‘Succession’s Meanest Gag Yet is Kerry’s Terrible ATN Audition Tape

HBO‘s Succession is a show that is famous for its profane and hilarious insults. But Succession Season 4 Episode 2 “Rehearsal” might have just dropped the meanest and most hilarious subplot yet. We learn that Logan Roy (Brian Cox) begins floating the idea of making his assistant/mistress Kerry Castellabate (Zoe Winters) an anchor at ATN. The problem is her audition tape is terrible. So much so, we watch the rest of the characters, from Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook), and Roman (Kieran Culkin) to Hugo (Fisher Stevens) and Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron), laugh at her expense. Kerry’s terrible anchor audition tape is the most savagely funny gag of Succession Season 4 so far. (Sorry, Bridget’s ludicrously capacious handbag.)

Last night’s Succession opens with Logan deciding to take a little field trip to his beloved ATN. While most of Waystar RoyCo is about to be sold to the mercurial Matsson (Alexander Skarsgard), Logan is holding onto the conservative news network. His arrival puts the likes of Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun), Cyd (Jeannie Berlin), and Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) into a tailspin, but it’s a task Logan has for the latter two that causes most of this week’s ATN hijinks. Logan brings up the fact that he’s sent Kerry’s anchor audition tape to both Cyd and Tom and asks for their opinion. The two diplomatically suggest to the boss that his mistress has got potential. However we soon see that she doesn’t. At all.

Up in Albany, Shiv, Kendall, and Roman are watching Kerry’s audition on a loop and mocking her feeble attempt at stardom. Kerry is hopelessly awkward on camera, stuttering over headlines and smiling when delivering news of a tragedy. At one point her arms wander out and back in for no reason. She quite simply doesn’t have the goods and everyone knows it. Including Logan. (The scene where Hugo is forced to reveal they were mocking Logan’s lover to the man’s face is all sorts of cringe.)

So who has to deliver the news to Kerry that’s she’s not going to be reading the news anytime soon? Cousin Greg, naturally. Tom sloughs off the task to Greg. What follows is yet another classically cringe Succession scene where Greg tries to put the blame on a focus group that thinks Kerry is great, but needs more time. She tries to catch him out, but the subtext is now Kerry knows that Logan is not going to make her dreams of being an anchor come true. It’s a betrayal that Shiv and Kendall throw back in her face later that night at the karaoke club. They teasingly congratulate her on breaking her betrayal cherry.

So Kerry has learned the hard way that even being Logan’s mistress is no guarantee that he’ll give her what she wants. And unfortunately for her, the worst part is she’s now one of Succession‘s biggest jokes.