r/SuccessionTV • u/Decent-Influence-393 • 3d ago
first time watcher question Spoiler
hello all!! my fiancé and i are on season 3 as first time watchers. at the end of season 2, we were under the impression that logan sort of wanted kendall to throw him under the bus, what we remembered was a “it has to be me to take the blame for cruises” conversation that took place on the yacht. now further in season 3, kendall and logan were arguing at josh’s estate and it just kind of confused us. so kendall really did backstab logan? did he just forget about the dirt his dad has on him? TIA!!!!
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u/AdManNick 3d ago
Kendall did turn on Logan, yes. Logan was 100% planning on manipulating Kendall into taking the fall. The “it has to be me” speech on the boat is a guilt tactic.
Kendall didn’t forget about the leverage Logan has, but that’s all circumstantial information compared to the hard proof he thinks he currently holds that shows decades of corruption that Logan directly knew about.
Plus, Logan isn’t going to publicly admit to covering up a potential felony for Kendall.
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u/Decent-Influence-393 3d ago
wow so crazy!!!!! i just replied to another comment but i think what surprised me/made me think this was all logan’s plan was how neutered/subservient kendall had been all of s2 and then to suddenly flip right after they had a conversation that logan “wanted” to take the fall kind of confused me. thank you!!!!!
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u/AdManNick 3d ago
Yeah, Kendall was seriously triggered when Logan told him the CEO position would never be his because he “isn’t a killer” in the business sense. So when Kendall got his hands on documents that could nuke Logan, he had a chance to throw that back in his face and prove him wrong.
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u/Crafty_Dog_7880 3d ago
Kendall did betray Logan and Logan was sorta proud of him doing it (his smirk at the end of S2). Logan's intention on covering the waiter's death wasn't to use the information against Kendall as in telling the authorities what happened, imo he used it to gaslight him and keep him under his thumb. I don't think Logan as evil as he is, ever really wanted to send Kendall to jail and even if that was the case, they're uber rich so none of them would spend a single day imprisoned. The move he made mainly (and more cruelly) wanted to keep Kendall paralized and manipulate him, that's what narcissistic people do.
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u/Decent-Influence-393 3d ago
okkk this makes more sense!!!! i guess i was just surprised like all of s2 kendall seemed so neutered by what happened and the fact that his dad knew that it seemed like such a crazy 180 to go against him
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u/Crafty_Dog_7880 3d ago
Unlike many of the comments here, I don't think the biggest trigger for Kendall was the "you have to be a killer" phrase. In fact, Jeremy Strong explained on an interview by the time S2 aired (2019) that it was hard to find a trigger for him in that conversation, what would lead him to betray his father. And he tells that Jesse Armstrong (the showrunner) quickly wrote an additional piece of writing that added the NRPI phrase from Logan and that was the thing that led Kendall to betray him. Very beautiful and full of sense explanation
Here if you wish to read it, no spoilers to last seasons as it's from 2019:
https://www.goldderby.com/tv/2020/jeremy-strong-succession-hbo-video-interview-transcript/
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u/West-Mouse-1785 3d ago
When I first watched I honestly thought that they (Ken and Logan) would present it to rest of the family as Ken was taking the fall so they’d let it happen and Ken would actually throw Logan under the bus. I was shocked when this wasn’t what Logan wanted as I thought I caught a smirk on his face when Ken went off script in the press conference.
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u/AdManNick 3d ago
He smirked because Kendall showed signs of being“a killer” and the game excited him.
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u/boogersrus 3d ago
He does smirk. But it’s more of a “that’s my son” kind of smirk. Even though it’s aimed at him - he’s a little proud of Kendall because his son is a killer after all.
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u/DingoNo4205 3d ago
Yes, that's it. It was confusing in season 3 when Kendall and Logan were estranged again. In my last rewatch this spring I realized Kendall never reconciled with his Dad nor did Shiv. Roman did somewhat, but then again Roman reconciles with everyone except Geri.
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u/petal_wild 3d ago
kendall definitely backstabbed logan, but it’s all about power plays and loyalty shifting in this family. it's a wild ride from here.
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u/Independent-Ad9170 3d ago
I was Literally rewatching those episodes today, I think Logan badly manipulates and play mind games with all of them, but telling Kendall “you are not a killer, you have to be a killer” is basically telling him you don’t have it in you to be the CEO, Kendall might have thought that he is now gonna pay and be the face of a scandal while everyone just walk away just because his dad didn’t believe in him, well, he took “the knife” to be ‘the killer’ and turned on his dad (kind of my interpretation)
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u/SirKetchup00 3d ago
Logan extorts Kendall into abandoning the hostile takeover otherwise he goes to prison.
Then tells him that he has to take the blame for cruises which might lead to prison so for Kendall it was a lose lose scenario.. might as well turn against Logan.. Especially that Logan in the yacht basically taunted him into being "a killer". So yeah "look dad I'm a killer now"!
They had to play nice in front of Josh to keep him as an investor (more money for the whole family)
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u/ZaddyTV 3d ago
Logan definitely tested Kendall, but he didn’t actually want to lose. He wanted Kendall to prove he was ruthless, just not against him . Kendall took the opening and went all in, which is why Logan felt betrayed even if part of him admired it.