‘Succession’: Roy Family Tensions Flare Under an Italian Sun in

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Succession, Season 3, Episode 8, “Chiantishire.”]

Fresh off the drama of Kendall’s (Jeremy Strong) birthday, Succession‘s latest episode, “Chiantishire,” turns its attention to another family gathering, this time overseas in Italy. Gearing up for their mother Caroline’s (Harriet Walter) birthday, unresolved tensions between the Roy family mingle with issues in their personal lives that could have lasting ramifications for the HBO hit.

Before trading in the corporate landscape for Italian villas though, the action of the episode picks up in New York where the Waystar board members are gathering for a meeting. But first, Logan (Brian Cox) takes it upon himself to reveal to Sandi (Hope Davis) and Stewie (Arian Moayed) that the company is planning to acquire Gojo from Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård).

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Feeling ambushed, the pair begin to panic a bit, and when Sandi asks where Shiv (Sarah Snook) is, it’s clear she’s looking for the female back-up she was promised when making the deal between their families in Episode 5’s shareholder meeting. A call from Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) to Shiv reveals that the sole Roy daughter has opted to call in sick, still bitter over Roman’s (Kieran Culkin) surpassing of her as Logan’s favorite business child.

And so conversations get underway in the boardroom with Logan observing from the outside and Shiv and Kendall phoning in. Not much later, Shiv and Tom join Roman on the jet that will take them overseas, and a conversation over their mother’s future husband is brought up. According to Roman, Peter Munion (Pip Torrens) is a businessman that has found his wealth in running nursing homes, a sector that Roman sees as a red flag.

Meanwhile, Kendall arrives in Italy separately with his kids and nanny in tow. Greeted by Caroline, he learns that she wants him to limit his exposure at certain events over the weekend as they attempt to avoid drama with Logan. When Kendall points out that his role at the wedding should trump Logan’s considering he’s her son, Caroline mentions that the request is on behalf of her husband-to-be who is all about the who’s who at his wedding.

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Next to arrive are Tom and Shiv as well as Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron) who brings along her talked-about beau, Laurie. Willa (Justine Lupe) is excited to be in Italy as she asks Connor (Alan Ruck) silly questions about whether or not he’s met a pope before, but he’s distracted by a question Politico is sending his way about Willa’s background.

Roman can’t wait to find Gerri as the guests begin to settle in, but he’s startled to see Laurie inside her room. She then goes on to make a specific request that Roman stop sending her dick pics, something that he’s apparently been doing for some time.

Looking for an outlet to unleash his energy upon, Roman decides to chat with his mother about Peter’s track record with nursing homes, but Caroline easily admits his future husband is no good. Despite Roman’s supposed concerns, Caroline makes the case that she can’t survive on the scraps of Logan forever, hence the motivation behind her nuptials.

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Kendall is still conducting business in regards to his public image, asking Comfry (Dasha Nekrasova) if there are any inquiries for interviews or other opportunities. She does mention that there are questions surrounding the supposed suicide of a caterer at his sister’s wedding, which viewers know wasn’t a suicide, but an accident Kendall was involved in. He asks Comfry to keep tabs on the situation in the meantime.

After leaving Kendall, Comfry seeks out Greg (Nicholas Braun) and even gives him a little peck before dashing off to make more phone calls. Tom and Shiv take notice of his progress, but after building up the courage to ask Comfry out, Greg can’t help but wonder if there’s any depth to her? In the meantime, he’s encouraged to flirt with one of the seemingly single wedding guests, but is quickly overstepped by Roman who scoops up the possible prospect for himself.

The relative calm is disrupted for the Roys when a social media post from Lukas reads, “Going to Macao, feeling lucky,” suggesting there are moves being made with GoJo. When Roman tries calling the businessman, he can’t seem to catch his attention.

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And hell continues to break loose when Connor appears to propose to Willa who isn’t enthralled to say yes, but smiles and nods for appearances, telling Connor she’ll need time to decide. Logan turns heads when he arrives with Marcia (Hiam Abbass) and Kerry (Zoe Winters) on either side of him as he engages Peter in conversation.

It seems that Peter is seeking political connections, but Kendall makes waves by approaching his estranged father only to be blocked by Roman. Kendall requests that his father join him for dinner to hash things out and put them to rest once and for all, hinting at a pivotal dinner to come.

Most of the guests head into town as the night carries on where the women gather for Caroline’s bachelorette celebration and Peter hits up the town with the guys. Shiv has a private convo with her mother about the impending marriage and Caroline makes a comment about how Shiv made the right choice to not have kids, something that hits Shiv in a negative way.

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Gerri manages to catch up with Roman and warns him that Logan isn’t happy about Matsson’s actions on social media and suggests that he try to fix it for the sake of the company. Roman thinks she’s panicking and makes some jokes about buddying up with Laurie behind her back but ultimately takes her words into consideration.

Back at the residence Kendall greets Logan for dinner and is horrified when his father uses his own child as a taste tester, suggesting that Kendall would try poisoning his own dad. Once the pair have a moment alone, Kendall levels with Logan and says he wants out of the firm, he’ll take the settlement Roman presented at his birthday along with a chunky asset, but Logan goes back on the original offer.

Angry, Kendall accuses Logan of being evil but is punished when his dad brings up the car accident that left a man dead due in part to Kendall. Logan tells his son he always tried cleaning up his messes and rhetorically asks “I’m a bad person?” The two men part ways as Logan exits the dinner, with no real progress made in their long-held grudge.

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When Shiv returns for the evening to her room, she tells Tom about her resolve to win over the company, outshine Roman, and have a baby. The exchange soon turns awkward as they hurl various forms of “dirty talk” at each other, including the fact that Shiv doesn’t love Tom. Connor is having his own challenges as he seeks out Willa for an update without any luck in securing an answer to his proposal.

Greg tries flirting with the girl he’d been eyeing earlier in the episode, only to be beaten once again by Roman. In the light of day, Tom isn’t feeling great about his private moment with Shiv the night before and he tries to understand what she meant by making the comment about not loving him. She tries to brush it off, claiming that it’s the way she talks, but Shiv’s not really convincing anyone. When he inquires about her baby planning, she brings up IVF as an option, claiming that it would allow them time to think about their family planning.

Roman jet sets to Macao to get in touch with Matsson who is open to a deal despite his concerning tweets, he just wants an equal role in the company. The question is if Waystar is willing to pay? The upside is relevancy for their conglomerate which is falling behind in terms of the constantly advancing markets, but then there’s power.

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Shiv, Tom, and Logan all show up at one of Waystar’s overseas offices to catch up with Roman who tells Gerri that Matsson is likely out considering his equality concession, but she isn’t so sure, as she encourages him to share the news with his family. When Logan agrees to take the deal, Gerri congratulates Roman and in response, he shoots off a dick pic asking her to dinner to celebrate. The catch? Roman sent it to the wrong phone as Logan is startled by the image now occupying his screen.

Angry, Logan exits the room and Shiv follows only to learn that Roman has just sent their father a photo of his genitalia. Shiv uses this to her advantage, suggesting that Roman is a risk to the company with that kind of behavior. Logan yells for his son and asks if he’s some kind of sicko. Roman tries telling Logan it’s no big deal when it most certainly is.

Logan begins to wonder if he’ll need to fire Gerri, but Roman talks him down from that ledge, as Shiv asks Gerri about the pics. Gerri won’t reveal whether she’s received the photos from Roman before, making it clear she’s not about to sell out the problematic Roy for Shiv’s benefit.

Back at the Italian estate, Kendall’s kids sit poolside as he floats in the center of the water. Clearly in a depressive state, they excuse themselves from the awkward silence and the episode concludes with Kendall slowly tipping his nose and mouth into the water hinting at a possible suicide attempt. Will Kendall’s metaphorical blood be on Logan’s hands? We hope not, but oh boy would it make for some even juicier drama as Succession heads into its Season 3 finale.

Succession, Season 3, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO

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