Should we be rooting for Tom and Shiv? Succession star Sarah Snook weighs in

Clark Collis
Updated ·3 min read
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Warning: This article contains spoilers for Succession season 4 through episode 3.

Call it "The Ballad of Shiv and Tom."

The twisted romance between Sarah Snook's scion Siobhan "Shiv" Roy and Matthew Macfadyen's ambitious corporate executive Tom Wambsgans is among the plot strands at the very heart of Succession, albeit one which showcases the HBO series' frequent heartlessness. For almost three and a half seasons, the pair have engaged in a relationship that often seems more like a gladiatorial battle than a genuine coupling. Remember that time Shiv informed Tom that she wanted an open marriage on the eve of their nuptials in Scotland? Or that other time when Tom sided with his wife's father to prevent Shiv and her siblings from taking control of Waystar Royco?

"Coming out of the final episode of season 3, Shiv is betrayed on many fronts," Snook tells EW. "Once by her mother, expectedly by her father ­— well, unexpectedly, but [par] for course for him — and then the big one from Tom."

Sarah Snook, Matthew Macfadyen HBO Succession Season 3 - Episode 5
Sarah Snook, Matthew Macfadyen HBO Succession Season 3 - Episode 5

Macall B. Polay/HBO Sarah Snook and Matthew Macfadyen in 'Succession'

We learned at the start of season 4 that Tom's corporate maneuvers had led to his and Shiv's separation. While the pair met up in their capacious New York apartment, possibly paving the way for a reconciliation, the couple proved incapable of properly expressing whatever positive feelings they might still have for each other.

"It's really emotional, where you're very surprised that you want them to be able to work it out," Snook says of the scene. "And they just can't communicate properly, and they can't be honest and say exactly what they need, and instead [they] say kind of what they think the other one wants to hear. Yeah, it's really sad."

Even the unexpected death of Brian Cox's Logan Roy in episode 3 did not seem to bring the pair much closer together. Although, with Tom now having lost his corporate benefactor, it would presumably behoove him to re-woo his estranged wife, if only for the most venal of reasons.

All of which begs the question, is it really sad that the pair can't communicate? Should we be rooting for Tom and Shiv? Or should we rather be hoping that the break-up of these really-not-very-nice people becomes a permanent state of affairs? Snook herself is ambivalent on the subject — or, perhaps, does not want to spoil the relationship ruckuses that remain in the show's fourth and final season. She suggests that the pair may be made for each other, for better and worse.

"It's such a strange thing, I think, for audiences," Snook says. "Because they, in turns, really don't like Tom and Shiv, and really don't want them to be together, because they're terrible together. But also they're kind of the only people who would [each] work together, in a way."

Succession airs Sundays on HBO and Max (formerly HBO Max).

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