Succession Fans Can’t Get Over Shiv & Tom’s Fight

Spoilers ahead for Succession Season 4, Episode 7. The final season of Succession started with Shiv and Tom announcing their plans to divorce — but for the past few episodes, it seemed that their split had awakened a newfound chemistry between the pair. So steamy were their secret hookups that fans thought the exes might just make it. Shiv and Tom thought so, too. “We can say to people that we had a little break, and then, we’re back,” Tom suggested to Shiv in the May 7 episode. “Yeah, I like that,” agreed Shiv.

But their apparent reconciliation went downhill fast, as things often do on Succession. The first bad omen was Tom’s pre-Election Day gift: a glass scorpion that he said represented Shiv. “I love you, but you kill me, and I kill you,” he explained.

Interestingly, that turned out to be an apt metaphor for their final scene in the episode. During the couple’s Election “tailgate,” Tom got wind that Lukas Matsson might want to fire him after the company’s pending sale to GoJo, which Shiv seemed to go along with. The pain point led to one of the most explosive arguments in Succession history, in which Shiv and Tom’s biggest issues with each other boiled to the surface — from Tom saying Shiv shouldn’t have kids (not knowing she is pregnant) to Shiv telling Tom he never deserved her at all.

Watching along on Twitter, several viewers imagined what Shiv and Tom’s fight might have looked like to their fellow partygoers.

Others were simply floored by the intensity of the battle — and its implications for the rest of Succession’s fourth and final season.

At this point in Succession’s run, virtually every episode makes a case for why one (or all) of the stars deserves an Emmy. This time around, viewers were rallying for Sarah Snook and Matthew Macfadyen to take home top honors.

Many fans thought Shiv and Tom’s fight was reminiscent of Marriage Story — or even better than the award-winning film famous for its explosive fight scene.

The most devastating moment of the fight was when Tom told Shiv she wouldn’t be a good mom — which isn’t just hurtful but also packed with dramatic irony because Shiv is very much pregnant. Evidently, she hasn’t shared that news with Tom.

Needless to say, it was a hard day for Shiv and Tom fans.

Some viewers are hoping that Shiv and Tom might reconcile — but with only three episodes left of Succession, that’s looking unlikely.