Max’s original series Succession, season four episode eight entitled “America Decides” starts with Jeremy Strong’s Kendall Roy as he talks to the mother of his child due to her not feeling safe with the presidential election. In his mind, he feels responsible for her not feeling safe as result of his involvement in politics. All he wants is to make sure she and their daughter will not be harassed when it comes out that he will influence the electoral vote for president; ever since she told him that some kid pushed her in school due to the political backlash regarding her father. Meanwhile, Sarah Snook’s Shiv Roy plans to act out her plan with Alexander Skarsgard’s Lukas Matsson. The interesting part about this is how each of the Roy siblings has their own choice in the run for president as each candidate has promised a deal.
Additionally, the viewer sees Matthew Macfadyen’s Tom Wambsgans as he tries to deal with the stress of the electoral vote. This is a result of Kendall putting him in charge of the media coverage of the vote. Surprisingly, he ends up finding out about Shiv and Lukas’s alliance and wants nothing to do with her. Unfortunately, when they have an argument about this, she reveals that she is pregnant with his child. In his mind, he sees that this could be another one of her manipulations. Due to this, he does not believe her when she tells him. By the look on her face, the viewer can see that she is extremely hurt by his expression. Deep down he does want to believe her, it is just that a baby was not in his plans. Now he will have to make a choice between his riches or his child.
Towards the end of the episode, Kieran Culkin’s Roman Roy makes a dirty move to ensure that his and Kendall’s candidate remains in the lead. Ultimately, this leaves Shiv’s candidate out of the race. From the look on Kendall’s face, the viewer can see that he hates that he is slowly realizing that he is becoming like their father. This is interesting as he currently is making decisions based on what is best for himself instead of those he loves. A demonstration of this is how he wants his and Roman’s candidate to win at the cost of his daughter’s peaceful life. This is due to kids picking on her for what he is doing in the race. Now he is doing the same things as he is not doing anything to stop Roman and even going as far as to encourage him.
At the end of the episode, the viewer sees Shiv’s secret alliance with Lukas come out into the light. Upon hearing this, Kendall and Roman decide that she no longer is welcome to be a part of the company. The sad thing is there does not seem to be much of a change since they already did not include her before. However, now she is even more committed to taking them down as all she has now is absolute hate for them. In the end, Roman and Kendall’s candidate wins and becomes the next president. Unfortunately, in Kendall’s mind, he feels regret for what he has done. He knows that this will impact his daughter in a negative way at school.
Rating: 8.5/10