, sits down privately with Matsson, where she admits her marriage to Tom is failing. Matsson reveals that he was romantically linked with Ebba, his head of PR, but that after the relationship soured, he repeatedly sent her frozen quantities of his own blood. Shiv, both put off and amused, advises him on how to avoid a public scandal. Matsson tells Shiv he enjoys her company and that she reminds him of Logan.

The next morning, Shiv goads Tom into an argument by comparing him unfavorably to Matsson. Kendall and Roman ride a cable car to meet Matsson atop a mountain; Roman is unsettled when Connor sends him an image of Logan's corpse. On the mountain, Matsson castigates the brothers for their attempts to sabotage the deal, decribing them as incompetent compared to Logan. Roman snaps and berates Matsson for summoning them to the retreat mere days after their father's death, and openly calls off the deal. Matsson, however, is amused, claiming Roman has played into his hands.

On the return flight, the company learns Matsson has made a new offer of $192 per share. The senior executives are elated and immediately pass it on to the board; they applaud Kendall and Roman, unaware they were trying to halt the sale. However, they learn that Matsson plans to retain most of his own executive team rather than Waystar's, with only Tom, Gerri and Karolina getting to keep their jobs. Matsson calls Shiv and asks her to send him a photo of her brothers' dismayed reactions. Shiv then tasks Tom with firing Cyd for conspiring with Mencken's campaign, and invites him to dinner upon their return.

Production

"Kill List" was filmed in locations across the Møre og Romsdal county in western Norway.

"Kill List" was written by Jon Brown and Ted Cohen and directed by Andrij Parekh in his fifth episode for the series. Parekh characterized the overseas-set episode as a "double whammy of [the characters] not being in their own element, but also emotionally being on the back foot, with the patriarch having passed away."

The series filmed on location in Norway's Møre og Romsdal county for the episode, primarily around the town of Åndalsnes. Locations included the Juvet Landscape Hotel - featured prominently in film Ex Machina and serving here as both Kendall and Roman's living quarters and a stand-in for Matsson's home - as well as the Eggen Restaurant and the Romsdalen Gondola, the latter being the only form of transport to the restaurant. The episode also features numerous landscape shots of the surrounding Geirangerfjord, as well as establishing shots filmed on the Atlantic Ocean Road. Executive producer Scott Ferguson recounted that a Scandinavian setting was part of Succession creator Jesse Armstrong's vision for the series' tech-company storyline; Norway was chosen for its "remarkable architecture" and exceptional landscape", as well as practicalities it afforded to the filming schedule, such as the proximity of the airport to key production locations.

Nicholas Quah of Vulture felt the episode's characterization of Lukas Matsson evoked Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson, suggesting Matsson lived in "a constant swirl of apathy and exasperation" that echoed Persson's own accounts of his wealth-induced depression and loneliness. Quah also inferred that Persson's controversial political views and matching background as a Swedish tech billionaire were other points of reference for the Matsson character. Actor Alexander Skarsgård stated, "I don't think he's driven by greed or the need to accumulate more wealth. (...) He's very competitive -- just like a game, any other game. It happened to be about a multibillion-dollar company acquisition. But for him, it's like any other game."

Several critics identified the opening scene as a callback to the series' pilot episode, which also depicts Kendall listening to rap music on his way to work.

Reception

Critical reception

The performances of Kieran Culkin and Alexander Skarsgård were highly praised by critics.

"Kill List" received critical acclaim, with reviewers praising the episode's humor, performances, direction, and cinematography. William Hughes of The A.V. Club gave the episode an A, calling it "a disruptive, aggressively funny hour of TV that leaves no one in an especially secure position." Hughes praised Alexander Skarsgård's portrayal of Matsson as "a person that no member of the Roy family has any capacity to hurt", feeling the episode spotlighted the actor's "gift for comedy". He also praised Sarah Snook for capturing Shiv's skill for "managing and riding the waves of insecurity of yet another rich, emotionally broken man," as well as Kieran Culkin's "raw, emotionally affecting performance" in his final scene opposite Skarsgård. Vulture's Scott Tobias gave the episode 5 out of 5 stars, calling it "entertainingly nasty" and comparing it to the second season's "Tern Haven" for the way it "gets plenty of comic mileage out of the clash between corporate cultures." Similar to Hughes, Tobias described Roman's outburst as "one of Culkin’s rawest moments on the show"

Ben Travers of IndieWire gave the episode an A-, noting the effectiveness of Parekh's "smart framing" and Skarsgård's "physical performance" in his scenes opposite Culkin and Jeremy Strong. He described Roman's outburst as "glorious, and handled exquisitely by Culkin", and praised how the episode set up the second half of the season. Noel Murray of The New York Times wrote that Culkin "delivers one of his best performances of the series", and called attention to the episode's "spectacular location". Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone praised the episode's cringe comedy, describing its depiction of the characters' desperation as "palpable" and "unbearable", and called Culkin's monologue "spectacularly performed".

External links

• "Kill List" at HBO
• "Kill List" at IMDb