ATN Announces Mencken's Victory - Succession S4E8

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[captain]

The most unrealistic thing about this scenario is that there are two men running for president under the age of 70.

[janechoy]

"America Decides" - what an irony of an episode title when it's literally decided by what, 4 people.

[jcnom]

You can’t be Logan and be a good dad at the same time Kendall

[jeebs]

Greg is able to do what shiv cannot, and that is play all sides to his advantage.

[jyoung]

"He's someone we can do business with." Ken is trying to convince himself more than anything.

[nickolausturbide]

Romans last words while he was on top to Mencken were "Over the road and into the bar". The ending of the following episode is when he hit rock bottom and decided to go into the road of protesters and get himself hurt by the physical manifestation of his backfired decision. This all led Roman to the conclusion he wasn't meant for any of this and in the finale the final shot of Roman is him sitting alone at the bar. Brilliant stuff

[jcnom]

This episode was like watching Kendall battle the Kendall his dad wanted

[BatmanHQYT]

Fun fact: Justin Kirk was recovering from COVID while filming Mencken's speech, he'd even lost his voice. He nailed his performance here, the speech was both chillingly eloquent and riddled with dog whistles about his beliefs. "Haggling between cunning men", "welfare kings and queens", "a leader willed into being", "something clean in this polluted land", "proud and pure", and so on.

[justinhamilton]

Close enough. Welcome back Jeryd Mencken

[Andre_APM]

When Shiv was criticizing Mencken in S3, I thought they might spin him as a Trump-like figure. But what makes Mencken worse is that he comes accross as an actually _competent_ and _capable_ facist politician. Incredible move by the writers.

[MichaelEmmanuelArriaga]

Shiv destroyed what was left of her marriage, Ken destroyed what was left of his soul and Roman destroyed the country. Rich kid grief is nuclear, man.

[xenawarriorprincess]

Romans line “we just made a night of good TV” was most chilling to me bc he is so outside of his sense of humanity and empathy. He’s a child with the god-like power of his dads company who doesn’t realize his choice just impacted the lives of 300 million people (and the rest of the world). Not to mention the idea and model of democracy. You can’t even call Roman evil he’s too fucking dumb to be conniving

[daaave_]

Menken's speech is so blatantly fascistic that it sent shivers down my spine. Brilliant writing!

[ismaelismael]

I love how everyone at the chain of command washes their hands off the decision. Rome says nothing will happen, Tom states it's not his call, Greg says he's just following orders and the tech guy just calls someone else to put the add.
Tom even complains when other networks begin to point fingers at him in particular.

[timskully]

I think this is my favorite scene from the show ever. No words. Just Mencken's horrifying speech. Everyone's face speaks for itself.

[adotbw]

The shift in tone of Mencken's voice and the music at 02:54 is absolutely haunting. Stunning, sensational stuff.

[jugogogo]

I think this move could backfire horribly. “The president is elected by the electoral college after a legal fight which is not over at the end of this episode” said Jesse Armstrong in the post-show podcast. Even here they allude to the fact that the legal contest on this could keep going for the next three moths. Imagine the ballots are found, the results are contested and the Roys are left with a flaming, crashing-to-the-ground, monster of a firm that loses all its credibility and stock value over this.

[BatmanHQYT]

Kendall had a look of post-nut clarity for this entire scene. The "he's a guy we can do business with" sounded like he was justifying his actions to himself more than anything.

[jackevans]

Jeremy's acting is so on point here. The nervous excuses and justifications in calling in an election TOO early just so the company can survive. That dead behind the eyes look. The growing feeling of regret and fear in knowing they've just handed power to a dangerous demagogue whose beliefs are already impacting on his own family, all for the sake of spiting his sister.

He is flat out one Tony Soprano away from having the worst panic attack.

[mikeym]

"Don't we long sometimes for something clean? Once, in this polluted land?"