Warning: This article contains spoilers for “Succession” Season Four.
In a funeral fit for a king, Logan Roy, founder and CEO of Waystar Royco, has been laid to rest in “Church and State,” one of the most dramatic “Succession” episodes to date.
As the series wraps its fourth and final season, the penultimate episode, which aired last night, delivers the goods, including the potential demise of democracy, a trio of cringeworthy eulogies, the fall of Roman and one epic Easter egg that likely slipped beneath your radar.
In a nod to Logan’s past love affairs, “Succession” costume designer Michelle Matland says she dropped a subtle clue to identify the tycoon’s exes among funeral attendees — and let’s just say it’s a doozy.
“I did give many of the women green jewelry, as in emeralds, etc., because I thought that throughout Logan’s love affairs with women, he would always honor them at, like, a Valentine’s Day,” Matland tells TODAY.com in a phone interview.
“So, all of these women had some emerald piece that was a gift from Logan at some point in their lives,” she says.
Among those adorned in emeralds or green jewelry in the episode are the expected, like Logan’s wife, Marcia (Hiam Abbass), who dons a long green pendant.
There’s also, of course, ex-wife Lady Caroline Collingwood (Harriet Walter), whose enormous emerald brooch couldn’t be more obvious if she’d pinned the Eiffel Tower to her turtleneck.
In fact, all of Logan’s ladies sitting in the front pew are wearing green jewelry, right down to newcomer Sally-Ann (played by Cox’s real-life wife, Nicole Ansari-Cox), whom Collingwood casually refers to as “my Kerry, so to speak,” before dismissing the attendance of Logan’s former lover as “water under the bridge.”
Even Kerry (Zoe Winters), Logan’s current mistress, is wearing emeralds, though they’re hard to distinguish. But trust us — she is, even if they aren’t visible on camera.
As juicy as it would have been to see Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron) dripping in emeralds, Waystar’s legal eagle is wearing only a simple gold necklace and earring set, as is Karolina (Dagmara Dominczyk), the company’s PR exec.
According to Matland, she included the understated hints to “help tell part of the story about (Logan Roy)” and who he was, as well as creating a backstory for the “Succession” characters.
“It was just little touches that help to create the character lineage and give them history, so that the actor has something to hold on to,” Matland explains.
“It helps the actor, I think, to have little snippets of insight into their storyline and it helps me to keep it fresh,” she says.
Beyond the clever clues, Matland says a considerable amount of research went into making Logan’s spectacle of a send-off feel authentic.
“To get the funeral right, we had to look at these people, what’s pomp and circumstance? It’s sort of like the pope, what do we do when the pope dies? What does it look like?” Matland says.
For maximum effect, she says the costume team incorporated “rich and beautiful” embroidery and details to mirror the Catholic church, before turning their attention to the “Succession” characters and how they’d likely dress to attend their father’s funeral.
“How do we tell the funeral story and still help the character stay true?” Matland explains. “What does a black suit mean to Shiv? What does a black suit mean to Kendall? What are the details and nuances?” she says.
With just one episode to go before “Succession” takes its final bow, Matland says she’s going to miss the “collaborative quality” of working on the show.
“For four years, I was blessed with an opportunity to speak with actors who are supremely talented on scripts that fabulous, funny, charming, heartbreaking, enjoyable, pathetic … every possible level,” she says. “And to work with creatives, in every single department, who were the top of their field, it just makes you want to do it right.”