Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers from Season 4 Episode 5 of Succession.While Episode 5 of Jesse Armstrong's Succession was meant to revolve around the complicated business deal between Waystar Royco and Lukas Matsson's (Alexander Skarsgård) GoJo, it actually ended up shining a light on a more unspoken issue in the industry: the mistreatment of women in the corporate industry. While it's a bit sad that we're almost accustomed to how Shiv (Sarah Snook) has been treated in this series, a new face‚ Ebba (Eili Harboe), Matsson's head of communications, was able to remind us again of what women have to put up with on a regular basis at work.
Matsson Is Like Most Problematic Guys With Power
Though Matsson attempts—and almost succeeds—at coming off as a go-with-the-flow type of guy, his actions behind the façade reveal his true character. And the thing is, he's not even that great at hiding his darker undercurrents, which goes to show that he most likely doesn't even realize that there's anything wrong with his behavior, or he simply doesn't care.
In Season 4, Episode 5 of Succession, the Waystar Royco crew travels to Norway in order to meet with Matsson about their ongoing GoJo deal. There, we're introduced to Ebba, a fairly quiet woman who wants to carry on with her job, keep to herself, and not get caught up in all the antics that come along with working in this business.
Later on in the day of the big meeting, Shiv and Matsson have a conversation together by themselves, and in that conversation, Matsson asks her for some advice about a situation he's gotten himself into. Apparently, he decided to send a frozen brick of his own blood (half a liter, to be exact) to Ebba as a joke after they had broken up, and afterward, she "got a bit weirded out," you know, as one would after receiving half a liter of an ex's blood in the mail.
And if that wasn't already too much, he continued to send her his blood in the mail, as he puts it, "again and again and again," and now that he's finally realized that it's not coming off as whatever sort of joke he intended it to be, he can't figure out how to make things right. After referring to the whole thing as just a "complex situation" as opposed to what it really is, he decides to cut off Shiv from whatever advice she was about to give him and instead tells her that he'll deny everything and "call bullshit and just lawyer it out."
Matsson Doesn't Care That He's Done Something Wrong
The funny thing is, this isn't even an admission of guilt on Matsson's part: he's simply been caught (given that she has liters of his DNA) and is concerned about the fallout of his doings. He doesn't actually believe that what he did was wrong—he just knows that other people will think it's wrong.
Matsson represents too many men in power who feel that it's okay to treat women in this manner, and because they're in positions of power, their actions usually go fairly unchecked out of fear of job loss or other negative consequences. As a result of this, women have to show up at work every day and put up with being treated inappropriately by their higher-ups, which has serious consequences on many aspects of their lives, especially with regard to mental health.
The Glossed-Over Mistreatment of Shiv Roy
Listen, we've gotten to know Shiv pretty well over the last four seasons of Succession, and through all of her ups and downs over the years, the spotlight somehow never shifted to her constant mistreatment by her own family and business colleagues. Around Season 3 is when that treatment became a bit more evident, as she was essentially given a name-only position at Waystar because Logan (Brian Cox) felt she wasn't fit enough for the role. Instead, he gave the real power to Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron), whom he felt he could actually trust in the position of President of Domestic Operations.
Most recently with Season 4, Shiv's mistreatment has finally taken center stage now that Logan has passed away; given that a new CEO needed to be named, the cameras all turned to the siblings, though Shiv's name was never really up for consideration.
"Besides, I think two is cool, but three is a bit..." Kendall (Jeremy Strong) says about the number of CEOs that are deemed appropriate.
"Three is a bit wonky," Roman (Kieran Culkin) finally states.
Though Kendall and Roman assure Shiv that it's simply a "holding position" until things settle down and that she'll be included in all the decisions being made, things quickly take a turn once the Waystar team has to head out to Norway to meet with Matsson concerning their potential deal with GoJo. While there, Shiv is almost immediately cut out of the main meeting between her brothers and Matsson, which is a problem in and of itself. And if that wasn't enough, Matsson even says to Shiv, "Am I gonna get a lawsuit if I hug you?" as he attempted to figure out the best way to greet her upon arrival. Making a joke out of sexual harassment lawsuits is a pretty solid red flag about this guy, and it occurred within his first 30 seconds on screen in the episode.
Going back to the conversation between Shiv and Matsson where he made the whole blood brick reveal, he also began to flirt with Shiv towards the end of their talk. He tells her that he "likes her" and that she's "cool" after she's given him a ton of advice about the situation with Ebba.
"You're not judgy — you can take a joke. I like that," Matsson says.
And isn't that ironic—that after an entire conversation centered around how Ebba was uncomfortable with Matsson's blood delivery, he points out how he appreciates that Shiv can take a joke? In short, he's saying that she seems like the type of woman whom he can act inappropriately around and that the other people are the problem, not him. Isn't that ironic?