The most emotional moment at the end of the shocking chapter 4×03 of ‘Succession’ was improvised

— SPOILERS of episode 4×03 of ‘Succession’ —

The third episode of the fourth season of ‘Succession’ has completely changed the landscape. After the previous chapter we wondered if ‘Succession’ had run out of ideas… Well, take it. In the whole mouth. This week has happened what we all feared would happen sooner or later. The death of Logan Roy (Brian Cox) has been around since the first episode, and the very title of the HBO series anticipated something inevitable: the succession at the head of the company and the family nucleus itself.

Waystar Royco boss passed away by surprise in his private jet away from his children, who faced the news together at Connor’s (Alan Ruck) wedding. After a harrowing call in which Tom (Tom Wambsgans) broadcasts live the final moments of the Roy patriarch, the three brothers let out their despair and impotence at the death of their a being, despite everything, dear. What is surely the most important moment of the entire series occurs out of shot and the viewer knows the news at the same time and in the same way as the protagonists, in a decision calculated by the creator to the millimeter Jesse Armstrong and the executive producer Mark Mylod.

After the initial shock, the economic and business machinery does not stop and the three brothers Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) have to make the decision to face the press on a day in which his movements and his reaction will be watched with a magnifying glass from all fronts. After a press conference in which Shiv stands as the spokesperson for the family, the three brothers shared a moment as tender as it was unusual throughout the HBO series. For once, they weren’t fighting amongst themselves, or shooting snide remarks at each other. Like three lost children the Roys melted into an embraceeither.

However, that moment, undoubtedly the most emotional of the season and, surely, of the entire series, was not in the script. As Armstrong and Mylod have revealed in various interviews, the actors improvised the hug and the result was so moving that they had no choice but to use it in the final cut. “Right at the end of the episode, when Sarah’s character just did the press conference, and the three of them fall into this three-way hug before going their separate ways… That wasn’t in the script.” acknowledges Mylod to G.Q.. “What was there is the scene where Sarah and Jeremy’s character are holding hands to break the news to Connor, and that day it killed me. Every time we get that window into his childhood it’s a lovely thing.which deepens our connection to those characters and our understanding of them.”

Mylod has also spoken with Variety confirming that “that beautiful three-way hug between them, which I thought was really beautiful, was not in the script. They just found themselves there and got carried away.”

The end of ‘Succession’ is getting closer, and HBO has revealed a trailer for the second half of the season that prepares us for the end of what has been, for a long time, one of the best series in history. “Let the games begin“.