KILLER INSTINCT SEASON 3 EAGLE TORRENT
It all comes out in a torrent of raw emotion, courtesy of a serious actor who does not believe himself to be the star of a comedy. “I’m not a good person,” he tells them before confessing that he’d “killed” the waiter who drowned on Shiv’s wedding day.
KILLER INSTINCT SEASON 3 EAGLE FULL
“I’m not feeling very connected to my children or my endeavors right now.” And what’s more, this last desperate bid to turn the tables on his father by exposing the cruises scandal - an operation he had known about full well - has failed, and he cannot realize this screwed-up fantasy of being a Me Too hero, whistleblowing his father into prison. In actuality, Schulman’s piece sets the table beautifully for what Strong accomplishes here as Kendall falls apart in the dirt. Celebrities like Jessica Chastain, Aaron Sorkin, and Adam McKay (who executive-produces Succession and directed the first episode) weighed in to defend Strong from attack as if it were some kind of hit piece, but the profile remains a fascinating and unusually intimate look at how Strong goes about playing a character like Kendall, who may be at the center of a very funny show but doesn’t see the role as anything like a joke. The piece digs into Strong’s unusually intense process, which may yield the best performance from the best cast of the best television show, but also causes some friction with his co-stars, whose own processes are affected by his. Over the past few days, there’s been a huge brouhaha over Michael Schulman’s excellent profile of Jeremy Strong in The New Yorker. But Kendall’s breakdown in the driveway outside the Tuscan reception has a more elemental quality. There’s a cynical way of looking at this, of course: If Logan weren’t about to sell out the company to GoJo, thus screwing them all over, maybe nothing changes between them. What Kendall, Roman, and Shiv have in common - and apologies again to poor Connor, who will tell you repeatedly that he’s the eldest son - is the recognition that they’ve all suffered immensely at their father’s hand and can finally hold him responsible together. And we learn - as they also learn - that business does not ultimately transcend family for them. In this masterfully orchestrated finale, written by creator Jesse Armstrong, their relationship as siblings and their fate at the company coalesce in one devastating scene. We have seen them in those vulnerable places before as individuals, but never together. For once, the Roy siblings aren’t stepping on each other’s backs in the mad scramble to the top of their father’s business but are finally accessing the atrophied parts of their souls where they felt genuine brotherly and sisterly love. Kendall slipped into the pool, which may or may not have been a conscious suicide attempt but was certainly an indicator of his deteriorated mental state. The ambiguous ending to last week’s episode was indeed something to be concerned about, and not just the artful homage to the drowned waiter.
“All the Bells Say” includes a crushing mirror image of that moment, with the same three again in Europe for a wedding and, for the first time, seeing each other as human again. He knows this may be the last time they’ll ever get the chance because he’s cut a deal with Sandy and Stewy for the “bear hug” that will wrest control of Waystar from the family - and on the day of Shiv’s wedding, no less. Then Ken asks them to come together for a hug. They muse about old times when perhaps they weren’t hurting each other at their father’s behest. (No one remembered to ask Connor, of course.) They smoke pot. There’s a scene late in the first season of Succession where Kendall, Roman, and Shiv get together in the boathouse on the evening before Shiv’s wedding.