Succession's Karaoke Song Points to Betrayal and Forgiveness in the Rest of Season 4

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for Season 4, Episode 2 of Succession, "Rehearsal." Read at your own risk!]

Connor wants to do karaoke. He's seen it in the movies, and nobody ever wants to go. The eternally cast-aside member of the Roy family, played by Alan Ruck, is having a rough go of things in the second episode of Succession's final season: His wife-to-be, Willa (Justine Lupe), has walked out in the middle of their rehearsal dinner the night before their wedding, and a deal that could leave him with an enormous payout is at risk of getting tanked by his siblings. So he wants to do karaoke. He wants to have a good time with his brothers and sister. That's what makes his subsequent song choice, Leonard Cohen's moody and enigmatic "Famous Blue Raincoat," such a curious needle drop at this point in the series.

Throughout its run, Succession has utilized preexisting music only sparingly. In Season 1, Pete Seeger's pro-union protest anthem "Which Side Are You On?" provided the soundtrack for Kendall's (Jeremy Strong) first major humiliation; in Season 3, Kendall's warbling cover of Billy Joel's "Honesty" functioned as an on-the-nose lamentation of the deceitful people surrounding him. On this show, Nicholas Britell's score does so much auditory heavy lifting that the rare moments when his piano and strings aren't at the forefront feel significant. In "Rehearsal," Connor ignores Roman's (Kieran Culkin) repeated undercutting of his attempt to fulfill what is apparently a lifelong dream ("This is Guantanamo-level sh--") as he performs the somber Cohen classic for his siblings. It's incredibly funny, and it enables Strong, Culkin, and Sarah Snook to do some subtly masterful face acting as they bear witness to the cluelessly earnest display. It's also maybe trying to tell us something.

It's understandable why Connor, who spends much of the episode worrying that Willa has left him for good, would feel compelled to belt out a song about a troubled relationship. But this track, off Cohen's 1971 album Songs of Love and Hate, has always been a mysterious entry in the singer-songwriter's catalog. A haunting tale of a love triangle written in the form of a letter to an unnamed man, it's not really about the pain of infidelity but about feeling resigned to the deterioration of a partnership that was never honest to begin with. The song is also notable for the fraternal tone Cohen's narrator adopts while addressing the man, calling him "my brother, my killer." It's the kind of lyric that feels like an eerie harbinger when considering that the Roy siblings, who have all "killed" each other numerous times, are planning to do it once more. Kendall and Shiv's (Snook) eagerness to vote no on the GoJo sale, founded in vindictiveness, all but guarantees an even deeper wedge will be driven into the family.

Disappointingly, we only get to see Connor perform briefly (release the full version on the Season 4 soundtrack!) before Logan (Brian Cox) crashes their party. He offers up a half-hearted apology for interfering with the kids' helicopter back to New York earlier in the episode, as if that's the worst of his offenses against them. Kendall and Shiv especially don't want to hear it and pretend that their father's latest expression of his disappointment — "I love you, but you are not serious people" — doesn't bother them. The episode ends with an inevitability as Roman, less eager to vote no, less eager to sever ties with Logan entirely, willingly reenters his dad's orbit.

The season began with a fractured alliance between Kendall, Roman, and Shiv, but even that came with caveats. These are three people who never considered that perhaps they're unable to go into business with each other for countless reasons, leading to the formation of a nonsensical start-up that only Roman was genuinely invested in. "Rehearsal" is a study of how much Roman can take before he cracks; here, relentless grilling and pressure from his siblings leads him to turn back to where he thinks it's safe. Logan, of course, knows exactly what to say to make it seem like he and Roman have been on the same page the whole time: "We know what they're like," he says, referring to Kendall and Shiv. The use of we and they is crucial — with Logan, it's always him and his stable of allies versus whoever is against him, and he manipulates people by making sure their time in his favor feels good. Just because Roman was the one who most wanted to escape the cycle doesn't make him immune to the impulse he and his siblings all suffer from.

"You're living for nothing now," Cohen says at the beginning of the song. Are the Roys living for anything? The Hundred is forgotten, and they've returned to tripping over themselves in the hopes of getting Logan's attention. (Or, as Connor puts it, "You're needy love sponges.") Why, Logan asks, do they even want him to demand more money from Lukas Mattson (Alexander Skarsgård)? Whatever concerns Shiv may claim she has about over-promising on funds to Nan Pierce (Cherry Jones) are rendered irrelevant by her real motivation, which is to get back at Logan after he advised Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) to pull a Tony Soprano-style move and make it impossible for her to secure a good divorce lawyer. Who are these people when they're not trying to one-up their father? To that point, who is Logan when he doesn't have his dogs to kick and pit against each other? All any of them really have left are their open wounds and their petty grievances.

Cohen goes on to tell the man he's writing, "I guess that I miss you, I guess I forgive you." It's that angle of forgiveness that feels essential when thinking about the Roys. "Famous Blue Raincoat" is about a love triangle, yes, but Kendall, Roman, and Shiv are wrapped up in their own betrayal triangle. As Season 4 continues, pay attention to the ways two of the siblings often partner up to ice the third one out. There's an example of it in "Rehearsal," as Kendall and Shiv try to shame Roman into agreeing to obstruct the GoJo deal, and it's what makes Roman eventually scurrying back to Logan feel neither shocking nor completely unfounded when considered from his perspective. So far, we've always seen the siblings reliably fall back in together after stabbing each other in the back. We know that Logan will forgive anyone as long as it's advantageous to him. As we look toward the episodes still to come, we're left considering Kendall, Roman, and Shiv and wondering how many times your brother can kill you before you stop forgiving him.

Succession Season 4 airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.

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