Trailer for The Heirs Season 4 (HBO MAX)
A year and a quarter have passed since "Everything the Bells Say", the ninth episode in the third season of "Heirs", probably the biggest in its history and one of the best seen on television in recent years.
It was an amalgamation of everything that made it so enjoyable and addictive: the war of all against all against a background of cold and alienated wealth, the oppressed rising up against their masters at the exact fateful moment and spectacular twists that led to the moment the series had been aiming for from the beginning: the dissolution of Roy's house.
Logan dispossessed his three children and closed the door, and now, for the first time, they must face it alone.
unite or perish.
"The Munster Family", the first episode of the fourth and final season, opens several months after that dramatic night.
The one that ended with Tom's hand on the shocked Shiv's shoulder, with a broken Roman and Kendall behind them and the one man who "never got knocked up", in Tom's words, as the big winner.
The merger with Gojo is closed.
Wistar-Royco, like the Fox empire on which it is based, is about to be spun off of all its media assets except the news division.
Shiv, Roman and Kendall will receive 5% of the sale amount, which they will not be able to influence after their mother betrayed them and changed the marriage agreement in which their consent was required to sell the company, in exchange for a piece of real estate.
Logan Roy, Heirs (Photo: HBO courtesy of yes)
It is not clear how much time has passed since Caroline's wedding night, but the series nevertheless drops some hints for us.
Kendall and Roman, and to a lesser extent Shiv, have spent the last few months putting together "The Century", a prestigious high-tech news venture that looks and feels as hollow and glum as its owners.
"The vaccine for the modern nausea of information equivalent to empty calories," announces the presentation to investors on the screen behind the brothers.
Opinion leaders from every field, from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to Michelin restaurants, who will throw concentrated and personalized "information snacks" at the subscribers.
Tiktok of news.
The product itself does not exist, of course, but the hype is already here, and with it naturally come the publicists, designers, branders, lobbyists and opportunists. , Roman and Kendall are busy with the visuals. They don't like the design versions they were sent. "I feel like we told you iconic, but you went for ironic," Roman says before closing the curtain on the participants of the design conversation he was conducting. Unlike his older brother and younger sister, he really Believes in this venture, or at least feels comfortable with it. Without conflicts and struggles, without the big shadow of the discouraging father, and with real freedom to fake success and radiate confidence that is not really based on anything.
This is a rare situation for the descendants of the Roy family, a mutual harmony that places them on the same side of the fence.
She brings out of them feelings and mutual affection that has always existed there under the mountains of protectiveness and cynicism.
Shiv kisses Roman when she walks into the room, Kendall is excited about doing business with his little brother.
Without the presence of both parents, who always sought to separate and rule them, they enjoy the moment but still do not allow themselves to relax.
Shiv continues to scrutinize the political system at the height of stormy presidential elections, preparing for herself the escape route from any trouble that may not come.
"You could find yourself on a shooting spree at Seven Eleven," she teases Kendall, "and your dick could get stuck in an artificial intelligence sucking machine," she fires at Roman, "I need to have options."
But the best option of all comes unintentionally.
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Heirs (photo: HBO courtesy of yes)
PGM is Logan Roy's unicorn, the deal he has been dreaming of completing for many years.
Wistar-Royko's rival media corporation vilifies him: the close-knit and saucy Pearce family, the one who looked down on him and his family when they hosted them at their estate in the second season, with their black reputation and valued business.
Her news network PGN leans more towards MSNBC than CNN: liberal, exclusive, identified with news achievements (in season two Nan Pierce boasted that the presence of the network cameras near the Berlin Wall caused the guards to behave with restraint towards civilians).
All this while ATN is making its fortune from a hodgepodge of conspiracy theories and arsonists, the kind that even Logan despised when he was sitting alone with himself.
We know of at least two previous attempts by Logan to acquire PGM, probably more.
In "The Hunt", the third episode of the second season, when Wistar-Royko is in the midst of a takeover attempt by Stewie and Sandy Ferns, Logan decides to go for the purchase of PGM in order to make the company too big to be taken over.
Jerry then mentions that "the last time we tried this, we were called cultural vandals and poison in the well of public discourse."
At the same meeting, Ray, one of the company's many "suit men", wonders, "Why does he (Logan) keep coming back to this? I want to understand."
That is, it is likely that there were additional attempts that we were not told about.
Keep an eye on politics.
Shiv (photo: HBO courtesy of yes)
But PGM of the second season, the proud company that stood up to the burst, ultimately refused Logan's big money, and stuck to values - is now in a completely different place.
Valued at the time at $20 billion, Logan's initial bid is now less than two-thirds.
The changes in the media market have also reached the Pierce family, who are beginning to understand the burden of maintaining an old and dying media industry.
Nan herself, as we report, was also hurt by the criticism leveled at the company from the left side of the political map, and decided to stop standing up to the outburst of her family members who had been interested in selling for a long time.
Why does Logan even need PGM now, 48 hours before the merger deal with Gojo closes?
This is the heart of the episode.
A lifetime of struggles, endless wars and hand-wringing ended when Logan became the ultimate winner: he sold his company just before its aging business died and crushed it from the inside, beat his ex-wife and children and left them out of the company.
It turns out that the presidential candidate he is interested in (and we can safely assume that he is not the Democratic candidate) is also on the right track to winning, which will create a direct connection for Logan to the Oval Office.
But this auspicious victory also left him alone as never before: surrounded by a group of flatterers that he despises, bored by the lack of a challenge after there is no longer an empire to manage, and mostly frustrated by the lack of a demon to focus on.
The Pierce family is the last demon.
Although much weaker than before, but still there.
She rose like snow, basing herself on the purity of her manners and the cleanliness of her hands.
Allegedly, Tom Al Shiv's confessional conversation seems too strange to be authentic.
It's a conversation that suits the old Tom, the one before the slave revolt, the trampling scope of Shiv who can't do an action without updating it.
It's been months since then and Tom has put them to good use, it seems: meeting with models and becoming Logan's lead contact in the deal with the Pierce family.
It doesn't seem logical that this man with his new and stable spine is so urgent to inform his soon-to-be ex-wife about a "social meeting" with Naomi Pierce.
Is Tom a double agent now, playing both sides, making sure he's never on the losing side again, outwitted by all his teachers?
It is very tempting to believe that it is.
His conversation with Logan, in which he gropes about the stability of his future in the company in case his marriage ends, is answered in a typical Logan way: "If we're okay, we're okay."
Nothing in this sentence is happy.
This tip leads Shiv down her conspiratorial mind.
The challenge in the balance of power between her and Tom, the one that allowed her to dominate and humiliate to protect herself from any possibility of dealing with honest feelings, is broken.
And here, Tom not only makes an alliance that tears her away from the family company, he also has an alleged affair with a handsome and powerful key woman in a media empire.
It's Kendall who comes to her senses first and discovers that another member of the family, Bane Pierce, was tagged on Instagram at Logan's birthday party.
And so, all of a sudden, "The Century" turns from a prestigious and disruptive venture, to Shiv's confession that it is "very exciting, but pretty bullshit."
The fun with the high-tech toy is not really a possibility for true self-determination for Roy's children, it mainly indicates how true everything that is said about them is.
PGN, on the other hand, is the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to kill two birds: to reinvent an established media empire in their image, one equal in value and power to Wistar-Royko, and of course to take Logan's dream deal.
But the discovery of the "competing bid" reveals that Tom wasn't the criminal mastermind here.
The shocked look on his face when he finds out that "the kids" want to fight for the Pierce family proves that he really meant to apologize to Shiv for a business meeting with another woman.
The love for her still pulsates in him, despite everything that has happened.
In the scene of the two of them together, she regains some of that control by refusing to sleep with him.
And yet, deep down, and even though she will deny it: Shiv regrets the end of this relationship.
meant to apologize.
Tom and Shiv (photo: screenshot, HBO)
Greg will no longer be the heir to the throne of Luxembourg, the countess apparently was not tempted to continue the relationship with him that seemed to be starting to sour at the end of the previous season.
But he doesn't waste time and rides the wave, which brings us back to the funniest duo in "The Heirs": Tom and Greg.
"The sick brothers", the nickname that makes even Tom shudder when said out loud, symbolizes the debauchery period of the two in the shadow of Logan.
Greg doesn't know the last name of Bridget, his weird date for Logan's birthday, but he doesn't plan on staying too long to find out.
She, for her part, manages to attract a lot of attention, and even ask for a selfie from Logan and stay alive.
"What's in her bag? Flats for the subway, her lunch bag?", Tom ingeniously pokes at Greg's mass date, then revels in the carelessness that led Greg to have an "intense rub" in Logan's camera-wired room.
Every moment with these two is pure bliss of confusion,
The one who enjoys it less is Logan, who escapes from his licked guests for a meal with Colin, the loyal bodyguard.
"You are my best friend," he tells him in one of the most touching texts of Logan's heart, and testifies to the alarming loneliness in which he found himself.
If there is nothing beyond this life, he muses out loud, then what does he really have left now?
Nothing tastes like it used to.
There is no one left to win, who to mock and despise, who to defeat.
But then comes the opportunity for competition, and here he returns for a moment to himself.
Rallying his men, facing threats, rowing again towards victory.
Only this time the victory does not come.
Too smart to fall into the trap.
Jerry (photo: HBO courtesy of yes)
"Hunt" from the second season is also the famous episode of "Boar on the Floor", the sadistic game in which Logan forced his men to crawl on the floor, snort like pigs and fight over hot dogs, when he suspected them of undermining the previous PGM acquisition deal.
So he called it "fun", and even this time the entertainment cruelty awakens in him in the face of the fear of an impending loss.
He demands that Frank, Carl, Jerry and Greg laugh at him, entertain him.
The first and second are too dry and boring, but innocent Greg gets to understand the price of entertainment when Logan reminds him who his father was.
Jerry is too smart to fall for this trap.
This wickedness is Logan's way of dealing with the storm inside him, the love for his children that never matured but also never disappeared.
In the secret of his heart, ever since Kendall's first attempt, Logan had hoped that they would be able to beat him, to prove to him that he deserved to be his successor.
Shiv and Roman also passed similar tests, only to fail again and again.
As Kendall wraps up the dramatic press conference that kicked off the second season, a slight smile appears on Logan's face.
This time it didn't end with a smile, but the slight insult he slaps in response: "Congratulations for saying the right number," indicates a small trickle of appreciation.
Finally worthy opponents, ones whose fight is worth his time.
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