Tom has a breakfast tray for Shiv with some hot fresh polling on election eve.

Matsson wants to know what’s going on but won’t be coming to the party. Tom has gotten Shiv a present for his foxy little minx for the party they’re hosting. They’ll tell people they had a little break and they’re back.

Inside is a scorpion paperweight, and Shiv has no idea why it’s funny. He loves her but she kills him and he kills her, he says.

Kendall runs into his ex, learning that Sophie doesn’t want to go to school because she’s freaked by the election. Her friend at school had a raven head shirt that she thought was racially tinged. There is a whole anti-ATN thing at her school.

Kendall wants to know why someone pushed her daughter, and where was Rava? She’s been raising their daughter while he’s been running a racist news organization. They continue arguing, and Kendall says he’s going it all for the kids to make the world safe.

Roman takes a call. They’re going undue diligence, so someone needs to get dirt on Matsson.

The four sibs meet. Connor just came back from seeing dad. He looks the same. Connor says the weird thing is how much he’s not there. Ken arrives and isn’t in the mood to chitchat so they get right into funeral business.

Who is doing the eulogy? Nobody is really all that excited to jump on that freight train.

Ken and Rome wonder if they can invite a guy named Nate to the party. Shiv and Tom hadn’t been considering that, but they need a backup plan if they can’t chase Matsson out of town on price. They go hard regulatory instead. Ken says even just the threat could get Matsson. Shiv gives in.

As soon as they leave, Shiv calls Matsson. They’re going regulatory, so he needs to be there. Ohhh. Intrigue.

Shiv and Tom trade sex texts.

Tom and Greg are meeting with the latest round of firings. Tom lets Greg delivery the bad news, which is done over zoom, and while Greg is reading his statement, Tom leaves the room. They’ll be using contractor.

Tom is exhausted before the party. He’s tired just thinking about how tired he’s going to be. Shiv drops the news that Matsson is coming, which Tom views as a good thing so he can secure his spot post Roycopalypse.

Nate is coming, and Tom just says it’s fine. What does he care?

Tom tells Greg that unless he’s sticking with the dumpster brothers, he better butter Matsson’s biscuit, but Greg says Matsson hates him, so he’s team KenRo.

Someone has asked Roman to ask Connor to drop out of the race. He’s doing enough damage to existing candidates that he’s a threat.

Nate arrives and he and Tom share words.

Roman tells Connor that Macon’s team has asked him to drop out for the good of the republic. Connor laughs. The followup offer is ambassador of Mogadishu. Connor counters with the UN.

Frank arrives with Gerri in tow, so Roman thinks he smoothed it over. Nope, she’s incredibly angry.

Ken gets the toasts started, saying hi to people here and there. There’s a big bucket of kettle corn that will be shipped to whoever gets the closest in their race picks. Ken calls for a moment of silence, in the midst of which Matsson and his entourage enter the room.

Ken wants to know what the fuck Matsson is doing here. Roman gets the scoop that dad invited him while Shiv pretends she’s in the dark. Kendall says these assholes in here are their assholes, so stick to the plan. He asks Shiv to stay close and keep him away from the important people. Nuke the Luke, she says. Smash that Swede, Roman says.

Matsson wonders where Tom fits into the equation and spots Tom kissing his ass. Greg says hey, and Matsson calls him Gary.

Eba is at the party with the bearded fella. It’s awkward.

Connor says Mogadishu is a no go. Sylvania or Slovakia are on the table. Nope. He’s a no on the Slos. Roman floats Oman.

Matsson goes right to Nate with Shiv at his side. Nate wonders about leadership at the top, and Matsson says Tom would certainly go. Shiv says nothing.

Nate hits up Kendall to say he’s sorry about Logan. Kendall decides to give it to him straight. He thinks they could be very good with a major reset of the dialogue. That only happens if the deal goes away. Nate says, “man, I forgot how eager you were to get laid at a party.”

Shiv and Matsson meet in the coat room, where she butters his buns with compliments. She has a question for him. What has he done for her lately? He likes her and will give her whatever she wants. She’d side with him if it led to a very, very, very significant role. She’s hot shit and she’s ready to go. He wants to think, but she says no, laughingly. He wants to circle back in a bit.

Ken asks Greg to look after Matsson. Greg is hesitant. Kendall says find him a blonde. LOL.

An older fella named Scott says he’s heard that if the deal goes through, Tom would be going elsewhere. It bugs Tom. But Roman got the scoop on Matsson and Eba, so he’s excited. Nate stops by to say bye to Kendall. Nate says he’s not Gil and Kendall isn’t Logan, and that’s a good thing.

Willa isn’t on board with Oman out of the gate.

Matsson invites Greg to a discussion with his people, and he wants them to be charming. They are not charming at all. Matsson wants Eba fired, and Greg is feeling strong in that area, so he’s willing to give it a go. She doesn’t enjoy the joke, and Kendall watches with interest, he and Roman checking in on her afterward.

She says she’s fine. She’s ready to chat. Matsson isn’t even a real coder. Someone gave him a box of tech and they took it to market. Roman wonders why she’ll be out in February. Because of sending his whatnots? She says India. Roman wants the details, but she scoffs.

Inside, the news is bad for ATN and mostly Tom. There are all kinds stories coming around. Greg tells Matsson that it wasn’t all that bad firing everyone.

Shiv pulls Matsson aside again. What’s happening with his numbers? Oh, in India? He wonders who told, Eba or Oscar. There’s a little issue with subscriber numbers being a little bit bullshit. How every Elon Musk!

Shiv wants to know how he’s handling that. He says they just let it go and deal with it afterward. He’s hoping to buy Waystar so it gets lost in the deal dazzle. Then the numbers will be pretty much right.

Roman sidles up to Gerri to say hey. The firing thing wasn’t real. Let’s have a fuckin’ chat. She gets her drink and prepares to walk away. She’s out. She’s done. She’s got requirements. Hundreds of millions of dollars. If she ever gets a whiff of anything undermining her narrative in the next five years, she’ll set off a firestorm of his genitalia.

Connor and Willa have decided not to drop out after all. Maybe a book or speaker circuit could come from it. Roman gets angry, tells Connor everyone thinks he’s a joke, so pack his bag and go to Oman. Connor says he’ll listen to the one person who doesn’t think he’s a joke.

Matsson thinks NYC is a second world city. It’s to Singapore. Kendall begins digging at him, and people start to listen. There’s an entire crowd, and Ken brings up the numbers. Ken says he loves the deal. Biggest overpay in history.

Tom needs to go. Shiv wants him to stay to say goodbye with her. He’s too tired, and since all the news coming his way is that he’s getting shitcanned, he doesn’t see the point of staying.

Shiv is worried she nailed herself to the Matsson cross, and he might be a sham. Tom says she’ll always be fine. He’s really hurt that she walked around with Matsson telling 40 incredibly important people he was losing his job. He says she’ll always be fine because she does what she needs to do. She says that’s him.

He thinks she’s very selfish, doesn’t think of him, and shouldn’t have married him. She admits she married him because her dad was dying. He says he loves her. She doesn’t believe him. He’s still angry that when he offered to go to jail for Logan, she stood by to let it happen.

Then he says she’s maybe not a good person to have children because she’s incapable of love. On her part, she says he sucked up to Logan for the last six months of his life and cut her out. She says she doesn’t like him and doesn’t care about him.

Kendall pulls Frank aside. That coat room is quite the place. Ken’s latest thought is they go reverse Viking. Waystar goes CoJo with him at the top, smiting his sibs. One head, one crown, but he’ll need ballast. Is Frank with him?

Tom tells everyone to leave. He’s had enough, goodnight.

Roman claims the eulogy.

What a terrible night.