Succession's Sarah Snook Says We Shouldn't Count Shiv Out Just Yet
Contains spoilers for "Succession" Season 4, Episode 4, "Honeymoon States"
If you were wondering how long the truce between the Roy siblings was going to last, "Honeymoon States" proves that the level of dysfunction running among "Succession" sibs Shiv (Sarah Snook), Roman (Kieran Culkin), and Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) is more powerful than the blood running through their veins. By the time the episode ends, Roman and Kendall have formed an alliance and plan to act as co-CEOS of Waystar Royco as the company goes through its merger. All of that in the wake of the siblings' discovery of a note left behind by mercurial papa Logan (Brian Cox) that suggests he wants Kendall to be his successor. But is Kendall's name underlined or crossed out?
After making their bargain, both brothers swear that Shiv will have a say in the company's doings, but things look pretty bleak for her as the show ends. It's just one more stressor she's stuck facing down; on top of it all, Shiv also finds out that she's pregnant. That's a turn of events which may make her shaky relationship with husband Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) all the more precarious.
Yet Sarah Snook says you shouldn't ever count out a Roy like Shiv, especially when the chips are down. "I think she is a killer long-term. I feel like she's the most like Logan so she in the end, inevitably, will end up to be a killer. Maybe more than Kendall is," she said during an April 16 appearance on the Succession podcast.
Sarah Snook knows Shiv is up against some hard odds
Sarah Snook is well aware that the road ahead for Shiv Roy is hard, due to the sheer amount of strife she faces both internally and externally. "She's someone who was afraid of vulnerability and taught to be afraid of vulnerability," the actress explained, "so coming into this scene, this is going to be the most exposing time for her." That means Shiv is stuck struggling with a lot of baggage left over from her mixed up feelings for Logan. For the first time in her life, Snook notes, Shiv is forced to be her own guiding star and live life without Logan Roy acting as a little demon on her shoulder telling her what she should and shouldn't do. While being Logan's daughter has required her to repress her emotions to a degree, she's reaching a point where those emotions threaten to emerge no matter how hard she tries to hide them.
Expect those emotions to affect the way she mothers her child, as well. "She's in some ways feigning indifference, because it's one of those things that's almost too hard to face," Snook continued, noting that Shiv's feelings about her mother, Rava (Natalie Gold), will definitely effect her parenting, as will her frustration over being forced to maintain a balance between life and work. "She hasn't really considered that as a path for her life and so it's quite a shock." Since one of Shiv's dreams definitely involves saving Waystar Royco from the hands of strangers, her brothers might end up the shocked ones.