Is this third time lucky for Succession’s Kendall Roy?

So, how about those Roys? We’re just three episodes into Succession Season 3 and the drama has been relentless. We’ve waited two years for this, and the writers have not disappointed; in fact, if anything, they have raised their own bar. It’s not every day that a contemporary script includes the words “popinjay” and “meretricious” in the same sentence, thank you Grandpa Ewan (James Cromwell, who also gets to say “that’ll do … and if you don’t hear “pig” after that, well…)

At the end of Season 2, Kendall (Jeremy Strong) was about to take the fall for the sexual misconduct allegations at Waystar Royco’s cruise division – which was no secret within the company, by the way. In case you’ve forgotten, those papers that Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) made Greg (Nicholas Braun) destroy in Season 1 contained the evidence. And then Kendall said the little word that changed everything: “But…”

Instead, Kendall called out his brute of a father, Logan Roy (Brian Cox), naming him as “a malignant presence, a bully and a liar.” As Logan watched, a small smile played on his lips. The meaning behind that is anyone’s guess; it wasn’t necessarily that he was proud of his son for taking these actions. Kendall tried to take down his father twice in Season 1, both times unsuccessfully.

But … this time is different.

First of all, I’m surprised there hasn’t been more written about that fact Kendall – or Ken Doll, as I like to call him – is most likely bipolar and he’s in a manic phase. As an armchair therapist, it seems fairly obvious to me, especially when looking back to his previous episodes and big plans to oust Logan, followed by crushing lows. The drugs definitely don’t help.

(A real therapist of my close acquaintance confirms the diagnosis, adding that he “adopted some serious PTSD to go along with his Severe Substance Abuse Disorder in Season 2”.)

Armed with this thought, Season 3 is excruciatingly anxiety-inducing because all I’m waiting for is for Kendall to crack. That said, however, this is the first time we’ve seen Logan so utterly rattled and it’s quite delicious. Who’s going to blink first?

Episode 1 opens with a trio of helicopters reminiscent of the season premiere when the family flew off to play softball on Logan’s birthday, closely followed by his stroke. You need to know there is such tight economy in this show that nothing is accidental, everything is significant. For example: Shiv’s caller ID on her phone for Dad is a pic of Saddam Hussein.

While Logan is surrounded by almost everyone else – Tom, Shiv (Sarah Snook), Rome (Kieran Culkin, who, by the way, has the line about Ken to Logan, “He’s mentally ill, he’s insane”), Gerri (J Smith Cameron), Hugo (Fisher Stevens), Frank (Peter Friedman), Karl (David Rasche), oh, and Connor (Alan Ruck). Shame, he’s always an oversight, the first pancake, assigned to the least important job as everyone boards private jets.

Later, Connor tells Logan they had to fly “scheduled” which included movies and “heavily refrigerated cheeses”. Remember this moment, it will come up again later in the season, in a situation that is jaw-droppingly outrageous in its sheer privilege.

Kendall’s entourage includes goofy Greg, who is charged with monitoring social media – taking Ken’s cultural temperature, and Jess (Juliana Canfield). After descending on ex-wife Rava’s (Natalie Gold) apartment to “make a few calls”, he adds a real social media team and scores a coup with the hiring of hotshot attorney Lisa Arthur (Sanaa Lathan).

This matters because Logan wants her too, dispatching Shiv to make this happen, because the women have a friendship. At the same time, Logan makes Shiv CEO. It lasts about five minutes, until she fails with Lisa, and Gerri is instated. Poor Rome, he’s simply trying too hard and Logan’s scorn is barely concealed.

When Rome gloats over Shiv, she tells her driver “change of plan”, and she detours to Ken’s stronghold. There are a lot of phone calls back and forth, but before long, all the Roy children are in a room with Ken trying to convince them to join him. How it will affect Logan ranges from “he’ll be toast” to “it will kill him”. Highlights of this convo: Shiv to Rome – “Oh, you love showing your pee-pee to everybody, but some day you’re actually going to have to f**k something”, which is literal as well as figurative; and Rome: “yes, it’s a stretch. It’s a f**king scrotum over a timpani drum”.

In the end, they all ditch Kendall to go back to Logan, which is testament to the sway he holds over his children, despite a lifetime of emotional and mental abuse. When Connor is the first to leave, Kendall taunts him by saying “you’re not wanted” over and over. In the background, Rome comments, “as if he hasn’t heard that enough in his life”. It’s interesting that in this scene, Kendall’s behaviour towards his siblings mirrors Logan’s in tone and wording.

The third episode has much to do with the management of the media, and Kendall walking into the lion’s den (the Waystar Royco offices) to tackle things head-on in the wake of his brothers and sister turning their backs on him. He gets his revenge on Shiv when he sets up speakers to play Nirvana’s song Rape Me over her speech to the staff, about the allegations against the company.

She doesn’t take that lying down, though; although Rome and Connor refuse to get involved, Shiv writes an open letter to the press, basically saying that Kendall is demented and deranged on account of multiple personality issues, drug abuse, and delusions of grandeur. When he sees the letter shortly before appearing on a national talk show, he finds a dark corner to hide. Is this his breaking point?

We’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, episode 3 ends with the FBI raiding Waystar Royco HQ. “Tell them to f**k off!” says Logan in true Logan style. “Yeah, these are the ones who don’t f**k off,” retorts Gerri.

New episodes every Monday.