* This review may contain spoilers *

HBO’s popular show “Succession” has returned for its fourth and final season on the streaming service Max. The season premiered on March 26 and released its fifth episode out of 10 on April 23. 

The show, often described as King Lear set in the modern corporate world, follows the Roy family and their battle for control of their eponymous media conglomerate, Waystar Royco. 

Founder and CEO Logan Roy (Brain Cox) serves as the figurehead for both the company and the family. The show also follows his children: Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) as they constantly vie for both his love and his title.   

Season one was released in 2018 to overwhelming critical acclaim, with reviewers drawing attention to the show’s supremely talented ensemble cast, snarky dialogue and engrossing screenplay. 

“Succession” has continued to build on this momentum each season and improve its darkly humorous writing alongside stellar acting performances. 

Season four follows up on the season three finale where the siblings joined forces in an attempt to overthrow their father’s sale of the company to Swedish tech billionaire Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård), but they ultimately failed after Logan was tipped off by Shiv’s husband Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen). 

Episode one follows the siblings as they try to launch a new venture independent of Waystar, but eventually get sucked in by the prospect of buying rival news outlet Pierce in a bidding war against their father.

The biggest emotional peak of the season so far is episode three where Logan faces his inevitable demise, suffering a heart attack on a plane. There is a certain level of poetic justice in his death. He died as he lived — surrounded by sycophantic minions with his children far away, unable to truly connect with him.

While killing off such an integral part of the show early into the season was partly motivated by subverting expectations, showrunner Jesse Armstrong said it had more to do with capturing how it impacts the rest of the characters.

“We want to see how a death of someone significant rebounds around a family,” Armstrong said in a featurette on HBO’s YouTube channel.

Snook, Culkin and Strong make a powerful case for their individual Emmys in this episode. Their depiction of raw grief at losing a parent, albeit an abusive one, is truly heart-wrenching. 

Episode four focuses on the aftermath and corporate response, with Roman and Kendall being elected by the company board as co-CEOs due to their previous experience, while Shiv is relegated to a behind-the-scenes advisory role. While all the siblings have been given a shot at the throne and failed in the earlier seasons, they believe that they will be better suited this time around if they are working together.

Episode five sees them go on a retreat in Norway to meet with Matsson to finalize the deal to sell Waystar to him. Matsson makes an offer that includes the sale of ATN, the conservative news arm of Waystar, which was excluded from the previous deal. The brothers do not want this version of the deal as they want to preserve their father’s legacy.

This causes a rift within the trifecta, with Shiv feeling left out of the loop as her brothers start to make unilateral decisions about purposely tanking the deal. Unsurprisingly, she prioritizes her own interests by getting Matsson to give her some valuable leverage. She uses this to get Matsson to make the deal so lucrative, the brothers simply had to accept against their wishes in order to please shareholders.

The siblings start to come into their own as the new leaders in episode six as they seek to launch Living+, a lifestyle/real estate project, against Matsson’s wishes in order to get him to pull out of the deal. Shiv continues to play both sides. Meanwhile, Roman and Kendall disagree on their approach, with Kendall coming out on top with his final pitch and slightly fudged projections for its success. 

Halfway through the final season, it seems that “Succession” has once again come out swinging with its trademark storylines of corporate intrigue set against the backdrop of family drama. The latter half of the season is set to be the most eventful yet, as the sibling rivalry looks poised to explode spectacularly. 

New episodes of “Succession” release every Sunday at 8 p.m. CDT on the streaming service Max.

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