It’s potential I’ve been watching an excessive amount of Survivor—or perhaps Mike White’s tendency to equate the leisure enterprise together with his time on season 37 has begun to have an effect on the way in which I, too, view popular culture. Nonetheless, whereas watching “Tailgate Celebration” this week, I couldn’t assist however really feel like an episode of the CBS actuality present was taking part in as a substitute. Sure, it was set in a New York Metropolis triplex versus a distant island in Fiji and there was quite a bit much less snuffing torches and extra puffing on vapes, however the way in which the Roys and their friends conduct their enterprise—by means of backstabbing, manipulation, and soiled dealmaking—had me feeling like Jeff Probst would step into body at any minute. Critically, Jesse Armstrong ought to observe in White’s footsteps and apply for Survivor season 45. There’s proof tv writers do nicely on the present, and clearly he has a head for this factor.

Now, Succession has at all times been about gaming and technique—that’s nothing new. For 3 and a half seasons, the present has depicted the manipulative nature of the Watstar Royco household as they staff up and backstab in an try to get forward. I’m not precisely certain why I’m simply now making this analogy, however I imagine it was Shiv’s actions within the episode that actually sparked the Survivor comparability for me. Over the previous few weeks, Shiv has been taking part in each side—appeasing her brothers whereas delivering data and recommendation to Matsson. Whether or not the GoJo deal falls by means of or not, she’s guaranteeing a profitable end result for herself. Any Survivor fan is aware of it is a good spot to seek out your self inside the recreation. You need to be a helpful, essential device in an effort to get forward, sitting fairly within the center because the opposing sides duke it out. However it can be a really harmful place if not performed appropriately. “Nonetheless protecting all of your choices open, honey?” Tom requested Shiv final episode. “Try to be cautious with that.” After all, Tom would really feel this manner. He’s Shiv’s dysfunctional showmance associate. And sure, Shiv might repeatedly screw him over, however he retains going again to her. It’s not like he has many different choices. The Ken-Ro alliance isn’t precisely welcoming him into their technique classes.

After all, by the tip of the episode, we see what appears to be the official finish of the Tom-Shiv alliance. In what could be some of the heartbreaking scenes of an already emotionally distressing season, the couple lastly involves blows, voicing the issues they’ve been holding again for thus lengthy, the opinions they felt they couldn’t say in order to get forward on this social technique recreation. Shiv calls Tom a hyena, a rat, a snake—animals that any Survivor fan hears gamers equate with their enemies all too typically. After all, there normally isn’t this a lot historical past between gamers (Blood vs. Water seasons however), and this explicit scene transcends the fact present trope, with dialogue that may certainly ship the Tom and Shiv lovers of Twitter right into a tailspin. The argument involves a head with Tom telling Shiv she is “incapable of affection” and sure “not a great individual to have youngsters with,” the weekly reminder that Shiv is, in reality, pregnant, and has but to inform a soul.

Kendall and Roman, in the meantime, are the basic guys’ alliance, pondering they will win their technique to the tip—outwit, outplay, outlast all of them, just because they’re higher, stronger, and smarter. However their vanity has blinded them from the truth that they don’t have fairly the grip on the sport they thought they did. Roman assumes he can clean issues over with Gerri, no drawback—however she gained’t forgive him for blindsiding her with that firing. Kendall’s makes an attempt to convey Nate into the alliance fail miserably, and Roman takes it one step too far with Connor, shedding two numbers forward of the following Tribal Council. Later, the co-CEO siblings chat with Shiv on the balcony after Matsson’s “shock” look, discussing their plans to “vote” the Swede off the island. As they ask Shiv to play double agent (unaware it’s a task she has already taken on) I couldn’t assist however think about Shiv in a confessional, laughing at her brothers’s blindness to the sport’s true machinations.

After which there’s Matsson, who was the frontrunner for some time, getting the winner’s edit so followers root for him to take it dwelling. In “Tailgate Celebration,” nevertheless, he loses his footing within the recreation when he screws over his personal alliance member, Ebba, too many instances and she or he reveals to his enemies that the idol he’s been touting round is, in reality, faux. The one factor that made Matsson unstoppable—his unbeatable subscriber numbers—isn’t actual, leaving him with no defend to guard himself.

So, what’s going to occur on the subsequent Tribal Council? Who will go dwelling? Who will outmaneuver the opposite gamers in an effort to emerge because the Sole Survivor and winner of the Waystar Royco throne? Will we be subjected to extra of Shiv and Tom’s cringey sexts? Tune in subsequent week to seek out out.