Cousin Greg tattoo.

Such a great episode.

Sooo good. What an ending, too. Perfect cliffhanger/set-up for the finale.

Great show. Kendall getting played by Sandy and Stewy. Frank didn't tell anyone. The reporter/leak is made-up to take advantage of the timing with Logan out of the country and distracted.

This thing is also running circles around Sharp Objects.

I must have not been paying attention. I didn't realize that the girl who closed the system with Tom was Roman's girlfriend.

Tom is by far the best written/acted character on this show.

And despite all the underhanded stuff going on from the corporate side of things, I think Shiv is the most despicable on the show. She seems to be the only one that does ****ty things but hasn't yet owned up that is who she is.

Agree about Shiv. That gal's got no soul.

I think the only issue I had with this episode was that the interaction Greg saw which drove him to "i think she's having an affair" was a little bit innocuous. I wish they'd made it a little more obvious/egregious. I was trying to recall if Greg has witnessed anything previous in order for it to be more of a putting 2+2 together thing, but nothing came to mind right away.

Roman dating the "snowball" girl is hilarious.

What is it with the Roy men dating hookers and strippers?

Roman is all sorts of F'd in the head. Can't bring himself to have sex with the girls he "dates", but can jerk it and splooge on his office window with a floor full of cube-dwellers outside.

Yeah, that's really weird. Something definitely there, right? Closeted? Maybe some abuse as a kid?

(That'd be nuts if his "joking" accusations of Connor were actually repressed memories.)

Seems they were pretty much verbally abused from the time they were born, and folks respond to that in different ways. Connor is the run-and-hide to avoid any and all conflict type, Kendall the drug abuser, Roman with sexual issues, and Shiv with basically no soul. Pretty much all ****ed in the head, just manifesting in different ways. But yeah, maybe there was something more at some point. Connor (unlikely), something that happened when he got sent away, etc.

But a world class bully of a dad with a cold mom is probably enough on its own to **** a lot of people up.

DannyDuberstein said:

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I think the only issue I had with this episode was that the interaction Greg saw which drove him to "i think she's having an affair" was a little bit innocuous. I wish they'd made it a little more obvious/egregious. I was trying to recall if Greg has witnessed anything previous in order for it to be more of a putting 2+2 together thing, but nothing came to mind right away.

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Same. That was a little off. Shiv and Nate were literally just talking in that scene, and Greg didn't seem close enough to be able to hear them, but maybe he could?

They got a little bit grabby with each other, which is what I think he noticed. But it mostly seemed to be quick and arm/hand related and nothing too crazy. Maybe it's possible he went for a quick ass pinch or something that she slapped off, but it was kind of hard to tell with how they were positioned in relation to the camera + dark. But it is Greg after all, so I guess part of the angle is just that he's a goofy dude that could be prone to making a big deal out of something that some would consider nothing (although he is right).

I guess maybe it plays to Greg being a big goofy goober, but at times, prone to being more savvy than he gets credit for. Like keeping copies of part of what he was asked to shred to save himself when he inevitably gets tossed under the bus for the tour scandal cover-up.

Yeah, true.

I felt pretty bad for Tom (and Greg) in that scene. He clearly knows what's up and took it out on Greg.

Then again, Tom had no problems throwing Greg under the bus, so he's not exactly a great person.

Yeah, the actor playing Tom is doing a great job (both of them, really). A total b*stard in some scenes, a doormat in others, and you can see the pain/fear in his face of what he knows in his gut is happening but doesn't want to believe because it doesn't just mean losing the girl, it's losing everything. Most of the others are playing a character that is at least fairly consistent from scene to scene, but his requires some pretty wide swings. And he pulls it all off well. Great character.

Literally no one on this show is a good person. I watch it every week but I'm not even sure why. I don't find the super dry humor really all that funny. I hate the zoom shaky cam look. I honestly have no clue what I like about this show (although some make good points about some of the acting - it is very good) but each week I tune in.

I root for a story to be told compellingly. That's it.

Just want to confirm something. At the end when Shiv and Logan are in the car leaving for the wedding, Logan tells Shiv "he's a good man." He's referring to Tom, right?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

TCTTS said:

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I root for a story to be told compellingly. That's it.

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What makes a story compelling though?

Sure, someone to root for goes a long way in making something compelling. But it's not essential, which is my only point.

TCTTS said:

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Sure, someone to root for goes a long way in making something compelling. But it's not essential, which is my only point.

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I mean, its the single most relevant thing though. Which is why its classic. That being said, something here is making me tune in. I just don't know what the hell it is.

Along these lines, the more I think about it Kendall has to win this takeover, right? Are people really going to want to tune in next season to see Kendall get beat down some more?

I think there is a line between good and likeable, and they are two different things. Basically all of these characters have a lot of ****ty aspects to them, but I think the writing and acting has done a good job of bringing out some likeable aspects. Makes it more real vs. a Disney movie.

As DannyDubertein astutely pointed out earlier, Kendall is getting played. Him "winning" the takeover results in him losing overall...

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Kendall getting played by Sandy and Stewy. Frank didn't tell anyone. The reporter/leak is made-up to take advantage of the timing with Logan out of the country and distracted.

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I enjoy both Mad Men and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, neither has a character rooted good or morality, it doesn't mean either isn't worth watching, every character in each show is in it for themselves, no one else. But I do think it takes more effort on the viewer to buy in when you don't have a sympathetic character. Mad Men is one of the best dramas of all time and it might have the least sympathetic dramatic cast ever assembled.

Agreed on Kendall, he's getting played, his own hubris is going to bring down everything because he's too much of a narcissist to know he's too big of a f-up to be the CEO of any company, let alone this one. And his dad is better now, and sharper with each day, he can't possibly play cards claiming any effort to take away the company is in the best interest of the company. Kendall can't win the takeover, Kendall is poised to lose the company and his family in the process.

I'm very curious what the stakes of each of the family is, would go a long way in understanding what has to happen for a successful takeover. The wedding is going to be a trainwreck of epic proportions.

Kudos to Roman on his wedding date selection.

This show reminds me how much I like Brian Cox. I always really enjoy his performances in just about everything I've seen him in.

I think I have to rewatch the episode, can someone recap what exactly the plan is for the takeover? And why exactly Kendall is needed?

Once it's over, they can push him out, right?

DannyDuberstein said:

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How about Breaking Bad? Basically all of them were terrible people doing terrible things, but they were entertaining and compelling to follow. But nothing was entirely black-and-white. You found yourself rooting for awful people, or maybe more accurately, people at different points on the awful scale.

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Was about to make this same point.

Better Call Saul - maybe they're not all awful people, but they definitely have some serious character flaws

Billions - who's the "good guy" in this one?

Ozark?

Bloodline, House of Cards, the list goes on.

There may be some good people sprinkled in here and there but they're definitely not the lead characters.

BB - I rooted for Walter well into the fifth season. (Probably longer than most.)

And when I was done with him, I was rooting for Jesse. Though I have to admit Jesse betraying Walt still felt like a ****ty thing to do, no matter how bad Walt was.

Man, the writing on that show made you care so deeply about someone completely irredeemable. It's amazing they pulled that off.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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I think I have to rewatch the episode, can someone recap what exactly the plan is for the takeover? And why exactly Kendall is needed?

Once it's over, they can push him out, right?

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Not sure entirely, but Furness should now have about $3.2 billion of their stock and Kendall has about half a billion. They would then use that $4ish billion as collateral to borrow $$$ to make an offer to buy significant additional stake in the company (+ any additional that Furness may want to put in and anything else they could borrow). Between what they can raise and what they can borrow, I assume they have line of sight to offer a price that the other (non-family) shareholders would find enticing, allowing them to acquire the shares necessary to take over control and push Logan/family out. With someone that isn't prepared to go down with the ship like Logan, just making the move and showing you can do it could be enough to get them to the table to sell out enough to surrender control.

Those are the scenarios that Kendall was trying to run through his head - what's Logan's move going to be once it starts happening.