10 ‘Succession’ Episodes That Are Bangers From Start to Finish

Spoiler Alert: This list contains spoilers for the entire series of Succession.

Succession is a show that’s amassed huge amounts of critical acclaim, both when it was airing (especially during its last couple of seasons) and perhaps even more so since it concluded. It was just four seasons long, and kept the consistency high throughout. Of its 39 episodes, none could be considered anywhere close to bad, and when it was at its best, it was a show on the same level, writing and acting-wise, as fellow HBO titans like The Sopranos and The Wire.

Principally, Succession is about Logan Roy (Brian Cox), the aging head of a media empire who torments his children and the people who work for him, many of whom hope they might be next in line to run the company once he steps down. It’s more about the delusions of people thinking they might be successors, and their funny (and sometimes tragic) attempts to establish killer instinct, rather than being about a more serious or even-handed conflict. That’s all to say that it works as both a comedy and drama series, and delivered numerous excellent episodes, with the following standing out to a particularly great extent.

10

“Safe Room”

Season 2, Episode 4

There aren’t really any episodes of Succession that feel entirely devoid of humor, at least before the fairly heavy fourth season, with Season 2’s “Safe Room” being particularly packed with dark comedy. The most explosive part of the episode involves a security scare at Waystar’s main office, which sends Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) and Greg (Nicholas Braun) into both a panic and a pretty flimsy safe room.

Any time Tom and Greg get to share the spotlight, hilarious dialogue ensues, but “Safe Room” also has Connor (Alan Ruck) giving a hilariously neutral eulogy at a controversial figure’s funeral, and finds further room for Roman (Kieran Culkin) to do his thing at a management training program. But the stuff centered around Kendall (Jeremy Strong) is, at this stage in the season, much heavier, and the episode as a whole ends on a particularly bleak and haunting note.

9

“DC”

Season 2, Episode 9

Jumping ahead a little further into Season 2, “DC” is the penultimate episode of said season, and involves numerous characters having to testify before Congress. Tom is particularly out of his depth when doing so, but he does admittedly fare a little better than Greg, who, at the start of Season 2’s finale, drops the iconic: “If it is to be said, so it be. So it is.”

More drama-heavy and harrowing, though, is the part of “DC” that follows Shiv (Sarah Snook), who passes the point of no return here, morally speaking, after spending most of Succession‘s first two seasons as the Roy family member with the closest thing to a moral compass. Shiv talks a key witness out of testifying in another matter and disclosing information that would hurt the Roy family’s empire, and going against what you’d think Season 1 Shiv would’ve stood for. But such is the pull of trying to please Logan, as he can get pretty much anyone to do pretty much anything.

8

“Which Side Are You On?”

Season 1, Episode 6

Even though the first half of Succession‘s first season is strong (and indeed better than some give it credit for), it took a handful of episodes before it delivered an absolutely perfect hour of television. It took its time and built toward “Which Side Are You On?,” the sixth episode of the season, which was that knockout episode; the one that would make even those on the fence about Episodes 1 to 5 fall on Succession‘s side.

It’s a Kendall-heavy episode, as he tries to pull off a vote of no confidence to dethrone his father, essentially. Given there are 33 episodes that follow “Which Side Are You On?,” it’s pretty much a given that Kendall won’t succeed, but that doesn’t stop the episode from being remarkably intense. It elevates the already strong dramatic core of Succession to new heights, and from this point on, things don’t really slow down until the series finale several years later.

7

“America Decides”

Season 4, Episode 8

As you might expect from a final batch of episodes, Season 4 of Succession has a lot going on, and pretty much every episode is defined by one huge event that most other seasons of the show would have to save for a season finale. The third-to-last episode, “America Decides,” is about Waystar’s role in a particularly chaotic election, showing the surprising influence they have over a purportedly democratic process.

Once again, like with what happened in Shiv’s scenes during “DC,” it comes back to money and power, being able to get people just about anything, including, if they want, their President of choice. Maybe it’s not realistic exactly how all that goes down in “America Decides,” but it’s still unsettling and feels like it might have some degree of truth to it, which, in turn, makes this one of the more harrowing episodes of the show.

6

“Church and State”

Season 4, Episode 9

The non-stop nature of Succession’s fourth season continues, following “America Decides,” with the penultimate episode, “Church and State,” being centered on Logan’s funeral. He died earlier in the season, somehow out of nowhere, even though his death at some point during Season 4 felt inevitable. It was all in the title, really. There did need to be some kind of succession at some point.

But with all the other things going on, “Church and State” isn’t just about the funeral that was some time coming, since there’s a great deal of planning here by various characters ahead of the series finale. “Church and State” feels like a perfect penultimate episode, though, as there’s a good deal of closure and finality here, but also, it devotes quite a lot of time to setting up further payoffs and revelations to come in the even-better series finale.

5

“All the Bells Say”

Season 3, Episode 9

Not just a highlight of Succession, but also one of the highest-rated episodes of any HBO show, “All the Bells Say” is a perfect ending to a slower yet still essential third season. Calling it the “weakest” season of Succession feels a bit weird, even if it’s true, since this remains better than 99% of everything else on television, and, yeah, you can’t overlook something as good as “All the Bells Say.”

This episode comes agonizingly close to feeling triumphant, with the Roy children banding together more than before and feeling as though they have what it takes to take their father down… but no. Logan twists the knife again. He is ready, he – so long as he’s breathing – remains impossible to defeat. You’d think such an outcome wouldn’t be devastating at this point in the show, but no. Here, it really does sting, and the defeat – though frustrating – makes sense.

4

“This Is Not for Tears”

Season 2, Episode 10

“This Is Not for Tears” has a couple of Succession’s most frequently cringe-inducing characters bite back, and score some rather surprising victories in the process. As a season finale, it goes big, and is probably the most triumphant ending to a season of the show, even if the steps taken by Kendall here in a staggering final scene don’t amount to as much as he was hoping for come Season 3.

Season 2 had Kendall particularly crushed under the weight of his father, thanks to the events of Season 1’s finale (more on that in a bit). “This Is Not for Tears” is about choosing someone to go down with the ship, legally speaking (and much of it takes place on a yacht), but when Kendall’s selected, he says “nope,” and then there you have it: the main conflict for Season 3. Also, Tom eats Logan’s chicken.

3

“Nobody Is Ever Missing”

Season 1, Episode 10

Jumping from Season 2’s finale to Season 1’s now, “Nobody Is Ever Missing” features perhaps the most important death of the series prior to Logan’s in the final season: a relatively minor character who’s a waiter who goes by Doddy (Tom Morley). Kendall’s responsible for his death, even though it was due to reckless behavior rather than malice, which sends Kendall crawling back to his father, begging him to handle the fallout.

It’s a sucker punch of an episode, and even more than the first season’s sixth episode, drives home the idea that Succession, while funny, is also something of a modern-day tragedy with a supremely tyrannical and controlling character at its center. The events of this episode, particularly regarding Kendall and Logan, have ramifications for the entirety of Season 2, driving home perfectly just why Kendall goes on to spend about a quarter of the series in a depressed, dejected, and pitiful slump.

2

“Connor’s Wedding”

Season 4, Episode 3

In “Connor’s Wedding,” Succession‘s central monster dies, and it’s surprisingly tragic, owing to how abrupt it is, and how it impacts the characters who didn’t see it coming. Sure, Connor has a wedding here, but “Connor’s Wedding” is the “death of Logan” episode more than anything else. Previously, the fourth season of Succession had the siblings united against him, but when he dies suddenly, everything is upended.

“Connor’s Wedding” captures the chaos, shock, and cruelty of death as effectively as the comparable “The Body” from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It is a harrowing episode, and remarkable for how it manages to be moving, even though the death here is of someone devoid of sympathetic qualities. One might worry about the show going forward without Brian Cox, but thankfully, Season 4 still has a lot left to offer, even without that towering character.

1

“With Open Eyes”

Season 4, Episode 10

Like The Wire before it, Succession ends perfectly. “With Open Eyes” might not give you what you want, and the events of the episode certainly don’t give all the characters what they might’ve wanted, but the note the show ends on is fitting. It’s not necessarily predictable, but it is, in hindsight, an inevitable ending… and, hey, that’s how most classic tragedies wrap up, too. You don’t want something to happen, but you know it will, and then it does. And that’s life, sometimes.

That’s also “With Open Eyes.” It’s a great farewell to all the characters still standing at this point in the show, and it gives just enough information about them all to suggest how the rest of their lives will play out post-finale. It’s an intense final episode, a moving one (without ever being overly sentimental), and it still finds room to be funny at points, too. It’d be hard to ask for a better (or at least more appropriate) series finale to a show like Succession was.

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