Explained: What were Tom and Shiv fighting about in Succession season 4 episode 7?

Succession has not hit the brakes in quite some time after the beginning of the fourth and final season of the show. With so many twists and turns along the way, this episode of the show, titled Tailgate Party, was also sprinkled with a lot of drama from the Roy family. The previous two episodes established a new dynamic between Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Tom (Matthew Macfadyen), who looked more stable than ever in a long time.

However, this episode, once again, threw Tom and Shiv's relationship under the bus. After an engaging episode that followed the preelection soiree at Tom and Shiv's triplex, this episode dived into the heart-wrenching dynamic between the Roy family couple, who engaged in perhaps their biggest battle of words in the show yet.

But navigating this fight may be more difficult than whatever the couple has faced so far, both for viewers and the toxicity-filled couple.

Succession season 4 episode 7 is now streaming on HBO Max.

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Tom and Shiv laid bare all the ugly truths about each other in Succession season 4 episode 7

Succession season 4 episode 6 showed the reconciliation of Tom and Shiv after their game of 'bitey.' The beginning of this episode finally showed the couple being back on terms like before. But Succession only shows something good to destroy it in most cases, and this was no different.

After going through a lot during and before Logan's (Brian Cox) death, Shiv and Tom had grown apart quite a bit, despite the latter's attempts at fixing things.

This episode saw the dynamics complicate further with Kendall (Jeremy Strong) inviting over Nate, Shiv’s former partner (Ashley Zukerman), in an attempt to suck up to the now surging politician and Shiv sneakily calling Matsson (Alexander Skarsgard).

Things soon start to get complicated for Tom, as he keeps hearing about the plan of him being fired after the takeover. Fueled by jealousy over Nate's presence, Tom finally explodes as he and Shiv engage in one of the most brutal verbal wars Succession has ever seen.

What sets this fight apart is the truth of every statement that Tom and Shiv throw at each other. Tom accuses Shiv of being too selfish to ever care for anyone else and tells her that she should have never married him in the first place. Shiv retaliates by holding a mirror for Tom and telling him how he has only sucked up to the people in power to maintain his position.

Shiv goes further to accuse Tom of everything he is afraid to be accused of (true things, in essence). She uses adjectives like "a hick" and "striving and parochial" to describe him. Tom ends the fight by saying that Shiv was not fit to be a mother, echoing the words of his mother-in-law to hurt Shiv exactly where it should hurt at the moment, given her pregnancy storyline, which is still not very clear to the viewers.

Succession season 4 episode 7 ends with one of Tom's least-seen sides as he calls for the party to end and goes to sleep in a separate room, thereby not sucking up to people of power for once.

It is unclear if Shiv and Tom will ever bounce back from this, but it should continue to be great fodder for drama in the coming episodes.