Succession’s fifth episode gave fans exactly what its title promised: a kill list.
In business speak, a kill list is just a round-up of company redundancies meant to be slashed when a merger or acquisition takes place. With GoJo CEO Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) setting his sights not only on Waystar-Royco but also its conservative news division ATN, personnel adjustments naturally needed to be made. And, because this is Succession, the best way to cull the herd is to gather the over-paid, non-essential sheep on a remote Norwegian mountaintop and have them (literally) sweat it out. Obviously, some long-term Logan Roy groupies are nervous about their continued survival at the company while the higher-ups are hoping the Roy sibling’s renegotiations yield an even bigger payout.
But who’s on the chopping block and who’s safe once the deal goes through?
Who’s On The Kill List? Who Is Safe?
At the beginning of the episode, as the Waystar-Royco crew cruises to their last-minute Scandinavian Hunger Games event, a handful of the company’s mainstay employees seem to be dreading the meet-cute. Hugo (Fisher Stevens) is fretting about GoJo’s head of communications — he’s a former Olympian and decades younger — while Karolina (Dagmara Dominczyk) sizes up Matsson’s personal PR head. Ray, Mark, Gerri (J. Smith Cameron), Greg (Nicholas Braun), and Tom (Matthew Macfayden) also seem to be nervous about impressing the CEO enough to avoid the ax while Frank (Peter Friedman) and Karl (David Rasche) are happily stuffing their gams into compression stockings and readying to “let the good times roll.”
Later, after Greg confirms an evolving kill list of eight to nine names is circling around Matsson’s camp, a final list is leaked to the group on their way home from the retreat. Hugo, Mark, Ray, Karl, and Frank are out while Karolina, Gerri, and Tom seem to be safe (for the moment). And Greg? Well, Greg’s not memorable enough to factor in, either way.
Why Did Some People Survive The Kill List?
Both Karl and Frank are grandfathered-in employees. They’re higher-ups who have been with the company for so long — and accumulated enough controlling stock — that they expect to be given a hefty severance package when the deal between Waystar-Royco and GoJo goes through. The more money Matsson offers only sweetens their pots so the confirmation that they’re getting fired doesn’t bother them too much. They can afford unemployment.
For Hugo, Ray, and Mark — all lower-level employees — the news that they’ve been culled is a bit more brutal. They’ll be facing a job market with a resume that includes working for a notorious, shit-stirring billionaire media magnate (kind of like working at Fox News). But, what’s really interesting about Matsson’s kill list isn’t who’s on it, it’s who’s left off and why.
After a late-night confessional with Shiv (Sarah Snook), Matsson not only offers the siblings more money for their father’s kingdom, he saves specific people she namedrops in their heart-to-heart. After Matsson reveals he’s been sending bricks of blood to his former girlfriend/comms department head, he inquires about Karolina and Shiv backs her, calling her “solid.” Later, when she’s offering up some PR advice for his “prank gone wrong,” she mentions that Gerri would have a good handle on something like this. Though she never fights for Tom outright, she’s quick to throw ATN old-timer Cyd Peach under the bus when the group is back in the air, leading us to assume Tom’s continued existence at the company is also her doing. Matsson seems to not only trust Shiv, but he also values her opinion and sees her as the Roy sibling most similar to her father, a man he both despised and respected.
So sure, we feel for the people on his “to fire” list, but the bigger takeaway from episode five is how it sets up a potential alliance between Matsson and Shiv and presents a new frontrunner in the line of succession.
