In Episode 7 of the latest season of Succession, Shiv looks like she’s seen a ghost when her brother Kendall suggests bringing in a guy named Nate Sofrelli to help them get out of the GoJo deal.
If his name - and face - is familiar, that’s because Nate has previous history on the HBO series, and we’re here to explain exactly why that is; his relationships with the Roys, and how Kendall plans to use Nate’s influence for his own nefarious means…
The backstory
We’re first introduced to Nate (played by Ashley Zukerman) back in Season 1. Shiv’s feeling put out by Logan’s wife, Marcia, and she gets back in contact with Nate, who is an ex of hers, to do a background check on her.
Before Logan started dangling the cursed carrot of the successor role to his kids, Shiv worked in the political arena, and Nate is a fellow left-leaning political strategist. At the time, Nate worked as advisor for the Bernie Sanders-esque Senator Gil Eavis, Logan’s nemesis, and Nate (and Gil) pulled Shiv in to work for him in his bid to be president.
They were going to use inside information from Shiv to bring down Logan (all that cruise business would have been just perfect), as Nate suggests to her in Season 1, right before her wedding: “Let’s destroy ATN, Shiv.” But she fails to pass on the insider secrets and instead aligns herself with her dad and the family company - leveraging political favours for Gil in response to ATN going easy on him - and, at the beginning of Season 2, quits as his aid.
A romantic past
As a sidebar to all the political posturing, Nate and Shiv started hooking up while they both had fiancées, and the couple were still shagging when Tom and Shiv finally got married at the end of the first season.
Shiv, who loves to play with fire, decided to invite Nate and Gil to her wedding, and when Greg saw her and Nate flirting, he told an increasingly-paranoid Tom. Minutes after saying “I do”, Shiv told Tom it would be an open marriage, and also confessed to her affair with Nate. In the most Tom move ever, he accepted it, but raced downstairs to kick Nate out, making him pour his glass of wine back into the bottle and telling him: “If I ever see you in the same room as Shiv again, I will pay men to break your legs. And if I go to jail, so be it.”
So guess who’s less than thrilled when Nate turns up at Tom and Shiv’s pre-election night tailgate party, kicking off a series of paranoid actions? El Wambsgans.
A friendly favour?
Kendall has history with Nate - we only know they’re old friends and used to “run around Shanghai together” - so when he thinks about tipping off regulatory bodies about the GoJo deal in the hope it will kill it off, Nate’s the ideal person to target.
We presume Nate’s no longer working with Gil, as he talks about his boss being “Daniel” - presumably Daniel Jimenez, the Democrat candidate for president, and another influential politician. Kendall wants Nate to get Daniel to raise the issue of GoJo takeover publicly by offering him positive coverage across Waystar Royco media, specifically ATN.
Sleazing up to him at the tailgate, Kendall makes barely coded lobbying bribes at Nate, promising: “We could be really good for you, but that only happens if this deal goes away…”. He reminds him about Matsson’s “extreme views” and then says: “You guys come out for regulation, and we give you an easy ride for the first 100 days.”
But here’s the thing, for however shady and duplicitous Nate has been in the past, it appears he actually has some sort of ethics now. When he tactfully tells Kendall that the offer is making him uncomfortable and that he is leaving, he adds that the new generation don’t need to play dirty games like their predecessors: “I’m not Gil,” he tells Kendall, “And you’re not Logan. And that’s a good thing.”
Kendall just doesn’t have the same power and influence as his dad, as he’s finding out to his detriment. He’s been humiliated by someone he considered he had serious sway with, but at least Nate managed to finish his glass of wine.
‘Succession’ continues weekly on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV
Laura Martin is a freelance journalist specializing in pop culture.
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