Why Connor Chose That Karaoke Song In Succession Season 4 Episode 2

Well, there’s no shame in a cheesy, emotional karaoke round – but you have to build on that and gauge the mood. Nobody goes to karaoke to watch a lonely man sing a sad ballad. As the first singer of the evening, Connor immediately becomes a wet blanket and his siblings find his pity party torturous. Ironically, despite championing POTUS himself, Connor has always been the least busy Roy sibling, and here he is at his most pathetic breaking point. As Roman said, “This is Guantanamo-level shit.”

So why “Famous Blue Raincoat”? On the surface, Leonard Cohen’s song is about betrayal and infidelity; The lyrics are written in the form of a letter addressed to a man for whom Cohen believes his wife is leaving him. As Willa runs from Connor in this episode, he is increasingly paranoid that she escaped to be with another man, or maybe jumped off a bridge (especially his siblings not reassure him he’s overreacting). That’s probably enough explanation for why Connor picked this song the way it is, but Cohen’s track also has a layer of mystery that feels narratively appropriate as well.

Though structured like a letter, the lyrics are vague and ambiguous enough that whether or not the song’s narrative is literal or imaginary is often debated. Is it a man who took Cohen’s wife and led her astray, or is the man a construct of his own mind? Perhaps the man is a representation of fate itself. Cohen blames a force that seduces his wife, but there’s an ironic denial that his relationship was already shaky.