Succession S4 Episode 4 Recap: Roy Family Power Ranking

Ah, how the mighty have fallen. Logan's very best boy, Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen), the former lieutenant to the powerful man, has descended directly to the bottom of the pack thanks to, well, Logan's death. Without his protector — recall that, in the immediate aftermath of Logan's death, Tom directly told Greg he'd "lost [his] protector" — Tom is basically useless, and nobody's shy about saying that directly to his face.

This is laid bare when Tom approaches Gerri, Frank, and the rest of the Waystar Royco executives during Logan's wake to tell them that if there's a "ring," his hat is definitely in it. Their reaction is to literally laugh in his face, telling him he's a powerless loser married to Logan's daughter, who also hates him. Tom's not mentioned on the piece of paper, he's not part of the restructuring and battle over who's going to be CEO, and he's not even in the room half the time. He does have an emotional conversation with Shiv about their past together, but based on the fact that Shiv's heart is basically a black hole where Tom is concerned, that probably doesn't mean much in the long run. At least Tom gives the audience one gift by revealing a specific about Logan's death, which is that he had a cardiac event while digging his phone out of a clogged airplane toilet.