New Monday of ‘Succession’ and a new bombshell that the excellent series by Jesse Armstrong has dropped on us in its final stretch. Although it must be recognized that this time it is something that was seen coming or, at least, we had the odd clue as it confirms one of the fan theories about Shiv.
By the way, from here spoilers for the fourth episode of season 4 of ‘Succession’.
And it is that, as soon as the episode begins, which starts seeing the leading trio in full mourning trying to deal with the death the day before of the patriarch, Shiv (Sarah Snook) receives a call from his doctor. The reason is clear from the beginning: that if the amniocentesis is normal, that if she makes an appointment for the 20-week ultrasound… siobhan is pregnant.
Baby Roy
A revelation that the woman decides to keep to herself, at least for now, as the rest of the Roys and Waystar Royco executives they are more concerned with seeing who succeeds Logan than with watching over the deceased.
Shiv’s pregnancy had already been predicted by fans of the series, who began to develop a theory throughout the season 3 on the status of the character. While we might have a bit of a date dance as to whether or not she was already pregnant at the end of said season, there were a number of “suspicious” circumstances for proponents of the theory.
The episode that arouses the most interest in this sense is ‘Chiantishire‘ (3×08), in which we see gestures that point in that direction: Shiv toasting with water instead of wine or the fact of being indisposed to attend a meeting (morning sickness?). Something that could coincide with the first weeks of pregnancy.
However, to square this theory we should overlook the “drought” status between her and Tom. Although it seems that the couple had been planning to have a baby Roy for some time, until those days in Italy they had not had the opportunity to have sexual relations.
Although we could dismantle the theories that she was already pregnant then, probably yes that night the creature was conceived. Taking into account that this was in the summer (it is not clear at what height) and that the season started in October, it makes sense that Shiv could be between 15 and 20 weeks (amniocentesis is performed on those days).
A pregnancy that complicates everything
Finally, during this season there have also been small clues as to what the character has been drinking during these first chapters. As for what this news means for the character, Sarah Snook is clear that, just like in this episode, it seems thatthat their options to govern the company are dissipated, a baby does not help nor to his own ambitions:
“I think Shiv has very complicated feelings about being a mother. On the one hand she feigns indifference because it’s one of those things that’s too hard to face and she doesn’t like to deal with emotions, it’s easier to bottle things up. I think there’s a competition between her feelings towards her mother and her desire to improve her mother’s mothering qualities, her fear that she probably won’t be able to do so, and a fear and frustration that everything she has worked and fought for cannot be achieved by being a mother as well as a woman business and how these two things merge in his life. I think he hasn’t really considered it as a life path and it’s a shock.”
On the other hand, in the official ‘Succession’ podcast, the actress does not make it clear who the idea came from, but the truth is that during the filming of the series Sarah Snook got pregnant with her first child. In fact, she sported a 32-week belly during the season 4 premiere.
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