- Warning: Major spoilers ahead for "Succession" season four.
- At the start of the season, we see Shiv and Tom living apart and calling divorce lawyers.
At the start of season four of the hit HBO dramedy series "Succession," we see the beginnings of Shiv and Tom's divorce. They live apart. Tom is sleeping with models. Shiv shuts down conversations about their marriage. Both have called lawyers.
But after Logan's shocking death in episode three, and Shiv's discovery that she's pregnant with (presumably) Tom's child in the opening scenes of episode four, the chances for divorce seem slimmer. If anything, the sudden, seismic shifts in their lives might thrust them back together, according to a couples therapist who spoke with Insider.
"I think it's incredibly likely that they will stay together at this point," Isabelle Morley, a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in couples therapy, told Insider. Knowing how they fixate on gaining power, she said there's no financial, professional, or relational benefit to them getting divorced now. "They're very practical people when it comes to those things," she said.
The baby might reunite them — but not for reasons you'd think
While babies can sometimes keep couples together, either for financial or practical reasons, Morley said Shiv operates differently from most people. According to Morley, Shiv is very strong-willed and spiteful, so raising a kid alone and going through an expensive, messy divorce wouldn't faze her.
But the child will give her something she does crave: Leverage.
"I think it will shift her decision with Tom because it puts her into a position of power with him again, which she has been missing," said Morley. Since the end of season three, Tom has had the upper hand after he betrayed Shiv by teaming up with Logan.
But now, "she can be back in a position of authority in her marriage and I think she desperately wants and needs that at this point," said Morley.
Logan's death leaves Shiv and Tom vulnerable
Logan's sudden death might also help reunite the couple.
When he first enters Logan's wake, Tom breezes past Shiv and her siblings and joins Gerri, Frank, and Karl in the kitchen to throw his hat in the ring for ATN leadership.
Instead, Karl tells Tom the truth: "Now, you're just married to the ex-boss's daughter — and she doesn't even like you."
It's becoming clearer to Tom that he has no one looking out for him, Morley said, "He didn't have a secure position outside of Logan's favor and Shiv was his only lifeboat at this point."
Meanwhile, Shiv feels newly vulnerable when Kendall and Roman team up to co-lead the company — and leave her out. Morley said that "having her brothers kind of nudge her aside like that, when she's already been feeling pretty wounded as it is, will send her into a tailspin."
Because Shiv is a narcissist, Morley said she needs a "constant influx of validation and awe — and Tom will provide that."
Staying together would give them more power than ever
Morley believes Tom will go back to Shiv to feel stable at the company, and that she will allow it because she'll have someone to be in an alliance with against her brothers.
"She could secure his position at ATN," said Morley. "Her brothers will owe her that much and that will give her a foot in the door."
Emotionally, Morley said both will feel comforted by their old dynamic. Shiv needs someone to "boost her self-esteem" while Tom is "a classic sycophant" who goes where the power is.
While there's likely a part of Tom that truly loves Shiv, Morley said "that's a part he just isn't allowed to share with her because she is so guarded," and that they'd both need a lot of therapy to have a healthy marriage.
But for now, circumstances may just bring them back together, if only for a whiff of stability. "It just shows how relationships built on these kinds of tenuous power dynamics are so volatile," said Morley. "There's really no actual security in them."