In “Kill List,” the seeds begin to be planted and sides are chosen. The outdated guard consisting of Karl, Frank, and Gerri seem like dinosaurs to Mattson and all three appear completely glad to leap out of the Waystar Royco personal jet and pull their golden parachutes. Once Shiv begins to befriend Mattson and tolerate his creepy interpretation of flirting, the kill record begins to return into focus with Karl, Frank, and Hugo on the chopping block. During Shiv’s impromptu assembly with Mattson, she talks up Karolina and Gerri simply sufficient to maintain them from being added to the company restructuring bonfire, no less than in the intervening time. Tom additionally appears to be spared primarily based on Shiv’s backhanded compliments.
But was there ever an actual want for an official kill record? In my opinion, probably not. Mattson was solely pitting everybody in opposition to one another to sow division and domesticate a fair better stage of paranoia earlier than the deal truly goes by way of. Tom and Greg are the most important fear warts of all of them, but one way or the other they handle to remain afloat and hover simply exterior of Mattson’s interior circle lengthy sufficient to make sure their very own survival. As he says throughout his clandestine dinner with Tom in “With Open Eyes,” Mattson solely wants a stand-in CEO for the ATN proper wing community that may act like a “pain sponge” whereas he goes in and does the true work of cleansing home and gutting the corporate from inside. That’s when Mattson is able to turn out to be a real killer with a kill record that is greater than a mile lengthy as a substitute of consisting of just some throwaway names.