Big tech hasn’t exactly garnered a significant amount of goodwill in the public consciousness as of late. One can vividly recall Mark Zuckerberg’s promises of a virtual future in the Metaverse, which was promptly ridiculed, or the countless cryptocurrency scandals. These supposed technological advancements, while useless to the average person, offer dreams of becoming stupidly wealthy to the already ultra-rich investor. This week on “Succession,” Kendall Roy comes up with a billion-dollar false promise of his own in the form of “Living+,” which is essentially nothing more than an elite retirement community outfitted as a gateway to eternal life. He claims that the venture could extend life spans, but in actuality is nothing more than a glorified Waystar-themed real estate venture, or as Shiv terms it, “prison camp for grannies.”

Kendall warps the pre-recorded words of his late father on stage in front of Waystar Royco’s investors, editing the audio so that Logan appears to say that Living+ could double the earnings of the parks division. In no way will this idea hold merit in front of the average person, but to Kendall, his launch presentation was a stock-driving success.

Strangely, Kendall’s manipulation of Logan’s words onstage is the most ordinary coping mechanism we see a Roy sibling use this episode, as Shiv is scheduling her grief in nondescript conference rooms and Roman repeatedly listens to manipulated video of his father saying, “Roman Roy has a micro dick and always gets it wrong.” Out of all of them, in fact, (with the exception of Connor, who isn’t in this week’s episode) Roman appears the closest to losing it, as he goes on a chaotic firing spree of executives, such as Gerri and Joy Palmer — an ill-advised decision considering Gerri’s formidable prowess in company affairs. Every executive is incessantly reminding Kendall and Roman that they are “just minding shop” until Lukas Matsson’s acquisition goes through, and yet, every aspect of their decision-making screams “power trip.” 

Shiv is arguably in the best position by the end of this episode. She still has Matsson’s ear, unlike everyone else at Waystar Royco, ably calls out her brothers on their attempts to tank the deal, and has yet to sever her bizarre psychosexual impasse with her estranged husband — their game of biting each other’s arms at a party is surprisingly the least cringeworthy thing that happened. If anything, “Living+” doubles down on the psychological dissonance that comes with being an avid “Succession” viewer — they are peddling billion-dollar, societally damaging business proposals yet one can’t help but worry about the siblings’ well-being.

Moments after we see Kendall on top of the world, the episode ends with him once again submerged in water — the same water that has nearly killed him in a previous episode and operates as a rebirth for him with each season. With each sibling careening towards some sort of business-related or mental catastrophe, plus a presidential election looming on the horizon, one can only wonder which democracy-ending proposal they’ll pull out of their grief-addled psyches next.

Contact Colleen Secaur at [email protected].