Editor’s Note: The following are spoilers for Season 4 of Legacies.Only three episodes left, HBO succession prepares to reach the finals at the nuclear level, especially considering all the “money and gossip” that was scattered at the party in the back of Roy’s election in the very last episode. Pressure and familiar backstabs force ShivSara Snook) and Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) relationship problems to reach a boiling point. As Tom stares blankly at the ceiling of his bedroom, he and the audience seem to be coming to the same conclusion: in order to survive, he will need to betray his wife again.
The tailgate episode began innocently enough when Tom gave Shiva a scorpion in epoxy as a “joke”. In the early episodes of this season, there was hope that the relationship between them could be salvaged. Everything changed after the infamous argument on the balcony, when Tom and Shiv decided to air things out. The scene is already getting an Emmy nod on social media, but that also leaves Tom with no hope that Shiv is even thinking about moving forward. What Shiv may not realize is that Tom now once again has information that could derail her plans to run Waystar Royco if Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgard) acquires it.
Tom knows what Kendall and Roman don’t
It’s already quite clear that Tom wants to at least keep his position as head of the ATN. The recent (now extinguished) resurgence of his closeness with Shiv allowed him to be privy to her plan to work with Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) for information on their activities related to the Matsson deal and how Matsson secured his place at Waystar after the Gojo deal. Tom now has key information, as he can loop the Roy brothers on Shiv’s duplicity and effectively seal her fate by forbidding access to any insider information. After all, Shiv isn’t technically a co-CEO along with his brothers, which at the start of season 4 has its distinct drawbacks.
Tom doesn’t necessarily know all the details of Shiv and Matsson’s conversations, but he does know enough - starting with the fact that Shiv was the one who pushed Matsson to go to the back door, and that Shiv openly admitted that she backing Matsson backstage was enough for Kendall to and Roman started asking questions. Tom initially supported Shiv’s side in the battle because he thought she would help him stay off the kill list after the deal. It only takes Tom a couple of hours at the tailgate to realize that Shiv isn’t going to stand up for him in this regard and is essentially allowing the opposite narrative to continue. If Tom really decides to use what he knows against Shiv, he still has to trust that Kendall and/or Roman will help him in a way that Shiv couldn’t. While there’s not much to say about Kendall and Roman leaving him for the ATN, the odds are starting to look better.
Nothing stops Tom from exposing Shiv
Now that the balcony fight is over, Tom no longer has any reason to be loyal to Shiv. The marriage is in shambles and the only hope of saving it to some extent is the child that Shiv is carrying. Since Shiv does not reveal to anyone that she is pregnant—perhaps for strategic reasons, as this could be used against her ambition to run Waystar after being acquired by Matsson—she does not have much incentive to stay with Tom. After all, she’s very wealthy, and sharing custody if she decides to keep the baby shouldn’t be too hard. If Tom eventually finds out, it might not affect him at all, as we might expect, given that Shiv is not the kind of person he thinks would be a good mother. There is also a theory that the child does not belong to Him at all, which will definitely reduce the impact of this revelation.
Everything indicates that Tom is standing with his back to the wall. He can’t find a way out of this situation without some kind of value he can use to get back to safety. As seen in the teaser for episode 8, Tom definitely has a lot to say about coming out at the right time. With no one else to fawn over, Tom’s choices are meager and he’s just lost the one he thought was his staunchest supporter in Shiv. If his exit from the back door didn’t already say so, he ended up playing on the bench for people who wouldn’t even let him put on the mascot costume. As Matsson’s contempt for Tom only grows week by week, he’s going to do the one thing that worked last time: support the winning team and hope it gets him on his feet somewhere. Without worrying about Shiva, given everything that happened on that balcony, all he has to do is find the right time to strike.
succession preparing for a tense finale. Whether Tom can deliver the ultimate ass kiss remains to be seen, but when the cards fall, rest assured he won’t stand back and let himself fade into the background. Everyone around Tom is on the offensive, and he does best with the program and forgets about other people’s feelings, which he usually has no problem with, except for Shiv. Know that Tom will be here until the very end.
New episodes succession Season 4 is available to stream on HBO Max.
Source: Collider
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