“In terms of skulls,” he keeps asking. “How many skulls?” When Greg suggests that digitizing the networks archives could net as many as 50 skulls, Tom replies, “I’m slavering, big man!”

Again, it cannot be overstated how wonderfully goofy Macfadyen’s line-readings are in the whole ATN sequence — and later, too, when Tom excitedly tells Shiv that he wants a meeting with Logan so he can “wine and dine him and make love to him with my ideas.” This all sets up the episode’s funniest scene, in which Siobhan finally admits that her dad has secretly named her as his successor and Tom has to feign enthusiasm. He plasters on a smile and does his best fake laugh as she asks, “It’s hilarious, right?”

Shiv tells Tom she accepted the position “only as a play.” Having “a play” matters a great deal to the Roys. Before hearing about his wife’s big news, Tom was feeling excited that he had a move to make at ATN. And Shiv thinks she has two potential trump cards at her disposal, with her boss, Gil, floating the idea of her becoming his presidential chief of staff and her dad talking about her managerial training.

But Shiv maybe miscalculates her amount of leverage. She has become annoyed by Gil’s hypocrisy and paternalism. (Early in the episode, the camera lingers on his hand on her back, steering her around the campaign office.) So she quits and commits herself fully to Logan — who seems to lose interest the moment she says she’s on board.

The unexpected M.V.P. of the Roy family this week turns out to be Kendall, who has the best sneak attack. Because he doesn’t mind being loathed — heck, the man can’t even accept a hug from his own daughter — Ken sucker punches the Vaulter staff, pretending that he’s trying to save their jobs while he is secretly stealing their ideas and switching the entire venture over to user-generated content. For his efforts, he gets a chair in his dad’s office, and Roman gets banished again.

Roman responds to this smackdown by yelling at some random Waystar employee because this is another deeply ingrained Roy trait: managing insecurity by finding someone to belittle. For his part, Kendall ends this episode by shoplifting some batteries and then immediately tossing them in the garbage.