Jack’s got his eye on the prize, and the prize is Don Geiss’s seat at the head of the table at GE.But Devon Banks has the inside track, with a penchant for male florists and possibly mentally challenged daughter who isn’t picky about her future husband’s sexuality.

Liz is executive material. She can rank on her boss’s golf game, knock back a shot of business juice and still bring home the Button Classic like a man.

Tracy just wants to be the best dad he can, even if it means scaling the Mount Everest of home entertainment by alchemizing video games and pornography into that most sought after amalgam: video porn. And some said it couldn’t be done.

“Succession” was an orchestration of personal and professional upheaval, an operatic performance, if you will, one that leaves you beggin, “3o Rock me Amadeus.” (Yeah, as plays on words go, that one’s a stretch.)

Jack would make his assistant sit on his naughty stool for keeping Mr. Geiss waiting so long, if only Jonathan didn’t like that so much. No biggie. Don was just admiring Jack’s Bulb cover. (There’s a dirty joke I’m missing there.)

Geiss is unsteady with diabetes. He’s blind, and his little girl is getting married. Meanwhile, his future son-in-law, Banks (the can-do-no-comedic-wrong Will Arnett) is hitting on the florist, inviting himself out to Fire Island to fight the surf together, light a fire and check each other for ticks. Eewww.

Jack doesn’t slam Devon to Don, who knows they’ve been vying for his job while others cracked, like the head of the stress ball division who hanged himself. He picks Jack to succeed him as CEO of General Electric, but it’s got to stay quiet.

At the news, Jack blows his one cry in life. He wants his mother to know before she dies so she can go to the grave a defeated woman.

Now he has to pick a successor, someone he trusts, Don advises. That rules out the Federal Reserve.

Down in the writer’s room, Liz is tearing into Frank for downloading a virus and losing a night’s work. He’s not pretty, but I don’t think he looks like Gene Simmons had sex with a basset hound. In his defense the subject of the e-mail was “Check this out.”

Poor Liz, she had dreams of living with the gorillas.

Hey, Kevin is psychic! Anyway, Tracy learns his son hid Bring Your Dad to School Day from him. Just because he he half-strips and cries/dances in front of everyone, I don’t see what the kid is ashamed about. As Kenneth notes, we should only be ashamed our our bodies.

If only he could do  something great like become a senator or a wizard. Or he could open a school in Africa like Oprah, Dot Com advises, garnering a hearty, “Everybody calm down!” Eureka will know what to do.

Jack catches Liz hiding and reading up on gorillas, which surely is just sketch research. At his great news,  she embraces him. “Hugging. So ethnic.”

Geiss has stacked the board, even with his hunting dogs. Jack can’t miss as CEO. But then, the smell of self-tanning cream and teeth whitener. It can only be Devon Banks, in town for Clay Aiken in Spamalot. Oh, and his faux-bachelor party is tomorrow night.

Devon: I kind of want to get to know my new home, so I’m having it here, on the TGS stage.
Liz: My stage? No way.
Devon: Oh, hey there, little guy.

The game is still on, Jack knows, and no one plays it like Banks. Just stay clear, little buddy, he tells Liz.

Tracy is struggling to reinvent soda but must take a break to clear his thoughtsicles. Maybe a video game will pass the time. Or porn. Hmmm.

Devon corners Liz in the elevator and knows her name now. She’s feeling the heat. Without much prodding, she spills the beans about nearly selling the company to the Germans accidentally. It was as easy as taking candy from one of those guys who hands out candy at gay night clubs. But she’s got some tricks up her sleeve, jumping him in front of the security camera after he refuses Kenneth.

Frank dismisses the idea of porn video. It’s been tried. It can’t be done. He even has a chart to demonstrate how the increasing realization of artificial representations of humans eventually makes them creepy. Ummm, in Star Wars terms? R2D2 is nice. Han Solo is complex. But Tom Hanks from the Polar Express? You’ve got to get out of that freaky valley. But Tracy’s genius won’t be denied.

Jack’s impressed with Liz’s elevator gambit. To get through it she pretended he was a sandwich. (Huh?) She’s Jack’s choice as his successor. But she’s an artist, not an executive. And when did he get microwave programming back? That’s a boss-slapping salary, though.

Liz is one of the old boys now. She nervously rips Jack’s golf game to big laughs as she grows increasingly business drunk, which like rich drunk, is legal to drive. After spending four years and $10 million on a new microwave start button, Jacks ready to pull the trigger but Liz loves the last one. Button classic.

Jack: Your first executive decision and you’ve already saved the company $2 million in future R&D.
Liz: But what if I’m wrong?
Jack: There is no wrong. Lemon you just have to find a subordinate you can push the blame on. That’s why I love Jorgensen here….I think you’re ready to meet the old man.
Liz: Geez Jack, offer to buy a girl dinner first.

Kenneth’s worried about Tracy being consumed by his quest. But this is the first time Tracy knows his purpose. He’s doing it for his children, as he pulls their small photo out from behind the large one of him. His genius has come alive, like toys when your back is turned. He sees the potential for erotica in everything around him, even Kenneth, who is wearing a cuffed trouser today.

Pete believes in porn video, but Frank is clearly shaken by it. Interesting dichotomy there.

Liz plays the part of drunk executive well, rubbing it in the writers’ faces. But Pete is scared to be left behind, and he doesn’t want to be promoted either, until he sees his boss-slapping salary.

At the bachelor party, Liz’s Button Classic rep has reached all the way to Don. He needs a snack for his blood sugar and sends Liz, who has the charm and spark of a young Leona Helmsley.

Tracy has collapsed after an unbelievable six straight hours work. Sifting through his notes, Frank cries at the genius. I’m told there’s an Amadeus riff going on here, and I’m rolling with it, but I didn’t see the movie. Apparently this show is deeper than I am culturally aware.

At the party, Liz spots a distraught Devon and scoffs. He’s like her yesterday. But Jack feels sorry for him, to which she hands him a tampon. Yikes.

Devon can’t wait to take all the sexual energy from his party back to his fiancé. They’re perfect together, he stammers, despite Jack’s warnings. She loves how he works out and talks to people. He loves that she crawls into vents and other enclosed spaces. But he doesn’t love her, Jack protests. Look how miserable he is.

But that’s just because Geiss picked Jack. He knows.

Meanwhile, Liz took too long with Geiss’s snack. And two weeks after The Office gave us an angry That’s What She Said, Liz Lemons utters an angry Blerg!

Devon: So go ahead Donaghy, rub it in my face.
Jack: Normally I’d say, I bet you’d like that, but today I won’t.

Only he understands Devon’s devastation. It’s like the wrong winner on Project Runway. He’s got to call the wedding off. Jack Hate-Respects him. That’s sweet.

But it’s time for Dr. Spaceman, who in a freaky montage, runs in in a cape.

As Tracy spews porn video sequences faster than Frank can write, and Kenneth peers out with an oddly scene-appropriate candle, Liz and Jack are moving the body. Spaceman stops only for a snack. And Frank utterly loses it that Tracy has done in a day what he pursued for a lifetime. Amadeus again, right?

Spaceman says Geiss is in a diabetic coma, which could have been avoided with food. Nice going Liz. Spaceman hates needles, and that was just a placebo. Guess old Geiss isn’t faking it for the attention. Slowly board members trickle into the room, somehow summoned for storytelling purposes, no doubt. Spaceman would shoot something right into Geiss’s heart, if only we know where the human heart was located.

Jorgensen takes the fall for Geiss, but it’s too late for Jack’s job hopes. Only Banks can back him up. But he’s evil, so he won’t. Oh daddy!

Spaceman: Is it 411 or 911? New York. Diabetes repair, I guess. shrugs

Geiss survives, and Jack can still appeal to the board. Too bad Devon has beaten him to the punch and convinced the board to turn over the country to his fiancé Cathy. He tried to call Jack, but not on a phone so he might not have heard him.

Is all lost for Jack? Will Liz follow him down the path of corporate excess? Will Geiss ever recover? Will Tracy find a market for video porn? Will I find a way to gracefully end this recap?

Umm, sure.

Succession – full episode