HBO's Succession is one of the hottest shows on television right now, taking its chunk of dominance from the cultural landscape and holding onto it proudly. This darkly satirical look at the inner workings of Waystar Royco, a media conglomerate run by the Roy family and led by cruel and terrifying patriarch Logan Roy, has captured the eyes of millions with its soapy drama and needle-sharp wit. Throughout its two seasons, there have been countless moments that left the audience shocked and stunned through the sheer gall of the story’s willingness to pull no punches. All anyone can ask is that the upcoming third season continue this trend.
Warning: spoilers for the first two seasons of Succession.
Roman at the Baseball Game
In Succession’s pilot, the family heads off to a…bonding exercise? This ill-advised excursion to a family softball game takes a turn when Kendall has to leave, vacating his spot on his team. Roman then fills Kendall’s spot with the young son of a nearby couple — clearly miles away from the .001% class that the Roy family lives in — and offers the kid a million dollars if he can hit a home run.
For a moment, the audience feels that the family might go easy on this eager child, but this is Succession, so they don’t. Roman then taunts the kid, ripping up a million dollar check in front of his face, and the kid returns to his family in tears. They’re offered a valuable watch…and a non-disclosure agreement in compensation for their troubles.
Connor's Run for President
If there was a single plot line on the show that just makes everything worse, it would be Connor’s ill-advised presidential campaign that consistently toes the line between a pipe dream and a reality. Connor’s always been a self-important, holier-than-thou sort of guy, but the longer he talks about being president, and the closer he gets to actually announcing it, the better his family starts to look in comparison. It’s a hilariously terrible idea, and one that never fails to confound the audience through Connor’s complete lack of self-awareness.
Logan Refusing to Name Shiv
When Logan promised Shiv the company, it seemed like one of Succession’s many threads were coming to a close. However, in the middle of the Pierce deal when Logan was demanded to name Shiv as his successor for the deal to go through, he refused. Tanking the deal and horrifically fracturing his relationship with the one child who seemed to actually like him, Logan’s refusal to publicly name Shiv despite his promise to her shocked and proved just how impulsive and cruel he can be.
Greg Holding on to the Files
When Tom told Greg to shred sensitive, incriminating documents in the first season, only for Greg to hold on to copies of said documents, it was easy to take him at face value, that he just wanted an insurance plan in case Tom betrayed him. But in Season 2, when the pair are burning the copies, and Greg, with Tom’s back turned, hastily grabs whichever files he can, it became clear that Greg the Egg had a lot more up his sleeve than he let on.
Boar on the Floor
‘Boar on the Floor’ is such a difficult moment of television to watch that all you can do is laugh. At a dinner party where Logan is trying to sniff out which of his closest is responsible for leaking information to a biographer — it’s Greg, because it’s always Greg — he demands the Egg, Tom, and Karl to crawl on the floor, oink like pigs, and beg for sausages held on a platter by a delighted Roman. As Logan says in this scene, “There are no f***ing rules," and the chaos of Succession comes to a head in this stomach-churning and bizarre scene.
Roman and Gerri's Relationship
Speaking of confusingly hard-to-watch scenes, a bombshell was dropped in Season 2, when a phone call between the displaced, sexually frustrated Roman and corporate surrogate mom Gerri turned into a very…humiliating phone sex session. This happens again later on in the season, with the implication that the audience hasn’t seen all the times these two have gone at it over the phone. This Oedipal element to Roman’s character is deeply disturbing, and one of the more concerning questions going into Season 3 is how this relationship will flourish and, inevitably, explode.
Rhea's Announcement and Exodus
For as quickly as Logan denounced naming Shiv when he didn’t want to, he just as quickly started planning his successor when the world started closing in on him. Convinced by his betrayed daughter to throw newcomer Rhea onto the sacrificial alter as the new CEO, Logan quickly makes the announcement, fracturing his relationship with Marcia and shocking the world. For a moment, Rhea feels like she’s won, but within an episode vacates the position, realizing she’s been a pawn to take the heat for Logan’s misdeeds, and that, shockingly, Logan Roy is not the honest, strong-willed person she thought he was.
"L to the O G"
Kendall Roy getting onstage in a baseball uniform and performing a rap dedicated to his father’s legacy may not be one of the more plot-heavy moments on this list, but in terms of shock and awe, few can come close. The beautifully cringe-inducing scene, with Jeremy Strong at the top of his shameless game, became a moment of meme-able glory in Succession’s online circles, and with good reason. It’s a bizarre, season-defining number that dares to stand out as not only one of the most shocking, but most memorable moments in the show’s history.
The Car Crash
As Succession’s first season started to wind down, with Kendall’s first plan to overthrow his father a disaster and his back-up plan just starting to form, the show’s de facto protagonist started to slide farther and farther back into his old, strung-out ways. At Tom and Shiv’s wedding, Kendall becomes friendly with a member of the wait staff, and the two, both very high, get in a car in pursuit of more drugs. A deer finds its way on the road, and then the car is in a river. Kendall surfaces, and the waiter does not. And in a single moment, everything is ruined, and Kendall would spend the entire next season wrestling with the guilt of the waiter’s death and the resulting cover-up.
"But"
There have been few moments of television as exhilarating and jaw-dropping as Kendall’s announcement at the end of Season 2. The scene begins setting Kendall up to take the fall for a myriad of harassment and mismanagement claims towards Waystar Royco, only for him to flip the script with a single “but” before launching into a public tirade against his father. Coming at the end of a season of Kendall’s wormy obedience, seeing the fire still in him is shocking to himself, the audience, and everyone around him…except his father — which makes the wait for Season 3 all the more grueling.