WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Succession!

Lukas Mattsson, CEO of Gojo in Succession, revealed some bizarre personal information to Shiv in season 4, episode 5. Mattsson, played by Alexander Skarsgård of The Northman, has proven to be a seedy, unreliable character in his dealings with Logan Roy. However, he has undoubtedly reached an unforeseen level of strangeness after briefly interacting with Shiv. The Roy kids flew to Norway to test the cultural compatibility of Waystar and Gojo, attending the Swedish tech company's annual retreat just days after their mogul father passed away. It's the first opportunity for Roman and Kendall to demonstrate what type of CEOs they will be in Logan's wake and how they will handle an unpredictable force such as Mattsson.

Mattsson seems genuine and laid back on the surface, but the additional scenes featuring him show he is far from a typical person. He gave Shiv, Roman, and Kendall virtually no time to mourn for their father, leaving Connor back home to plan Logan's funeral. Mattsson aimed to strike at their most vulnerable moment to get the deal done as quickly as possible but was met with reluctance from Kendall and Roman to hand Waystar over so readily. Once Waystar's current CEOs met his manipulative tactics with resistance, he started making moves around them to secure the deal, one involving Shiv and a disturbing story about the frozen liters of his blood.

Mattsson Was Testing Shiv's Trust

Mattsson was not hitting it off with Kendall and Roman, who failed to build rapport with Mattsson and conduct a deal that would satisfy both parties. So Mattsson began approaching Shiv for the scoop on Kendall and Roman's stance on the deal, which at first Shiv went along with, urging Mattsson to bump up the stock price from the $140 per share range to get what he wanted. Shiv is the only descendant of Logan that Mattsson finds common ground and even goes so far as to compare her to Logan after calling her brothers an embarrassment and nothing more than a "tribute band."

In a strange turn of events that started as flirtatious and ended up just plain disturbing, Mattsson told Shiv that he had a dilemma with one of his coworkers, Ebba, with whom he was previously romantically involved. He had sent her liters of his blood, frozen as bricks, in some outrageous attempt to get her attention or demonstrate his devotion to her. No matter how it's explained, Mattsson's actions were incredibly frightening and made him vulnerable now that Shiv knows it. Even though Mattsson is intoxicated, he is strategic and mysterious enough to believe that he had intentionally told Shiv to test Shiv's trustworthiness and ability for handling sensitive information.

The Blood Story Could Be Made Up

It's possible that Mattsson could have been messing with Shiv by creating that bizarre, incriminating story about his blood to see how she'd react and what she'd do with the information. News of the entire meeting was already getting leaked to the press with reports that nobody was getting along, so Mattsson could have been probing Shiv to see whether she was involved in that. Since Kendall and Roman weren't giving him much to work with, Mattsson had to determine whether he could form a genuine alliance with any of the Roys after the Waystar deal. While Mattsson is a dangerous, untrustworthy person, he is also someone that would make a better friend than an enemy, especially once the agreement is finalized.

Telling Shiv the blood story is a win-win for Mattsson. He either forms a new loyalty with one of the Roys or exposes Shiv as someone he cannot depend on. Once the deal is finalized, he could fire Shiv immediately and make her look foolish if she decided to be a whistleblower and leak the story. If Shiv leaked the story, and it turned out to be false, then she would lose all her power and leverage. Even if it were true, the optics would make it difficult for Shiv to gain momentum. If she knew this about Mattsson, why would she allow her brothers to make a deal with him? Further, why would she do anything to compromise her financial position since half of her payout would be issued in Waystar/Gojo stock?

Mattsson Is Too Smart To Compromise Himself

Mattsson is a strange individual but also wildly cunning and deceitful. He presents as a regular, somewhat goofy, fun-loving guy when he is a cold-blooded wolf in sheep's clothing. It's implausible to think he would hand Shiv information that could ruin his career on the first day they met. Even if intoxicated, Mattsson's too smart to do something so idiotic. Ebba could even be in on it with Mattsson, who she is clearly loyal to despite the story's truthfulness. Ebba might have her own plan for revealing that information about Mattsson, and Shiv likely wouldn't interfere with that. Even though Mattsson told her, Shiv probably wouldn't want to get involved further.

Mattsson telling Shiv about his creepy bricks of blood stems from a hidden motivation to become closer to Shiv. Whether the story is made up or true, telling it to Shiv is a manipulative tactic to learn more about who she is and to form a close alliance potentially. Shiv would mutually benefit from this partnership since her CEO brothers have been increasingly cutting her out from Waystar's executive decisions. Shiv understands the power of an alliance with Mattsson and is the last of the Roys to fight from a moral stance. Mattsson might be the smartest in the room, but Shiv shares a Machiavellian trait with him that appears to set up an unlikely alliance in Succession.