Succession’s latest episode “America Decides” finally saw the long-awaited presidential election come to fruition. Episode 8 manages to bejust as nail-biting as a real election. It was a long race between the Democrat Jimenez (Elliot Villar) and the Republican Mencken (Justin Kirk), and no Roy feels the same way about either of them.
The episode sees everyone gathering at Waystar Royco to oversee thepresidential election night proceedings. Things are going smoothly until an unprecedented attack hits a polling station in Wisconsin and causes a number of uncounted votes to go up in flames. The Roys are left squabbling among themselves about whether they should advocate for a fair recount and make sure every vote is accounted for or if they should use their current projections to prematurely call the state in favor of Mencken. Mencken, the right-wing extremist candidate who happens to be offering an alliance to the Roys that could destroy the Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) deal. When faced with the integrity of the republic or a useful business partnership, Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) made the business-minded decision.
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The Gang Does Election Fraud
The Roys, in all their wisdom, spend some time debating what to do, and we get to see everyone’s true colors shine through. Shiv (Sarah Snook), with her side of the Matsson deal in mind on top of her generally more democratic politics, is pulling for Jimenez. WhileRoman was fully in bed with Menckeneven before he’d agreed to help bust the Matsson deal. Kendall was trying to play middleman after his daughter was harassed by some Mencken supporters but ultimately ended up siding with his brother when Shiv’s position helping Matsson is exposed. Shiv puts up the appearance of at least being a champion of democracy, but Roman is downright villainous in his complete disregard for democratic practice, however shaky it may already be.
They’re presented with those two ways forward: calling for Mencken or calling for a recount. They chose Mencken and disregarded any warnings about what language to use or facts to give that could cover their decision when the election is, inevitably, taken to trial over the disregarded votes. They decided on the election from their boardroom with no actual idea of what the people wanted. It’sgrimly realisticwatching Shiv argue for the value of each vote (even facetiously) while we watch the actual election process take place as her brothers overrule her and assert what they want to be true. So long as elections can be called because of small changes in individual counties, relying on swing states to do all the heavy lifting, and disregarding millions of individual voices, we will be watching elections just likeSuccession’s continue to play out in real life.
America Doesn’t Decide
The Roys literally act in place of an electoral college here, calling and dictating a race over the voices of the people.And they wield that power just as terribly. Their ability to choose whether those votes in Wisconsin “count” is depressingly similar to how every election cycle votes carry uneven weight simply because they came from different area codes. Not every vote matters; it’s a few voices in a few distinct places that have the power to sway whole states from red to blue or vice versa. The number of electoral votes is almost arbitrary in comparison with the straightforward numbers of the popular vote. The electoral college is an archaic institution created because of a lack of faith in the intelligence of a voting populace centuries ago. And this episode shows just how infuriating it is. The popular vote holds no sway, the voice of the people can be spoken over by pundits and powerful people like the Roys who hold the cards to make these calls. But because they ignored the votes that went up in flames, ignored the historical data that suggests Wisconsin would have gone blue instead of red, and because they made the executive decision to do what would help their business they essentially helped to rig an election.
The title of the episode is pointedly ironic. “America Decides,” but it doesn’t. Three siblings in a boardroom decide. They make the unsubstantiated call to hand electoral votes to Mencken not just for the deal but to get back atShiv for working with Matsson behind their backs. And while this shows us one particularly messed up version of things, how is this truly different from most elections? We bite our nails hoping enough votes in the right counties can sway things. And we rely on people just like the Roys to tell us what will happen. We the people do not get to decide.
Basically, if the elections weren’t full of bogus restrictions like gerrymandered districts and the archaic electoral college, this never would’ve happened. But we live in a system that allows insane, pigheaded decisions like this to dictate our future. A news organization was able to sway an election. But due to the nature of what happened to those missing votes, an investigation is inevitable. This will not go unnoticed. And the Roys have decidedly put their paws close enough to warrant inspection.
The Potential Fallout From “America Decides”
The potential ramifications of this call are not lost on the Roys or the other Waystar Royco employees, but they’re willing to ignore it. The Roys have been through the court gauntlet before and the benefits they’d get from Mencken in the White House seem to outweigh, at least temporarily, any potential fallout. If it’s a choice of upholding the democratic process or dumpingMatsson, we already knew which one would win with the Roys — but by the end of the episode, we can already see the cracks starting to show. Tom’s (Matthew Macfadyen) judgment is being called into question, the decision being laid at his feet. It’s one thing to cover up crimes committed by a private business like Tom and Greg’s evidence destruction in Season 1; the information was able to be contained before outside forces could find out the truth. But an election is national business and will have independent government agencies working to find out the truth. Waystar doesn’t hold all the cards this time, and they don’t have Logan’s protection anymore.
It’s a decisive victory for Kendall and Roman for the moment but, like most of their decisions of late, it was extremely short-sighted. Like Roman firing various people,most notably Gerri(J. Smith Cameron), at will or Kendall taking risky big moves behind his siblings' backs, the power they have has made them feel invulnerable. Kendall and Roman are content to treat people like chess pieces because they feel too powerful to touch, but how long will this last for either of them? We seeKendall’s resolveto stick with this even as it further fractures his relationship with his kids. And other news sources are already starting coverage of ATN’s call. These events will draw eyes to look into the company — not just Tom, who made the call, but everyone involved in the election night proceedings. The effects of this will take months to come to fruition but disrupting our already broken democratic system may finally be enough to topple the Roys, even if it’s not enough to save the rest of us.
New episodes ofSuccession’s fourth and final season premiere Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.
