Every late-in-the-season tragedy and act of bloodshed, whether real or intangible, has been tied to the element that classically represents femininity, emotion, and intuition.
Tonight’s episode, “Chiantishire,” named for the unfortunate moniker upper-class Brits give the region of Tuscany, ended with Kendall Roy .
At its peak, no show can rival it, but its characteristic ping-ponging between drama and evil-workplace sitcom can prioritize style , a moment that led to the best wordless acting of the decade.
In asking to be set free from not only the family business but the family itself, Kendall summoned strength that no one else in the Roy sphere has been able to muster.
Following the calamitous performance-art meltdown that was his 40th birthday party, the dissolution of his hopes regarding legal action against Waystar Royco for its crimes, and the assurance that his mother, father, brothers, and sister care marginally less about him than they do about world hunger or the state of post-postmodernism—which is to say not at all—he was lower and more pathetic than he’d ever been.
For three seasons his family members and wives and mistresses have all demonstrated the human cost that comes with being in Logan’s orbit—the gradual spiritual rot that seeps in when you’re exposed to unchecked wealth and power; the leaching of integrity; the loss of happiness.
There was so much else to appreciate in this episode, like Caroline’s brutal honesty, the subtext of Shiv and Tom’s marriage finally becoming text, and Roman’s casual sexual harassment of both Gerri and his sister, who dressed so similarly in Italy that it had to have been intentional.