Things came to a head on Sunday’s episode of “Succession,” the eighth installment of its fourth and final season. Portraying the political rise and Republican party presidential win of Jeryd Mencken on election night, the episode sees the four Roy children locking horns on how to best proceed with their reporting on ATN, with Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) in particular disagreeing on prematurely calling the election in Mencken’s favor.
Reflecting on the conflict in a post-episode HBO featurette video, Snook conceded that Shiv believes in democracy and doesn’t want a dictator to be president — but that still doesn’t make her a good person.
“At that point, I don’t think anyone wants Mencken to be president. Yes, Shiv is being clandestine about her intentions, but at the same time, that’s exactly what he’s doing,” she said of Roman. Shiv wanted all the votes to be counted and states to be called fairly before making the call. Roman, meanwhile, was more eager to make the news network’s call in favor of the far-right politician who’s in favor of their ongoing deal with GoJo, Mencken.
Per our official recap of the episode:
11 p.m. on the East Coast. Shiv’s told that under Wisconsin state law, the vote can’t be certified until the absentee ballots are counted. 100,000 of those are missing in Milwaukee. Mencken leads in the state without them. Shiv insists every vote must be counted. Roman makes a dismissive “Eh” face. He argues with her about whose “f—ks” burned the ballots.
“If Mencken wins it’s the end of the world!” Shiv genuinely feels.
“Jimenez won’t block the GoJo deal,” Roman counters. “So f—k the guy, right?”
“That’s not the thing,” Shiv asserts.
“He’s like, ‘I want Mencken to win so I can be top dog, I can be CEO, I can have the power,’” Snook said in the post-episode interview. “I was like, ‘Cool, that’s fine, except it’s Mencken. It’s Jaryd Mencken.’”
In this case, Shiv fighting to fall on the right side of history is merely circumstantial.
“It’s convenient that it’s an altruistic side of her,” Snook said, laughing. “I think, you know, let’s remember she’s not an altruist. But she does believe in democracy and, like, you know, dictators not being president.”
Watch HBO’s full “Succession” featurette in the video above.
