Succession: Roy family feud directly impacts election night as Kendall, Roman and Shiv face off

The Roy family preside over conservative news network ATN on a controversial election night in the new episode of the Emmy-winning HBO series Sunday.

The new episode – entitled America Decides, the eighth edition in the show’s final season – follows last week’s New York City election eve party which saw showdowns between Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) and Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgard), as well as Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) and Shiv Roy (Sarah Snook).

Sunday’s episode focused on the ongoings at the network amid the race between Democratic candidate Daniel Jiménez (Elliot Villar), Republican nominee Jeryd Mencken (Justin Kirk) and independent candidate Connor Roy (Alan Ruck).

The episode – which happens within days of the death of  Roy patriarch Logan Roy (Brian Cox) – began with Tom and Greg Hirsch (Nicholas Braun) in the ATN office scrambling to keep up, as Tom is seen checking in with Kendall and other coworkers in the newsroom.

Greg revealed to Tom he spent the night partying with Mattson and his crew, and asked Tom if he was aware that Shiv and Matsson have a business alliance arrangement.

News director Darwin tells the ATN newsroom that the early indicators from exit polls is that Jimenez is winning.

Shiv, Kendall and Roman (Kieran Culkin) discuss how they have been in touch with both campaigns, with Roman telling his sister, ‘My team’s playing your team – it’s only spicy cause if my team wins they’re gonna shoot your team.’

Shiv and Roman argue about politically-charged incidents across the nation on the tense day.

Shiv and Mattson talk about strategizing for a Jimenez win, telling the eccentric GoJo CEO, ‘It’s good for democracy – and great for us’ as Mencken will squash Mattson’s attempted buyout of parent company Waystar-Royco at Roman’s behest.

While it was announced just before the season started that Season 4 would be the last, fans were quite shocked when Logan Roy was killed off in the third episode.

The shocking death came as Logan was trying to finalize the merger, which resulted in the company’s stock price briefly plummeting. 

The family managed to get more out of Matsson than they had planned… though Kendall has had designs on tanking the deal, while Matsson has been getting closer to Shiv as well. 

Succession creator Jesse Armstrong first confirmed that Season 4 will be the end of the show in a wide-ranging interview with The New Yorker, where he was asked why he decided to confirm the final season before it debuted.

‘One, we could have said it as soon as I sort of decided, almost when we were writing it, which I think would be weird and perverse,’ Armstrong began.

‘We could have said it at the end of the season. I quite like that idea, creatively, because then the audience is just able to enjoy everything as it comes, without trying to figure things out, or perceiving things in a certain way once they know it’s the final season,’ he added.

‘But, also, the countervailing thought is that we don’t hide the ball very much on the show. I feel a responsibility to the viewership, and I personally wouldn’t like the feeling of, “Oh, that’s it, guys. That was the end.” I wouldn’t like that in a show. I think I would like to know it is coming to an end,’ he clarified.

He added, ‘And, also, there’s a bunch of prosaic things, like it might be weird for me and the cast as we do interviews. It’s pretty definitively the end, so then it just might be uncomfortable having to sort of dissemble like a politician for ages about it. Hopefully, the show is against bulls**t, and I wouldn’t like to be bulls****ing anyone when I was talking about it.’

Last stand? It’s the most important night in the career of Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) as he and assistant Greg Hirsch (Nicholas Braun) take in election results 

Strategizing: Waystar PR executive Hugo Baker (Fisher Stevens) looks to be up-to-date on the fast-moving night 

Snack time: Karl Muller (David Rasche) enjoys a bite amid the chaotic night in the Big Apple 

First look: Sunday’s episode brings about the onscreen debut of Democratic presidential candidate Daniel Jiménez (Elliot Villar), who headlines the ticket with Sen. Gil Eavis (Eric Bogosian)