Succession

There's a small matter we wanted to make you aware of.

- Uh-huh. - Former cruise employee,

James Wiesel in accounting,

seems to have gotten spooked. And...

seems like he might be about to talk.

I thought we had this all sewn up.

- I said I'd hoped. - Don't... Interrupt me.

Have you talked to your dad about a major injection

or even taking us private?

It's a conversation we can have.

To Bill, the best boss that ever lived.

So I'm gonna create a word document for you,

and then I'm gonna print it because I don't want anything

with my handwriting on it.

I think Rhea is dangerous, and I think we need to stop her.

We need to put feelings aside and call a family truce.

So we made the second threat-slash-offer

to Mr. Wiesel, and he said, "No.

The new face is gonna get ripped to shreds."

I really am wondering about Rhea. Have I got her right?

She's the one.

I shall be appointing Rhea Jarrell

as my Chief Executive Officer.

This empire of shit, time to pay up.

Good evening. I'm Susan Vardy,

and in focus tonight, an exclusive interview

with Waystar Royco whistleblower James Weissel.

Sexual exploitation, violence, theft,

plus, a host of other crimes, all of it hidden

by cover-ups and corruption

- to avoid damaging headlines... - Cha-ching.

- Book deal, book deal! - That's what my guest

alleges went on for decades inside Brightstar,

America's second-largest cruise line operator.

So, James, you witnessed some terrible things at Brightstar.

What disturbed you the most?

Well, Susan...

"Well, Susan, I'm a piece of shit.

- I'm a weasel, and I'm scared." - Brightstar Cruises was,

for decades, a cesspool of mismanagement...

and millions and millions of dollars paid out over decades

to cover up sexual exploitation and harassment

by Brightstar employees, and a lot of it

actually committed by the man in charge, Lester McClintock.

- Uncle Mo. - Mo McClintock.

- Who could forget our Mo? - Then you have even more

serious incidents occurring outside of U.S. jurisdiction.

Guests overboard, injury, and, uh, unexplained deaths.

And what are you saying about these incidents,

including passengers overboard?

- I don't know everything. - Oh!

He doesn't know everything now.

But I know what the stories were,

and I do know that there was no appetite...

Yeah, where's the proof, Ruth?

... whatsoever from the senior management

- for uncovering the truth. - Oh, yeah.

Yeah, who's backing you, weasel? Hm?

- You're saying there were cover-ups? - Absolutely.

And people, people off the ship, the company HQ,

did they know this sort of cover-up was going on?

Well, there was there a certain amount of oversight, um...

Gerri Kellman...

- Gerri! - Gerri Kellman, the Waystar general counsel.

- Gerri alert! - ... saying no bad PR

- was the priority. - Yeah, Gerri!

That, um, senior management was to be protected.

And that went on until Bill Lockheart changed things up.

- Wow! Old Bill! - Bill Lockheart was the then-head

- of parks and cruises. - Fuck Bill.

Yeah, there was a clean up under Bill and

- he reported to Kendall Roy. - I liked Bill when we met him.

- Ken! - You know, they tried to clean things up.

And, uh, recently, Tom Wambsgans...

Wambsgans!

I believe he tied off a lot of loose ends.

- Hey, bangin' on the Tom-Tom! - But getting into the details a bit.

- Woo, Tom! - Nope.

- Your mom and dad should be so proud. - You mentioned this...

- Yeah. - ... phrase that occurred many times in the shadow logs.

- Ooh, "shadow logs"! - Incident: NRPI.

Uh... Yeah, that's, uh...

Incident: No Real Person Involved.

Uh-huh, and what does that mean?

That means it's a sex worker

or a migrant worker at a foreign port,

not involving a guest or a permanent member of staff.

No real person involved.

- And these shadow logs... - Oh, I can't watch any more of

- this fucking bullshit. - ... with the full record of these crimes.

- Here you are, Connor. - Do you know where they are?

No. No, I...

Dad, you okay?

It's bullshit! Clearly, Sandy's backing him. Clearly.

With his buddy and his six fucking shell companies.

Sick bastards who'd fucking do and say anything.

Don't you think we should watch, though,

so we can have a response?

I've got 50 fucking people paid to watch this shit.

It's senior management's duty to be in control...

I don't need to see this nonsense. We'll watch it later.

... of the people it employed.

Either they did know, which is terrible,

or they didn't know, which is an unconscionable...

- lack of control. - Uh-huh.

Waystar representatives declined to appear...

- Uh-huh. - ... but they did issue a statement saying,

- "We are disappointed..." - Okay, thanks for letting me know.

- Yeah. - "... you have given airtime

to these recycled and debunked claims..."

Fuck!

So... bad. Bad. But, uh...

Yeah, but not too bad?

Bad, I think. Very bad.

I would agree. Bad.

Yeah, obviously, it's fucking bad, Frank,

we're talking here about how bad.

Well, just from a PR perspective I wouldn't want anyone

to underplay how bad it was.

These are the talking points that we're hitting.

He's embittered.

He's the bad guy covering his tracks.

No proof, no victim voices, and nothing that new.

Want to hear what I think?

I think we say the truth.

That the senior cadre here, and the family,

- knew nothing of this. - Mm-hm.

So we throw Mo overboard. Mo, bad apple.

Jim Weasel, bad apple.

Spies a book deal. Sotto voce, backed by Sandy and Stewy,

all corporate fuckery, no real concern.

And in terms of historic shit? I'm afraid we give up Bill.

Because he should have let us know what he discovered,

rather than clean up without telling us the details.

Uh-huh.

I don't think there's gonna be paper

that shows anything beyond Bill.

Yeah.

I mean, everyone likes Bill, but...

- I like Bill. - I mean, Bill tried to clean up.

I like Bill.

It seems like Bill is where the buck stops, though, right?

Do we kill Bill?

Yeah.

So...

I think I just, uh, turned down a quarter of a billion dollars.

Uh-huh.

Yeah, I'm gonna... I'm gonna make a drink.

Uh... I think... I think I'm gonna...

I... I can drink these drinks, right?

These are drinks for people?

Looks like there might be a slight uptick in ticket sales.

'Cause Logan... promised he'll look after me, so...

- A quarter of a billion? - Mm-hm?

- Instead, you're trusting Dad? - What?

No, I mean,

my grandpa changes his mind a lot, so it's not final.

And plus, um, he's so sturdy.

Like, who knows how long I might have to wait.

I'm good, anyway, 'cause, uh...

My... So, I was just talking to my mom, and she said,

apparently, he'll leave me five million anyway,

so I'm golden, baby.

You can't do anything with five, Greg.

Five's a nightmare.

Mm... Is it?

Oh, yeah. Can't retire, not worth it to work.

Oh, yes. Five will drive you un poco loco

my fine feathered friend.

Poorest rich person in America.

The world's tallest dwarf.

The weakest strongman at the circus.

Mm-hm.

Okay, Tom? Hey. We're done, we have a strategy, come on.

Oh, okay.

- Hey, Tom. You're famous. - Hey.

So, this isn't that different from the magazine piece.

The strategy is, we're letting Bill take it.

It went as far as Bill. Kill Bill.

It'll blow over in 48 hours.

Uh... Well, no.

I'm just off the phone, and it's definite.

Either Gil or Gilliard are going to call for hearings.

- Oh, fuck. What? - Wait a minute. What?

Yeah, Senate Commerce. Probably House, too.

The staff are huddled on how to choreograph,

but after the interview, they'll want to fast track

and roll it into the tourism regulatory hearings

- they're cooking up, so... - Yup, buckle up, folks.

We're going to get an invite to the great national latrine.

See who wants to take a public dump.

Yeah, Mr. Fuck is going to Washington.

No! I can't have this now!

He's right. Who, um... Who will they want to testify?

Uh... Well, they'll... they'll want Dad.

Okay, now... But we won't accept that.

Protect the egg chamber!

Karolina. Make some calls.

Our various friends. Uh... The Florida gang.

See who can jam this the fuck up.