‘Succession’ Season 4: Is Being a Bad Parent Hereditary?

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Season 4 of Succession. Despite its dark comedy genre and political plot points, Succession is a show about family. It’s a dysfunctional one full of narcissists and backstabbers, but nevertheless, family is at the core of the series. The Roy children consistently lived in the shadow of their father, Logan (Brian Cox), until his sudden death early in Season 4. Throughout the show, many questions have been raised with regard to his parenting, and with him now out of the picture, it’s clear that he’s had a lasting effect on one of his children in particular.

Throughout Succession’s four-season run, many parallels have risen between Logan and the Roy kids. In the show’s latest episode “America Decides,” the similarities between Logan and Jeremy Strong’s Kendall couldn’t be more obvious. When phoning his ex-wife Rava (Natalie Gold), Kendall asks her to comfort his scared daughter, Sophie (Swayam Bhatia), the irony being that it’s Kendall’s poor parenting that has scared her in the first place. It’s at this moment that the parallels between Kendall and Logan’s parenting are on full display.

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Kendall Doesn’t Take Responsibility for His Actions

To protect his daughter after she was shoved in the street for her association with Kendall, Kendall sends a car to follow her and Rava around without them knowing. With the vehicle ominously following them, the mother and daughter freak out, resulting in Kendall admitting that he sent the car to watch over them, highlighting just how detached of a parent he is.

Completely unaware of his crazy actions, Kendall is in complete denial of the absurdity of the situation. Instead of being there to look after his daughter himself, he uses one of his minions to do the dirty work so that he can focus on his business at Waystar. It’s a sign of him being an absent parent, a trait that was glaring in the previous episode “Tailgate Party.” In the episode, Rava mentions to Kendall that Sophie had been confronted on the street, to which he responds “Where were you?” Understandably, this immediately results in conflict between the two characters with Kendall unable to comprehend the fact that Rava wasn’t with her at the time, blaming her for being absent. The scene showcases Kendall’s narcissism as he searches for someone to blame beyond himself. It’s his work that’s causing trouble for Sophie, but he refuses to take any responsibility for that, instead blaming Rava and sending a car to watch over them.

Throughout Succession, we’ve heard countless comments from the Roy kids who clearly suffered from a similarly detached form of parenting in their youth, with Logan constantly focused on his CEO position at Waystar Royco. Now, as Kendall becomes more like his father in Season 4 with each episode, Logan’s detached style of parenting has been passed onto him.

Logan and Kendall Both Lie to Themselves

In an effort to comfort his anxious daughter, Kendall says “I love her and that is why I do everything I do.” It’s a sentiment that Kendall clearly uses to explain his absence in Sophie’s life, suggesting that he spends so much time working in order for her to be happy. Once again, this is drawing a strong parallel to Logan, with showrunner Jesse Armstrong using the line to mirror dialogue previously spoken by Logan back in Season 1. Logan says “Everything I’ve done in my life, I’ve done for my children.” The similarities between the two lines tell a tale of bad parenting, being passed from one generation to the next.

These two pieces of dialogue tell us a lot about the loveless father and son, as they not only lie to their partners and children, but they’re lying to themselves. Kendall genuinely believes that he is a good dad, just as his father did before him. His breakdown after losing the gifts from his children in Season 3’s “Too Much Birthday,” highlights how he does want to be a good dad. Having gifts from his kids will reflect that, but of course, Kendall spends the majority of the episode preoccupied, which is a great example of his parenting. Kendall’s focus on becoming Waystar’s CEO and constant need to impress and live up to his father has plagued him, resulting in being too busy to be a good parent to his kids.

In Season 4’s premiere episode, “The Munsters,” Logan acted similarly. After completely stabbing the Roy kids in the back at the climax of Season 3, the grizzled father is upset that none of them showed up to his birthday. It’s an example of Logan’s want to be perceived as a good father despite continuously putting his global empire before them. Season 3’s finale featured a Logan too selfish to look out for his kids, focused on getting a deal with acquiring company Gojo and giving little thought to its ramifications on his children and their positions at the company. Ultimately, Kendall and Logan are too focused on their work to be good parents.

Will Kendall Ever Be a Good Dad?

As mentioned earlier, Kendall being consistently preoccupied with his work prevents him from being a present father. Early in Season 3, he took over Rava and Sophie’s house as an interim headquarters as he began to take down his dad, even having meetings with siblings Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) in his daughter’s bedroom. It’s an example of Kendall putting his business over his child.

If Kendall can find more time for Sophie (and not just late at night when she’s already asleep), Kendall could start to redeem himself as a father. He must understand what she needs and literally be there, rather than get Rava to do all the physical parenting for him. The fact that he got Rava to tell their daughter that he loves her showcases that he’s yet to discover the importance of doing these things himself. Only if he makes more time for his children, can Kendall be a good parent.

With the only father figure in Kendall’s life being cold-blooded Logan (and his mother not being much better), it’s clear that his failure at being present as a parent is a consequence of his own childhood. While one can see that Kendall does want to be a good dad, he must learn to put his children before his work if he’s ever going to accomplish that.