“I’m pretty sad. I mean, I’m actually right now totally numb, but theoretically, you would say that I’m sad.”

Just one of the many gut-punch moments of the third episode of Succession season four, which saw the Roy siblings come together in grief and shock following the death of their media mogul father Logan, came courtesy of Kieran Culkin’s Roman Roy. Never one for understatement or speaking plainly when there’s a cutting insult to be made, the youngest Roy son’s matter-of-fact grappling with his feelings (and the stony response from his former confidante Gerri) felt all the more devastating for being totally out of character.

Grief, the latest instalment of HBO’s bravura drama reminded us, has the power to throw us entirely off-kilter, especially when death comes as a bolt from the blue. Although the death of Logan (Brian Cox) has been hanging over Succession since the very first episode – it’s built into the very premise of the show, which has so far seen the Roy siblings vie for control of their father’s empire, before being outplayed by him in the season three finale – it still came as a shock.

How Succession’s latest episode perfectly captures the mess of modern grief