HBO's Succession: Season Four Episode Nine (Part 1)

HBO's Succession: Season Four Episode Nine (Part 1)

What can we learn from those who have battled addiction and abuse just by watching a TV funeral? This episode of SNAP takes HBO’s *Succession* and uses Logan Roy’s funeral as a case study in narcissistic family systems, making it especially relatable for survivors of emotional and psychological abuse. Counsellor Mandy Friedman and her brother Andrew break down the behaviour of each Roy sibling as if they’re sitting in a therapy room with them.

You’ll hear Mandy call out Kendall’s behaviour toward Rava as “audacious hypocrisy,” noting how he terrorises his own children while claiming he’s protecting them. She explains how this kind of extreme double standard is a hallmark of “cluster B personality disorder,” and how it leads to what she calls “betrayal blindness” – that stunned feeling when abuse seems too outrageous to be real.

The conversation keeps looping back to practical patterns survivors will recognise: how Rava calmly repeats herself instead of getting sucked into arguments, how Jess gets forced to say something Kendall doesn’t want to hear and is then punished for it, and why short, firm statements work better than over-explaining to a narcissistic person. Mandy and Andrew also unpack Ewan’s speech about Logan’s childhood guilt and the way trauma “rolls downhill” through generations.

They map each child’s coping style – Roman’s toddler-like collapse at the pulpit, Shiv’s fawning and hunger for her father’s approval, Kendall’s mix of grandiosity, shame, and substance use – to common trauma responses seen in real abusive systems. You’ll get a mix of dark humour, sharp clinical language, and very human empathy.

If you’re someone who has grown up around narcissism or coercive control and finds yourself weirdly triggered by *Succession*, this breakdown might help you see that reaction as perfectly understandable rather than as a personal flaw. Which Roy child do you see a bit of yourself in?