‘Succession’ Season 1, Episode 5 ‘I Went To Market’ Recap: Thanksgiving [SPOILERS]

The fifth episode Succession, titled “I Went To The Market,” wasn’t just very intriguing, but very well done. It highlighted the Roy family’s gathering for Thanksgiving. It’s been established from the previous episodes that the Roy family is one of the most respected families due to their success with media conglomerate Waystar/Royco. Their family is the embodiment of business. But the question remains—is the respect inside the family really present?

Brothers by Blood, Enemies by Heart

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During the Thanksgiving celebration, Marcia (Hiam Abbass) invited Logan’s (Brian Cox) long-lost brother, Ewan (James Cromwell), to join. Little did we know that Logan and Ewan had a very rough past as brothers, leading them to hate each other. The brothers never got along ever since the Ewan set foot inside Logan’s house. Marcia was well aware of the rift between them, but she still chose to invite Ewan over, hoping that he will apologize for what he’s done over the years. Eventually, Logan’s Thanksgiving dinner ended up with both brothers fighting over each other’s successes and past. Ewan stormed out, with his last words to Greg (Nicholas Braun) being, “this whole family is a nest of vipers, they’ll wrap themselves around you, and they’ll suffocate you.”

Snake Bites

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With all the positive commotion about Logan staying CEO of Waystar/Royco, Kendall (Jeremy Strong) is the only one who’s not happy about it. During the early parts of “I Went to Market,” it was revealed that Logan isn’t in good shape to really run the company—showing signs of his illness in the office. There was an instance where Logan continued pouring coffee into his mug even though it was full. Roman (Kieran Culkin) and Frank (Peter Friedman) saw it all and eventually became the news bearer. With Kendall trying to prove his father’s incapacity as CEO, he used this reason to foil Logan’s plan of expanding Waystar/Royco to local TV.

Later in the episode, Kendall and Frank met up for a private meeting. Kendall drew his plans to get his father out of the scene, manipulating Frank’s loyalty to Logan. Frank didn’t like the idea of it but gave Kendall a chance. Kendall then plotted a vote of no confidence against his father.

Towards the end of the episode, Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron) emphasized to Kendall how much she loved Logan as a friend and as CEO of the company. Kendall acted innocent and agreed. But before Kendall could get away with anything, Gerri revealed that she knew about his plans and that Frank’s loyalty to Logan is rock-solid.

Doing the Dirty Work

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The past episodes of Succession showed Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) sitting on the high chair with Greg under him. During the last episode, titled “Sad Sack Wasp Trap,” Tom was left with a problem that puts the company’s name at risk. Scared and unsure about what to do, Tom had Greg do his dirty work. Of course, Greg’s innocence and cluelessness got the better of him, so he followed Tom’s orders to shred the confidential data about Wayster/Royco’s affairs. However, Greg then handed the shredded papers later in the episode to some suspicious people in a black van. Because of this, we might expect Tom to be in more trouble for the coming chapters.

‘Succession: I Went to Market’ Overall Verdict

“I Went to Market” brought more characters to the overall narrative and opened up profiles of each. One of the biggest surprises was that Roman had kids with Grace (Molly Griggs). Earlier in the episode, Logan was shown to have some long-brewing beef with his brother, Ewan. Marcia, on the other hand, had a son. The title for tonight’s episode of Succession also seemed a bit off, because there was only one scene where “I Went to Market” was indirectly referenced. Nonetheless, the drama was intense, and it showed us more reasons to see Logan as not-so-powerful after all.

Succession continues next Sunday, July 8th, with “Which Side Are You On?” at 10/9c on HBO.