The Roy siblings and relatives converge on the 80th birthday of family patriarch Logan Roy, who is also the CEO of the powerful media conglomerate Waystar Royco. Logan’s health is declining but he is reluctant to step down.
Second eldest son Kendall attempts to prove his worth as Logan’s successor. His acquisition meeting with Lawrence from the media company Vaulter is a disaster as Lawrence writes Kendall off as a junkie and an ineffectual daddy’s boy. Meanwhile, Logan’s grandnephew Greg Hirsch gets fired from his job at a Waystar-owned amusement park for showing up high to work. His mother advises him to go to Logan’s birthday party to ask for a better job.
The other Roy siblings converge at the party: eldest son Connor is an eccentric living on a ranch, youngest son Roman is crude and obnoxious, and only daughter Siobhan “Shiv” tries to carve her own path as a political fixer. Her boyfriend Tom Wambsgans, an employee at Waystar, attempts to suck up to Logan, who is disinterested. Logan agrees to give Greg a job, which makes Tom jealous.
At the party, Logan takes his children aside and informs them that he will remain as CEO and wants to amend the current trust give his wife Marcia more power on the company board. Kendall appeals to Logan privately but Logan berates him for being unfit to run the company.
The family then heads out via helicopter to play a game of softball. Kendall tries to convince Roman and Shiv to support his bid for CEO, which they rebuff. Logan makes a deal with Roman to name him as COO, ousting longtime loyal Waystar staffer Frank Vernon. Kendall leaves the game early to try to salvage the Vaulter deal. He also plants a story in the press questioning Logan’s mental capabilities.
While flying back to Manhattan, Roman and Shiv argue with Logan about his changes to the trust when he suffers from a stroke. As the family rushes to the hospital, the future of Waystar’s leadership is left uncertain.
Tropes:
- AM/FM Characterization: Kendall is introduced rapping along to The Beastie Boys while being Chauferred in his car, immediately exposing his Pretty Fly for a White Guy and Bourgeois Bohemian tendencies.
- Billionaire Wristband: Tom, attempting to curry favor with Logan, gives him a Patek-Philippe watch. He also lampshades the trope ("Every time you look at it, it tells you exactly how rich you are."). However, Logan's wealth is so astronomical that he's very unimpressed with it and thinks Tom gauche. In the end the watch is simply used as a bribe so someone will sign an NDA.
- Blatant Lies: Greg bullshits his mom about actually it was a kid being high in front of him, and it was just a contact high, and that’s why he got fired. She doesn’t believe a word.
- Cringe Comedy: Kendall is in his late thirties and still says things like "the shizz".
- Dude, Not Funny!: Shiv and Tom are uncomfortable when she complains about Roman’s cologne ("is that date rape by Calvin Klein?") and he responds "you wish".
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Roman is wearing a wedding ring, though Roman and Grace are clarified to be unmarried later. Roman and Grace also have a child called Isla, but she was retconned as a kid from Grace's previous marriage. Eventually Isla disappears with her mother.
- Emotional Regression: Not that Kendall has much maturity anyway, but he really reverts back to being a petulant child when he founds out he's not getting CEO, which makes Logan's sudden accusations of him bending over for Lawrence sound like degrading talk Kendall has heard for a lot of his life.
- Establishing Character Moment: Everyone gets a chance to show off who they are.
- Kendall is a tryhard anxious idiot who raps along loudly with Beastie Boys in his limo and openly annoys his driver, showing how off in his own world he is. We also learn that he’s been an addict and is under his dad’s thumb still, and everyone knows it.
- Greg is an aimless children’s mascot who vomits and loses his job because he was high, and refuses to take any responsibility for it.
- Roman enters by trolling his older brother (but also hugging him and kissing him on the head), pretends he's fine when he's clearly not and tries to treat everything like a joke. Later, he offers the son of the baseball field's caretaker a million dollars if he hits a home run, but when the kid fails at the last second he simply tears the check in his face and gives him nothing more than a broken piece of paper.
- Tom is easily dominated by Shiv, but still would rather try and appease her father than pay attention to her as her own person.
- Logan is mostly kept to the background for a while, but everyone is afraid of him even though he's not the man he once was (evidenced by him peeing on the rug when he can't find the bathroom). Yet he comes off as a genial but gruff old man until Kendall calls him out (like a child) and all the emotional abuse comes flowing out of him, seeing as his son as just a crazy, weak submissive who cries and bends over to let himself get fucked.
- Connor is dopey and deluded, nonchalantly going on about water becoming more precious than gold, but kind and gentle with children.
- Shiv is introduced in her own career, and while she has the self awareness to criticise her dad, she's still attached to him.
- Oh, Crap!: Kendall jokes about giving a blowjob to Lawrence so they can buy Vaulter, and realises too late that his dad entered the room and heard all that.
- Potty Failure: The first scene depicts Logan getting out of bed, trying and failing to find the bathroom, and ending up peeing on the rug.
- This Is Gonna Suck: The baseball field's caretaker winces when Roman tells his son he'll get a million dollars if he hits a home run, knowing full well it's not going to happen.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Lawrence is at least polite in his rejection at the meeting, but when Kendall chases after him, he lets loose, saying he won't let Waystar rape his company and that Kendall is just a daddy's boy junkie.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: In a too-warm mascot suit, getting hit by kids and suffering the after-effects of being high, Greg pukes up through the suit's eyeholes.
