The Stand-Out Moments of the Week in TV: Succession, Arrow, A Million Little Things

Another week of TV has come and gone, so to celebrate the moments that most got our attention on the small screen, here’s a look at some of the buzziest moments in television from this week.

Best turnabout: The Season 2 finale of Succession was as excellent as everyone says it was. It had all the ingredients that make the show great — the Roys throwing people under the bus while Logan (Brian Cox) lorded over an excruciatingly intense dinner table setting. More importantly, it finally saw Kendall (Jeremy Strong) growing a new backbone as he decided against taking the fall for his company’s misdeeds and instead sent the buck where it belonged: with his terrible, brutish old man. We can argue about whether Logan saw this betrayal coming — and maybe even orchestrated it — but it was still a fist-pump-worthy development either way.

Best snark: Wheel of Fortune‘s usual “getting to know you” segment with its daily contestants went off the rail in a glorious way this week. On Monday night’s episode, a guy named Blair decided to have some fun with his mini-backstory by declaring, “I’ve been trapped in a loveless marriage for the last 12 years to an old battle-ax named Kim. She cursed my life with three stepchildren, and I have one rotten grandson.” If he was serious, that’d be a travesty, but he was totally kidding and admitted, “I love ’em like nobody’s business.” Here’s hoping his family has as good a sense of humor as he does.

We appreciate a stark sense of humor. 😅 Last night’s contestant Blair had us all laughing. pic.twitter.com/jwVXHSNWH0

— Wheel of Fortune (@WheelofFortune) October 15, 2019

Best fan service: Arrow‘s Season 8 premiere was explosive — as in, blowing up entire planets explosive. Perhaps the biggest bombshell was the revelation that on Earth 2, Tommy Merlyn (Colin Donnell) became the Dark Archer, a revelation that confirmed some very long-held fan theories at last. Better late than never.

Worst first: The ~first time~ is usually equal parts memorable and weird for everyone, but Brooke (Emma Roberts) from American Horror Story: 1984 might have the worst first-sex encounter in history. The latest episode revealed that victims of Camp Redwood’s many murder sprees are trapped there, a la Murder House, and when Brooke ran into Ray (DeRon Horton), the two ended up getting busy for her very first time. Which would’ve been all well and good except she subsequently found his severed head in a fridge and realized she’d just lost her virginity to a ghost. Now, there’s a Halloween trick.

Deadliest payback: Most people might respond to rejection with a bit of sadness or well-disguised anger, but during One Chicago‘s big crossover event, our villain du jour decided to take down a whole city — almost — when he didn’t get a funding grant for his infectious disease research. Throughout the three-hour event, so many people became diseased as a result of this man’s massive meltdown that it gave all-new meaning to the term toxic. Some people just want to watch the world burn — er, melt from a flesh-eating bacteria outbreak.

Toughest encounter: Boy, Katherine (Grace Park) got put through it on this week’s episode of A Million Little Things. In the interest of protecting her son’s innocence, she has kept him in the dark about the true parentage of baby Charlotte, which meant that she even had to sit quietly by and watch as Eddie (David Giuntoli) and Delilah (Stephanie Szostak) and Theo all played house with the baby and sang her a ukulele lullaby. Ouch. As much as she’s already been through this season, that moment really stung.

Jeremy Strong, SuccessionPhoto: Zach Dilgard/HBO