Every once in a while, to illustrate the sort of heinous people the Roys are more than happy to align themselves with, a guy named Mark Ravenhead pops up.

In episode seven of the current series, Kendall’s wife Rava brings him up when she tells Kendall that their daughter, Sophie, was ambushed on the street and racially abused by a “guy wearing a Ravenhead shirt with a quote on it”. For a minute, Kendall seems concerned, but then turns it round on Rava for “letting her out on the street”, because to ATN and by default to the Roys, Ravenhead is a cash cow.

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But who is Mark Ravenhead and why is his reappearance in episode eight so incendiary?

The back story

Ravenhead (played by Zack Robidas) first pops up in series one, in the “sad sack wasp trap” episode, where he hosts the Waystar Royco charity ball. Though his takes are what Logan Roy might call “spicy”, he’s peak ATN.

In series two when Shiv is floated as the president of domestic operations at Waystar, she starts to ask Tom about the controversial character, who is said to be inspired in real life by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson. “Stick with him,” Tom says. “He’s a young talent, nice guy, your dad likes him and he’s one of our most popular anchors”. But is he a fascist, Shiv wants to know, after that video with actual fascists? “Well, that’s a very loaded term… who wasn’t a bit salty when they were 21?” Tom replies.

Following a discussion with Greg where they both agree “Nazis are the worst”, and with Ravenhead’s Proud Boys-esque fans camped outside ATN, Tom calls in Ravenhead to cover some due diligence. Has he ever been a member of the Nazi party in America? (“Nope”) He doesn’t have a dog with the same name as Hitler’s does he? (“No… different spelling”) And has he ever read Mein Kampf? (“A couple of times”). But their conversation when Tom presses him about the Holocaust ends abruptly when a shot rings out… there’s a shooter on the loose in ATN.

Despite all but having Ravenhead utter the words he’s a fascist, Tom keeps him on. And it’s not until the Roys try to pin down the Pierce deal and Rhea asks Logan to sack “that Walmart Mussolini” as a peace-offering that Logan is willing to get rid of him.

However, as we know, the Pierce deal doesn’t go through, so Ravenhead escapes the chop once again.

By series three, he’s hosting his controversial political talkshow The Bunker on ATN, but is asked by Shiv to change his tact on the president. She asks – sorry, tells, as she’s a Roy – him to perhaps question on air: “Is he losing his grip?” to which Ravenhead replies: “I have a perspective and a reputation that I have built up over a number of years.”

He obviously falls in line, as by series four, he’s still around, and appears to be one of ATN’s key anchors.

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America decides

In the eighth episode of series four, it’s election night for the presidential race. With the Democrat Daniel Jimenez (backed by Shiv) up against the Republican Jeryd Mencken (in cahoots with Roman), it's all very close until news reports of a fire in a Milwaukee polling station, leading to 100,000 absentee votes. So how do they call the state?

After much fevered discussion, it’s a decision that ultimately comes down to the Roys, and which of them can manipulate the others into their opinion the best. Unfortunately, it comes down to an increasingly nihilistic and unhinged Roman, who “fires off notes” to Ravenhead.

Ravenhead then steps up to the camera and starts a very January-6thy rant, stoking fear and anger among the right-wing viewers over the voter sabotage: “...it’s politicos who time after time come up with – isn’t this funny – polls that undercount support for traditional values. So yeah, maybe some of the crazies who heard they were underperforming and decided to stop the count and destroy the evidence. Yeah… and you just stay quiet. ‘What do we think was on those ballots? We’ll just decide’. They know best.

“And you’ll eat what’s for dinner and not ask too many questions because they don’t really care for folks who ask too many questions. Shut up! Innumerate residual! We’ll figure it out and issue you your new government to march into your new homes and take whatever we want in mechanisms of self defence and tell you your son’s your daughter, or the other way around…”

Is this a callback to the real life Trump vs. Biden race in which Trump claimed there had been voter fraud, and incited “his people” to march on the Capitol? If so, the Succession writers have gone with what might have been the alternative, and through more sleazy cajoling, Roman wins the toss (with a Mencken alliance now confirmed) and ATN are told to call the state of Wisconsin for Mecken, then the whole entire contest.

The question is: what is Ravenhead’s post-election night broadcast going to look like, and will their disturbing decision put the Roys in any further danger? As Shiv says ominously at the end “things do happen”...

Succession continues weekly on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV.

Laura Martin is a freelance journalist  specializing in pop culture.

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