The ConHead Coup: Will Succession Season 4 Be Connor’s Time to Shine?

It’s almost fitting that the events of the Succession Season 3 finale took place amongst a backdrop of Italian villas because that hour and change of the HBO dramedy had all the makings of an Italian American mob story. Children attempted to destroy their father, only to be taken down by a trusted consigliere (named Tom no less!) Backroom deals were made and souls were up for grabs. There was even a wedding (“you come into my makeshift boardroom on the day my ex-wife gets married and you try to murder my legacy…”).

But now that the dust has settled and the birthrights have been reneged, it’s important to remember that there is still one Roy child who could take on their father’s legacy and be the face of media conglomerate Waystar Royco. And, if we’re going to continue the Godfather references, it’s the one we’ve always underestimated as the Fredo of the bunch. Passed over for power and treated like a joke by his family, Logan Roy’s eldest son Connor (Alan Ruck) is the last—and, technically, first—of the media mogul’s children still standing, now that Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook), and Roman (Kieran Culkin) were double-crossed and cut out of the business.

It’s never been clear why Connor wasn’t groomed to be his dad’s heir apparent, and was instead pushed aside by his younger half-brother, Kendall. He’s Logan’s only child with his first wife, a person who remains more or less an enigma of Succession lore. All we really know is that she liked to host a gala and might have had some mental health issues. (Where is she? Is she still alive? Will she appear in Season 4 like she’s Alexis Carrington?) It’s possible that, without a parent who would always be firmly in his corner when he was growing up, Connor’s step-mom Caroline (Harriet Walter) poisoned Logan against his first born in order to manipulate things for her children. In the third season’s opening credits, which focus on home movies of the Roy siblings as kids, suggest that a young Connor never knew where his place was in the family. In the footage, he tries to inch closer to the other kids as they stand obediently in a row like he’s worried that he’ll be cut out of the frame. Then they all turn around shocked when it appears their father has lost interest in all of them.

This kind of upbringing obviously created a strained relationship for Connor and his family. He’s tried his best to bond with them, such as taking Roman fly fishing in Montana when they were kids. Now, as adults, he appears like the only one who doesn’t have some personal agenda in helping Kendall stay sober when the siblings stage an intervention with their addict brother.

But he will always be the punchline to the family. That he has to correct his brothers and sister that he—not Kendall—is their father’s eldest child, and that there was a reason why he distanced himself from the family until Logan had a health scare in the series premiere, all shows how they have never taken him seriously. Also, him explaining all of this while rhythmically slicing a butter knife across a table cloth was unnerving, but also suggested how long he’s been bottling up his frustration; tiny, methodical pokes from a dull sword last longer and are more torturous than one quick jab through the heart.

To his siblings, he’s just the guy who is so pathetic he had to hire a sex worker (Justine Lupe’s Willa) to be his girlfriend, and was duped out of part of his inheritance in the purchase of what was definitely not Napoleon’s penis.