#shivvy shivvy siobhan roy I am going to cry about you

[morethanwonderful]

I haven't seen anyone else point this out yet, but like. Shiv divorcing Tom was a business decision. Shiv told Nan Pierce she was getting a divorce before she told her husband. There was no way out of that final conversation without Shiv landing on the d word, because she'd already committed to leaving him as part of the negotiations for Pierce.

And this isn't a Shiv bashing post! I don't mean to imply that she was only focused on the business of it or that this makes her cold and terrible, but you cannot deny how much that was a factor. Shiv's whole thing is that she feels like she cannot ever let her emotions get between her and the Business, especially not emotions about her husband. The second she lets the wall crack and some feelings seep through, she's just an emotional little girl again. She cannot show emotion around other people.

Shiv walks away and hides her face from the others when she realizes Tom's betrayal in 3x9. She wants to keep going with the business meeting when she's obviously upset about Tom's call at the beginning of 4x1. She turns away from him to cry as they discuss divorce. And when Nan Pierce raises the subject of her marriage during a business meeting, Shiv handwaves and says she's divorcing him like it's nothing.

She's upset with him and the divorce will help her win Pierce, so of course she jumps on the option. Business comes before emotion, and she copes by making herself feel like she cares less than she does and can brush him away.

And then the Pierce deal goes through, and now she is committed to leaving him. She's clearly not fully over him, and I genuinely don't know whether they might have held on for a little longer if not for Pierce. There's a chance she might have been more willing to fight and talk things out if she hadn't already announced to her brothers and business partner that she was leaving him. But she also might not have been.

Either way though, Shiv walked into that apartment knowing that she wasn't allowed to let herself want to stay married, because for better or worse, she'd already had to choose for the sake of the deal.

#shivvy shivvy siobhan roy I am going to cry about you #succession #succession spoilers #tomshiv #shiv roy #siobhan roy #failmarriage tag #shiv roy my beloved #english major hours #successionposting