Episode notes
The Roy family convenes at Connor's New Mexico ranch, Austerlitz, for a PR-managed therapy weekend following Logan's firing of Kendall and the fallout from the failed shareholder vote. The sessions collapse immediately — Logan's opening claim that everything he has done was for his children goes unchallenged by Roman and Connor but dismissed by Shiv, and the therapist is hospitalized after diving into a shallow pool. Shiv slips away to meet Senator Gil Eavis, who offers her a senior campaign role and makes clear he intends to use every legal and legislative tool available against Logan's media empire — she accepts on the spot. Kendall, unable to face the ranch, ends up on a cocaine and meth binge at a stranger's house before Roman collects him. His return ignites the worst confrontation of the season: Logan admits to planting the tabloid relapse stories before Kendall had actually used, dismisses it as strategy, then calls Shiv a coward and demeans Tom in front of the room. Kendall's drunken mocking of Logan's childhood abuse nearly turns physical before Marcia intervenes. The episode ends on Logan swimming alone, his back bearing deep physical scars.
This episode is the first time the show makes Logan's abuse legible as a lived fact rather than backstory — the closing image answers why Kendall's taunt nearly turned violent without asking the audience to draw any conclusions from it. Shiv's meeting with Eavis moves her out of the orbit of the family business for the first time, with full knowledge of what that commitment means. The planted tabloid story also reframes the season's entire Kendall arc: Logan manufactured the narrative of his son's relapse before it happened, and Kendall then fulfilled it.
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