Breaking Down This Week's Episode of 'Succession': 'Lion in the Meadow'

Gleefully watching the FBI raid of Waystar on TV, Kendall is glued to the TV with his crew. A lone Greg sticks out like a sore thumb, anxiously sitting in a chair, unsure whether he should be sitting in the Waystar office instead. In a way, Greg serves as the thermometer for how things are going at Waystar: when he's doing good, Waystar is doing good. But more often, when he's nervously squirming around in his chair, the climate at the company is probably about the same.

On a remote conference call, Kendall dials in, clearly not in the mood to take things seriously with Waystar. Gerri, Roman, Frank, Karl, Shiv, Karolina, Hugo, and Logan are all at the meeting, which was called to speak about the blowback with investors since Kendall's sparking of the DOJ investigation. Given that, they want him and Logan to meet with Josh Aaronson (Adrien Brody) since he has a four-percent holding in the company and is concerned about the investigation. More importantly, he's also considering switching over to Sandy and Stewy.

Afterward, Roman pitches Gerri an odd plan to sink Kendall, which involves tracking down a "hobo" that Kendall paid to tattoo "KLR" on his head years ago. Gerri's not sure about the idea, but Roman forges ahead on the plan by himself.

After leaving Kendall's, Greg heads over to an early one-on-one meeting with Logan at his apartment, where he worries that there might be "goons and stooges and roughjacks there to administer a beating." When he gets there, he instead has a rum and coke with Logan.

He makes it clear that Greg's role at Waystar will start to "get complicated" if he keeps sticking by Kendall's side, suggesting that he joins them and stands in unity with their lawyers. With Greg still on the fence, Logan offers for him to decide what he wants from the company to sweeten the deal, as he has a bit of leverage.

After a fair amount of convincing, Frank persuades Kendall to meet with Josh, pushing the narrative that if Logan does step away from Waystar, Kendall will have the upper hand moving forward. Finally agreeing, he heads off by helicopter and then plane—separately from Logan—to meet with Josh on his island.

Throughout this, Tom is distracted by his possibly-impending jail time, ranking the nearby prisons he would prefer to be sent to. "I'm leaning towards FCI Otisville as my number one," he half-excitedly-yet-nervously says to Shiv.

Shiv meets with Connor as he wants to gain some "real-world experience" that will make him seem more legitimate when it comes to running for office in four years. She suggests that he does a wine tasting show on their food network, to which Connor greatly objects.

The conversation quickly turns sour after that, with Connor comparing Shiv's current position to that of when she used to stamp the mail that came to their house as a child.

After departing the tarmac, Kendall arrives at Josh's house slightly earlier than Logan, giving him a few minutes to rundown his relationship with his father. He explains that while it's a bit of a mess right now, it's not too complicated: "I'm better than my dad, but my dad is still better than Sandy and Stewy," Kendall says to Josh.
Logan arrives—in almost the same exact navy baseball cap as Kendall—and the two have an awkward hug, mostly to show Josh that things are kind of okay between the two. Logan tries to convince Josh quickly, but he insists that the three of them go for a walk to talk it out.

Back at Waystar, Roman was able to locate the "tattoo man," but there turns out to be a catch—he's had most of the tattoo removed from his forehead, leaving just the faded initials of Kendall. The man refuses to give Roman a photo of his forehead pre-removal, who then offers $1 million for it (he later agrees).

Tom pays Greg a visit at his new office/dungeon to figure out where he's at on officially signing back with Waystar. Greg wants to be Operations Director of the Parks division, but instead of actually addressing that, Tom quickly shifts the conversation to himself and how he's probably going to be in prison. He then starts to playfully try and fight Greg, who wants no part of it.

Walking with the two, Josh wants Kendall to reverse what he originally said about Logan and Waystar, but Kendall rejects that option. However, when Logan agrees with Josh and tells him to consider it, Kendall starts to believe that something else might be going on—that the two of them are possibly teaming up on him as part of a set-up.

At the office, Tom meets up with Shiv to discuss general things but is preoccupied once again with the possibility of going to prison. He talks about how he's going to miss the chilled white wine they drink after work and how he could try and recreate it by fermenting fruit in the toilets at prison. Overall, Tom is in a very sensitive state, and though he's trying not to let on that that's why he's acting so erratically; it's starting to pour into his work.

Logan interrupts this conversation when he calls Shiv to tell her that Karl isn't happy with her input at Waystar; he's not going to challenge Karl on his thinking, which leaves Shiv somewhat surprised and questioning her work so far.

At lunch by the beach, Josh airs his concerns, and Logan rebuts them once again, making this whole event basically a back-and-forth with no real possibility of it ever being resolved.

Finally, Logan says something more compelling to Josh: that Kendall is a "good kid" and that he might be the one in charge one day. "It's in his blood. He learned it all from me. And maybe he's the best one of all of them." After asking if Logan could agree to a few things on his "wish list," it seems like Josh is leaning towards staying with him.

Alongside Kendall, Logan tells him that what he said at lunch was just to secure Josh, that Greg has come with him, and that he's all alone now. They decide to head back to the house, and though Josh mentions that he could get carts for them to ride back in, he suggests walking once again. Kendall tells his father that if he retires immediately, he'll go easy on him.

Logan starts to breathe heavily, making Kendall a bit worried about him. Although Josh keeps telling them he's not lost, it sure seems like they're walking awfully far in the wrong direction. After walking in the sun for so long, Logan finally grabs his side and chest and almost throws up, eventually sitting down on the side of the trail as Kendall calls for a doctor.

At Waystar, Shiv interrupts an editorial meeting with ATN and asks Mark, who's in charge of things, to start being tougher on the president because she feels that he's being left off the hook for various different things. After Mark then leaks that Shiv has demanded that he does that, Logan has to deal with the mess while on the phone with the president.

After the entire walk and upon arriving back at the airport in New York, Kendall gets a call from Roman, who tells him that Josh has backed out of the deal. Just after this call, Kendall spots Josh on the tarmac cheerfully greeting Stewy—a massive slap in the face.