On this episode of X-Ray Vision, Jason Concepcion and Rosie Knight make deals (or not?)! In a double dose of Market Moves (2:06) Jason and Rosie speedcap and analyze the latest in the Roy family saga in Succession season 4 episode 5. Then there’s more Market Moves (33:08) with Succession season 4 episode 6. Then in Nerd Out (1:14:56) a listener pitches a TV adaptation of Red Dead Redemption 2.

 

Note: Imprecise timestamps are an unfortunate side effect of a new ads system. Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve this issue.

 

Tune in every Wednesday & Friday and don’t forget to Hulk Smash the Follow button!

 

Nerd Out Submission Instructions!

Send a short pitch and 2-3 minute voice memo recording to xray@crooked.com that answers the following questions: 1) How did you get into/discover your ‘Nerd Out?’ (2) Why should we get into it too? (3) What’s coming soon in this world that we can look forward to or where can we find it? If you’re sending a theory, feel free to send only a summary of your theory (no audio needed) for Jason and Rosie to react to on air.

 

Follow Jason: twitter.com/netw3rk

Follow Rosie: IG, Letterboxd, & newsletter

Join the X-Ray Vision Discord

Follow Crooked: twitter.com/crookedmedia

 

TRANSCRIPT

 

[AD]

 

Jason Concepcion [AD]

 

Jason Concepcion Market Moves is not scared of any competitor and we will happily support them because Market Moves is the only one that makes the market move. Warning This podcast contains spoilers for season four Episode five and six of Succession on Max. Hello, my name is Jason Concepcion.

 

Rosie Knight And I’m Rosie Knight.

 

Jason Concepcion And welcome. After a week off.

 

Rosie Knight Gasp.

 

Jason Concepcion Back.

 

Rosie Knight It’s good to be back

 

Jason Concepcion X-ray Vision, theCrooked Media podcast, where we dive deep to your favorite shows, movies, comics and pop culture.

 

Rosie Knight In this episode, it’s a supersized edition of Market Moves.

 

Jason Concepcion It’s movin.

 

Rosie Knight Get your money ready because things are moving and moving up them out. Movin sideways.

 

Jason Concepcion Get those hundos laid out and a beautiful fan and get ready to invest, invest, invest because the stock is only going up.

 

Rosie Knight Succession Episode five and six From season four, We’re going on holiday and then we’re going to live forever. It’s going to be great guys. And in Nerd Out, David pitches us on Red Dead Redemption 2 as the next video game TV adaptation. I would love to see it.

 

Jason Concepcion Ooh. Coming up, Market Moves and. Oh, you Roys pop your value like this. Ken and Roman and Connor and Shiv. All you Roy’s pop your value like this. Ken and Roman and Connor and Shiv. Just do it, Do it, do it, do it, Do it now. Bite it. Good. Bite my arm. Just like you should right now. Bite it. Good. Bite my arm. Just like you should. My mar, my ket, my move and my invest. My mar, my ket, my move and my invest. My mar, my ket, my move. That’s right. It’s Market Moves.

 

Rosie Knight Market Moves.

 

Jason Concepcion . We’re covering episode five and six of Succession season four, and we’re going to Norway. In episode five, we open with the new co-CEO structure in place. Interim Boy Kings, Ken and Roman begin making their marks at Waystar HQ. That means walking in, getting applause from everyone. The C-suite boy boyars get whipped into line and they’re getting ready for their journey to Norway, to Greece, the birth canal of the GoJo deal. Lukas Matsson requesting the presence of all the players, large and small, not just the Roy family, but all the kind of upper level executives that they might want to keep or might want to fire, as the case may be. And the timing, of course, is a great what with Logan recently dropping dead on an airplane. Rosie, remember that yet?

 

Rosie Knight And Ken and Roman have literally been in power for 24 hours, give or take. It’s bad timing. And this is an obvious power play for Matsson, who is just doing the most this episode.

 

Jason Concepcion The grieving, the grieving process is still ongoing with the Roy children, but Lukas Matsson doesn’t care about any of that. And Ken says, okay, well, let’s just do it. Let’s go over there and bleed the Swede on the plane over Ken and Roman do the absolute least they can do to makes Shiv feel like she’s part of this, as they had kind of agreed upon soft agreed upon earlier that they were all everything’s going to come across your table that you’re going to be involved in not know. And they are really not even trying to make her feel like she’s part of it.

 

Rosie Knight This is a mistake that they will soon come to regret. I feel, as we look upon the fortunes of the future Waystar Royco company. And it is just so hilarious and bleak how quickly they went back on their word. This was literally yesterday and they, as we said, I’m just saying we were right. We said they’re going to fuck her over and guess what? They’re doing it. They cut her out. She is irrelevant to them.

 

Jason Concepcion To the victor, the spoils. And there’s a piece of paper with Ken’s name on it.

 

Rosie Knight Was it crossed out?

 

Jason Concepcion Shiv, meanwhile, is concerned that there’s all these stories in Forbes, Business Insider in Wall Street Journal, about about Logan, about what a shit show his late reign was. And she is like, What’s going on with this? I thought we had is this coming from us? I thought we agreed not to slander dad as he is laid freshly at his grave. And Ken and Roman are like, you know, we were crunching all these numbers here and we’ve got to get ready for this deal. What do you deal with? Like, Well, let’s talk to Hugo. Hugo? He’s not coming for us, right? He goes like, No, I don’t know what you ever heard of this. And and so that’s over with. And meanwhile, Shiv, Ken and Roman say, if you want us to fire Tom in the most humiliating possible way.

 

Rosie Knight Cut his head off. Put it on a spike.

 

Jason Concepcion To you, dear sister. Draw and corner him. You know, hang him. Not until dead, until he’s merely unconscious. And then we go in and we cut open his abdomen and we pull his guts out in front of him. We put it on a fire and burn some, and then we cut him up into pieces and we put his head on the spike. We can do that. If that’s what you want. And Shiv’s like, I don’t know. Meanwhile, the old guard, Frank Karl, Carolina, Hugo and the other guy are pinching their sides to see which one of them is the fattest hog at the slaughterhouse.

 

Rosie Knight They know.

 

Jason Concepcion There’s rumors of a kill list Circulate. Gerri tells everyone, settle down. Listen. I get it. We’re going over there to meet the upper level Gojo people, and they’re all like, excellent beards.

 

Rosie Knight And they look like supermodels.

 

Jason Concepcion They’re like in their mid thirties, and they’re all like Fulbright scholars with Ph.Ds, but they’re all fucking soft because they had that socialist health care and they never had to worry about like going to the dentist. Meanwhile, we came up through the through the mean meat grinder of the American system when we’re fucking tough and they put mayo in their fries and we eat blood red steaks. Don’t worry about it. Their soft. First prompt. Rosie. What is that guy’s name?

 

Rosie Knight Oh my god. is his name like Harry? I don’t know. He’s just there.

 

Jason Concepcion Okay, You go with Harry.

 

Rosie Knight I think. What about Harry?

 

Jason Concepcion I know what it is, and I’m just going to say what it is. But I’m also going to say that I only know because I had to look it up. His name is Ray.

 

Rosie Knight Ray. Ray. I was like, halfway there.

 

Jason Concepcion And Ray, my my most indelible memory of Ray is from the boar on the floor outing in, I believe, Romania.

 

Rosie Knight He’s a holiday guy. He shows up on holidays.

 

Jason Concepcion I think wherever it was, Tom said something like Spooky Dracula or something. And he was the guy during boar on the floor who was like, really, really into it. He’s like, Yeah, would you get that solved?

 

Rosie Knight Yeah.

 

Jason Concepcion So the Gojo confab happens at, like, this really gorgeous resort of some kind. Norwegian comes on in some.

 

Rosie Knight Kind of, like, compound. I don’t know. He seems to be very comfortable there.

 

Jason Concepcion This beautiful. There’s like a gondola going up to the top of this peak. And then all the buildings are like this glass enclosed, like futuristic shit like that the billionaire would from ex-Machina would live in kind of. Now. As they’re heading up in the gondola. The old guard, Karl in particular, is like, okay, Kendi, I want to go over the money one more time. Of course, Karl has visions of of of Lesbos or some other Greek isle, like dancing in his head. And and Ken is like, No, listen, I understand 144 is our absolutely can’t go lower than this price. And we want to go higher than that And we’d love 148, but we’d settle for like 145. And when they say 145, they mean billion. Billion.

 

Rosie Knight 145 billion dollars.

 

Jason Concepcion Billion dollars. And so and Ken’s like, I get it. So we’ll get him. We’ll get him about 144. Meanwhile, Connor is back stateside and he’s dealing with the fact that Marsha wants to wants to have Logan laying in his coffin in a kilt, which Connor thinks is weird, despite the fact that Logan, who is from Scotland, was a Scottish man, a proud Scottish man, and a supporter of either Hibs or Hearts. And I’m not. I forget. Do we know if Roman still owns that team?

 

Rosie Knight CHecker. We need a fact check.

 

Jason Concepcion Co-owner of either Hibs or Hearts basically calls Ken saying, Give me full authority to tell Marsha that we can’t bury Pop in a kilt in Kent is like whatever he hangs up.

 

Rosie Knight On. And he also says very bleakly, he’s like, Send photos of your dad’s embalmed body. Kendall.

 

Jason Concepcion The boys initial meeting with Matsson begins with a really awkward like nod to the fact that that Logan is freshly embalmed like not cold yet and Matsson wants to have a dead dad dick measuring contest with Lukas saying at least you didn’t find him in his BMW with the engine running, yadda yadda yadda. And when this gets no reaction because it’s a very, very weird thing to say, like off like as hello. He then goes, What? No. No sympathy for Lukas. No. All for.

 

Rosie Knight He is a true. If you weren’t alread aware that Skarsgaardis playing Lukas Matsson as an absolute sociopath. You will be aware by the end of this episode.

 

Jason Concepcion Oh, yeah. So they get down to brass coffin nails quite quickly. The boys, backed by the board, want more money for Waystar. For various reasons. They think it’s undervalued. They, you know, they want ATN out of the deal. They want the price up.  Lukas, meanwhile, is saying, well, if you want if you’re taking something out, but the price is going up, how does that make sense? I’m getting less and I’m paying more. And he says, What about this? Put ATN back in the bag and I’ll buy it all for $187 50/50 cash stock deal. Now, for those counting, that is a lot more than 144.

 

Rosie Knight That is the dollar price for the each share. That’s why I just remembered because I looked it up. So it’s $144 a share, $487 a share. But it’s still like a fuck ton more. But just so we.

 

Jason Concepcion Still a fuck ton of money

 

Rosie Knight But yes we can.

 

Jason Concepcion And again we can. That is that is the expertise that Market Moves brings to the numbers in the context in the stocks and the bonds and the etherium and the crypto.

 

Rosie Knight Is a lot more. 887 is more than 144. Did you know that?

 

Jason Concepcion Second prompt. Rosie, what is your absolute basement amount of money to tell everyone to go fuck off and and you would never be seen again. You just be living your life writing Godzilla comics for fun and doing whatever you want with your life. What is the absolute bare minimum amount of money that you would be like I can quit everything and I will move to somewhere and I’ll just do nothing?

 

Rosie Knight I am an extremely thrifty person, so I it’s probably a lot lower than anything else, but we’re talking Succession. So I yeah, I if, if I could I would take, you know I’ll, I’ll go in those I believe in no such thing as a good billionaire. I’m not going there but I could do that for ten mil. I could be gone. No one would ever see me again. No question. I put a million in a high interest account because that’s kind of thing we do here Market Moves. I buy a little house and you never see me again. I have no social media. I’m done.

 

Jason Concepcion I like it. The. The current, as of March 9th, 2023, Biden-Harris Administration Defense Department budget is $842 billion.

 

Rosie Knight Wow.

 

Jason Concepcion I would need about $1,000,000,000,000 to really settle down because I got too many things on my mind. I got too man, I got too many ideas. I can’t settle down for anything less than I would go as low as maybe 800 billion.

 

Rosie Knight I like that I go as low. You will take what the the the general average military budget is. I think that’s fair.

 

Jason Concepcion Right. I think it is fair. Ken and Roman. Now Ken and Roman should leap at this. 187? Yeah, we want it.

 

Rosie Knight That’s so much higher.

 

Jason Concepcion Immediately, like, incredible. Now, of course, you do your due diligence. You see if you can prod him any higher. If he says 187 off rip, maybe he go a little higher. But this is immediately it’s a win. You can go back to the board, and the board would would be throwing flowers at you.

 

Rosie Knight Forever.

 

Jason Concepcion Forever. But because Ken and Roman in their hearts and their dark, shriveled little tiny pea hearts don’t want to sell.

 

Rosie Knight They want to sell a deal. I just don’t want it. I just want to say I have believed ever since. Kendall got the phone call from Matsson, where Matsson was like, If your dad pushes for more money, I’m not doing the deal. I believe Kendall has planned to tank this deal since then, and now he is planning to tank it even more. And hilariously, these two are such fuck ups. They can’t even take the deal.

 

Jason Concepcion Well, it in there, in fairness to Ken, Matsson did say, Hey, if you raise the price at all, I’m fucking out. And then they asked. They tried to raise the price and match and clearly was not out. It’s like if it’s a move, if, if this was like purely a move, which it’s not because they want to take the deal, but if it was a move, it.

 

Rosie Knight Would be a good move, a rare good Kendall move.

 

Jason Concepcion So the boys want to tank the deal. And Matsson, I think, understands on some kind of instinctive level, like a hog, you know, digging for for a truffle understands that he smells some sort of like, emotional weakness if even if he doesn’t quite understand that, it’s that they want to take the deal. He understands that there’s an emotional connection to ATN. And that was their dad’s baby. They’re dad. Logan fucking loved ATN. He made that big speech at  ATN and he was going to fucking install himself as the cock of the walk back at  ATN. He’s rebuilt his empire and loved ATN, and the boys want it for that reason, because it was Dad’s favorite, favorite thing in the world. It’s like a like his favorite watch. And so Matsson just wants it to fuck them, that’s all. He he just wants ATN to say, Fuck you guys and fuck your daddy’s dead. Fuck you. So. The boys now have to figure out how to not tell the board what’s going on, because they would clearly put tremendous pressure on them to take the deal. For her part, Shiv is fine with losing in time. It sucks. It is against kind of her politics, sort of. It’s openly allied with a neo fascist candidate, Jared Menken, who is apparently like directing the editorial over there at ATN now. And it’s time to sell it for an incredible amount of money and just enjoy life. And the boys say, okay, yeah, totally. We’ll look into that. Meanwhile, they’re going to kill the deal. And as this is going on, there are rumors of the Viking kill list circulating amongst everyone on the Waystar side. Third prompt. Who would you kill of Who would you keep? Rosie Co is acquiring not just Waystar, but also Gojo. You’re acquiring both companies in a tremendous 5050 cash stock deal directly out of Rosie Co’s pockets.

 

Rosie Knight That’s a lot of money. I should have already disappeared. I’m sorry.

 

Jason Concepcion Who are you retaining and who are you firing?

 

Rosie Knight I’m I’m absolutely retaining. I’m sorry. I don’t care if she doesn’t have the ex. I’m mean, this inverted commas experience. Shiv is staying. I think she is the only one with any sense. She. I’m also doing. I like what she does here as we will get into. I’m keeping Caroline. I’m keeping Jeffrey.

 

Jason Concepcion Caroline. I like it. I like that too.

 

Rosie Knight I’m keeping those three. I might if I’m really doing it. I’ll make him one of those kind of deals where, like, I’m paying them so much money, I’m not having any. Matsson, Roman, Kendall. All gone. Like, go somewhere else with your money. Do not be here with your sociopathic, terrible business plans and awful, scandalous. I’m bringing in somebody completely new to run it. You’re all out, but you get a lot of money because that’s the way this stuff goes.

 

Jason Concepcion I like those pics. Here’s what I would keep if I was acquiring a Gojo and Waystar and really everybody in Succession. If I’m buying the entire Succession IP for a tremendous amount of money. 50/50 cash stock deal I would retain Willa. And listen, Sand.

 

Rosie Knight Okay, you’re winning me over.

 

Jason Concepcion Sand was a flop. Okay. The sand wasn’t right, among many other things. And the acting, the writing were terrible. But, in the creative process there’s no such thing as failure. You got to keep going.

 

Rosie Knight I like that.

 

Jason Concepcion This is her first foray into into writing for the stage on a big on in a big way, you know, the biggest on Broadway, the biggest way. And in the end, it was a good first try. And I think that listen, as they say in the business by the dip that was the dip that stock is in the Williston is the low it can get. I think it can only go up. I am buying Willa because I think those second and third and fourth projects are going to be better than Sand. I’m keeping Gerri because I think she’s the only one that’s got her job.

 

Rosie Knight Yes, I agree.

 

Jason Concepcion I’m going to keep Frank because I just like that guy.

 

Rosie Knight Me, too. He’s he’s a good guy to have in your corner.

 

Jason Concepcion That’s right. And I’m going to keep Colin because somebody might try to throw piss on me because I’m so, so, so rich after acquiring the the Succession IP and, you know, one of these pinko socialist might try to throw urine on me as I walk it to the building.

 

Rosie Knight Okay. I just want to say, I think out of all your picks, if you are listening and you want to know who to buy on, I say buy on Willa because you know why. Well, something that we learned today that has been kept fairly out of the press and the narrative of the show and to the sidelines is the Royco Waystar entertainment business. We are going to need somebody to oversee the storytelling. The movie we have going on is we will get into is not doing well. We need Willa’s vision. We need her to come in and tell our budget what to do.

 

Jason Concepcion The budget is ballooning.

 

Rosie Knight It’s ballooning, Jason.

 

Jason Concepcion The CG is not looking good. The robot spends too much time. Napping in the cave. We need to pump this up. We need a franchise, folks. We need a hit. We need a tent pole, and we need like the sequel and we need the trilogy and then we need the spin offs. And I think Willa is the person to do it.

 

Rosie Knight I agree.

 

Jason Concepcion She can do it. Listen, it’s much easier, I think, to write for the summer movie blockbuster market than it is for Broadway with those snooty people. And I think you’re right. You’re absolutely right about that. Ken and Roman counter, they say, What’s okay? We take ATNback out. What’s the price for the deal? Matsson says, Listen, why do you even want it? It fucking sucks. It’s propaganda for angry elderly diabetics, which is all true, but. I. He just wants it and he and he doesn’t even want to say why he wants it, because he’s just buying it.

 

Rosie Knight He’s like, I’m just going to make it like Bloomberg. It’s going to be simple. It’s going to be cheap and it’s going to be great. And you guys can happened about it.

 

Jason Concepcion And then he shits on the boys and Shiv and says basically like, listen, your dad was one thing, but you guys are just a tribute band.

 

Rosie Knight That’s such a good insult that’s up there with the legendary Succession insults.

 

Jason Concepcion The boys and Shiv say, okay, we’ll take it to the board. But of course, the boys don’t want to take it to the board. And that night, without Shiv, they decided to take the deal.

 

Rosie Knight Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. Kendle American, you chaotic motherfuckers.

 

Jason Concepcion They say about They’re like they. To their credit, they do talk about bringing Shiv in. And then Ken says, What do you think Pinky can dance? Do you think that he could do the song and dance required to take the deal? And of course, they don’t think she could do it, so they cut her up. Fucking guys, these fucking guys. Meanwhile while that’s going on, Shiv.

 

Rosie Knight Oh.

 

Jason Concepcion Shiv’s not just staying put. She’s not just like doing couldn’t see the box that people want to put her in. She goes and meets one on one with Matsson who is blowing coke now. Shiv, an expectant mother. No one knows this is offered coke. And if you’ll notice, she just puts it in her hair. She pretends that she’s going to snort it, but she just puts it in her hand. And I think that’s responsible. And that’s the kind of thing you want to see.

 

Rosie Knight I’m telling you, this episode, I’ve always been a Shiv fan, okay? She’s got problems. And they all have problems. These Roy’s are terrible people.

 

Jason Concepcion Horrible human being.

 

Rosie Knight Being, incredibly toxic, romantic partner. But I am now rooting for Shiv, and I actually have. I understand. That people are taking her arc this season in two different ways. Some people see it as she’s being pushed to the side or being put in a kind of femme fatale trope that doesn’t suit her. I personally love to see Shiv taking on these idiotic men and using her kind of feminine wiles on that. She is doing the least the tiniest amount of effort and they are absolutely falling for and she is gaining control over them. And I loved this sequence with Matsson because he gives way too much and she now knows that she has this incredible leverage going forward that she keeps to herself correctly so.

 

Jason Concepcion I love this take. Shiv. Listen. Has Shiv made some mistakes? Did she ask for an open marriage on the on her wedding night with Tom? Did she cheat on her husband with her old flame? Nate, the campaign manager of Succession, Bruni Gill Eavis, did she convince a sexual assault survivor to take the money and not press against Waystar? Has she numerous times sold out her so-called ideals because she is involved in this family that is openly courting a neo fascist candidate? Yes, but she will not do cocaine in the first trimester. And I think that that, among other things, is something that we need to laud about.

 

Rosie Knight Let’s laud it

 

Jason Concepcion Shiv Roy. Thank you. And so, Shiv. Listen, Shiv is out here. She’s digging in, the digging in, the hedges, gaining intel. Matsson, his vocal cords loosened by the Colombian white marching powder starts talking about Ebba, Gojo, head of comms, saying that, you know, there was a weird thing with Ebba where I was kind of in a relationship with her, and then we broke it off, and it was obviously not a good. Breaking it off. And then I started sending her vast quantities of my blood.

 

Rosie Knight Because it was kind of a joke, but it was joking.

 

Jason Concepcion And it wasn’t a joke. And then it was serious and now it’s not a joke. And this is obviously highly damaging information. And at the end of which, Shiv kind of offers soft offers to consult with Matsson about the goings on at Waystar so that he can kind of get the lay of the land. And he says he likes her because she’s cool.

 

Rosie Knight And can take a joke.

 

Jason Concepcion Which is a lot of red flags from a guy who’s been sending a.

 

Rosie Knight Blood as a joke.

 

Jason Concepcion A former employee blood.

 

Rosie Knight Yes. I will also say this is another reason I was really loving Shiv here. She uses this as a moment to basically secure Caroline, his future in this because he’s like, how’s your head of comms? He’s like, I’ve been signed in my blood. She’s a nightmare. And Shiv’s like, Well, mine is great. She’s so good at her job. She knows exactly what she’s doing. And in that moment, Caroline, is named.

 

Jason Concepcion Women supporting Women.

 

Rosie Knight Solidarity. Her name is Kate. So we are supporting the victim of his stalking campaign. Of course, she’s getting fired.

 

Jason Concepcion But she’s supporting a stronger woman.

 

Rosie Knight A stronger friend. She’s the one she knows personally. And I love that because it is this great duality where Shiv is just supporting and enabling this horrific abuser. But she’s like my friend. She’s actually really your hero.

 

Jason Concepcion Market Moves. Here on Market Moves. As allies, we support powerful women supporting powerful women over weaker women.

 

Rosie Knight Look, we support women’s rights and women’s wrongs. It’s fun to see them do things wrong. We like to see that.

 

Jason Concepcion Ken puts his plan into motion. He uses Greg for this to suddenly become really useful. And he basically says, Hey, Greg, I need you to talk to this reporter who’s going to call you and basically say that things are not looking good. The Swedes are fucking weirdos and the culture is not fit and yada, yada, yada. Jess, meanwhile, is is tasked with setting up a distraction for the Gojo Vikings, and that is to set up a screening of the full rough cut of the latest of Waystar Studios summer blockbuster offerings, a sci fi tale about a robot in a cave that currently runs at something a 3 hours and just make that go. GOJO People watch it and.

 

Rosie Knight It is like you’re this is one of those legendarily bad movies. You can just tell from the responses. Emma She breezes out. She’s like, I’m going to come back. It’s intrigue, she says.

 

Jason Concepcion I there’s so much.

 

Rosie Knight To think about. And this is a movie that is like, I imagine I will talk about. I will mention one of my favorite Hollywood flops. Look it up. There’s incredible reporting around it. That was a movie named Monster Trucks. It was based on the idea by a producers three year old kid about a monster who lived inside of the monster truck. The movie bled millions, hundreds of millions of dollars. There are legends that the first time they test screened, the monster they created was so horrific that kids ran out of the cinema screaming, Good.

 

Jason Concepcion That’s what we want like Ebba.

 

Rosie Knight And this is the Waystar version of that. This is they’re talking about millions. This is, I would say, 350 million down the line. The budget is exploding. No one’s going to go and see it. It’s boring. And this is what you show to the people who are about to buy your company. They’re trying to time smart.

 

Jason Concepcion Tanking in plate. Well, ship is like, what’s going on here? This is. Are you guys up to my brothers? Are you up to something? And they’re like, No, no, no, no, no. But also, Shiv sensing that there are things going on. Understanding that information can be shared for shared with her does not share the information about Ebba and the blood. Haha. Meanwhile, she goes to meet Tom and meets up with him like outside the movie screening tent. And she says, Tom, your shoes are much too bright for people who are coming down, off, off of Molly and she starts kicking dirt on his shoe.

 

Rosie Knight Incredible.

 

Jason Concepcion And then so Tom flicks her earlobe and says, You have thick lobes like barnacle meat and poof, their passion is rekindled in that moment. Rosie, prompt number four. You need to walk out of a screening. What is the excuse that you use? You are Ebba.

 

Rosie Knight Oh, I must leave my FedEx guy. My FedEx guy just showed up with a new delivery of blood. I can’t let it go cold. It has to go into the freezer.

 

Jason Concepcion Very important. I’ve just received very important blood, and I must go. I like that. Okay. For me. Let’s see. I’m walking out of the screening. David Zaslav is there and says, What do you think of it? And are you leaving? And I say, Yes, I am leaving, but it’s because I’m going to take a page from Ebba’s book here. But I’m going to say because it’s just so emotionally raw. Oh, yeah, I really need to process this for I need to process. I should go outside and maybe call my therapist. And so much is coming up right now and it’s a lot. I shouldn’t share that with you, but I’m here to tell you that I need to talk to my therapist right now. I have her on emergency speed dial whenever I need her, and something about the way the robot sits in the cave is just bringing up a lot of things for me now. And I think about that. I need to call her and then I’ll be back, you know, some time after the movie is over to sit in the empty theater. I’m going to come back when the movie is over and sit in my seat, because that’s how powerful this movie is. Roman and Ken meet with Matsson. And.

 

Rosie Knight Woof.

 

Jason Concepcion At the end of the day, what happens is Roman finally snaps because of all the little subtle insults and jibes and little different poking and prodding and little things that Lukas is doing. You know, he’s just playing the high hand with them, and he’s clearly doing this and kind of delighting in the fact that he’s got them. You know, days after their father’s death. And he loves this little powerplay he’s running. And finally Romig snaps and says, like, Well. Fuck you. We’re not selling you the company, and that’s it. And by the way, we think you killed Dad. We think it’s your fault you bled him dry because you were just, like, running him ragged back and forth to Norway or wherever. Scandinavia, Somewhere to think about the deal. Do this, do that. And you killed him. And we’re not selling you. You go fuck off. Later on the plane back to the States. It is a newsbreak, comes across everybody’s phone and Frank says So either Frank or Karl says, Hey, look at this, Matsson. 192. 192. And Matsson effectively has cornered the boys by making it public, not letting them hide it from the board has gotten his revenge by saying, I’m going to buy your dad’s favorite toy for 192 and the board is going to make you do it. Lukas Matsson for the win. Your final thoughts on this episode?

 

Rosie Knight Look, I’m not trying to be a Matsson apologist. I understand that I have condoned some pretty terrible behavior, but this is the nature of talking about Billy. And as I say, my son isn’t wrong. Logan Roy was a prick, and it was also a horrible dad to his kids, he was his he was abusive. He was an awful man. Is it safe to say that just after he died? No. But is it untrue? Also, No, I thought that Lukas came out as the winner here. Shiv has moved up in the rankings to me. If she wants to be a betrayer, if she wants to go against her brothers who have already cut her out, she could end up in a very horrific but powerful position here.

 

Jason Concepcion I agree.

 

Rosie Knight Matsson ally and potential. I don’t know. A Matsson- Shiv wedding would be so horrific. I don’t even know if I could deal with it. But I feel like Shiv has become the power player at the end of episode five. Now, that will all change with episode six, but why here? I think Shiv and Matsson come out on top after the trip to Norway.

 

Jason Concepcion Up next episode six

 

Speaker 1 <AD>

 

Jason Concepcion Episode six Living Plot. So the Operation Tank the Deal obviously got more complicated when Lukas Matsson whipped out his 192 valuation yardstick. But that doesn’t mean the boys are just going to quit trying to tank it. The latest plan and get this is this is the latest scheme and I think it’s crazy, but it just might work. Boost the value of Waystar past 192 because the thought is that Lukas Matsson doesn’t have any. You could squeeze that orange. But once 192 comes out, that’s it. The orange is gone dry, nothing passing past 192. So if they can boost the valuation of the company past 192, that’s it. The deal is off and they will keep it. How will they do this? Living Plus, what is the Living Plus, you ask? Imagine a cruise ship, but on dry land with like a a live forever medical stuff involved in it.

 

Rosie Knight Hell.

 

Jason Concepcion Vampire blood, you know, baby DNA, something. You will be in a cruise ship, but you’ll be on dry land with security guards watching your every move.

 

Rosie Knight Goofy will be giving you a blood infusion. IP characters.

 

Jason Concepcion That’s right. There’ll be IP characters running up and down. And meanwhile, you’ll be given the latest in life prolonging drugs. Okay. Ken is hoping that Living Plus it will be like tech meets real estate. And it’ll be the stock Viagra. That’ll. That’ll get it up past 192. Matsson’s flirtation slash counterintelligence scam with Shiv continues to meet.

 

Rosie Knight I love to see.

 

Jason Concepcion They meet in their private jets. Matsson comes out barefoot unto Shiv’s private jet.

 

Rosie Knight Also, I just want to say this was a huge power play by Shiv here. Again, bye bye bye Shiv at this point, because he turns up, they meet where their planes are being refueled so no one can see them. And he says, Oh, I landed, come and see me. And she’s like, No, my plane’s being refueled. I don’t need to leave. And he has to go to Shiv’s plane. She is playing him like a fiddle. He meets her, but I’m enjoying how much she’s making him work for it.

 

Jason Concepcion Yeah, That’s why I. I always have a fresh plane waiting.

 

Rosie Knight Always.

 

Jason Concepcion I don’t want to wait for the refuel. I have the fresh private jet waiting at the tarmac, and then. I have I have this crane that kind of like, puts the plane that I’m in on the side, and I fall out the door into the door of the other plane onto a couch, and then the plane takes off.

 

Rosie Knight I was going to say.

 

Jason Concepcion So I don’t have to wait.

 

Rosie Knight You cannot tell me that you would spend your time walking down the stairs of the plane to a different plane.

 

Jason Concepcion I don’t use my legs

 

Rosie Knight Good.

 

Jason Concepcion I stopped using my legs years ago.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah. When you go to 800 bill.

 

Jason Concepcion Much less wealthy. It’s so. Matsson hates Living Plus as he should.

 

Rosie Knight It’s a terrible idea.

 

Jason Concepcion Yeah. It’s not only a terrible idea. It’s like if you were buying a car, a used car, and then the current owner of the car who’s about to sell you the car is like, Hey, also, I’m I’m going to put the car into pimp my ride mode and put five PlayStation consoles in the car before I sell it to you.

 

Rosie Knight And you have to pay for it and you have to pay for them.

 

Jason Concepcion That’s my car. Don’t I haven’t bought yet, but don’t do that. So you don’t get it. So Matsson makes his rage. He’s like, Hey, kill this product launch because it’s stupid. And also, I need someone inside who’s going to tell me all the stuff that’s going on and that person should be you. And Shiv plays coy, but she’s thinking about it.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah.

 

Jason Concepcion She’s thinking about it. A fifth prompt. Is Matsson serious or he is he going to betray Shiv as well? Does he really want to hire her on as his like, head of whatever.

 

Rosie Knight I think that Matsson has a short and intense attention span like many sociopaths. And I think.

 

Jason Concepcion I think he doess too. I think it’s all the microdosing.

 

Rosie Knight Yes, I think Shiv is very curious to him and I think he is interested in the way that she doesn’t really bow to him or have any real interest in the deal. He obviously also thinks he can get something from her, but I think for now. He is committed to this bet. Whether it would outlast him getting what he wanted or them sleeping together or joining or the merger. I don’t know. But I do believe in these moments. He sees her as an ally.

 

Jason Concepcion That’s right. I think that’s right. Everyone on the West Side is in LA for Investor Day.

 

Rosie Knight Disney. Plus Day

 

Jason Concepcion Ken and Roman brief the execs, including the old guard, on the latest about the deal. Ken, then, kind of soft pitches, do we really want to do the deal? Do we really want to? Like, isn’t the Matsson’s kind of weird and then Roman chimes in. He’s like, Yeah, he’s like, he’s like, confidentially, you know, like, obviously not for wider, you know, wider spread. This is just for this room. Cone of silence Is Matsson crazy? Is he mentally ill? He kind of went like, berserk on us when I blew up at him. And, you know, it’s obviously like we’re not medical professionals and it’s not for us to say, but maybe he’s unwell, I don’t know. And then Gerri says, But, okay, but he’s a genius. Everybody thinks he’s a genius and nobody minds when geniuses act weird. Look at Elon Musk or any other person that people think are geniuses. They all do weird shit and everybody’s like, That’s great because they’re fucking geniuses. And then Karl, who’s still sizing up. You know which Greek island he’s going to buy? Like he’s trying on a pair of suede shoes.

 

Rosie Knight Basically flicking through the brochure?

 

Jason Concepcion Yes. It’s like, Yeah, don’t worry, this weirdo. Who cares? Like, I’m fucking ready to cash out big time. Sixth prompt. Rosie, you need to kill a deal. Everybody wants this deal. I want the deal. Vassilis wants the deal. Chris wants the deal. Saul wants a deal. Delon wants the deal. Everybody wants the fucking deal. You are involved in the team that is forging the deal, and you want to kill it. How do you kill it?

 

Rosie Knight Oh, man, I’d be so bad at this. I love it, But my Market Moves jat on. I would kill the deal by saying, Look, if. If you guys. If we do this deal, then the only way I’m going to do it is I’m going to take all the money, and I will be the one who does the deal, and no one else will get a deal money. So the deal will be over. So we may as well just not do the deal. And then you guys don’t lose money that you don’t have.

 

Jason Concepcion I like it. That’s good. I think that could work.

 

Rosie Knight Had to dig really deep.

 

Jason Concepcion That could do great work with a little with a little framing. Let me try it. So, you know, I’m sitting there in in X-ray Vision headquarters over in Malibu, right on the beach.

 

Rosie Knight Oh, yeah.

 

Jason Concepcion And we’re sitting there in the boardroom and we’re looking out at the ocean. And Vassilis is flipping through, you know, his his iPad.

 

Rosie Knight Greek island.

 

Jason Concepcion Pages of Greek islands where he’s going to start his cult. And Ryan is thinking about buying the Knicks. Chris and Saul are going to open a movie studio and an adult. And I need to tank this deal, this deal that’s going to make us all even more monstrously rich than we are. And I’m going to look I look at everybody in the eye and I say and I sigh very heavily and I stand up and I put both hands on the table and I look down and I look up and I say and I make eye contact with everyone in the room. And I say, money isn’t everything. It’s that literally it is. It isn’t. It’s not physically, if you look at it from a physics perspective. Science money is not. Actual everything, all of the matter in the universe. So think about that, guys. We really want to do this. Maybe not.

 

Rosie Knight It was like it could work. Defintiely. Definitely.

 

Jason Concepcion I mean, the shock silence tells me it’s working. Shiv, meanwhile, smells something rotten in Gothamburg, which I think is a Swedish city. She can sense from this conversation and the way that Ken and Rohan are speaking, that they maybe don’t want the deal and the tell. And it’s really smart to tell for her is that they’ve all of a sudden are bringing up that Matsson is crazy, perhaps mentally ill, and they didn’t gossip about it with her mean girl style, which is something that they would have naturally done. So she presses and they admit that yes, she tried to fuck the deal. They’re trying to fuck the deal.

 

Rosie Knight They can rely to Shiv. Her power is immense.

 

Jason Concepcion Sorry.

 

Rosie Knight They’re so sorry. And they can’t believe they didn’t tell her. I just want to say as well, Shiv, again, an incredibly powerful situation because Matsson had mentioned to her on the plane like, Oh, you know, your brother’s, like, lost there. And Mike told me, like, go fuck myself. And she was like, Sounds like it sounds fake to me. And now she knows it’s true because they’re trying to, like, reflect and pretend that that’s what matters to them. And yeah, and I mean, this was such a great moment for Shiv and such a pathetic moment for Kendall and Roman, because they just cannot even commit to the bit like, if you’re going to cut her out of her out, you did not need to tell her this plan. It was a terrible idea. But they do it. And then Roman, he wants to he wants the hug. He wants to feel better.

 

Jason Concepcion I will say this. It. It betrayed a troubling amount of humanity from the brothers. They flat out lie to their sister, who they apparently love face. So that part of it, you know, I.

 

Rosie Knight Like that you’re see that you see in the silver lining.

 

Jason Concepcion Now, Shiv, the meeting lets out and Shiv has scheduled a conference room in which to weep if she needs to. And now she needs to, because this is actually a brutal betrayal of brothers that she takes in stride in the room. She’s like, Oh, yeah, no big deal. Okay, you want to kill it? You didn’t tell me anything about it. And you’ve been talking about killing it apparently for days and plotting and scheming to kill it. And I’m supposedly I’m supposed to get read into every decision. But you’ve kept this from me. And. And she is actually very, very emotional about it. She wants to cry. But then Tom walks in because he’s just happened to blunder into that office place and he comforts her and they kiss. A reunion is bubbling shockingly. Roman then has some business over at Waystar Studios and he goes to meet the head of the film division, Joy Palmer. Big time muckety muck film. And we would guess. Tv+ Yeah. Waystar of course, as we talked about, needs a valuation higher than 192. So Roman thinking, okay, well, hopefully maybe, maybe film can do that for us. Roman’s idea is if I just like Love Bomb, Joy Palmer, with all the money that she’s ever wanted to make this robot in a cave features maybe they can make a franchise will hit that will pump, pump pump up the the the valuation of the company and the and the robot in a cave cinematic universe will be launched and it’ll be big. And we could sell toys and we could sell blankets. And we can have little kids going to our movies. We launch a channel and all of that. Unfortunately, Joy then broaches the touchy topic of ATN being hand in hand with fascist presidential candidate Meghan and how the Hollywood creative community is little bit uneasy.

 

Rosie Knight She’s not wrong. It’s a good point. And it’s a very good point. If you’re.

 

Jason Concepcion Little bit weird about it. And there is still. Troublingly for Roman, still enough competition in the space that they could theoretically decide not to work with. We saw they could take their robot in a cave feature somewhere else, and then what would we do? And Roman, irritated at the sensation of any kind of, like, brief, kind of like a gesture, a criticism of fires, joy or something.

 

Rosie Knight Yes. It’s very what he puts out there is kind of a jokey threat. And then when she doesn’t, they immediately start kissing his ass. He kind of decides he’s going to commit to it. But it’s also unclear whether it would legally be something he could do in that way, because there are like ten other people he would have to go through. But, whew, it was really bad. And Roman is just not cut out for this. I love Roman. I have a lot of love for him. Terrible, awful person. But in the context of the show has like a little bit more humanity than other people. But him and Kendall are both going for the new title of Logan Roy and it is not good.

 

Jason Concepcion I think she was doing as well. So that brings us to our seventh prompt. Who is the most Logan of the children, Ken Roman, Shiv or Connor?

 

Rosie Knight Connor.

 

Jason Concepcion Who is the most currently Logan-esque of the Logan Spawn.

 

Rosie Knight It’s Shiv. Because Shiv.

 

Jason Concepcion Interesting.

 

Rosie Knight Is the one who is currently working with. That compare to betray them, something that Logan has actively done in the past? She is. Not giving them the information that they could use against him, like the propensity for sharing and sending blood to ex-girlfriends. And also when, like you very kindly and generously pointed out, Roman and Kendall were opening up to Shiv and admitting a wrongdoing, she did not do the same. She kept her options open. She is texting Lukas. She is calling Lukas. She is keeping him up to date. And she is doing it without a hair of anxiety or stress. Like, this is just like every day for her. So I do think while Kendall and Roman both think that they are playing at being the best Logan, I think it is coming to Shiv most naturally.

 

Jason Concepcion I agree. I think at this particular juncture in the story it is Shiv because she is she is moving quietly, but to build her power, as you so aptly noted. Meanwhile, Roman, I mean, this firing, he thinks it’s something his dad would have done, but his dad would have fired someone from a position of strength of weakness, which is clearly what Roman just fired this person from a position of weakness. Meanwhile, Ken is getting up for the Living Plus presentation, and he’s working with the stage crew to get the stagecraft right. All he needs before the presentation, which is tomorrow, is like a legitimate, like a little.

 

Rosie Knight House.

 

Jason Concepcion House.

 

Rosie Knight That will represent Living Plus his living arrangements. You know, easy.

 

Jason Concepcion Maybe we can think about, like, maybe Spanish style if you want to do that. Or maybe those, like, really cute, kind of like European gables. And then it’d be great if there was like, a blue sky with, like, clouds moving across it and it doesn’t have to be like, full like Tony Stark, like, you know, like Iron Man three, like holographic presentation. But it could be. But if it can be that he’s.

 

Rosie Knight Seen it Berlin. You can do it. You can do it.

 

Jason Concepcion That’s right. And and and he lays down a new rule for those Hollywood folks working for him. He says, You can’t say no. Yeah.

 

Rosie Knight He says this is a fun new rule. Nobody can say no. Kind of saying that he is in on that and that he can’t say no. But I will. Okay. So I need to ask you a question. This is more of a serious question.

 

Jason Concepcion Sure.

 

Rosie Knight How is Kendall doing? Because he seems he seems like he may have either relapsed or he’s in a mania or both because he comes to this 24 hours before the presentation and starts making like Broadway play style demands that would take three months. And he is excited about it and feels honestly, truly feels like everyone else is excited. See him when he’s actually putting everyone out. He doesn’t seem like he’s doing great.

 

Jason Concepcion I. And anyone else who watches the Succession television program Max on Max no understands that there would be no amount of surprise. It should can suddenly bubble a baggy of some white powder onto the like. It would not surprise anyone. I would not be surprised. In fact, I would be it would surprise me if he wasn’t dabbling. I would be surprised if he wasn’t in in, you know, Scrooge McDuck ing into various vats of white drugs. Shiv and Tom’s ongoing reign continues apace at the Investor Day gala was a little game of Bitey, which apparently shares has a game that’s used to play. Which she has never shared with her husband, soon to be ex-husband. And the game goes. You bite each other’s arms until the one of you can’t take the pain anymore. And that’s it. Later, they go to Shiv’s hotel room, and Tom admits that he betrayed her in season three, basically for the money he shares. You know, I love money. You know that. I love money. You never let me get my beak in the money, never let me in. And it was always going to be me between you and your dad. And I picked your dad because he’s got a lot of money and I.

 

Rosie Knight Could buy some nice watches.

 

Jason Concepcion And I thought that was most expedient way to the money. And let’s be honest about it. You wouldn’t give a shit about me if I didn’t have nice watches. Nice suits could take you to five star Michelin star restaurants. You don’t want to go to fucking Olive Garden, you know. You don’t want to do that.

 

Rosie Knight You don’t want endless breadsticks.

 

Jason Concepcion Yeah, you don’t care about that. And then they have sex. X ray vision will be back.

 

<AD>

 

Jason Concepcion And we’re back. Gerri Reed’s roaming the riot act for firing Joy without telling her. Without telling anyone. Just the spur of the moment. And apparently, Joy has retained counsel. And good for her.

 

Rosie Knight She needs it. And she’s going to get a big payout. And I can’t wait.

 

Jason Concepcion A huge payout. And honestly, like, is it not for the best Joy Palmer to be, like, free of this, like, terrible institution, which I by the way, here’s a little inside tip for all the listeners to Market Moves by Waystar. Buy buy buy.

 

Rosie Knight Buy buy.

 

Jason Concepcion Roman says, I didn’t fire her. I said that she was fired, too. Her, that’s all.

 

Rosie Knight Classic, classic Roman never met a consequence he can deny or avoid.

 

Jason Concepcion You know Roman, who we all remember jacking off against a window in season one anyway. Now, you know, he’s Roman is feeling once again that sensation of criticism coming from a person. And he says essentially to Gerri, Hey, remember that thing where you were fired? Where I fired you because dad said to fire you and I did it. I delivered that message. Well, what if you’re just fired all over again? Because something about Cruise’s. You did it poorly and you’re fired. And then she says, You know, be serious for a second. You are interim co-CEO. You were just minding the store here. You’re you’re subletting.

 

Rosie Knight And Gerri was not on the kill list.

 

Jason Concepcion That’s right. I’m going to be working at Gojo and working very happily for multi-billionaire Lukas Matsson and understand that tech is tech is the real shit. They’re not like this old money out of fashion, media money, kind of old people stuff. They’re in there where the juice is, they’re where the money is, they’re where the market is moving. And you just you just should realize that and go with the money. And Roman’s like, Well, maybe you’re fired, maybe you’re not. I don’t know. And he walks out. He leaves in a very vague place. He basically threatens to fire Gerri, but we don’t know if she’s fired.

 

Rosie Knight And when he goes to tell Ken. He kind of wants Ken to pull it back because obviously Roman really loves Gerri. He’s kind of like, you might have to smooth that over. Maybe that was too much. And Ken’s like, No, that was baller.

 

Jason Concepcion That’s fucking great, man.

 

Rosie Knight That was baller. You’re just making moves. You’re doing it. And maybe these young Turks have the rights and the way to make something out of this. No, you don’t, Kendall.

 

Jason Concepcion That’s why I say buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, Waystar. And Ken says, You know, fuck it. Drop Gerri’s head in the end zone. I love it. Just do it. You know, Do the icky shuffle over her corpse. And that brings us to our eighth prompt. Joy or Gerri, who’s fired at or and who was merely told to them that they were.

 

Rosie Knight I think. Joy is probably going to keep that representation and get a massive payout because why fight to work for Roman? Even if she’s not really fired, why are you going to do that? Take your.

 

Jason Concepcion Because.

 

Rosie Knight Six million.

 

Jason Concepcion Because she passionately believes in that robot in the cave.

 

Rosie Knight The robot needs to be sleeping in the cave.

 

Jason Concepcion It’s a personal it’s a personal story. It’s something that speaks to her from her childhood. And she really passionately believes in the robot in a cave cinematic universe.

 

Rosie Knight Well, maybe. Maybe then she’ll fight for her passions, but I believe she’ll probably take the golden parachute and be gone. Gerri, I do believe that Kendall really likes this firing. But

 

Jason Concepcion I think so, too.

 

Rosie Knight Do either of those children who, by the way, you may you made a great note in our preparation. That is Shiv’s godmother, we learn.

 

Jason Concepcion Ken mentions that.

 

Rosie Knight Big Succession canon here. I think that is a great and important note because. Kendall and Roman might want to fire Gerri, but Gerri really has this. I think she’ll just keep showing up to work and getting paid. Like neither of them knows how to do it. I’m not going to fire Gerri.

 

Jason Concepcion How do you. How do you. How do you do it?

 

Rosie Knight They don’t they don’t really know. They can say it’s I had and she’s still chillin like.

 

Jason Concepcion It’s like walking into the into the cockpit of the space shuttle and being like, well, what button fires Gerri.

 

Rosie Knight Exactly. Exactly. Like, or going in and being like, the pilots fired and everyone on the plane is like, well, we need to land the space shuttle. And you’re like, okay, he’s fired after that. And everyone’s like, Yeah, sure, sure, he’s fired. Like, I don’t believe we’ve seen the last of Gerri. And especially since she is still chillin with the old guard during what will surely become a another legendary Kendall performance.

 

Jason Concepcion Well, the conversation that follows this with Karl I think will inform the status of Gerri. Ken, as we saw with Logan’s birthday wrap, is a is a natural stage performer. He just gets off on it. He is there. And not even the fact that the clouds over the cabin that he had built is just like mist.

 

Rosie Knight Looks like it’s a gas chamber. It’s very bad.

 

Jason Concepcion It looks terrible. Even that doesn’t really dampen his excitement to get up on the stage for the first time since L to the OG. He is somewhat shaken, however. When Roman fresh off this conversation with Gerri, and in which Gerri essentially says, Hey, you have to let this deal go through, What the fuck are you talking about?

 

Rosie Knight And also, I will say secretly being manipulated by Shiv and Matsson because shitty Matsson is saying, please stop this, please stop this. So Shiv’s kind of spook trying to spook him by making him think it’s going to go wrong and pointing out that Kendall is clearly overhyped about this and that the stage looks terrible. So basically, Roman has everyone in his ear saying, stop this.

 

Jason Concepcion That’s right. So Roman says to Ken, you know, is this a good idea? Do we want to do this? The numbers are like, you’re going to go up there with a presentation. That is let’s face it, it’s mostly science fiction. The numbers don’t quite add up.

 

Rosie Knight You have been faking the numbers. You may.

 

Jason Concepcion Faking the numbers.

 

Rosie Knight May or may not have. I faked all that into pretending the numbers were higher?

 

Jason Concepcion You did fit. You did do that. And is that like, you know, forget the legal implications of lying directly to our shareholders. Maybe we should do it. And Ken is a little bit shaken by this. And then as he leaves that room, Karl, the CFO of Waystar Royco, steps to him and is and is really tough with him. He says, Listen, I’ve put up with a lot of shit over the years from your dad, but I have been a major executive at lots and lots of big, big time companies and I’ve been around the fucking block, buddy. And if you try and fuck with this deal, I will chop your fucking nuts off. Okay? He says you have my dick in your hand, but I’ve got yours in mine and fuck with the deal and I’ll blow up your spot. And that’s it, Karl. And that. And Karl walks away. And it’s a wonderful power play by Karl. And you have to feel like now there’s a moment here where Ken basically says, Well, I’m the CEO and you’re the CFO. What if I am basically implying, like, I want if I fire you? And Karl says, and this is where this informs the Gerri conversation, he basically says, What are you in a fucking fire the CFO. A few days after you take control of the company, like two days after your dad died in the midst of an interim situation in which you are selling the company to somebody else. How’s that going to do that? Yeah. Good luck. And I feel like the same thing would happen.

 

Rosie Knight You’re not going.

 

Jason Concepcion To fire general.

 

Rosie Knight Counsel. I’m going to do that. And the funniest thing about this, as well as I love, I actually kind of love to see the kids losing a little bit of their steam and a little bit of control. It starts to seem like the rope is a little bit greased and they’re sliding down it because the real truth is there is a major subplot in this episode where Kendall is forcing the accountants to fake numbers like this is not just a potential, you know, risk. This could blow up in everyone’s face, including Karl and Karl wants that fucking island, bro.

 

Jason Concepcion He wants that island, man. Get the hummus, go in, get the spanakopita.

 

Rosie Knight Go exactly.

 

Jason Concepcion For the democracy. The whole thing. You know, the fucking the Spartans, the Peloponnesian War, all the history, all that shit fucking. Let’s get it going. And that’s what he’s going to be doing, is studying the rich history of the development of European democracy and the traditions of democracy that have informed our beautiful American system. And you can be doing that, studying that with his brother in law there on the island, that he is going to purchase all academic pursuits merely for the betterment of the mind.

 

Rosie Knight Karl is ultimately mankind, because if his mind gets better, everyone will. You know, every ship will be lifted.

 

Jason Concepcion The things that will happen on the Greek island to be named later, owned by Karl and his brother in law, will put this down and buy stock in this. He will better the human race.

 

Rosie Knight Better the human race.

 

Jason Concepcion Every problem that we face war, injustice, inequality.

 

Rosie Knight Violence.

 

Jason Concepcion Paper straws. All of that will be solved on some Greek island that we don’t know about right now. Ken’s presentation is what it it may be cringe so hard I blew out of vertebrae in my neck.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah it was. It’s absolutely horrific to watch. My mom had to leave home. My mom is visiting and she had to leave because the episode made her so uncomfortable. Not fully leave forever. Just go for a walk.

 

Jason Concepcion He. He opens by saying big shoes, you know, saying that, you know, he’s wearing his father’s shoes. He says he repeats the phrase big shoes.

 

Rosie Knight At least like nine times each. And everyone is watching him like this man is having a nervous breakdown. Like, this is worse than the rap.

 

Jason Concepcion Then he says, Who’s big shoes? And Logan appears on the screen computer. Well, you know, computer background, but like assets taken from an earlier shoot. Hyping up Living Plus obviously taken before the absolutely tragic demise.

 

Rosie Knight Tragic.

 

Jason Concepcion Logan Roy high in an airplane with his mistress and other executives. He and and and aided this presentation is by as we have noted not completely spurious fictional numbers. Bottom line. The numbers and Logan Roy’s CGI edited form say that Living Plus will double. That’s right. You heard right. You heard correctly. That’s not earwax in your ears. You don’t have to take the AirPods out of your ears. You heard right. Waystar Roy Co’s value will double because of Living Plus.

 

Rosie Knight Everybody loves everybody loves it. But I just need to say, if you’re wondering what Living Plus is, Kendall essentially goes on stage pitches this horrible kind of. Fabricated community where they’ll be security guards. You can see Goofy. Maybe a director will walk past who made a sleeping movie about a sleeping robot. And the big promise is that you will forever essentially live forever. He promises people immortal life. We are getting into very weird territory here. Now, this is based on vaguely real.

 

Jason Concepcion There are no things on medication.

 

Rosie Knight They call it life extension treatments. You know, you get blood infusions, plasma transfusions, things for the extremely rich. But Kendall essentially comes out and promises people they can live on a cruise ship for their whole life.

 

Jason Concepcion On land.

 

Rosie Knight On land with a security guard. They can meet Goofy, they can have blood transfusions and live forever. And it is one of the worst things you’ve ever seen. And of course, because Succession is horribly realistic, everybody fucking loves it.

 

Jason Concepcion Everybody fucking loves it. The stock is going up.

 

Rosie Knight The stock is going crazy.

 

Jason Concepcion People are fucking going crazy. Jim Cramer over Mad Money.

 

Rosie Knight Oh, he’s saying buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy.

 

Jason Concepcion He’s going buy, buy, buy. He just liked his butt, it’s his actual butt, it blew up.

 

Rosie Knight They blew up.

 

Jason Concepcion And and flew across the studio. Such was the excitement at the at the announcement of living. Plus, you know who doesn’t like it is Lukas Matheson.

 

Rosie Knight I was going to say.

 

Jason Concepcion Tweets. Who who tweets, Die, I forget the actual phrase, but it is the the German phrase that was over the concentration camps that welcome the the the sad victims of the concentration camps. And translated, it means something like work.

 

Rosie Knight Will set you free.

 

Jason Concepcion Free. Yeah, work will set you free. Basically he he is trying to say in a joking way that these are concentration camps for rich people who willingly go there and not a a.

 

Rosie Knight Not a great thing to do.

 

Jason Concepcion I don’t think that’s a good I would.

 

Rosie Knight Say never do any tweets about the Holocaust in general like especially not a joke tweet where you put it next to a character, a fictional IP character, very horrific business. I have to say. This was a big turnaround because Matsson. He thought he was doing something here, but he thought it was unfortunately for him. Kendall dealt with it in a he.

 

Jason Concepcion He seizes on them.

 

Rosie Knight Seizes the moment and kind of he he half makes a joke. He acts incredibly magnanimously. He manages to end with a standing ovation thanks to his, you know, Jurassic Park style. Richard Attenborough, Brian Cox, you know, dad who’s helping him back. And and Matsson ends up making himself look like a Nazi, which let’s be real. He is meant to be an alt right kind of Nazi tech nightmare. He did.

 

Jason Concepcion He did quote the Nazis to be fair.

 

Rosie Knight To be fair. So, like, he did just he did. And it makes Matsson look bad and it makes Kendall stock value rise. Right? He looks a high and everybody loves Kendall. He might get to that one $92 per share with this performance. Even Karl, who was ready to literally castrate him all this time, is like this man special. I see it.

 

Jason Concepcion He’s like he says, I know special when I see it because it’s some of the Greek islands that I’m looking at are very special. And I get the same feeling when I look at Ken. I get that same feeling of specialness.

 

Rosie Knight I have to be honest, in that moment. I felt like for the first time this season, I felt like Kyle’s eyes moved away from the Greek islands. And I felt like I felt like he might in that moment. He was see, and he was getting sucked back into the Roy Black hole. And I think he sort of was considering like, what would it be like if he was like this all the time and we really could mold him into a new Logan? Like, how much more money could I earn? How much more capital could I gain? How much further could I rise? Obviously, betting on Kendall, who is a literal murderer and has had many emotional problems throughout the series. Not a good bet.

 

Jason Concepcion Manslaughter.

 

Rosie Knight Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. Manslaughter.

 

Jason Concepcion I don’t. I don’t know what the law how the laws working in the UK, England, but I don’t know if it’s the same, but I would imagine it would be like a.

 

Rosie Knight Manslaughter. I would say you murder. The connotation does come with an expectation of intent. But I would say if you kill a service worker with your car.

 

Jason Concepcion I do think he murdered him

 

Rosie Knight Might think you could say casually that he murdered him. But you’re right. Oh, Mark, it moves. This is about education and correct information. So if that’s right, did ever get held accountable, which will never happen. He would be a manslaughter.

 

Jason Concepcion I just want to be accurate. I’m not. That’s very I don’t have any kind of legal acumen. I am not. I don’t want to get much richer than him.

 

Rosie Knight By Waystar.

 

Jason Concepcion Right. I am much richer than Clarence THomas.

 

Rosie Knight Kendall don’t suit me.

 

Jason Concepcion And I want to be accurate. I was probably manslaughter.

 

Rosie Knight Probably manslaughter. And he has had many emotional ups and downs. I don’t think it’s a good bet. But I did see Karl. I felt like he got sucked into the sick. I’m being success in inverted commas, because it was awful, but it didn’t go well. Kendall’s back on top and I hate to see.

 

Jason Concepcion Ken is on top and he and you can see the worry on his siblings face, on Roma’s face, on ship’s face. They are thinking God has Ken is has Ken strapped himself to the rockets, top of the man. Has he actually done it? And Ken is is high off of this. He then reedit his dad’s video so that it and sends it to Roman so that their late father again passed away 48 hours ago or something is saying to Roman I have a big announcement to make Roman Roy has a micro dick and he’s never been right about anything.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah.

 

Jason Concepcion And Roman being an absolute like pain pig, watching this video again and again and again and again.

 

Rosie Knight And then listens to it. Also actually important to note here, Greg is rising up the ladder of power very quickly because it was Greg who illegally edited the Deepfake style video of Logan Roy to say double waystar royco value where before it said to raise the value. So Mike and I feel like when it’s unclear whether Roman knew that Kendall was going to do that, and I feel like when he was listening to that edit, it was kind of like playing in his mind what room, what Kendall had done, not just this cruel like masochist being honestly, like Kendall said when he watched his original cut of the video and his dad was insulting the kids, he said, That’s a Valentine’s Day card. These kids actually love to hear that. But I think Roman is feeling he’s already starting to have to plan his play of how to get rid of Kendall or get back in the good books because he’s basically forgotten. Now, Kendall is the CEO. There’s no co-CEO after Roman turned down being a part of that speech.

 

Jason Concepcion How does Ken celebrate the highest moment of his professional career? Well. He he wants to do it in water. Water has been such an important medium for Ken. It is, of course, where he did murder a guy in water. It is where he tried to commit suicide in water in Italy. And now it is where he baptized himself at the church of his own success. Diving into the waves off the coast of beautiful Malibu, gorgeous emerging to stare into the into the gray slate sky and think about what a fucking badass he is. Which brings us to our final prompt of this double sized. Much like the stock valuation of Waystar, this episode has gone double the final prompt. Who is the biggest threat to Ken? Ken? Is it the mountain top right now? And you know what that means. There’s only one way to go, and that is down. Who, if anyone, will bring him down? Will it be Gerri, Karl and Frank, the old guard, and also Ray, that guy. Will it be Shiv in cahoots with either Tom or Madson or both? Will it be Matsson alone? Will it be Roman alone? Who is going to be the person who knocks Ken off of his perch?

 

Rosie Knight I’m on the Shiv train today and I’m sticking with it because Shiv has so much control over Matsson that in this episode, Shiv. Is the one who tells Matsson, Do a tweet to fuck over Kendall. He does it that terrible tweet. And then she calls him and says, You need to go. That was a bad tweet. And he deleted the tweet. So.

 

Jason Concepcion Bad tweet.

 

Rosie Knight Bad tweet.

 

Jason Concepcion Bad tweet.

 

Rosie Knight Bad tweet.

 

Jason Concepcion In the words of Ken.

 

Rosie Knight She has. A lot of power right now over a very irrational and edgy but very powerful man. I think those two are big threat. Even unintentionally, they could just really fuck things up if they put their heads together and actually actively try and take Kendall down, he’d be in trouble. But there’s also just shenanigans that could occur between them that could end up forcing Kendall into a bad place. So that’s my bet at the end of this.

 

Jason Concepcion I like that pic too. And I think that these moments of vulnerability that they’re giving us with Shiv. The reveal of the pregnancy, the tears, the kind of like deep emotional frustration and pain and hurt her of her brothers that she’s having to keep under this placid mask. I think that they’re setting us up to feel the vengeance that she is going to put into play. Now, is it going to go as we think? I this is Succession and they’re always subverting it. Yes. For instance, you know, I mean, just the fact that they give Ken a win here.

 

Rosie Knight I know.

 

Jason Concepcion Is a big subversion.

 

Rosie Knight That’s unexpected.

 

Jason Concepcion Right. And we’re so used to we’re so used to Ken losing from killing a guy to trying to kill himself, to rapping. We’re so used to him getting kicked in the ass that it was quite a shock and a surprise to see him win. And I feel as if even if Shiv does, quote unquote win, it will be a chalice with a lot of poison. Yet.

 

Rosie Knight I agree.

 

Jason Concepcion That brings us to this edition of Market Moves. Can’t wait to talk to you next week about the upcoming episodes of the Succession program. We hope that you follow all of our financial advice and succeed beyond your wildest dreams as the Sox will only go up. Recession is just a word Success. Finance. Bonds. Crypto. Mutual Funds.

 

Rosie Knight Coins.

 

Jason Concepcion It’s all going up.

 

Rosie Knight In today’s Nerd Out where you tell us what you love and why, or a theory that you’re excited to share. David pitches us on Red Dead Redemption 2 and why it should be the next video game adapted for TV. I can’t actually believe that hasn’t happened yet.

 

Jason Concepcion It’s a good idea. They must be thinking about it.

 

Rosie Knight They must be thinking about.

 

David Hi, Jason and Rosie. My name is David and I wanted to talk to you guys about the Red Dead Redemption universe, which I think should be the next TV adaptation of a video game I’ve played Red Dead Redemption two. I picked it up during the pandemic when I needed to pass the time with a new game, and I feel like it’s the best single player storyline I’ve ever played. It’s a huge open world game with hours upon hours of different main questions, side quests and what really makes Red Dead Redemption two special is the storyline and the character development of not just the main character Arthur, but the various different side characters you get to play along with. Especially, I think Sandy Adler’s character is the best character development in the game. Essentially what you get to do is you play as this member of the Van der Linde gang, Arthur, and you’re traveling through a world which is leaving the Wild West behind. As America moves into the 20th century and your character starts to question his loyalty to the gang, his loyalty to his leader Duch And I don’t want to spoil too much, but, you know, you just get to. Really see these characters grow. Change their mindset about the world around them. And I think that with the many different hours of gameplay and the character element, it really leads itself to a TV adaptation that could span multiple seasons. And then you could move into the story of Red Dead Redemption, one which follows a different character that you see grow in RDR2. So it’s obviously my hope and dream that, you know, a TV company picks this up and I get to share on the screen this game and story that I love with people who don’t necessarily play video games all the time. So thanks for your consideration of this nerd out pitch and a shout out to your sound guy, Vassilis, who was a grad school classmate of mine. Cheers.

 

Rosie Knight Thanks, David. If you have theories or passions you want to share, I saw an x ray at cricket.com.au. Instructions are in the show notes, as always.

 

Jason Concepcion That’s it for us. Rosie, any plugs?

 

Rosie Knight Yes, it is. Free comic book day. This is a plug for you guys on May 6th. Free Comic Book Day will be hitting your local comic shops. You can get free comic books. Many different comics from all different publishers will be available for free. And you can go and grab them. I will be doing a signing. If you are in the L.A. area, you can come to Jeffries Comics, which is a really brilliant local comic shop that I love. Me and a bunch of my buddies who’ve worked on Godzilla will be there along with a load of other cool local artists. You’ll be able to grab some free comics, get some stuff signed by some rad graphic novels, support a local comic shop, come and say hi to me. It should be very fun.

 

Jason Concepcion I love it. Well, folks, it is May. That means in a little over two weeks, supply chains on Amazon Prime slash Freevee TV. You can watch the Primo Television Program Executive produced by Michael Shore. Television’s Michael Shore’s A Good Place and The Office and Parks and Recreation and four time New York Times best seller Shea Serrano. It is a beautiful, wonderful single camera tale in the Michael Shore style that is sure to leave you laughing and and clutching at your heartstrings. And it’s available to watch. May 19th.

 

Rosie Knight Add it to your watch list.now

 

Jason Concepcion Amazon Freevee.l add add it to the watch list now. Catch the next episode of X-ray Vision Friday, May 5th, in which we will discuss the final installment of the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy. Guardians of the Galaxy Volume three.

 

Rosie Knight What a wild ride.

 

Jason Concepcion It’s a bit of a wild ride.

 

Rosie Knight If you want to see us as well as listen to us. You can subscribe on YouTube where you can watch full episodes of the show. You can follow us on Twitter @XRVPod and check out the Discord, meet and hang out with tons of amazing fans and listeners. Plus, Jason and me are in there.

 

Jason Concepcion That’s right. Five star ratings. Five star reviews.

 

Rosie Knight Five, five, five.

 

Jason Concepcion You got to give them to us. Here’s one from JohnnyBlaz. Fantastic. Jason and Rosie are very well researched and hilarious. Thank you. Love this podcast. Their love of comics has introduced me and threw me, my children to the wonderful world of comics. Thank you so much for your commitment to excellence. That’s so kind, Johnny.

 

Rosie Knight Thank you, Johnny.

 

Jason Concepcion X-ray vision is a Crooked Media production. The show is produced by Chris Lord and Saul Rubin. The show is executive produced by myself and Sandy Girard. Our editing and sound design is by Vasilis Fotopoulos. Delon Villanueva and Matt deGroot provide video production support. Alex Reliford handles social media. Thank you Brian Vasquez for our theme music. See you next time.

 

Rosie Knight Bye.

 

[AD]