The latest and final season of Succession has already dropped so many bombshells on its viewers that it’s practically a war crime, but one of the biggest surprises of the series is the news that Sioban “Shiv” Roy is pregnant. Sarah Snook, who plays the only Roy daughter on the hit HBO show, revealed her own pregnancy at the premiere of the fourth season of the show (we’re guessing it’s a coincidence, and she hasn’t gone all Daniel Day-Lewis on us).
While the news was initially a surprise to watchers – especially given the timing of its confirmation, just after Logan’s sudden, shocking death in episode three – plenty of eagle-eyed watchers of the Jesse Armstrong series might have noticed clues that would have led us to believe Shiv might be pregnant. And, given that she’s pregnant, that leaves a few interesting questions, like who’s the dad? And when did it happen?
Is Shiv pregnant on Succession?
Yes, Shiv is pregnant on Succession, as confirmed by the opening of season four, episode four. The episode took place the day after Logan’s demise, and we saw Shiv take a phone call from her doctor with the results of an amniocentesis procedure. This procedure is pretty invasive, and is used to test for genetic conditions in a fetus. The doctor tells Shiv that “everything looks healthy,” and implies that the earlier tests she had run on Shiv that had potentially troubling results could be disregarded.
We’ve also seen her abstain from a few vices in recent episodes, most tellingly the cocaine offered to her in episode five, “Kill List.” Of course, being a Roy, she initially accepted the drugs as to not raise suspicion, before expertly steering the conversation into a new direction to draw attention away from her abstention.
Who’s the father of Shiv’s baby on Succession?
Although we’re yet to have any solid confirmation of this on the show, executive producer and writer on the show Lucy Prebble confirmed that Tom was the father on an episode of the Succession podcast.
Even if we didn’t have that information, it’s heavily implied that Tom is the father of Shiv’s baby on Succession. The husband and wife may be going through a rough patch, and Shiv had at least two other partners we know of during hers and Tom’s marriage, but the fact the Roy daughter ended episode five with an olive branch to her husband (asking him out to dinner and making sure he didn’t lose his job after the takeover of Waystar) is a pretty strong indication of the paternity. Also, there did appear to be a brief period before the breakdown of their marriage in which Shiv seemed open to having a baby with Tom, so narratively it makes the most sense.
When did Shiv get pregnant on Succession?
Using the information the doctor gave Shiv on the call, we can guess that she’s about four months pregnant. Amniocentesis is usually performed within 15 to 20 weeks of conception, and isn’t usually done before then because it can be highly dangerous. Results come back within a couple of days, and given that the patient is Shiv Roy we can assume everything took place as quickly as possible.
Although this is a fairly straightforward answer, the way that Succession plays fast and loose with timelines makes it a bit harder to figure out what was happening when Shiv gets pregnant. We can surmise that the season four opener took place two years after the series premiere and Logan’s stroke, as Shiv was working on a race for the senate at the beginning of the show, whereas we’re now on the edge of an election. Also, given those timings, we know it’s Autumn. This means Shiv likely got pregnant between April and June.
We know that at her mother’s wedding in Italy she took a cigarette but didn’t smoke it, and toasted with water, so she might have either been trying then or have already known. It’s also a solid guess that she knew by the end of season three, when we saw Tom betray her and the siblings in favor of Logan. She clasped her hand to her stomach, which in a show that’s full of visual clues, is as good as her having a gender reveal party.
