[This story contains spoilers for the seventh episode of Succession season four, “Tailgate Party.”]
With three episodes remaining in the series, Succession ended its final episode with a major blowup.
After a season-long strategic waltz about the status of their relationship, Shiv Roy (Sarah Snook) and Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) finally decided to confront each other and clear the air. Shiv, who has yet to tell her estranged husband that she’s pregnant (likely with his baby), provoked Tom into venting all his grievances while the couple hosted the Election Eve tailgate party during the seventh episode of HBO’s final season drama
‘Tailgate Party’ followed an episode that suggested the couple would pause and reignite their divorce – Director Lorene Scafaria told of her candid conversation on Living+ last week: ‘Their love is screwed up. There’s something pure, but it’s messed up. … And it kind of brings them together and in a way makes him the right man for her.” But this week, the Shiv Tom whiplash continued, ending at a new low. The episode began with Tom complaining that they were so tired from their late-night sexcapades (with explicit text messages to prove it) and ended with the pair having a crushing, drawn-out fight for their elite outside of their Manhattan apartment -Clique had media guests inside to witness.
“It was deliciously set up because we’re on the balcony of our apartment and everyone’s inside looking at each other at this primary party. So kinda awful. They can’t hear it clearly, but they can see we have a screeching match. So that added a wonderful layer,” said Macfadyen, who spoke on the official Succession podcast after the episode and unpacked the conversation that can never be taken back.
The Election Eve Soirée co-hosts took to their balcony to confront Shiv and suggested that Tom be fired if Lukas Matssons (Alexander Skarsgård) acquires GoJo Waystar Royco and anything else simmering beneath the surface of their marriage. During the conversation, they hurled insults and truths at each other, with Tom telling Shiv she was “unable to love and maybe not a good person to have children” and Shiv telling Tom, “I don’t like you; I don’t even care about you,” as Tom calls her heartbroken for never getting her father Logan Roy’s (Brian Cox) approval.
The episode ended with each of them sleeping alone in their shared apartment, with an expression that left a lot to be desired as a sleepless Tom stared at the ceiling.
“It’s just the damn injustice he feels,” explains Macfadyen, which made Tom explode. “He thought maybe they were in a good place and he realizes she spent the whole party when they were supposed to throw it together to tell everyone he was headed for the chop. Something breaks there.”
Creator Jesse Armstrong and writers got Macfadyen and Snook chewing several meaty scenes as co-stars in this fourth and final season of the Emmy-winning saga. But Macfadyen tells journalist and presenter Kara Swisher: “Nothing like that. The lid didn’t come off that way.”
He continues: “It’s just coming to a head. The facade goes and he cannot accept it. I remember feeling the terrible anger at the injustice in the scene. He spends a lot of time being diplomatic and political and swallowing his tongue and letting her win and letting her have the last word, and maybe this time he doesn’t.”
Macfadyen believes that Tom is less damaged than Shiv simply because she is a child who suffered under Logan Roy. “They don’t feel loved by any of their parents, so maybe you can’t love yourself or you can’t love anyone and you don’t have any real confidence. And I don’t think that’s necessarily the case for Tom,” he says.
However, he agrees with some of Shiv’s accusations against Tom. Namely that he only married her because of her DNA. But he also believes they met at the right time.
“I find [it was] partial attraction to her last name and her father and the business and all that stuff,” he says. “I think there was a strong sexual attraction, and they laughed. And we decided that she was very, very bad when they met. She came out of an awful, heartbreaking relationship and he was there to pick up the pieces and he was just a safe pair of hands. And he loved playing that role.”
Macfadyen feels that Tom is a “difficult” character at this point because he’s so desperate that he’s now losing not only his job but his status in the Roy family: “He’s treading water. His heart rate is racing and he’s kind of under… he’s sinking a little bit.”
Skarsgård, meanwhile, spoke to about sandwiching his character between Shiv and Tom, but primarily between Shiv and brothers Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Roman (Kieran Culkin). “He uses them 100 percent,” he said of Lukas. “He smells blood in the water, that friction between siblings. He smells the opening. Though he moves fast and breaks things, he can read people. He sees that in Shiv and he goes after it. It worked. She let him in. Where we are now, he’s still feeling the waves and testing them. Is she also a charlatan? Like her siblings, is she a little Nepo baby or does she have what it takes? That’s what he’s trying to find out.”
Succession releases new episodes Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO and Max. Follow the coverage of the final season of THR’s Succession.