Editor’s Note: This article contains major spoilers for Succession Season 4 Episode 6."If you think that's shallow, why don't you throw out all your stuff for love?" This line from the most recent episode of Succession, which proved to be one of its most revealing and riveting of the season thus far, was also the show at its most honest. While it had always been clear that the various characters were driven by money and the power it brings above all else, rarely would they speak about it so openly. Some of this is for the purpose of entertainment, as the constant trading of snarky barbs helps to make everything more biting, but these same layers also obscure just how shallow all of them are. It can't hide their emptiness from us as the audience, but they would persistently try to almost deceive themselves. That was why the scene about midway through this episode where Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) gave a short monologue to Shiv (Sarah Snook) away from everyone else was so flooring. While the season has had plenty of chaotic and explosive moments to chew on, this more subtle scene between two of the show’s best actors is satire at its absolute best.
After spending time estranged from each other with divorce seeming like the inevitable outcome, the last couple of episodes have seen Tom and Shiv’s relationship going through changes as they now begin to grow closer to each other once more. Complete with the duo literally biting each other, it is as if they are falling in love all over again. This culminates in a confessional scene where Tom frankly says what has been on his mind throughout their whole relationship. It wasn’t love or the thought of the future they would have together. No, more than anything else, it was money. While Shiv had been born into more wealth than most would ever make in a lifetime, Tom had come from more humble means. Rather than grant him some humility or understanding of how fundamentally exploitative this family is, he seems to fit right in with all of them. Now that he has gotten his hands on wealth of his own with the taste of power it provides, he has become just as cruel and callous as everyone else around him.
‘Succession’ Revealed Tom’s Shallowness More Than Ever Before
So what did it take for Tom to sell his soul and betray the woman that he loved? Fancy suits and watches. Though he initially says it was about his career, a humorous declaration if there ever was one considering how little he actually does and how it doesn’t seem as though he actually cares, he quickly specifies that it is the money it brings that matters most. It connects back to how, at the core of all of these characters, is greed. There are complexities to all of them as they are still people, with all their many flaws and fears bursting out, though it pales in comparison to this insatiable hunger for wealth. They will do everything they can to get it. No matter how much lying or cheating it takes, this is what gives their empty lives meaning. Even if they could just walk away with enough money to live multiple lifetimes in the height of luxury, this is still not enough as they can always get more. Tom could always have more suits to try on or watches to add to his collection. His admission of this, while not a surprise, was effective because of how brazen he was in saying it. It was him admitting what had been felt by his betrayal at the end of last season: no matter who wins, we all lose. If these people are willing to push their loved ones to the side for yet more money, truly nothing is off limits.
The closing punchline to this scene was Tom sarcastically saying that they go live in a trailer park together, something both he and Shiv begin to laugh hysterically at. Their almost crazed cackling is because they both know this to be an exaggeration with neither at risk of actually having to make such a choice. Deeper than that, it is also the laughter of recognition as they both are more naked before each other than ever before with their shallowness on full display. Tom uses that word openly with a shamelessness that makes the skin crawl. In an episode full of despicable behavior by all the characters, from abrupt firings to flippantly offensive tweets, this was the moment that felt the most chilling. Much of this came from both Macfadyen’s understated, yet unsettling performance, as Tom spoke without even a hint of compassion, and the reaction captured by Snook who showed how Shiv was thrilled by this conversation. Finally, after all this time, both of them are open about what it is that they really are interested in. May their relationships be damned, and their love cast aside as this is all about the money.
For the Roy Family, Money Is King
This scene was another one from a season that has increasingly grappled with how, when all the chips are down, all the characters are only out for accumulating more wealth no matter whether they will actually have anyone to share it with at the end. That the deceased patriarch Logan (Brian Cox) seemed to desperately want to connect with the children he had driven away before dying has been lost on all of them. There is no sympathy to be had for any of them, as they are all responsible for destroying their lives and those of countless others, though one wonders what it is all even for at a certain point.
It is unlikely there is enough money in the world for Tom to get enough watches to ever be truly satisfied, but he will still throw himself into the pursuit no matter how much gets left behind. That he has now spoken this aloud, establishing where his priorities will always be to the one person who shares in his greed, only makes it all the more spectacularly stomach-churning. No matter how silly Tom is as a manchild who married into a wealthy family with no discernible skills of his own, this only makes it all the more painfully sinister that he has sold everything else to cling to this status.
New episodes of Succession Season 4 premiere every Sunday on HBO and HBO Max.