And finally they buried him. It took six episodes for Logan Roy to be buried, but he already rests in peace, in a peace that he has only found after his death and that has unleashed the final and definitive war between his family members. There they are, in the church, where the writers like nothing more than confining the Roys in a closed space and having them go from one huddle to another weaving alliances, plotting strategies, demanding loyalties, stabbing enemies. And a funeral is the perfect place for it because, as Kendall says, “the whole temple is full of fucking merchants.”
At the beginning of this ninth episode, aptly titled ‘Church and State’ and which, as usual in recent episodes, is a bit longer (the tenth and last one will last an hour and a half), we see how the atmosphere in the streets is in turmoil after Mencken’s electoral victory, despite the fact that a long legal process lies ahead before he can be confirmed in office. Meanwhile, the brothers take up positions before arriving at the funeral: Roman, confident and energetic, goes over his speech determined that his intervention at the funeral will definitely elevate him to the top of GoJo; Shiv schemes with Matsson so that Mencken does not cancel the purchase of the company; Kendall is willing to take custody of his children from his wife because she, alarmed at the street incidents, decides not to fire the patriarch. But we all know that her true and authentic intention is to take the children away from this toxic family.
The three brothers meet to go to the funeral by sharing a car. Shiv announces that she is pregnant, and what would be happy news for any other family, here is one more reason for Kendall to barely show some empathy and for Roman to make infectious jokes, with that foul and black humor with which he tries to face the world.
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A funeral is not only a perfect place to show the character of the characters, but also to promote a reunion. So the writers match up all of Logan’s ex-wives and lovers. And so Logan’s older brother, Ewan, reappears and, though they try to avoid him, gives an incendiary speech that begins with “What kind of people try to stop a brother from talking to protect his stock price?” The Roys, of course. And it is in that elegy that we learn about the resolution of a small mystery that has been discussed in several episodes of the series: what had happened to Rose, Logan’s little sister who died as a baby and with whose photo Logan wanted her to they will bury him The creature died of polio, and Logan was convinced it had been passed on by him, something he’d carried with an unbearable weight. But, after humanizing the beast by telling that fact from the past, Ewan returns to his old ways and draws a selfish, evil, dark, sinister, petty guy.
Roman is devastated after his uncle’s speech. His confidence breaks, he deflates; he sees his father inside the coffin and ends up breaking down. He’s still a little boy, and there’s no layer of black or crude humor here to help shield him from the world. He is incapable of speaking, of counteracting the effect of Ewan’s words, and that show of weakness knows that it will definitely keep him from becoming the CEO of GoJo, among other things because, despite the fact that his brothers support him, he knows that they will take advantage of that circumstance as an advantage. And so they do: Kendall takes the shops off the situation and delivers a magnificent elegy. He just turned the score around. Shiv, for her part, talks about how hard it was to be Logan Roy’s daughter.
Tom hasn’t made it to church on time. He remains at the ATM, since news about the riots does not stop happening, and he only appears at the subsequent banquet that takes place after Logan is buried in a mausoleum. In this banquet, the strategies resume: Connor, Ken, Greg and Kendall surround Mencken, each one trying to take their share of the cake, but it is Shiv who, with Matsson’s hand, rescues Mencken and offers him the possibility of naming to an American CEO to make Matsson’s purchase of the company feasible. As she could not be otherwise, she is the one who is running for office. Kendall and Roman suspect this, and agree to go to the board of directors to take direct action against Shiv.
Meanwhile, another display of magnificent performances through eerie silences, moist eyes, more or less contained emotions and lacerating dialogues, such as the conversation between Shiv and his mother, between Shiv and Tom or between Kendall and Hugo: “You’ll be my dog, just that the leftovers from the table will be millions ». “Wow, wow,” Hugo replies.
There is still the final blow: Roman, unable to bear that Kendall blames him for his performance during the funeral and the fact that he has not been able to close his deal with Mencken, goes out into the street, which is blocked by protesters. . He insults them from the other side of a fence that separates him from those he so despises, he jumps over the fence, gets into the melee, confronts them, continues to insult them. Deep down, he wants to be punished for his mistakes. We will see who punishes whom, who throws the (other) merchants out of the temple and manages to sit on the throne of Saint Peter. Or Logan Roy.
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