Succession Season 4 Episode 2 – Recap (The Saddest Karaoke Session Ever)

The second episode of the brilliant HBO series Succession titled “Rehearsal” is finally here and in this episode, we see a big crack in “the rebel alliance”, hidden agendas, and the saddest karaoke session ever.

Episode 2 of the final season of Succession titled “Rehearsal” begins with Logan (Brian Cox) and Kerry (Zoe Winters) heading to ATN, and that’s when Logans tells Kerry that she should cancel the chopper the siblings were going to take to Connor’s (Alan Ruck) wedding rehearsal. Then we see the Roy siblings trying to figure out what changes they will have to make to the Pierce media empire once the sale goes through (but the deal isn’t done yet). This is when Shiv (Sarah Snook) finds out that Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) has tied up all the big-name divorce lawyers in New York so they can’t represent her in the divorce proceedings.

After the credits, we see Tom just about to leave ATN and that’s when he gets a call from Greg (Nicholas Braun) informing him that Logan is in the bullpen when Tom asks him about what Logan is doing there, Greg replies that “he’s moseying, terrifyingly moseying.” After hearing that Tom clears his schedule and heads into ATN but he gets another call from Shiv, who is yelling at him because of what he did she also asks him to send a message to her father saying that he should stay out of her life. When Tom goes into the bullpen to check on Logan he finds out that he is not happy with the staff and then Logan asks Tom about Kerry’s audition tape to be a news anchor, to which Tom replies that he liked it but because of his expressions, it was obvious that he didn’t. Cut to the siblings we see them watching the aforementioned tape in which Kerry is struggling to deliver the news and they are making fun of her. Shiv slips out of the room for a second to talk to Sandy (Hope Davis), saying that she might have been too hasty in declining her offer to hold up the sale of Waystar RoyCo to get more money out of Lukas Mattson (Alexander Skarsgård). After getting back in the room all of the siblings head out to attend Connor’s wedding rehearsal.

Over at ATN, we see Logan asking Tom to introduce him before he gives a speech to the staff after which Logan steps onto the makeshift stage made out of reams of paper and gives a rousing speech filled with violent imagery and curses, which seems to have inspired the employees. In this speech, Logan says that he will be in ATN more and with the help of his employees he wants to change the world plus he wants to annihilate the opposition.

On the other side, the siblings head to the chopper but they are denied access because Logan had deemed it so earlier in the episode. The Roy siblings soon figure out that their father is messing with them because of Pierce’s deal. Shiv tries to talk to her siblings about the proposition Sandy and Stewy (Arian Moayed) offered to her but they ignore her. Then we see Hugo (Fisher Stevens) and Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron) laughing at Kerry’s audition tape just then Logan walks in and Hugo hurriedly closes the laptop but Logan asks him why they were laughing when he entered the room Karl tries to make excuses but when he has to connect his laptop to the conference screen the truth comes out. Logan ignores this and talks about the board members who are holding out on passing the Waystar Gojo deal through.

On the city road, we see the siblings going to attend the rehearsal but they are interrupted by Sandy and Stewy asking them to not wave the deal through and hold out for more money Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) are not interested but Shiv says that they will think about it to buy more time to convince them. Then they head into the rehearsal where they meet Willa (Justine Lupe) leaving the event drunk and seemingly unhappy. They worry about what’s happening and when they go in to find Connor alone drinking red wine. They ask him if everything is okay and he replies that earlier Willa got on to the stage to give a speech and said “I can’t do this.” After saying that Connor leaves the table to find out where Willa is and in the middle of all this Shiv still tries to make her siblings accept Sandy and Stewy’s offer.

When Connor comes back to the table the siblings ask him what he wants to do and Connor suggests Karaoke but all of the siblings hate the idea and ask him to do anything else. Connor compromises and says that he wants to go to a bar but not somewhere fancy he wants to go to a normal bar where the average joe goes and the siblings agree to this. Then we see Tom and Logan having a conversation about Kerry, and Logan asks Tom if Kerry is good enough to get on the air and Tom tap dances through an answer saying that she is not good enough and she needs a lot of training before she can even think about hosting a show.

Then we see the siblings in a bar where Shiv is still trying to convince her siblings to take the deal but they are still not convinced. Connor is watching Willa’s live location on her phone and that’s when Kendall gets a video call from Mattson, who threatens Kendall that if the board holds out for more money he will walk and won’t do the deal. This changes Kendall’s mind and he becomes interested in the offer by Sandy and Stewy. When he goes back to the bar he changes his tune and joins hands with Shiv and now they both try to convince Roman to hold out for more money, but Roman is still not having it. Then Roman gets a text from Logan asking for a meet but Shiv sees it and asks why Roman is talking to dad. Roman replies that he sent birthday wishes to Logan and after hearing that Shiv and Kendall feel betrayed. After hearing all of it Connor gets angry at the siblings and to calm him down they take him to a Karaoke bar.

On the other side we see Tom and Gregg watching Kerry’s tape and deciding how to say no to Logan’s girlfriend Kerry and then Tom tells Gregg to take care of this in a way that Kerry herself thinks that she is not ready to be on air but when Gregg goes to do that Kerry see right through that and when Gregg tries to lie that she is not getting the job because they did a focus group which didn’t necessarily like her. She threatens Gregg and says that if the focus group is not real she will “take him apart like a human string cheese.”

Then we see all of the Roy siblings in a Karaoke bar where they are still discussing the deal and that’s when Connor informs them that Logan is coming to meet them because he told Logan all about the deal. They panic and decide to not go outside to meet Logan but little did they know Logan came in. After coming into the Karaoke room Logan tries to talk to his children about how he wished that they were at his birthday party but the siblings see right through that and demand an apology for cutting them out of the Waystar deal. Then Logan does what no one saw coming and he apologizes to them but that also seems to be fake. The Roy family takes out like 1% of their trauma in the room and it becomes a shouting match but Roman still tries to understand and forgive his father. In the end, Logan says that he loves all of his children but they “are not, serious people” and leaves. After that Connor gets truly pissed at his siblings and tells them that they are all needy but not himself because he believes that he has a superpower and that is that he can survive without love because he didn’t get affection from his father, siblings, and if he doesn’t get it from Willa he will be okay with that too.

In the final scene, we see Roman going to meet Logan. Where Logan tells him that he needs him to come back to ATN and he also suggests that he is not made for Pierce because he is just like him. Logan also invites Roman to a meeting tomorrow with Mattson, where of the Waystar executives will be present except Gerri. Roman says that tomorrow is Connor’s wedding but Logan suggests that he should not go to the wedding and go with him to discuss the future of Waystar.