Succession is one of my favorite shows of all time. I think it’s one of Hollywood’s masterpieces. There’s one moment in season 4 that I can’t stop thinking about. Logan Roy, the most powerful man in the show, finds out that Shiv and Tom are heading toward a divorce. Because he is in a pissing contest with his own daughter and he wants to hurt her and teach her a “lesson,” he helps Tom fight dirty in the divorce. Logan gives Tom a very clever and unethical strategy — to call every major law firm in New York. Not to get representation. To destroy his own daughter’s chances of getting a good divorce lawyer before she even knew the fight had started.

For people who don’t know how this works in real life, when you consult with a law firm, even just a consultation, that firm generally cannot represent the opposing party in the same matter. It’s called a conflict of interest. So the idea is simple — if Tom called every powerful firm in New York first, Shiv would be locked out. And that’s exactly what happened in the show. She would have to go find representation elsewhere, someone with less power, less resources, less experience handling the kind of money the Roys have. It is a move so calculated it almost reads like a chess opening. Except the person on the other side of the board is your daughter. Logan Roy did this to his own daughter. His own daughter.

But here is where it gets more complicated and honestly even more infuriating. This strategy is not as clean as the show makes it look, and powerful people know that. For a conflict of interest to actually hold up, most bar associations require that real confidential information was shared during that consultation — finances, legal strategy, personal details. You cannot just call a firm, say your name, and automatically block them from working with your spouse. It has to be a real disclosure. So what Logan was telling Tom to do lives in a legal gray area. If Tom just made calls and gave no real information, those conflicts probably wouldn’t hold up in court. But if he sat down, even briefly, and shared actual details about assets or the nature of the case — that changes everything. And Logan Roy is not the kind of man who does things halfway. Like he likes to say — “I’m a killer.”

What makes this scene so deeply ugly is not just the move itself. It’s the intent behind it. This was not Tom protecting himself. This was Logan orchestrating an ambush against his own daughter, using the legal system as a weapon, hiding behind technicalities the way powerful people always do. And what did Logan got in return? He never talked with his daughter again and died alone, with none of his kids around. Because he cared more about his greed than his own family. That is the thing about money and power — they don’t break the rules. They just know exactly where the rules stop and how to operate in everything that lives beyond them. And most people never even know that space exists until they are already standing in it with nothing.

This happens in real divorces. Wealthy people do this. It is technically within the rules, which is exactly what makes it so enraging — there is no recourse, no one to call, nothing to point to and say that was wrong because on paper it wasn’t. The legal system was designed with ethics in mind, but ethics and legality are not the same thing, and they have never been the same thing. Logan Roy didn’t break any rules. He just proved once again that the rules were never really written to protect people like Shiv. Even when Shiv is his own blood.