The Watch - Breaking Down ‘Succession’ S2E5 and the Genius of ‘The Righteous Gemstones,’ Plus: ‘It Chapter Two’ | The Watch

Episode Date: September 9, 2019

‘It Chapter Two’ is a three-hour time commitment that doesn’t really go anywhere (0:41). A Texas native tells us what ‘The Righteous Gemstones’ gets right about megachurches (6:46). Plus, breaking down ‘Succession’ S2E5, “Tern Haven” (19:31). Host: Chris Ryan Guests: Jason Concepcion and Jason Gallagher Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, this is Liz Kelly and welcome to the Ringer podcast network. Up on the Ringer.com this week, we've posted our streaming recommendations for the month of September, updated our 50 best superhero movies of all time list, and make sure to check out our Stephen King coverage by Ben Lindberg on the site and on the big picture podcast. On the sports side, our NFL experts are giving their predictions for the season, the storylines they're most excited about, and finalizing their rankings of the top 150 fantasy players of 2019. You can check it out on the Ringer.com. sports to have to clear the room. Stand up and walk now. Hello and welcome to The Watch.

My name is Chris Ryan. I am an editor at the ringer.com. And joining me in the studio, just some guy I play car pranks with. It's Jason Gallagher. Brother Pastor Chris. What's up, man? So Jason's here today.

I wanted to bring him in because I wanted to talk about Rache's Shempstons. Which I haven't really talked about since Jody Hill, Dana McBride, David and Gordon Green were on the pod. but right before the show premiered. And then today it was just announced that it was going to be coming back

for another season on HBO. So very cool news if you're a fan, which I am. So we'll get to that. Also in the second half of the show, we'll have the number one boys' audio, which is me and Jason Concepcion's succession after show talking about Turnhaven. Did you enjoy that episode?

Did you watch it yet? I have to be honest. I haven't watched it yet. Because I was out of the office during the screening and then I caught up on gemstones because I knew I'd be featured on the watch podcast. Well, because like if there's two things, you know about, it's comedy and God.

They do just call me God Guy. Or comedy God. Hey, God Guy. No, Jason has some personal experiences with megachurches, I guess is fair to say. But I also just think that he and I are very much on the same wavelength when it comes to McDaniel McBride shows.

I did want to talk briefly to you if you don't mind about Chapter 2. Because this is one of those ones where it made $185 million worldwide at the box. office, which is, I kind of have to imagine the folks at New Line are like, God damn, can we come up with an It chapter 3? Can we wake that clown up one more time? I went and saw it on Friday.

I did it in about the worst way possible, which is, you know, I had fully emotionally committed to going to see it on Friday. Then my wife was like, I don't want to see it tonight. And I had fully emotionally decommitted from seeing it. And then my wife was like, actually, I've perked up, let's go see It Chapter 2. And I did not buy back in. And so I went and it almost immediately, I think with the thing that you recognize with this movie and I'm not gonna, I guess I'm spoiling It Chapter 2 for people who haven't seen it, including you. Yeah. But the first thing you notice is that it's gonna be really long. And the reason why it's gonna be really long is because they essentially made like six little movies and just strung them together. Because they made

individual jams for every character. So they all get introduced over the course of about 45 minutes to an hour. They meet for one scene in a Chinese restaurant, which is pretty good. And then they all split up. There's nothing worse than them being like, we have to split up in one of these movies. And then their split up takes about an hour, hour and a half. And then they come back and fight the clown for like an hour. Is it kind of the same beat for each character? I mean, similarly, because that was my feeling towards it chapter one was it was just like a kid walks into a quiet room. Like did we need like however many kids? Could we just do this with three? I think that's sometimes like a problem with ensembles. I thought that the adult actors were

different enough. You know, Hater really goes for it in this movie. Good. James Ransom, who a lot of people remember from The Wire, was really good in it as Eddie. Chastain plays Bev. McAvoy, I feel like you get good

and bad McAvoy. I'm a McAvoy guy, but like, I think that you can get a bad McAvoy every once in a while. And this is one of them. Oh, wow. But the big thing for me is just that not only is it structurally just kind of taxing, but then there's

just the Stephen King of it all. And are you a Stephen King fan? Not really. I have to be honest. I'm here for... Did you read the books at all when you were kids? No, I didn't read any books. But I like...

You didn't read any books at all? I didn't read any Stephen King books. I wasn't a... You're like, Nell? It wasn't what they call a reader, so to speak. When I was younger. How do you even know how air quotes work if you read? I have no idea.

I would say that I was a sporadic Stephen King guy. not a huge one. Those books always seem super long, but obviously you can kind of crush them. Sure. I think I read Tommy Knockers. I think I read a couple other ones. But the funny thing is with Stephen King film adaptations of books that you haven't read,

you'll be watching the movie, and you'll be like, why did they put that in the movie? They have to have had a better idea for this. I wonder what they left out, what gems Stephen King had, and then you go to Wikipedia and you read the plot description, and you're like, wow, this is way worse. Yeah, I'm glad they left that out. Like there's a, do you know that an It, there's a turtle god that vomited up the universe that helps them?

No, I had no idea. And there's an orgy? I knew about the orgy scene because at the end of It Chapter 1, it's kind of when it takes place. And that's supposed to be when it takes place. That's how they get out of the. Because I remember thinking that, it's funny that you mentioned that. I remember thinking that scene, all the kids were like, they had that weird, they were kissing with blood on their hands. And I was like, well, this seems strange.

And then it's like the same thing. And I was like, actually, that was tame. the creep iceberg for that. So yeah, it just winds up being like, I think that these books are incredibly atmospheric and that on the surface you're just like, oh man, small town, Maine, indescribable evil, a bunch of people trying to figure it out.

This is so cool. And a lot of it has, like, if not set in the 80s, it has a certain, like, 80s feel to it. And then when it's in practice, there's a few things to iron out. You know, there's a few problems. Sure. Both structurally, plot-wise, and then also, like, ultimately, thematically, I think they're a little bit unsatisfying.

But I don't know what's going to happen now, because $185 million worldwide would suggest there's a lot of gold to mine there. Now, whether or not it's specifically this clown, or there's just, like, it's Stephen King's season. They can do, they'll do, like, an origin story, right? Or I guess they probably... I guess they could do an origin story. They could also just say, hey, the... It's back. You know what I mean?

Like, yeah. Or, I mean, because they made it. So instead of doing the book is 50s and 80s, and this is 80s and present day, I think. So it had some stranger things throwback appeal or like, it's like 89 or whatever in the book and they're playing Street Fighter and stuff like that. But they don't, you know,

they're not going to go into the future. So it would have to be maybe a prequel, you're right? Let's talk a little bit about Gemstones. Who? Tell me what you think of this show. Well, I love it. I mean, the phrase, who is this full? gets tossed around a lot and this show, specifically this show, is made for me as a product of

going to rather large churches. I would say that the church that I grew up going to was like a wannabe megachurch. To Texas. Yeah, to the degree that like we went and scouted mega churches a couple times. To see which one was right for you? Well, to see how they're doing like their youth groups and things like that. Okay. Wait, when you were in the church you were in, you guys would go around and be like, what are we missing out? Yeah, yeah. And so we went to like the one of the largest churches in Texas and all this stuff. And it's just like, it's absolutely insane. What's the largest church in Texas like?

Well, this one was in Irving, Texas. And it was literally like you walk through like turnstiles. And then I was a visitor. So they give you like a lanyard. And it just said visitor on the lanyard. And then they have like one of the most telling scenes. I don't remember what episode is from, but he's getting coffee from like the church coffee shop basically.

It was like Holy Grounds or something like that. And like that's very common. Like having a coffee shop, like a cool vibe within your church lobby is like super super, that's not even like mega church stuff. That's like middle of the ground church stuff. So I'm like, I love this show. I always thought, honestly, Danny McBride is literally the perfect human being with the perfect sensibilities to take on the megachurch.

Yeah. Because just nothing he does is subtle. And nothing megachurches do is subtle. And yeah, I don't know. For those who grew up in the church, and if you're like slightly creative, which sometimes I like to think that I am, you think like...

So does Kelvin. Yeah. But you'd like to, you think that, oh my God, the church should be like a Western or like space or like the forest or something like that. Like the church is actually like an untapped world that can just, like I could watch 50 church shows.

Every, from the megachurch all the way down to like the small town church politics of like will I be a deacon? Like there's so much ripe story to just be had. Yeah, I think that they've got something here that's really fun. I mean, so Jason alluded to this, but so if you're just sort of catching up,

righteous gemstones is obviously about a family called the gemstones, John Goodman's the father, Danny McBride, Adam Deviner, the sons, Edy Patterson is the daughter. There's a cast of characters kind of on the periphery, including most importantly, Walt and Goggins

as baby Billy Freeman, who is a sort of rural preacher related to the gemstones. He operates out of a Sears and he operates out of an old sears in a mall. And then there's a bunch of different things happening.

There's like a... The big thing is that this show slightly different than Vice Principles and Eastbound. All the Vice Principles had some of this stuff. This is more of like a caper. Yeah.

Like it feels a lot more like an Elmore Leonard novel. It feels a lot more like kind of idiots in trouble. Yeah. Whereas it's not, like a pure comedy, I would say. No. But it is very funny.

And when you ask, who's this for, what does this show need to exist? It transports me back to about a six or seven years ago time when it was like, this was the perfect replacement level show. And like this kind of thing being on, you were just like, man, this show is hilarious. Yeah. And I'm so glad it's on Sunday. What a great pairing with Succession. And I can just go into my week with a smile on my face. Yep. And it's like a great cap to like a full. football Sunday or something like that.

So I'm really happy. It's what I'm really happy it's going to get a second season. I want to talk to you about a couple of the different elements here. Let's go. In your experience, like, is the gaudiness of it appropriate? Like, is it, like, I don't think it's like, I don't care if it's realistic, but do you think, what do you think it is that they get right about the family? So I've known a few, like, a megachurch pastors in my day.

And I've never met one that has like a whole, like, you know, property where their entire family lives and all that stuff. Right. That's like kind of like a Roman palace. Yeah. But the sort of like, you know, the naming a ministry after your own name type thing, instead of calling it like something like, you know, faith church or something, they're just like, I'm going to put my name in there. And like, like, that sort of exuberant, like the last megachurch thing I went to, feature. like Ben Carson and Drew Brees. Like they were like the also the speakers that night. I'm not kidding. So yeah. So it was like and it was in a massive auditorium and a stadium style seating. What's this?

What's that? When was this? Had Breeze won a Super Bowl yet? Yeah, he had. This was, I went to this actually for like a work thing. Long story about my life there. But yeah, I think they get it pretty right. But it's also like, like obviously I think Danny McBride's super funny.

and all the stuff that he's getting himself into is just like, I just, I think his comedy is like so funny. But it's the subtle things like the Faith Factor shirt that Adam Devine wears is amazing. Like those are the subtle things that they get so right about like evangelical church culture. Like if you go to, there's a real famous like Kristen Church store called Mardelles. And if you walk in there and you look at the T-shirts, it's all like five to 10 year old pop. culture references, but they just replace it with like something, you know, Jesus or something. So like, it's like,

damn, book of Daniel. It's like, damn book of Daniel. Yeah. Exactly. And they just have it, like, when I saw that t-shirt, I was just like cracking up. And like the youth group culture stuff, hanging out at like a bounce house, which is like literally made for my five-year-old son, but like, it's like 15-year-olds? Yeah, this guy's like awesome at it or whatever. Like, that's all super, super accurate. I think even the stuff they get wrong, they get right, even like Keefe, you know, and Keith's old running mates in the Satanism underworld. So, like, there's this whole part from last night's episode where Keith is just, I think the episode opens.

Yeah. He's, like, walking through South Carolina, like, through, I guess, Charleston or somewhere, wherever they're, I mean, it's shot in Charleston. And he walks by a sports bar where a bunch of people are watching a Clemson basketball game. And then he's, like, walking down, like, the wrong side of the tracks and comes across a group of Satanists that he used to run with. And they're, like, What is like, Crypto Kyle is one of them?

Or like, I can't remember, but it was like, there's a bunch of Satanists. And they're like, hey, Keefe, like, come back and hang out with us. We're going to, like, party tonight. Right. And then their music is like from like the Matrix. It's like, it's like ministry or something. And it's like, so even when it's like, I don't know, this, like, this guy's dressed like he's in a black metal band, but they're listening to like industrial techno.

Yeah. It's so fucking funny. Yeah. What is it about McBride's comedy that you like so much? that it's big it's just always big and not just like in his jokes or whatever like half the time he's he's saying something and i'm like i'm pretty sure that's that's problematic in 2019 but i just don't care because he's so huge with his delivery and not and now him being given the gifts of like a large seemingly budget or whatever i mean he just even the directing style is massive like every episode contains some some huge scene or some car chase or something like that. Like in the pilot, the wide shot of him running over the female, like, I don't know, protagonist's antagonist, antagonist, who knows?

But I love that he plays these just like huge assholes and that you're, you're cheering for him, kind of, but like he's definitely the bad guy. Like, I was telling Kelly, I was like, Danny McBride is the villain of this show. But, like, I am cheering so hard for him. And, yeah, I don't know. I just think he's, I just think he's amazing. I'm looking for the next week's episode I'm really, really looking forward to

that this sort of their flashback episode it seems like. Jennifer Nettle is playing the mom. They're literally born to play this part. I cannot freaking wait to see her just crush it. With baby Billy, yeah. Oh my God, it's going to be amazing

because she already hosts like 15 CMT specials every year and she's already kind of that character anyways. It's like brilliant casting there. I like that the way that they've handled this ensemble this year where it's like it the humor is not entirely McBride to Penn. No. So Devine got kind of a lot of shine last night.

Gagin's got a lot of time the week before that. Eli Gemstone, who's the character McBride plays, is reliably like a doofus. Jesse. Jesse Jemstone is reliably a doofus in every scene. Right. But like he doesn't have to be in every one of them. No. And so it's even characters like Cassie Freeman who plays his wife Amber, like had a really

funny episode last night. So it's yeah, it's just like a really. funny, interesting show. I'm really, like, kind of into it. All the scenes with, when he gathers with his siblings, and then all the group of guys that he was doing cocaine with, every one of those types of scenes, I like, those are my favorite. When he, like, oh, when he's talking to Levi and Chad?

Yeah, and he just shits on them, and they give him, like, they gave him, like, a coin. He was like, I meant commemorative coins for our experience, and it just said we did it. Oh, my God. Like all of those scenes are so funny and, you know, McBride's so good. And to him to take on religion and it's just, it's everything I've ever wanted out of him. I honestly don't even know what he does.

What do you think some of like your more still religious friends would think of the show? I think they'd love it. Oh, yeah? Yeah. I mean, like, I don't, I have a lot of, I, like, still pretty good friends with pastors and stuff like that. I, you know, the mega church, I've kind of lost touch with. those folks, but in no means am I an anti-religious purser or anything. But I know one of my very good friends is a Lutheran pastor, and he watches righteous

him sons, and he loves it. That should be like they're what they put on the poster. One of Jason Gallagher's... No, just like your Lutheran pastor's friends, and you're like, I love it. Endorsed. I mean, he does, yeah. Because it's... The megachurch is obviously this, like, insane...

I mean, I'm sure, like, you could watch like a John Oliver segment on it, but it's this insane. mainly, I don't know, it feels corrupt. It takes advantage of people it feels like in a lot of ways. And for Danny McBride to be playing like a character high up and that is just like... And they've got like this setup where they're making it essentially like you can tell that like the Ocean's 11 part is coming. Oh yeah, I can't wait. And I don't know.

But the guys in Ocean's 11 are idiots. Yeah. And the people they're robbing are idiots too. So it's pretty funny. Yeah. McBride praying and just just him praying and quoting scripture is just amazing. the way that he does that and his prayer and in his house. And it was just like this beautiful montage.

And remember Goodman's like holding a snake? And then it's just like the doorbell rings and he's just like, the fuck. Like it just ends the prayer like that or whatever. And he just keeps saying things like, you are forgiven of my suspicions of you. It's so good. All right. So thank you, Jason. That's where it's gemstones.

Jason Concepcion and I are going to be on in the second half of this episode with the audio from our succession after show number one boys. We'll be back on Thursday, and I'll have a special show from kind of the set slash the surrounding area of Briar Patch. I'm going to go visit Andy tomorrow, New Mexico, and that should be a really fun one. Can't wait for that.

All right, thanks, guys. Today's episode of The Watch is brought to you by Kroger grocery stores. Did you know that one in eight Americans struggle with hunger, yet 40% of food produced in the U.S. gets thrown away. A lot of that food waste happens at home. When food waste is sent to landfills, greenhouse gases are released, so it's a problem for our planet, too.

But think about this. If we redirected just one third of the food we waste to people in need, we would more than cover the unmet food needs across the country while helping to protect our planet. That's what Kroger is doing through their Zero Hunger, Zero Waste Foundation. Last year alone, Kroger donated 325 million meals to local food banks, and they've got some great tips to help reduce food waste at home, too. It's all part of their goal to achieve zero hunger and zero waste by 2020. Check out Kroger.com slash ZHZW to learn more. That's Kroger.com slash ZHZW.

Welcome to number one boys. Yes. Succession After Show. This is Jason Concepcion. I am Chris Ryan. We are here to talk about Succession Season 2, Episode 5, Turnhaven. Oh, yeah. We're going to get right into buy and sell about this episode.

This is probably one of the more excruciating episodes of TV I've seen in a while, especially of Succession, even though there is another. episode of Succession where Kendall fucking kills a guy. That's how excruciating if dinner party was. We get into Buy or Sell and I am buying dinner parties. Amazing stuff at the dinner party. Incredible meeting of cultures, you know, like kind of the more left-leaning pierces. Liberal blue bloods. The more right-leaning Roy's. But with a lot more in common than I think they would like to admit. Yeah. And I think that that was the coolest thing about this dinner partner, usually with these reunion episodes, which were the backbone of season one.

you get all the Roy's together. This time it was all the Roy's were together. I think this is like the longest they've been together this season. All of them. Probably the first time they've been together like this since the family therapy session in season one. And then they have, so they all get together and they're getting together with the pierces

because the Waystar is looking to acquire PGN. And they're all confronted with their mirror image in some way or another. So Nan and Logan are kind of these heads of the families that are very full of bluster, but also probably have a couple of moves. Rea and Shiv are kind of these CEOs in the, you know, these sort of queens in the making.

Max and Connor are the curiosos who are just kind of on the outskirts of the family. And then Kendall and Naomi are in very many ways like the most human parts of the family, but also the most damaged. The troubled Sions, each with their leader of the family's ear in a certain

way. But the relationships are very different. Naomi has a lot of juice with Nan, as Reyes says. And Kendall has a lot of juice with... Apparently. With Logan. Okay, so let's see. Jason and I really want to talk about this one idea,

because I think this is one of the more ambiguous episodes of succession that we've seen. There's a lot of situations in this episode where you're like, I can't tell who knows what here. Right. So what was like an example of that that you saw? Well, I'm trying to figure out if Logan... chess moved this whole thing. Yes.

Right? So have Shiv come in because she would be attractive to the pierces, but also set everything up in such a way that they'd see that, oh, everybody here, even though it is kind of incompetent

except for Logan. Right. Have Kendall come in as, you know, the troubled addict in rehab to entrap Naomi, their own troubled addict in rehab.

Like, did he do that on purpose? I think he may have. So this goes about as wrong as it possibly could for the Roy family. He wants everybody to stay in their lane. He wants everybody to take a different member of the Pierce family and seduce them. He wants everybody to just play by the same playbook.

And then he just goes completely off the rails at dinner where Shiv jumps in front of the bus and says, I'm going to be the next CEO. Marcia starts popping off and drinking extra glasses of wine. Kendall essentially gets called out for being an active drug user by Naomi. Connor is, like, screaming about, like, fluoride at the other end of the table.

Roman is openly lying about reading? Yeah. Roman is making up author names. Are you a big reader? So it's going as bad as it possibly could. And on one hand, it seems like Logan is like, oh shit. But on the other hand, is that exactly what he expected? He's smart enough to know who he's. his family is. So if you invite them to this place, keep them all in the same room, put them under pressure and ply them with alcohol, it's almost like this is exactly what he wanted,

because obviously as we see at the end of the episode, he gets what he wants. Even the addition of Marsha, which they get into that TIF, which is shocking moment. But you could see that Nan was like, oh, well, he married this woman from Lebanon.

There's got to be some amount of depth to him that we don't understand. She says, you know, a man in your position might have taken a different kind of bride. It all seems designed to, on the one hand, seduce and on their

hand, show them that maybe Logan is the best option. But I can't, he may have had that in the back of his mind, but he seemed too legitimately upset when it all seemed like it was going to follow. It just seems like a guy this

smart wouldn't be like, I bet when I bring all these people to this party, they're just going to nail it. Because they're just incapable of doing that. Everything that we've seen from them before would suggest that there's just no way Roman can keep his shit together over the course of two nights. Right. You don't take Conard or something like this. Yes. And be like, talk to this guy from the Brookings Institute. Right? Yeah. And get him to change his vote from no to yes. So the other example that I saw of this show really like kind of being a little bit murky is what does Kendall though? Right. So Logan obviously has a side plan with Kendall where Kendall's supposed to arrive late, make it very clear what he's been up to. Kendall's like crunching

numbers and seems to be like got a job to do here. And then weirdly like he comes in, Reyes like we could really use someone like you. Like Reyes seems kind of interested in Kendall as like in terms of his mind. Yeah. And then Naomi and him obviously have like this like, like, almost chemical attraction, not to put too funny point on it. And then, so, but how much does Kendall know about what Logan's overall plan is? Because Kendall, Frank, and Logan are having these side meetings. So the show is really doing an interesting thing here because typically everything that the characters know is right in front of us.

And this time, like, there's stuff happening off screen that we're not aware of. I think that, I think Ken is, you know, we were talking off camera about why did the Pierce's cave, and it seems like they did cave at the end. And I think Ken crunching those numbers, much the same way with the Volter episode, he was able to perhaps uncover

the weakness of the Pierce position that's not obvious. They need that cash. They need the money. Yes, and it's ultimately they always knew it was going to be a matter of money and we're probably always prepared to pay 25. And the Shiv thing being like this deal breaker

was never really going to be a deal breaker. because he obviously, he and Jerry were expecting a phone call on that helicopter. So buying dinner parties, that's where we're at with buying and selling. What do you buy? I am going to buy Jerry again, who quietly had the best dinner party performance. I thought that line when Logan is like, well, Jerry is on the paperwork for being the CEO, but I think that even she would say that she can't handle it. and then her rejoinder of, well, maybe the second person.

I would be the second person to say that. I thought was perfect. And also this burgeoning relationship or whatever you want to call it with Roman, she's accruing power certainly that way. But there's also like a very strange warmth to it that I don't know at all how to describe. It's unlike, honestly, like, I kind of don't know what to say about this. Because you're like, this is hugely depraved and disturbing and also like maybe the most sincere, a very sincere expression of affection on this show.

Yeah, I mean, there's a, like, there's a vulnerability to Roman in these moments that is awful, but also is a, clearly the result of the awful way he was brought up. Yeah, and treated by probably Kendall and probably Logan and what, yeah. And him, you know, revealing that to Jerry is strangely heartwarming, even though it's absolutely depraved and wrong. It was wild how, like, this episode just, like, immediately revealed all of, like, the worst aspects of their personalities. Like, Connor is an absolute freak.

Roman, Roman definitely has, like, necrophilia fantasies with his, with his girlfriend who he's unable to sexually satisfy in any other way. Yes. Kendall is just completely, like, is using constantly now. Shiv, who I think is nominally the hero of this show, sort of. Also is, like, can barely control her own ambition. And is willing to cast aside any actual beliefs and ideology that she may or may not have in service of pursuing those ambitions.

Right. She's ready to cast aside everything she believes in. She says in that moment when her and Tom pretend they have a dog sitting problem go out from the hallway. Mondale, that's hopeful. That's a good sign. That's hopeful, right? They go out there and she says, you know, I don't even believe in this, but I want it so badly. Yes, yeah.

I'm like basically like losing confidence in the plan that I set out. As far as buying and selling, so you're buying Jerry. I'm going to sell helicopters. Oh, man. I just feel like there should be a higher degree of difficulty in turning those all. because if you've got two sions of very rich families crushing a bottle of Belvedere and doing rails, they shouldn't be able to flip three switches and turn a helicopter on. And there was like a moment where you're just like, oh my God, Kendall's going to fly this helicopter,

and this is going to be the end of Kendall. I was like, oh, no. There was, I got to say that one of the really kind of fine details about this show, about like this kind of like environment of wealth that these characters are, grown up in. One of the things I really appreciate is the helicopters and the way they engage with the helicopters. One can knowing how to, he's been in them so much. He knows how to turn. Yeah, he knows all the words. He can at least get the rotor to start. Throttle, yeah. And also, when it lands and they come off, they don't duck. Yeah. There's no ducking. They've just

been on these helicopters so much that they just walk out. Yeah, that's a really good point. Did you have any other buyer sales you wanted to add on? I'm going to sell noblesse oblige, this kind of idea, this European idea of the responsibility of lords and ladies and of the wealthy to be kind and generous with the way they employ their wealth and power. And you see that in the moments when Nan Pierce is inviting her servant to come have a drink with us. Why you never take a break? It was working so hard. Why don't you come and have this drink with us? And the way the kindness that she shows them that's all really just kind of a front. Yeah.

You know, like that moment again, when she comes out with the roast, as if she cooked the roast. And everybody's clapping. Yo! And then her cook is like looking, is peeking out like from the corner to see how everybody responds to it. You know, it's like all these moments. I'm selling those bullshity moments. So who's your number one boy then for this week? It's got to be Logan, right?

Yeah, it's Logan. I mean, if he orchestrated this entire thing down to knowing what his own family members were going to do, down to having the intel that... I mean, that's the thing that's other word thing is when Rea's like Naomi's here, and he's all freaked out, like, oh, I didn't know. Yeah, why didn't you tell me? You seem like you had Kendall immediately undo her. Immediately.

So maybe he did know. It's hard to say. I played Kendall, used Kendall, like, as a chess piece. Yeah. So the point where Naomi was like, when he says, oh, I'm in recovery too, and she's like, yeah, I know. And he's like, oh, how did you know? I could just sense it on you.

Yeah. Yeah. Why don't you ask me? All right. So number one boy is Logan. We're going to get into Biggest Burn of the Week now. Biggest burn of the week. There's that moment where they have like the quick time out.

The family has a quick time out from dinner. Oh my God. Yeah. And it's essentially like all of you guys line up and Logan is just going to like execute each of you. And he's like Roman, you know, He tells Roman to modulate his laughing, we didn't get you from a hyena farm? I love it. There's a quick line when they're all coming to that room, and Roman's like, I think that's going pretty bold. I mean, nobody fucked Nanpiers.

Nobody killed the cat. Nobody killed the cat. So that's going well. Did you have another biggest borough of the week? Absolutely excruciating moment. Tabitha has just talked about how if some friend of hers can't have a child, she's planning on having a surrogate for them. And then one of the Pierce's asks, well, what about you two? What about you and Roman? And she says, we're not, no, no, no, we're not planning to have a baby because that would

require us to have sex. My skin actually crawl off of my body and went into the other room. That was so devastating. And I think, like, runner-up moment for Naomi Pierce's Shakespeare sub-tweet of the Roy's in general when she gives that, I think it's Richard. the second line about the purest treasure mortal time affords

is spotless reputation. Dude, you know what I love is how Kendall will be like, you're like, oh, you're the beating heart of this show. Like, you're really amazing. And then he'll be like, are you a poetess? And you're like, are you such a poetess? Are you some kind of poetess?

Are you like a poetess? That was really great. Are you like a poetess? That was the real deal. She held a ladle and recited Shakespeare from memory and like, Kenna's like, whoa. That's biggest burn of the week. Let's get in the line of the week.

Dude, I guess I kind of want to be like earmuffs to people, but I got to do it. Roman was on fire. Roman was just firing. Roman was like shot out of a cannon. Not only did he, here's in his entrance speech to the family when he returns from working in management training, he walks into the room and says, I'm a kettle corn shoveler here to show you frilly clit flickers the truth. And that is only one of a number of incredible lines. I have to say it, because it's like, this happened on television.

Roman turned to his girlfriend and said, you shouldn't be turned on because dead women aren't wet. Like, our actual producers are like, I'm not sure if we can put this. That's on the show. I don't even know. I don't even know where to go with that. I don't think there's anywhere to go. that was

amazing. Is Roman Roy cancelled? I know because he's not canceled and this is why this show is incredible because his actually quite astute definition of what consent is when he says, well, if

two people politely decide that a wrong thing isn't wrong, then it's okay. That was actually a very astute. That was a great that was a great definition of what consent is, although Tabitha clearly is not consenting. But let's also like, I'm out of here. Track how sexually charged it is.

They're both fully clothed. Yes. And then Roman's idea of like sexual nirvana is masturbating into a bathroom door. Right. As someone denigrates him, denigrates him, humiliates him, and tells him how much his family would be absolutely devastated and ashamed of him if they knew what he was doing at that very moment. and that got him off in 15 seconds. You've got to walk out on the tightrope sometimes. And this show does that like every week.

So those are our lines of the week. Oh, wait, Jason, do you have other lines? I'm going to go with after Shiv appears to blow up the dinner beating by saying, come on, Dad, just tell him it's going to be me. And they, her and Tom retreat to their bedroom and she's like, oh my God, is there any booze in here? And Tom says no. There's just Emily Dickinson and low thread counting. sheets.

Oh, incredible stuff. That's light of the week. A lot of people come to Jason and I. The succession recapping stuff is kind of a secondary endeavor for us because we are two of the only people at the ringer who really have got to understand the nuances of high finance. You got to see my, I got to show you what's going on with my Roth IRA, CBM, IBM, NBA.

So I just like, I'm really, really long on Tanzanian minds right now. Yeah, it's good. It's good. Nicol is where it's at right now. Because like they're going to still make nickels, right? Right. Like when Apple pay and all that stuff comes and goes, we're going to go back to change. Listen, like when jobs kick the bucket, all of Apple fell apart. I'm shorting Apple right now. Shorting Apple, high on nickel, long on nickel.

I love nickel. So that's just a free one. That's like a free hit for you guys. Right. But we're going to talk a little bit about the idea. of why they need a successor on this show. So why is it so important that they name a successor? Well, a thing that, I mean, it's underrated and people don't talk about it enough, but the human lifespan is finite. I mean, we're doing interesting work on that. Right. Manchester United

Midfielder, Eric Cantenow believes that cells can live forever. Can they? You know, there are microscopic animals that do live forever. That's a little, that's another little free. I'm long on those guys, too. I'm working on that with one of my startups is looking at combining microscopic those micro pigs. Have you ever seen those? They call micropigs. They live for like 400

years. And the blood of teenagers. Just combining those. Anyway, I don't want to give out the secret sauce, but that's a thing we're working on. But they haven't cracked that code yet. And that's why you need a successor, because people do after, you know, 80, 90, sometimes 120 years,

they do die. that's finance 101 let's get into let the meat cake the crazy rich moment of the week I just loved all the fake self-defecation that Nan does Jason hit on this earlier but it's basically like

her having this like I think it was in Connecticut it seemed like yeah they flew over her like gesturing towards their fucking mansion and being like welcome to our funny little house and like all over their like funny little conventions that they had that place was decked out

that place is like obviously like the summer hot spot. It was just like all the like fake like oh we're just so humble. It's like get out of here. Even Naomi being like oh what do you do I work at a rehab facility in Mill Valley

which is one of the nicest parts of like the Bay Area and works on my own recovery. Yeah it's like come on. I'd like crashed my Audi and then again when Nan comes out with the roast and everybody's like yeah it's like man you didn't

cook this. You've been with us the whole time. Some other Turnhaven traditions, I love the drink. Bumpbreaker. Yeah, the bump breaker. The break bumper. Break bumper. I'm sorry. The recipe is stolen from the wallet of Teddy Roosevelt's valet. It's like, what is this? An EL Doctor O novel? It's an old-fashioned. What are you talking about? And also just like, yeah, it's like, look around this house. You have tapestries of people hunting. Like, come on, you guys are fucking super rich. You named your mansion.

Yeah, I know. If you name your house, I guess they do that a lot on flipping out now, you know what I mean, where they're just like, this house, like this two bedroom on like a street next to a highway. It's like,

but we're calling it Tara. Right. It's like, all right, guys. It's just a fucking condo in Waco. Let's do predictions for next week. This is weird, right? So I am starting to have,

not confusion, but like questions about what happens in the interim of episodes. So like episode four, which we love, Safe Room. I love this whole season. But Safe Room ends with Kendall and Shiv having that pretty tender moment. Episode 5 begins. They're kind of reset back to being very wary of each other. Shiv has gone, has had a business trip to London and now she's back. So an amount of time,

a good amount of time has passed. It seems like it. And so I'm curious about, I think, rather than even predicting like next week, Shiv does this, I'm more curious about how much time passed. is in between because Logan has been saying, this needs to happen fast for it to work for me. Like, I will pay for speed. Got to happen. So the season is obviously about them trying to acquire Pierce to stave off Stu and Sandy.

I'm devastated that we have not had more Stewie this season. Yeah. So what do you think could happen next week? I think that we're going to see, I think we saw it in the moment when Shiv was like, you just tell them it's me, Dad. I think the response to that, and the success of the Pierce acquisition is going to hammer home for all the Roy kids

that if they ever want this thing, they got to take it. They got to bring Logan down somehow. Are we going to see a coup in the making? Do they work together? Do they work together? Do they band together to take Logan down? Because this piecemeal thing of, oh, I'm going to make a side deal with Logan, I'm going to make it, is not working at all because he has their number and he's playing them against each other.

They need to band together if they ever really want to take this business from it. The only other thing that I think is coming is a Marshall blowup. Because we still haven't found out what is eating at her. The idea that Logan was like, she told me her life story in this great night that we had together. And she's like, yeah, I couldn't tell you my life story in a week. Obviously something's building. I think she's, I don't know whether she's resentful that Shiv is being lined up as the successor rather than her. I think she thought this was more of a partnership.

And, you know, she got Logan through that episode. with the aneurysm or whatever it is that happened to him, the strokes. She nursed him back to health. She's the one that got him up on the stage at the charity event. It was like, you can do this, you can take it back. She's the one who did the reverse psychology and was like, yeah, maybe you should give it up. And I think now being cast aside to a certain extent and being treated like just another chess piece on the board, I think has really pissed her off.

The fact that she was like didn't know about the shift. And I was like, is that true? Right. Never heard an inkling about it as really gotten to her. Yeah, it's really, I feel like something with Marcia's brewing and like Jason said, we could be seeing the kids needing to band together against Logan. We'll have to find out next week. Join us here on number one boys right after the East Coast airing of succession for Jason.

I'm Chris. See you later.