Remember when Prince Harry repeatedly said that he was willing to “give up” his titles in exchange for his family’s freedom? In the negotiations for Harry and Meghan’s exit in 2020, Harry believed everything was on the table and he even suggested the idea of giving up the Sussex titles in particular. It didn’t happen – the palace didn’t take their titles, and the excuse has been that neither QEII nor King Charles wanted to “look” punitive. I tend to believe that the calculation was less about optics and more like the institution’s mistaken belief that Harry would come crawling back to them. But, according to Robert Jobson’s latest book (Our King), there were actually high-level conversations about “stripping” Harry of his title. Those same high-level senior courtiers openly discussed how Harry was Meghan’s “hostage.” These people and their misogyny and racism, my god.

Discussions about stripping Harry of his Duke of Sussex title were held at the highest level and senior aides joked that he was a ‘hostage’ of his wife Meghan, a new bombshell book has revealed. The new book by veteran Royal writer Robert Jobson, due to be published on Thursday, shows how palace insiders would make jibes about Harry being a ‘victim of Stockholm syndrome’ as they blamed Meghan for the ‘fallout’ with the Royal Family.

Others, including some senior officials who feel Harry has ‘turned his back on everything he has known’, think the is the ‘driving force in everything that happened’ and want to see him demoted to Mr Mountbatten-Windsor of Montecito, California.

King Charles is understood to ‘not to be in favour’ of axing Harry’s royal title and has ‘enduring love for his son’, despite having made the decision that Meghan should not accompany Harry to Balmoral when the family gathered after the Queen died.

It is understood that the King is ‘saddened by the widening gulf’ between him and Harry, the royal expert claims, adding that Charles wishes he could see more of his grandchildren, Archie, three, and one-year-old Lilibet. Insiders also allege that the relationship between the King and the Sussexes becomes further from the possibility of repair with each interview Harry partakes in.

One senior aide, discussing the rift, told Mr Jobson: ‘Some blame Meghan Markle for the fallout, ignoring the fact that Harry seems to be the driving force in everything that happened. There was a point when officials joked Harry was the victim of Stockholm syndrome, and he was Meghan’s hostage, but now most just feel Harry has turned his back on everything he has known.’

[From The Daily Mail]

“It is understood that the King is ‘saddened by the widening gulf’ between him and Harry, the royal expert claims, adding that Charles wishes he could see more of his grandchildren…” Charles literally evicted his son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren from the gifted home for which they paid millions. Charles evicted them out of spite, in retaliation for the publication of Harry’s memoir. If Charles actually wanted to encourage more visits from Harry or spend more time with his grandchildren, surely he would have ensured that they always have a safe and secure home in England, and ensure that they don’t have to jump through unhinged hoops with the Met Police?

As for the thick vein of misogyny and racism within the royal court… the thing is, the courtiers who talked openly about Harry having “Stockholm syndrome” are the same ones proudly briefing Jobson about it. They think that they’re insulting Harry, that it’s the worst thing for a man to be so in love with his wife, to be married to a woman he adores. Worse yet, King Charles is literally married to a machiavellian villainous who is the actual “reason” why Charles has such terrible relationships with his sons.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar, Backgrid.

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Last week, Chilli Thomas accepted the Legacy Award on behalf of TLC at Variety’s Power of Women luncheon. She acknowledged her group mates and talked about their past and upcoming tour in her acceptance speech. At the event, she also talked to Page Six and dished about her relationship with Matthew Lawerence. She talked about how real and amazing their relationship is and how he’s changed everything about how she looks at relationships. Aw!

He’s no scrub.

Chilli gushed over her “amazing” romance with Matthew Lawrence at Variety’s Power of Women luncheon this week.

“It’s real and there is nothing fake about it,” the TLC singer, whose real name is Rozonda Thomas, told Page Six at the event. “I’m here with him because I wanna be and he wants to be. We’re just so happy, we really are.

“I honestly didn’t think that I would experience what I’m experiencing now and I was OK with that.”

The “No Scrubs” singer added that she was never someone who needed to be in a relationship.

“He has changed everything, the way I look at relationships. It’s so different,” she swooned.

However, Chilli declined to say whether a marriage was in the cards for the pair.

“We’re still in the beginning stages so we’ll see,” she said with a laugh.

[From Page Six]

Okay, maybe I’m just a cynical single, but I do roll my eyes a bit when people gush as much as these two, their reps, and his brothers have been gushing. Even T-Boz has confirmed she approves. It’s a lot, from all sides! They just got together around the holidays and confirmed their relationship in January. So it’s fairly new and they’re still in the honeymoon phase and new relationships often are like this. They can feel special and amazing and one-of-a-kind in the beginning. Anyway, it’s nice that they seem to be on the same page and it’s not one of them that seems more in love than the other. At first I thought it was Matthew, with his talk about kids and the full bloom of love, but it seems like Chilli is right there with him. It’s nice that they’re so happy. I’d just be happy if Chilli dropped her skincare routine.

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SPOILERS for Succession Season 4.

People are still grappling with what happened in the third episode of Succession’s fourth season, “Connor’s Wedding.” What’s funny/sad about Logan Roy’s death is that it was always the raison d’être of a show called “Succession.” It was always supposed to be about Logan Roy’s children and associates grappling with the messy chaos left in the wake of Logan Roy. It just took us more than three seasons to get there. It’s incredible that there are now seven episodes left of the show to give us just that: what happens in the post-Logan era? I strongly suspect that everything will fall apart, from the deal with Matsson, to the presidential election, to the actual company Waystar Royco. The Roy kids are all falling apart too – they don’t know how to exist without their father. Anyway, Brian Cox gave an “exit interview” to the New York Times – you can read the full piece here. Some highlights:

He got the news about Logan’s death from the show’s creator, Jesse Armstrong. “He called me, and he said, ‘Logan’s going to die,.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, that’s fine.’ I thought he would die in about Episode 7 or 8, but Episode 3, I thought … ‘Well that’s a bit early.’ Not that I was bothered.”

What he thought of how Logan died: “Well, they had to end it somehow, and it was Jesse’s choice. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, the problem with a lot of television, particularly American television, is it goes past its sell-by date. And the great thing about Jesse and the writers is they wouldn’t do that. It was difficult for them because it wasn’t easy to bring this to an end. And I think Jesse found it sad — at the premier, somebody shouted out, “Well, if it was so sad, why did you do it?” But I think there are lots of reasons for Jesse finishing it. And I applaud the fact that he did that. It was courageous because everybody loves the show. Always leave the party when it’s at its height, not when it’s going down.

The Irish goodbye: “I just think that’s what makes the show. You think about “Game of Thrones,” when they didn’t know what they were doing at the end, and they had an ending which was not really satisfactory. And the audience was furious. The audience [for “Succession”] might be furious; they might miss Logan and say, “Oh, what are you doing killing off one of the most interesting characters?” But it’s fine by me. I’m doing a lot of other stuff. I’m going back to the theater. I’m going to hopefully direct my first movie in my grand old age. And I’m doing “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” in London [in spring 2024]. So I know what I’m going to be doing probably till next summer.

Logan’s death changes the stakes: “It does change the stakes. The main protagonist is gone. And the kids are having to deal with it, or not. I think it’s going to be hard next week for a lot of the audience because they’re going to miss Logan. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing — I think that’s actually quite a good thing. Logan was coming to a rest point anyway. He realized that his children were never going to be — he’s got that great line when he says, “I love you, but you’re not serious people.” And I think that is so fundamental. The whole premise is really about entitlement and the rich and the fact that he’s plowed this particular furrow. And the consequences of that plowing are these kids and how [expletive] up they are, not necessarily because of him, but because of the wealth. They all suffer from entitlement in one form or another. And they behave like entitled spoiled brats a lot of the time.

On Method acting: “The problem with the Method thing is … I think [acting] is a lighter thing. You have to be more deft in your acting — still be in it, still be committed very deeply to it, but you’ve got to be able to turn on a dime. You’ve got to be able to drop it and come back. Otherwise, it becomes just like walking constipation.

The problem with American actors: “[Actors] think it’s about, “Oh, I just subsumed myself in the character and then I live it 24/7.” A real problem that America has — and I think it’s also what our show is about — is that America is only interested in the pursuit of individualism at the expense of community. When you look at the European theater, it’s all about community and groups who have dug in and have kept going year after year after year. America hasn’t done that. It’s the ensemble, the community that’s important in any project that you’re working on as actors. You have to create the community and you have to behave toward the community; it’s not about your, “I have to do this; I only can do it this way.”

[From The New York Times]

Logan’s line, “I love you, but you’re not serious people” is especially amazing considering it was one of the final things he said to his children the night before he passed away. It’s one of those lines which will echo through the rest of the season, reminiscent (I believe) of Tom telling Kendall last season: “I’ve seen you get f–ked a lot, and I’ve never seen Logan get f–ked once.” Anyway, I’m still blown away by the bold choice of killing off THE patriarch in the third episode of the final season. That’s such a confident move from Jesse Armstrong and the writers too – the fact that they’ve given themselves enough time to tell the story of “succession,” the story of what happens post-Logan. It will be one catastrophe after another, given that Logan never set up his children to succeed on their own. He spent their entire lives teaching them to keep secrets from one another, to stab each other in the back, to trust no one.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, HBO/Succession.

Megan Fox & Machine Gun Kelly are “officially back on.” [Dlisted]
Phoebe Waller-Bridge & Mads Mikkelson celebrate… Star Wars?[Tom & Lorenzo]
Review of The Super Mario Bros Movie. [LaineyGossip]
Review of Paint: it’s exhausting. [Pajiba]
This is one of the most disgusting food collabs I’ve ever seen. [OMG Blog]
Chloe Bailey looked great during her promotional tour. [Go Fug Yourself]
Ewan McGregor & Hayden Christensen reunited at the Star Wars thing. [Just Jared]
Iowa’s AG halts Plan B for rape victims. [Jezebel]
Olivia Wilde is the drama. [Buzzfeed]
Sarah Shahi deserves better, honestly. [Seriously OMG]
Sam Smith still faces homophobia. [Towleroad]

Robert Jobson has a new book, and the book is being serialized in the Daily Mail. Some of you say that Jobson is completely a King Charles & Queen Camilla guy, but for what it’s worth, I think he’s pro-establishment, pro-institution and anti-Sussex. It’s believable to me that Prince William and Kate would leak sh-t to Jobson and he would publish it, believing that it would sound sympathetic to his audience. All of which to say, the excerpts from his book are pretty ridiculous so far – he’s basically just using Prince Harry’s Spare as a template, adding a bunch of negative, Daily Mail-esque spin and calling it a day.

One of the few pieces of new information was this part about the infamous “walkabout” done by Prince William, Kate and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex outside of Windsor Castle just two days after QEII’s death. In the 72 hours following QEII’s death, the new king and the new Prince of Wales were already in a briefing war about who could leak the most insulting, denigrating sh-t about the Sussexes. Remember that Charles also “banned” Meghan from going to Balmoral with Harry, and in that phone call, Charles continued to insult Meghan and berate Harry, all while QEII’s body wasn’t even cold. Well, guess who was really the biggest victim of that whole drama?

Kate found her Windsor walkabout with Harry and Meghan after the Queen’s death ‘one of the hardest things she’d ever had to do’, a sensational new royal book reveals today. The Princess of Wales told a senior royal it was so difficult for her because of the ‘ill-feeling’ between the couples, veteran royal correspondent Robert Jobson says. The new book, called Our King – serialised in The Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday this weekend – lays bare the inside story of the Royals’ war with the Sussexes before, during and after Megxit.

Kate and William’s appearance with Harry and Meghan to greet well-wishers and view the flowers outside the gates of Windsor Castle came two days after the Queen’s death at the age of 96 in September last year. To many, the couples’ joint walkabout – said to have been William’s idea to put on a show of unity – might have seemed like some kind of reconciliation.

But Mr Jobson says sources close to the royal family have confirmed to him that was an ‘illusion’.

‘Catherine later admitted to a senior royal that, such was the ill feeling between the two couples, the joint walkabout was one of the hardest things she’d ever had to do,’ he writes.

[From The Daily Mail]

Okay, it does sound like Camilla repeated what Kate said to her. I give you that – this part is probably not a leak from Kensington Palace, although to be fair, KP does looooove to position Kate as Meghan’s permanent victim, that Meghan is always THERE, and Kate has to cry white Karen tears because of Meghan’s Black presence. This also sounds like something Kate would really say, because she’s a privileged, coddled brat who counts “standing in the general vicinity as her Black sister-in-law” as almost unconscionably hard work. Nevermind that Kate was downright giddy after QEII died, as evidenced by the actual photos from the walkabout – Kate was beaming, laughing, posing. Meghan was the one who looked terrified, probably because Kate kept advancing on her in a very menacing way.

People dunked on Kate all weekend about this. Looks like people aren’t buying Kate’s whole fragile-white-woman deal anymore.

I found telling my family I had terminal cancer was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, – what’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do? pic.twitter.com/cGxTGHVfkv

— Janey Godley (@JaneyGodley) April 8, 2023

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

The Middleton family’s business, Party Pieces, has been in dire financial straits for several years, if not longer. Their products are not unique, and almost everything they sell can be found for cheaper at party-supply stores, or found a lot cheaper online. Things seem to have come to a head earlier this year, when suddenly the Middletons were talking openly about how the business is going down the drain. Carole Middleton blames the post office, the cost of living crisis and the pandemic. In late March, we learned that Carole has apparently hired advisors because she either wants to sell PP or bring in more partners. Well, now it looks like they’re going to just try to sell the whole company. Offload it on some Russian oligarch, perchance. Carole is going down bravely, and by that I mean, she’s openly briefing the Daily Mail that she wants to retire to spend more time with her grandchildren.

Carole and Michael Middleton are heading for a very good Coronation. At the event on May 6, which they are expected to attend, their daughter Kate will take a delicate step closer to being Queen one day. No parents could be prouder of their daughter, who discharges her royal and familial duties with such impeccable grace.

As entrepreneurs, they will also be hoping that by that point they will have done some brisk pre-Coronation business at their company, Party Pieces, which is selling a range of Coronation-themed items on its website. There is Coronation Flag Bunting (£4.99 for three metres), which features the side profile of the King in gold on a Union Jack background, not to mention the Great British Party hats and flags set (£5), which features paper crowns and tiaras, plus essentials such as Union Jack paper plates (£4.99 for eight).

Yet for the Middletons, who have built their kitchen-table business into an empire, this will mark a rather significant moment in their business journey for other reasons. For friends reveal that Carole, 68, and Michael, 73, are planning to step away from the firm. The couple have decided that the time is finally right to retire — and they are hoping to sell the company in the coming weeks to investors who will continue the brand.

They own just over half the company, with two investors owning the rest. To this end, they have appointed strategic advisers at the company Interpath. Last week, a Party Pieces spokesman commented on news of Interpath’s involvement: ‘We are working with our advisers to secure additional investment which will help support the business as we look to embark on the next phase of our growth plan.’

In truth, the ‘next phase’ of the growth plan is that the couple are ready to walk away, the better to enjoy their six grandchildren. A friend says: ‘Carole and Mike are ready to retire, and rather than just shut up shop, they are looking at the options to see whether someone will buy the business. Carole has poured her heart and soul into Party Pieces and loves the business, but she’s 68 and is there running things pretty much full-time every day. It’s too much of a commitment — she wants more time for family, gardening and travel.’

I’m told there wasn’t one particular spur that led to her decision but, instead, the question of Party Pieces and its future has been a conversation in the family for some time, and she has gradually realised that this is the moment to move on. The friend says: ‘It has taken her a while to come to terms with the fact that she’s ready to step away and enjoy her time more. There are now a lot of grandchildren and she loves being a granny.’

Carole has George, nine, Charlotte, seven, and Louis, four, through daughter Kate and Prince William. Late last year the Cambridges moved to Adelaide Cottage on the Windsor estate — much closer to the Middleton family home in Berkshire. This has made it easier for Carole, already an involved grandmother, to become yet more indispensable to Kate. And let’s not forget that, following the Queen’s death last September, Kate and William have never been busier with official duties.

[From The Daily Mail]

A few things – notice there’s zero talk of handing off the business to one of the Middleton children. I guess Pippa has no need for it considering she’s got a terribly moderately wealthy husband. And James… well, James has failed at every business he’s ever started. James would run Party Pieces completely into the ground in about two weeks, tops. As for Carole needing to be “yet more indispensable to Kate” because “Kate and William have never been busier with official duties,” I can’t believe we’re supposed to take any of this seriously. Kate is still lazy, William is somehow even lazier and the kids already have at least one nanny. But sure. Anyway, I suspect that my theory will come true: some shady Russian, Kazakh or Emirate billionaire will “buy” Party Pieces and ensure that they have a backdoor channel to the Prince and Princess of Wales.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

Not even one full year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a Texas judge has unilaterally decided that the FDA’s authorization of the abortion medication mifepristone is “improper.” As in, a conservative hack in a robe decided he has the power to overturn the federal protections on abortive drugs, which are (obviously) federally regulated, not state-regulated. Many states have abolished abortion clinics and curtailed access to physical clinics where people seeking abortions could see doctors, but states could do next to nothing about mifepristone, the completely safe and legal abortive drug. Until now.

Federal judges in two states issued contradictory decisions Friday evening that could drastically impact access to a drug used in nearly all medication abortions in the U.S. In Texas, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled that the Food and Drug Administration improperly approved the abortion pill mifepristone more than 20 years ago. A coalition of anti-abortion rights groups called the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine sued the FDA last year. The judge issued a nationwide injunction pausing the FDA’s approval, which is set to take effect in seven days.

Within hours of that decision, U.S. District Judge Thomas O. Rice issued a ruling in a separate case in Washington state. That lawsuit filed by a coalition of Democratic attorneys general in 17 states and the District of Columbia sought to block the FDA from pulling the drug from the market.

Rice’s decision blocks the FDA from “altering the status quo and rights as it relates to the availability of Mifepristone.”

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson told NPR on Friday that he believes the judge’s ruling could make it possible for patients in those states to continue using mifepristone for abortion in the short term — even after the Texas decision takes effect.

“If you live in Washington State or one of the 17 states that joined Washington in our lawsuit…then the judge’s ruling in our case preserves the status quo on ensuring that access to mifepristone remains available,” Ferguson said. For the rest, he said, “The Texas judge’s ruling seriously has the potential to eliminate that access for mifepristone here in the coming days.”

President Biden said the ruling in Texas could have widespread consequences. “If this ruling were to stand, then there will be virtually no prescription, approved by the FDA, that would be safe from these kinds of political, ideological attacks,” the president said in a statement. “It is the next big step toward the national ban on abortion that Republican elected officials have vowed to make law in America,” Biden added. He said that the administration would fight the ruling, noting, “The Department of Justice has already filed an appeal and will seek an immediate stay of the decision.”

[From NPR]

It’s likely this case will end up going to the Supreme Court. I can’t wait to see the ideological hoops the conservative justices crawl through to end up upholding Kacsmaryk’s ruling, which doesn’t seem to be based on case law OR science. Like, mifepristone is completely safe, safer than many FDA-approved drugs currently sold in pharmacies around the country. A random judge in Texas has zero standing to unilaterally decide on ideological grounds that an FDA-approved drug shouldn’t be FDA-approved.

The only positive thing I have to say is that this bullsh-t is a giant loser for the Republican party – their hardline anti-choice stance is deeply unpopular and it’s costing them elections at nearly every level. I don’t know what will happen next.

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Photos courtesy of Getty, Instar and Cover Images.

Here are some photos from Easter Sunday in Windsor, where the British royal family made a big show of going to church. The Prince and Princess of Wales haven’t been seen in two weeks, and they came out with their three kids. This is the first time Louis has done the Easter church walk – I guess it was expected of him after he mostly behaved himself at the Christmas church walk in Sandringham last year. Louis was the only one in shorts, I guess George has graduated to grown-up trousers now.

The kids were all color-coordinated with Kate, of course, and Kate looked like she wore a costume from Call the Midwife. The coatdress is by Catherine Walker, Kate’s favorite designer for when she wants a more Victorian silhouette. I notice the nude pumps are back. Surprisingly, Kate also wore red nail polish. Someone alert the church elders, a senior royal wearing red nail polish??? I thought that was gauche and un-royal? Please, where are the ten million Daily Mail headlines about how Kate broke protocol?

The rest of the Windsors were out too – pregnant Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack, Princess Beatrice and Edo, and guess who else? Prince Andrew. Walking close to King Charles and Queen Camilla, and the Princess Royal. Zara and Mike Tindall came out with their daughters as well. The new Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh came out with their son James, but I didn’t see Lady Louise? Hm. Fashion notes: I actually love Camilla’s outfit and I think she’s the best-dressed out of the whole group. Beatrice also looked great. Zara looked like a horse’s ass in that hot pink mess with all of the buttons. Sophie’s hat is comically large.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid and Cover Images.

When Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour began, People Magazine had a story about how Taylor and Joe Alwyn were fine, that after six years together, they didn’t need to live in each other’s pockets and he would visit her on tour when he could. It honestly didn’t seem suspicious to me at the time – I assumed they were fine, mostly because we rarely hear anything dramatic about them in the mainstream gossip press. But now… now I think the People story was mega-sus. It was a gossip stop-gap, right? It was Taylor telling her fans: don’t worry, don’t start rumor-mongering if you don’t see Joe around these days. Yeah. Joe opted out, or Taylor opted out, and here we are. JoeTay is OVER.

Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn have called it quits. ET has exclusively learned that the “Lavender Haze” singer and the British actor broke up a few weeks ago.

ET has also learned that the split was amicable and “it was not dramatic.” ET’s told “the relationship had just run its course. It’s why [Alwyn] hasn’t been spotted at any shows.” Swift, 33, is currently on her The Eras tour, which heads to Tampa, Florida next week.

It wasn’t so long ago when Swift and Alwyn were said to have been in a great place in their relationship. They started dating in late 2016, and a source told ET back in October that they were “doing great” and that their “relationship is super strong.” That update came just hours after Swift dropped her highly anticipated 10th studio album, Midnights, followed by seven additional songs released in her surprise 3am Edition of the album.

[From ET]

People Magazine also had a confirmation that they broke up – a “source close to the pair” confirmed the news, and they also point out that Joe hasn’t been to any of her Eras concerts (a fact which I find insignificant but I guess there’s a reason why Joe’s absence has been cited by multiple outlets). I know some Snake Fam members believe that this hasn’t been for-real confirmed, but… this is the confirmation. If People AND Entertainment Tonight had gotten it wrong, Taylor’s publicist would have crawled all over those outlets and gotten them to take down or correct the reports. Instead, it’s more than likely that the breakup happened weeks ago and Taylor’s team held the news and purposefully leaked the story the day before Easter because most people had taken off and weren’t paying attention to the news.

As for the split… well, I was genuinely surprised. I hadn’t gotten a vibe from JoeTay, and I really thought they were solid. Some of you might believe that Taylor wanted to get married and Joe didn’t, or that the “Lavender Haze” lyrics signal something or other. I really don’t know. If Taylor did want to marry him and he wasn’t into it, then so be it and I’m glad she’s moving on. This was her longest, most serious relationship – it began in the Obama administration for goodness sake – and she kept a lot of her life with Joe private. I do think that’s probably over – her next album will explain exactly what happened, I’m sure.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.

Major SPOILERS for Succession Ep. 4.3 “Connor’s Wedding.”

Succession, much like Game of Thrones, devotes their best writing, most shocking moments and most compelling acting for the wedding episodes. I was surprised that Connor Roy’s wedding was moved up, so that within the Succession world, he would be marrying Willa just weeks before the presidential election. He was trying to make news. He did. The whole family made news. Everyone thought that the story would be Connor’s chaotic wedding and Logan Roy not even bothering to attend – after all, the deal with Lukas Matsson is falling apart, and Logan needed to fly to Sweden to soothe Matsson’s nerves.

Early in the episode, the vibe is familiar – Shiv doesn’t answer a call from her estranged husband Tom, Roman is hiding his communications with his father, they’re worried about how to tell Connor that their dad isn’t coming to his wedding. Roman even does his father’s bidding and tries to fire the woman he loves, Gerri. Then everything turns sideways – Tom calls again while Shiv is mingling with wedding guests. Logan collapsed in the plane’s bathroom. Logan is on the floor, Logan is getting chest compressions and CPR. Tom’s calm, compassionate manner towards his brothers-in-law was heartbreaking – he told them he was putting his phone against Logan’s ear, that Logan could hear them, so they needed to speak to their father.

Everything that followed was a tour de force in acting from Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin, Matthew Macfayden and Alan Ruck. They portrayed the different stages of grief, denial, panic, incompetence and shock. Give Macfayden his flowers too – he was mostly acting with a phone, nearly alone in a room, and he centered what was happening beautifully.

Anyway, this was one of the best episodes of television I’ve ever seen? There was no science fiction, no horror, no zombies. It was just a modern family, full of dysfunction and pain, trying to grapple with the death of the patriarch they thought was immortal. Logan never prepared any of them for his death and none of them (save for Connor, maybe?) know who they are without Logan as a living reference. One of the last things their father told them was: “I love you, but you are not serious people.”

Photos courtesy of HBO/Succession.