I am currently watching the third season of the HBO show Succession, and honestly it is incredible. I am really stressed out though. In this episode, the shareholder meeting is going on, but Logan suffers from a really bad UTI and so everyone on the team has to make sure he is okay. He forgets things, and also does stuff like calling Shiv "Marcia" and he also feels pain when he goes to the bathroom, and Tom has to make sure that he makes it back to the conference room okay. They are also negotiating a deal with Sandy Furness and Stewy Hosseini, and Sandy's daughter negotiates with the Roy family that they can have seats on the board if they give up their private jets. At first, I was like, What's the big deal if they have to give up their private jets, but then I realized it's because they pretty much go everywhere with the jets, especially to international places like Hungary and England.
I could feel the stress in that room when everyone was trying to rush and find a doctor for Logan, and it really stresses out Shiv because she was only focused on the deal with Sandy Furness's daughter and not on her ailing dad. It stressed out Roman when Shiv told the doctor to hurry up with checking her dad's pulse and his health, and finally Roman tells her angrily that she needs to calm down and right now just focus on taking care of their dad. There is a scene where Greg meets with his grandpa Ewan, and Ewan is angry that Greg didn't go with the attorney that he got him and went with someone else, and he tells Greg that he is giving Greg's part of the inheritance to Greenpeace. This crushes Greg's hopes and dreams because in an earlier episode, he is telling Connor that he is really pumped to be getting his $250 million inheritance, and Connor warns him about not getting his hopes up too quickly. Greg thinks it will be easy as pie, but after Ewan tells him he is giving away Greg's inheritance money, Greg gets upset and tells Tom he is going to sue Greenpeace.
There is another scene where Karl and Gerri are trying to hold down the fort during the shareholder meeting, but they fail miserably and they often have to stall because everyone is figuring out so many things at once: how to take care of Logan during his health crisis, whether or not they want to go through with the deal that Sandy Furness offered them, and also Kerry, Logan's assistant, tells them that the president of the United States is on the line and wants to speak to Logan. They argue over who in the room is qualified to take the call, and they end up letting Roman take the call. They tell him to not use swear words in the conversation, though, because Roman is known for using salty language and being sarcastic in arguments with his family. But Roman does his best to maintain his composure and not swear at the president so that he doesn't blow Waystar's reputation, but it turns out that the president is not running again next year and that leaves the family in very hot water.
Kendall also comes back to shake more things up at the shareholders meeting. While Karl is in the middle of making his speech, Kendall interrupts him and pushes him aside, and he tells the audience that he is starting a foundation to raise money for all of the victims of sexual abuse at Waystar Royco. This does not go down well, and very few people end up clapping in the audience. The Roy family members are embarrassed and angry, and Logan ends up having Kerry summon Kendall to a meeting with him but then blowing him off at the last minute. When Kendall tries to call him, Logan tells Kerry to block Kendall's number from his phone.
Logan is also not satisfied with the results of the shareholder meeting or the deal with Sandy Furness. When Shiv tells him to lighten up and celebrate a little, he gets angry with her and shouts at her to get away from him. Everyone in the room is really scared of Logan, and so during the celebratory toast, no one is laughing or making merry. Instead, there is silence. Also, Tom's marriage to Shiv seems to be going farther and farther down the toilet. After the deal is sealed, Tom approaches Shiv and wants to make out with her and tells her he is tracking her ovulation cycle because he is horny and wants her to bear children with him, but after a really exhausting interaction she tells him she is not interested and that she actually finds him tracking her ovulation cycles creepy and doesn't want him to do that. It was already stressful enough when Shiv had an affair with her ex-boyfriend, Nate, and Tom thought that after he got rid of Nate he would go back to having a normal loving marriage with Shiv. But she is so focused on work that she tells him to get over himself when he shares with her his anxieties about going to jail. He looks on prison blogs and thinks about how he is going to go to prison after testifying about the Cruises documents, but Shiv keeps telling him to get over it and that he might not go to jail.
I think seeing this episode from a Buddhist perspective kind of helped. In Buddhism we talk about the four sufferings of birth, aging, sickness and death. No one can escape these sufferings, no matter how much money they have or how much success. Even though Logan is this wealthy man with this huge fortune, he is getting compassion. and his health is failing. I don't know if I am reading too much into this, but there was a brief moment where I saw Tom bring out his Buddha nature when he is helping Logan in the bathroom. Logan has Tom escort him to the bathroom, but then Logan has a pain in his chest and is really struggling to breathe, and Tom makes sure that he gets back to the room okay. I understand he didn't really have a choice in helping this man, especially because he controls their inheritance and they wouldn't know what to do if he suddenly did, but I think for a brief moment, after seeing Tom early on bully Greg and act superior to other people, this brief moment showed me he brought out some of his compassion.
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