“Succession” fulfilled a promise it made to viewers in its series premiere with last night’s red herring of an episode, “Connor’s Wedding,” in which Logan Roy (SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER) unceremoniously meets his demise. 

Of course, in all of the promotion for this episode and the expectations it established, it seemed as though we were in for a standard Roy wedding, full of shoddy business, pageantry and backstabbing. That was how the episode started, with Roman doing the bidding of his father while attempting to conceal it from his siblings — on a yacht to Ellis Island, no less. As Logan flies to Sweden to continue working out the Waystar deal with Matsson, he bids Roman to fire Gerri, which he knows will be particularly torturous, considering his attraction to her. After doing so, he leaves a voicemail for his father — what he later realizes will be his last words to him. 

The siblings are convening, making plans to continue to needle their dad under the guise of business, when Tom calls to tell them that Logan is not breathing. The whole episode grinds to a stop. They refuse to accept their dad’s demise for a very, very long time. Roman and Kendall tell Tom he’ll be okay, because he “always wins.” Shiv is in shock. Connor declares, “He never really liked me.” All the while, flight attendants are giving Logan chest compressions.

In this show, we’re often only given the faintest glimpses of raw, private emotion that isn’t driven by a financial problem. This episode turns that norm on its head, which is what makes it feel so surreal.

So surreal, in fact, that it didn’t even register to me how obvious it was that this moment would come. Even though Logan Roy’s death happened at an unexpected point in the season, it has been exceedingly clear that his time was running out. “Succession” started, after all, with Logan suffering a stroke, and his health isn’t exactly spectacular as the show goes on. In the premiere of the fourth season, he shows uncanny prescience, asking his bodyguard and “best pal,” Colin, whether there is anything after death. This was always going to happen, and it is a testament to the cast and crew of “Succession” that the inevitability of Logan Roy’s death played out as shockingly as it did.

Of course, this being the show that it is, the executives waste no time in drafting a press release, with Tom even finding time to call Greg about the news. The kids — minus Connor, who decides that his father’s death will be no impediment to his wedding — disembark and head to the airport, where Shiv manages the announcement of Logan’s death to the press. As the episode closes out, Roman shows his siblings that Waystar Royco’s stock price has dropped sharply, before going to the airport to witness his father’s body being wheeled into an ambulance. Notwithstanding their own grief and complicated feelings toward their father, the Roy siblings are now tasked with fighting off executives and interlopers from their family’s right-wing media empire, one that now may very well be in a body bag of its own.

Contact Colleen Secaur at [email protected].