SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you haven’t watched “Mass in Time of War,” the second episode of the third season of HBO’s “Succession.”
The longest week of the Roys’ lives continues into “Mass in Time of War.” Like the season premiere before it, this episode picks up almost directly where the last left off, giving neither its characters nor its audience much time to breathe. It’s still not quite enough time for the tables to completely turn, but as should surprise no one, Logan (Brian Cox) has always got an extra dagger up his sleeve — or, in this case, the world’s most intimidating box of donuts.
“Mass in Time of War” isn’t as overtly propulsive an episode as its predecessor (“Secession”), which ran on the kind of pure-cut adrenaline Kendall (Jeremy Strong) would quite literally kill for. And yet it ends up just as thrilling, with everyone grappling to find a foothold in an ever-changing quicksand pit; the various war rooms strategizing deep into the earliest, most unstable hours of the night. In New York, Kendall does his best to sway Shiv (Sarah Snook), Roman (Kieran Culkin) and Connor (Alan Ruck) over to his side; in Sarajevo, meanwhile, Logan’s estranged wife Marcia (Hiam Abbass) finally slinks her way back into the picture.
As Kendall tap dances himself into a frenzy, both for his siblings and erstwhile conspirator Stewy (Arian Moayed), Logan steadies himself from his initial shock and starts forming his comeback. And so the chess game between them continues, as fraught and toxic as ever, but at the very least, more out in the open than ever.
To break it all down, here’s who (or what) rises and falls in “Mass in Time of War,” Episode 2 of “Succession” Season 3.