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Shiv is the one pushing Tom into an open marriage, in stark contrast to Frances, who let’s Nick decide when they’re sleeping together, and Melissa, who stays with her adulterous husband because he’s less depressed when in the midst of an affair.Ĭonversations With Friends certainly makes sense for the moment, but Shiv would have quit 50 pages in. On the flip side, Melissa’s previous affairs are presented not as part of a healthy arrangement, but as indiscretions that contributed to Nick’s declining mental health. When Melissa, Nick’s wife, finds out about their affair she’s possessive over Nick, agreeing to allow their arrangement to continue in an email that makes it clear he’ll always belong to her. Frances and Nick’s affair is shrouded in secrecy, a far cry from the open arrangement Shiv craves.

She’d have no patience for a young woman lacking the drive to stake out her place in the world.

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To so many readers, Frances is a deeply compelling character full of self-doubt and self-hatred tied to the world around us, but that’s not Siobhan Roy. That puts her in stark contrast to any member of the Roy family, but especially Shiv, who’s spent the entire season trying to needle her way into a position of power. Perhaps more important than Frances’s feelings on money is that she lacks ambition. I can’t imagine Shiv would appreciate a class-motivated guilt trip while on a luxurious trip that cost millions of dollars. She’s morbidly fascinated by the lives of her new wealthy cohort, but openly judges their bourgeois lifestyle. Frances self-identifies as a Marxist, having little desire for money beyond the basic necessities. It’s both critically and publicly acclaimed, so why would Shiv feel otherwise? First, there’s the money factor. Lord knows Shiv and Tom’s relationship needs a life raft after the threesome debacle, but if I’m being honest about a book I love deeply, Shiv would hate it.Ĭonversations With Friends is told through Frances, a 21-year-old English student and poet in Dublin with a propensity for long bouts of ennui who becomes intimately entwined in a wealthy couple’s life. As readers, we’re often drawn to books that can explain or guide our own experiences. Tom is directly questioning whether they should even stick together, and Conversations With Friends is, in large part, about a young woman having an affair with an older man who’s stuck in a complicated marriage. Symbolically, it makes sense that Succession’s writers would give Shiv this particular book during a scene in which she and her husband, Tom, are discussing the openness of their marriage. Not Kendall’s shocking public betrayal of his father, nor Connor casually asking his dad for a $100 million because his girlfriend’s Broadway play bombed, but rather Siobhan Roy lying on the beach reading Sally Rooney’s brilliant 2017 novel Conversations With Friends.

In an episode chock-full of memorable moments, there’s one detail that piqued my interest. Watching the Roy family snipe at each other aboard a luxury yacht so grand it made the ships on Below Deck look like rickety, old boats would have been dramatic enough, but “ This Is Not for Tears” ramped up the stakes to become one of the best hours of an already stellar season. Succession’s season-two finale did not disappoint.