"Connor's Wedding" is the third episode of the fourth season of the American satirical comedy-drama television series ''

Succession Succession is the act or process of following in order or sequence. Governance and politics *Order of succession, in politics, the ascension to power by one ruler, official, or monarch after the death, resignation, or removal from office of ...

'', and the 32nd episode overall. It was written by series creator

Jesse Armstrong Jesse David Armstrong (born 13 December 1970) is a British screenwriter and producer. Known for writing for a string of several critically acclaimed British comedy series as well as satirical dramas, he has received numerous accolades includin ...

and directed by

Mark Mylod Mark Mylod is an English director and executive producer of film and television. He began his career directing comedy shows such as ''Shooting Stars (British TV series), Shooting Stars'', ''The Fast Show'', and ''The Royle Family'', for which h ...

, and originally aired on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

on April 9, 2023. ''Succession'' centers on the Roy family, the owners of global media and entertainment conglomerate Waystar RoyCo, and their fight for control of the company amidst uncertainty about the health of the family's patriarch

Logan Logan may refer to: Places * Mount Logan (disambiguation) Australia * Logan (Queensland electoral district), an electoral district in the Queensland Legislative Assembly * Logan, Victoria, small locality near St. Arnaud * Logan City, local gove ...

( Brian Cox). The episode takes place during the wedding of Logan's eldest child Connor (

Alan Ruck Alan Douglas Ruck (born July 1, 1956) is an American actor. He is known for portraying Cameron Frye in John Hughes' film '' Ferris Bueller's Day Off'' (1986), as well as television roles as Stuart Bondek on the ABC sitcom '' Spin City'' (1996� ...

) as things take a turn after Logan collapses while aboard a private jet. The episode does not depict Logan's illness or collapse, and is mostly told through the perspective of Logan's four children at the wedding as they gradually come to terms with the fact that their father is likely dead. "Connor's Wedding" received unanimous critical acclaim, with many calling it the best episode of the series, as well as one of the greatest television episodes of all time, with praise going to the writing, direction, and performances. In particular, the decision to kill off Logan early in the season, as well as depict his demise mostly off-screen to focus on the other characters' reactions to it, was applauded. Out of the twenty-seven

Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Owned and operated by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the P ...

nominations received by ''Succession'' for its fourth and final season, five were specifically for the episode, which won Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for Armstrong (giving him one win for each season) and Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for Mylod.

Plot

En route to Connor's wedding, Roman receives a call from Logan, whodespite having told Connor he would attend the weddingis about to board a plane with most of Waystar's management (except Gerri and Hugo) to meet with Matsson. Logan tells Roman to fire Gerri for mishandling the cruises scandal. While boarding the plane, Logan tells Tom that Cyd will also be fired. On arrival at the wedding yacht, Roman reluctantly gives Gerri the news. She responds with muted anger, believing that Roman's unwanted sexual advances towards her are responsible for her dismissal. Roman calls Logan and leaves an angry, expletive-laden voicemail expressing his frustration with Logan for manipulating him. Kendall and Shiv arrive on the yacht; Shiv, who is ignoring Tom's phone calls, is tasked by Kendall and Roman with telling Connor that Logan will not be attending the wedding. While Shiv is away, Roman gets a call from Tom revealing that Logan has suddenly become gravely ill and is receiving

CPR Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure used during cardiac or respiratory arrest that involves chest compressions, often combined with artificial ventilation, to preserve brain function and maintain circulation until sp ...

on the plane. Tom places his phone by Logan's ear to give the panicking Kendall and Roman a chance to say goodbye to their dying father. Kendall goes to find Shiv, and when he returns with her, Roman tells the two that Logan's heart has stopped and he is not breathing. Shiv immediately breaks down crying, but Roman tells her to speak to Logan in case he can still hear her. When asked for his honest opinion, Frank privately tells Kendall over the phone that he believes Logan has died. Meanwhile, senior executives on the plane plan a timeline for releasing the news of Logan's death, knowing that the news will impact the market significantly. Tom privately calls Greg to relay the news, and orders him to discreetly delete certain files on his computer and stick close to Cyd. Tom stresses to Greg the importance of keeping the news secret until the markets close, but asks him to make it known that Tom was by Logan's side when he died. He admits to Greg that he is "not okay" and cries after hanging up. As the realization that their father is dead begins to sink in, the siblings go to inform Connor, who is emotionally numb to the news and says he believes Logan never even liked him. Connor goes to see Willa to discuss calling off the wedding. Hugo and Gerri are briefed on the situation, and Hugo informs the grieving siblings that a statement on Logan's passing is being drafted by Karolina, but the siblings cannot agree on whether this is a good idea. Kendall asserts that their next actions must be unimpeachable, as whatever they do will form part of a historic narrative, and that their "freedom of movement" must be preserved. The siblings decide they will issue a statement themselves ahead of the board meeting the next day, during which the future of the company's leadership will be decided. Connor and Willa ultimately decide to continue with the wedding in front of just a handful of guests. The other siblings leave the boat and are flown out to

Teterboro Airport Teterboro Airport is a general aviation relief airport situated in the boroughs of Teterboro, Moonachie, and Hasbrouck Heights in Bergen County, New Jersey.

Production

"Connor's Wedding" was written by ''Succession'' creator and showrunner Jesse Armstrong and directed by Mark Mylod in his fourteenth episode for the series.

Writing

"Connor's Wedding" features the death of Logan Roy, an event alluded to since the beginning of the series; Armstrong felt there was a "promise in the title" of the series that Logan's life as character was finite, and that someone would have to succeed him. Armstrong initially planned to kill off the character in the first season itself, before reversing course and writing the rest of the series around the drama between Logan and his children. In killing off Logan early in the final season, Armstrong first raised the idea to Mylod as early as pre-production for the third season. Armstrong was keen not to place Logan's death at the end of the season, stressing the importance of depicting "how the death of someone significant rebounds around a family". Mylod felt that placing Logan's death at an unexpected point in the season created "great drama out of mundanity - you know, the inconvenience of it all." Armstrong was furthermore intent on portraying Logan's death off-screen, intending to "capture a feeling of death that people experience in the modern era, of separation of communication over phone and email". He elaborated that "people can be a bit adrift if you are in a different physical space from the drama of whatever is unfolding." Actor Brian Cox was pleased with Armstrong's decision to kill off Logan—and end the series—after four seasons, stating, "the problem with a lot of television, particularly American television, is it goes past its sell-by date." Cox was informed of his character's death by Armstrong prior to the start of production on the fourth season; Armstrong admitted to feeling regret over "the slightly personal feeling of oxnot being there all through the journey." Cox himself echoed these sentiments in a later interview, remarking, "I was fine with it ultimately, but I did feel a little bit rejected. (...) I felt a little bit like all the work I’ve done and finally I’m going to, you know, end up as an ear on a carpet of a plane." Mylod revealed that the series filmed "dummy" scenes with Cox in later episodes as a misdirection in order to maintain secrecy about Logan's death.

Filming

The majority of the episode was filmed onboard a yacht overlooking

New York Harbor New York Harbor is a bay that covers all of the Upper Bay. It is at the mouth of the Hudson River near the East River tidal estuary on the East Coast of the United States. New York Harbor is generally synonymous with Upper New York Bay, ...

; Mylod and Armstrong wanted the episode to be set in an area where it would be difficult for the characters to communicate, and Mylod felt the boat and its location were symbolic of the characters' emotional circumstances. He stated: "On the one hand, you have all the freedom of the water and the harbor and the great adventure of New York City out beyond. But at the same time, these characters are trapped in this little glass cage, in this VIP room, trapped in their grief and in their frustration of not being able to get the knowledge or comfort they seek. That, to me, was the perfect visual juxtaposition." For the sequence of the siblings learning of Logan's deatha 28-page scene in the scripta 30-minute

long take In filmmaking, a long take (also called a continuous take, continuous shot, or oner) is Shot (filmmaking), shot with a duration much longer than the conventional editing pace either of the film itself or of films in general. Significant camera mov ...

was filmed, though it was not presented that way in the finished episode. Since the series is shot on 35 mm film, a format with reels that only last 10 minutes, an "extraordinary ballet between the cast and the camera crew" had to be performed in order to accomplish the unbroken take. According to Mylod, camera operators concealed

camera magazine A camera magazine is a light-tight chamber or pair of chambers designed to hold film and move motion picture film stock before and after it has been exposed in the camera. In most movie cameras, the magazine is a removable piece of equipment. ...

s across the set, and kept a third camera body behind a door, to ensure that at least one camera was always running and the other camera was running to be quickly re-loaded. The actors were given considerable freedom and little stage direction while performing the sequence; for the scene where Kendall looks for Shiv,

Jeremy Strong Jeremy Strong (born December 25, 1978) is an American actor. Known for his intense method acting style in roles across both stage and screen, he has received various accolades, including a Tony Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Golden Glo ...

was not told where to find his co-star

Sarah Snook Sarah Ruth Snook (; born 1 December 1987) is an Australian actress. List of awards and nominations received by Sarah Snook, Her accolades include a Primetime Emmy Award, a Tony Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Laurence Olivier Award. A gr ...

, and remained in character while genuinely searching for her amidst the crowd of extras. For the scenes aboard Logan's private company jet,

Matthew Macfadyen David Matthew Macfadyen (; born 17 October 1974) is an English actor. Known for his performances on stage and screen, he Breakthrough role, gained prominence for his role as Mr. Darcy in Joe Wright's ''Pride & Prejudice (2005 film), Pride & Prej ...

called in from his home in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

to perform Tom's lines to the siblings over the phone, while his scenes as Tom inside the plane were filmed on a soundstage. Mylod considered preserving the entire long take of the siblings aboard the yacht without cutting to the plane, but found Macfadyen's performance "so damn compelling" that he decided to intercut between the yacht and the plane for the final edit. For the shot depicting an unconscious Logan receiving chest compressions, a stunt double was used, with Cox's head digitally composited over the shot in post-production. Mylod was hesitant to show Logan's corpse on camera, which he felt "cheap" and "tasteless", but ultimately decided that the "cruelest" and most fitting way to visually confirm Logan's death would be to juxtapose the shot with the "cozy fireside chat" of Shiv begging her father over the phone not to die. The hug between the siblings at the end of the episode was unscripted. Actress

Jamie Chung Jamie Jilynn Chung (born April 10, 1983) is an American actress and former reality television personality. She began her career in 2004 as a cast member on the MTV reality series '' The Real World: San Diego'' and subsequently through her appea ...

makes a brief cameo in the episode as Beth, Connor's wedding planner; she admitted later on in an interview that she took the role to keep her health insurance.

Reception

Ratings

Across all platforms, the episode was watched by 2.5 million viewers upon airing, making it the series' most-watched episode at the time, until the following week's " Honeymoon States" took over with 2.6 million viewers. The title was previously held by the season four premiere, "

The Munsters ''The Munsters'' is an American sitcom about the home life of a family of benign monsters that aired from 1964 to 1966 on CBS. The series stars Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster (Frankenstein's monster),Episodes referring to the fact that Herman is ...

". On linear television, the episode was watched by 0.609 million viewers, with an 18-49 rating of 0.13.

Critical reception

"Connor's Wedding" was universally acclaimed, with critics praising the performances of the central cast, Armstrong's script, Mylod's direction, and the series' surprise decision to kill off Logan early in the final season. On the review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, it holds an

approval rating An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll, is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of que ...

of 100% based on 28 reviews, with an average rating of 9.9/10. The website's critical consensus states, "The King is dead. Long live ''Succession''." William Hughes of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...

'' gave the episode an A, calling it "the payoff to four entire seasons of ''Succession''". He commended Mylod and Armstrong for "allow ngthe middle of this entire episode to devolve into mix of confusion, interspersed with moments of awful, crystal clarity". He also reserved high praise for the performances of

and

Kieran Culkin Kieran Kyle Culkin (born September 30, 1982) is an American actor. Known for portraying distasteful yet sympathetic characters across stage and screen, List of awards and nominations received by Kieran Culkin, his accolades include an Academy A ...

for "each giving portrayals of worlds now profoundly unmoored", singling out Culkin's as the "hardest-hitting". Scott Tobias of ''

Vulture A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to Nort ...

'' gave the episode 5 stars out of 5, calling Culkin "particularly devastating" and praising his performance in the episode for "quietly urningRoman into

James Dean James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931September 30, 1955) was an American actor. He became one of the most influential figures in Hollywood in the 1950s, despite a career that lasted only five years. His impact on cinema and popular culture was p ...

in '' East of Eden'' type, adding layers of melancholy and self-loathing to the expected arsenal of nasty put-downs and 'quirky sits.'" Noel Murray of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' praised the "absolutely harrowing" and "nerve-racking" middle sequence depicting the siblings reacting to Logan's death, and noted how the episode managed to include moments of dark comedy despite its dour tone. Murray further lauded

's performance for "wringing pathos from Connor's realization that neither the American voters nor his family really care about him", praising the "uncommonly touching" scene between him and Willa. Sophie Gilbert of ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...

'', who felt the series' "cyclical" premise had grown rigid in the previous season, applauded the series' decision to finally kill off Logan, feeling it allowed ''Succession'' to function "in a new mode, without Logan’s contaminating physical presence." Several critics praised Armstrong's decision to depict Logan's death off-camera. Gilbert felt it reaffirmed the character's humanity after several seasons establishing him as a larger-than-life presence, and called Strong, Snook and Culkin "extraordinary" in portraying the siblings' "chaotic shock". Judy Berman of ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' wrote of Logan's death, "It’s a fitting demise, because it captures the whole point of Logan as a character: he makes monstrous decisions from on high and then leaves everyone around him to cope with the consequences." Berman felt the episode "excels in detailing how each of the show’s true main characters receive and react to the news", and praised the "emotional turmoil" conveyed by Strong, Culkin and Snook throughout the episode. Carol Midgley of ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' wrote, "In making ogan'sending quick and clean, the writers have ensured we remember him as he was, ogreish to the last."

Alan Sepinwall Alan Sepinwall (born October 19, 1973) is an American television reviewer and writer. He spent 14 years as a columnist with ''The Star-Ledger'' in Newark until leaving the newspaper in 2010 to work for the entertainment news website HitFix. He ...

of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' described "Connor's Wedding" as "an episode that TV historians will be analyzing and praising for a long, long time." Sepinwall praised Strong, Culkin, and

for the "affecting" scene where Kendall and Roman first hear the news of Logan's ill health from Tom, while naming Shiv's reaction the episode's "most devastating and powerful moment", writing "it is extraordinary to watch Sarah Snook hold nothing back on that phone call scene." Sepinwall felt the episode lived up to the series' inherent promise of Logan's eventual death, writing, "Armstrong and company made sure the episode was able to meet the moment, in part by demonstrating how the Roy kids were not able to do the same." In 2024, ''Rolling Stone'' listed it as the 14th best TV episode of all time.

Accolades

TVLine ''TVLine'' is a website devoted to information, news, and spoilers of television programs. It covers various topics including the latest news on television, reviews, latest releases, and more. History In late 2010, ''Entertainment Weekly''s ...

'' named

"Performer of the Week" for the week of April 15, 2023, for her performance in the episode. The site praised Snook for "conveying how bewildering and surreal the initial moments of a loved one’s death can be", writing: "We felt emotionally spent (...) after that hour of television, but we also knew that we witnessed something very special, thanks in large part to Snook’s delicately crafted portrait of a child saying goodbye to a parent too soon."

received the

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series on its 75th edition for writing this episode.

, director, also received an accolade for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series that same night.

Impact on the Murdoch family succession

According to a December 2024 Nevada commissioner's report for the state's

probate court A probate court (sometimes called a surrogate court) is a court that has competence in a jurisdiction to deal with matters of probate and the administration of estates. In some jurisdictions, such courts may be referred to as orphans' courts o ...

in the disputed succession of Rupert Murdoch, the episode's depiction of the chaotic aftermath of Logan Roy's death in the episode prompted Murdoch's children to discuss their own public relations strategy for their father's death. Ultimately the discussions led to Elisabeth Murdoch's trust representative drafting a memorandum to create a plan to avoid a similar scenario from occurring in real life.

Notes

References

External links

"Connor's Wedding"
at

*
Official screenplay
{{Navboxes , title = Awards for "Connor's Wedding" , list = {{EmmyAward DirectingDrama {{EmmyAward DramaWriting 2023 American television episodes Succession (TV series) Television episodes directed by Mark Mylod Television episodes written by Jesse Armstrong Emmy Award–winning episodes