Right here's why a {couples} therapist says Shiv and Tom are 'extremely probably' to get again collectively on 'Succession'

• Warning: Main spoilers forward for “Succession” season 4.
• Initially of the season, we see Shiv and Tom residing aside and calling divorce attorneys.
• However a giant adjustments would possibly immediate them to remain collectively, a {couples} therapist predicted to Insider.

Initially of season 4 of the hit HBO dramedy sequence “Succession,” we see the beginnings of Shiv and Tom’s divorce. They stay aside. Tom is sleeping with fashions. Shiv shuts down conversations about their marriage. Each have known as attorneys.

However after Logan’s surprising loss of life in episode three, and Shiv’s discovery that she’s pregnant with (presumably) Tom’s baby within the opening scenes of episode 4, the probabilities for divorce appear slimmer. If something, the sudden, seismic shifts of their lives would possibly thrust them again collectively, based on a {couples} therapist who spoke with Insider.

“I feel it is extremely probably that they’ll keep collectively at this level,” Isabelle Morley, a licensed scientific psychologist who makes a speciality of {couples} remedy, advised Insider. Figuring out how they fixate on gaining energy, she stated there is no monetary, skilled, or relational profit to them getting divorced now. “They’re very sensible individuals with regards to these issues,” she stated.

The newborn would possibly reunite them — however not for causes you’d assume

Whereas infants can typically maintain {couples} collectively, both for monetary or sensible causes, Morley stated Shiv operates in a different way from most individuals. Based on Morley, Shiv could be very strong-willed and spiteful, so elevating a child alone and going via an costly, messy divorce would not faze her.

However the baby will give her one thing she does crave: Leverage.

“I feel it’s going to shift her choice with Tom as a result of it places her right into a place of energy with him once more, which she has been lacking,” stated Morley. Because the finish of season three, Tom has had the higher hand after he betrayed Shiv by teaming up with Logan.

However now, “she may be again ready of authority in her marriage and I feel she desperately desires and wishes that at this level,” stated Morley.

Logan’s loss of life leaves Shiv and Tom weak 

Logan’s sudden loss of life may additionally assist reunite the couple.

When he first enters Logan’s wake, Tom breezes previous Shiv and her siblings and joins Gerri, Frank, and Karl within the kitchen to throw his hat within the ring for ATN management.

As an alternative, Karl tells Tom the reality: “Now, you are simply married to the ex-boss’s daughter — and he or she does not even such as you.”

It is turning into clearer to Tom that he has nobody searching for him, Morley stated, “He did not have a safe place outdoors of Logan’s favor and Shiv was his solely lifeboat at this level.” 

In the meantime, Shiv feels newly weak when Kendall and Roman staff as much as co-lead the corporate — and depart her out. Morley stated that “having her brothers form of nudge her apart like that, when she’s already been feeling fairly wounded as it’s, will ship her right into a tailspin.”

As a result of Shiv is a narcissist, Morley stated she wants a “fixed inflow of validation and awe — and Tom will present that.”

Staying collectively would give them extra energy than ever 

Morley believes Tom will return to Shiv to really feel steady on the firm, and that she is going to enable it as a result of she’ll have somebody to be in an alliance with towards her brothers.

“She may safe his place at ATN,” stated Morley. “Her brothers will owe her that a lot and that may give her a foot within the door.”

Emotionally, Morley stated each will really feel comforted by their outdated dynamic. Shiv wants somebody to “enhance her vanity” whereas Tom is “a basic sycophant” who goes the place the ability is. 

Whereas there’s probably part of Tom that actually loves Shiv, Morley stated “that is a component he simply is not allowed to share together with her as a result of she is so guarded,” and that they’d each want plenty of remedy to have a wholesome marriage.

However for now, circumstances could deliver them again collectively, if just for a whiff of stability. “It simply reveals how relationships constructed on these sorts of tenuous energy dynamics are so unstable,” stated Morley. “There’s actually no precise safety in them.”