Did You Catch a Subtle Nod to True Blood in Succession Season 4 Episode 5?

Succession is a brilliantly written series, as the writers think deeply about the characters' storylines, and the narrative is very consistent, with almost no plot holes. Moreover, the depth of the plot is also conveyed through various cultural and historical references.

But besides such references, the Succession writing team also proved to be good at giving nods to the careers of some of the show's cast members. For example, the fifth episode of Season 4 made a sly reference to the breakthrough role of Alexander Skarsgård — and many fans got it right away!

In the episode, Roy's siblings come to a GoJo retreat in Norway to finally make the sale of Waystar happen. Although the show is satirical and has no positive characters per se, the main conditional antagonist of this episode is Skarsgård's Lukas Matsson — the head of GoJo, who has suddenly decided to buy all of Logan Roy's assets, including ATN.

Kendall and Roman find themselves at a disadvantage, risking to lose their power permanently, which leads to their decision to sabotage the deal. But one night, Shiv intervenes to get rid of the right-wing ATN.

When she meets Lukas Matsson face to face, he shares some very bizarre information with her — after things didn't work out with Ebba, his former romantic interest and head of PR, he regularly sent her frozen bricks with his own blood as a 'joke.'

Fans immediately realized that this was a reference to one of the major roles that made Alexander Skarsgård a star.

'Whenever I see Matsson, I just think he's a version of Eric,' a fan noted on Reddit.

Yes, those blood bricks are a reference to the character Skarsgård played in the horror drama True Blood — Eric Northman, an ancient vampire born in Scandinavia.

Eric is one of the show's main characters, a ruthless and manipulative kingpin of Louisiana, who actually survives to the finale and even does some good deeds eventually.

'Of course HE'S doing weird s--- with his blood. Eric would,' another fan pointed out, suggesting that Lukas' weird antics and manipulative nature are very reminiscent of Eric's.

We can go on to conclude that Lukas is a classic sociopath, spoiled by the abundance of power and money that he has and keen to put pressure on his former romantic partner, considering his gross and disturbing acts as mere 'jokes.' Very vampiric, that's for sure!

Be sure to follow the further vampire shenanigans from Lukas and the Roys in the next episode of Succession — it will arrive on HBO on April 30, 2023.

Source: Reddit.