“I have an appointment I can’t reschedule,” Shiv tells her siblings, before walking into a dark room to cry alone. Ah yes, scheduled mourning, the sign of a healthy lifestyle! But if you weren’t already worried about Shiv’s well-being, don’t worry, the rest of “Living+” has you covered. My personal favorite was when she and Tom played bite in the middle of a crowded party. Just two mature adults biting each other’s arms. Somewhere, their respective divorce attorneys are fighting over who gets Mondale, not realizing that their clients are flirting with all the nuances of schoolyard courtship.
Flirting with Tom in the midst of the divorce is an excellent metaphor for Shiv’s current approach to life: she’s dangerously enough to keep all of her options open. She is in contact with Matsson, but still semi-aligned with her siblings. Despite her apologies, the boys still keep her at arm’s length (I hope we can be there when Roman admits to firing her godmother), but she doesn’t completely betray them. She follows Matsson’s complaints and poisons Roman against Living+, but she never actually moves to stop the pitch. So far, this approach is a semi-success… that is, it’s bound to blow up in your face at any moment.
She doesn’t leave the episode with a big win, but she still has one foot in both worlds, and that counts for something. So, assuming Matsson doesn’t flip out and turn on her, Shiv is still comfortably informed on both ends. she has options and she has Tom, her semi-functional meat puppet.
