‘Succession’ Fans Are Convinced That The New Episode Included An Unexpected Reference To ‘Babe’

James Cromwell has had a distinguished career, including five Emmy nominations; starring roles in The Green Mile, L.A. Confidential, and Star Trek: First Contact; and he’s a progressive activist who’s been arrested multiple times fighting for his beliefs. But he’s probably best known for talking to a pig. To be fair, it wasn’t just any pig — it was Babe, the eponymous star of the charming 1995 film (co-written by Mad Max‘s George Miller!) that made a surprise $254.1 million at the box office and was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Cromwell.

Twenty-six-year-old spoiler alert, but Babe ends with world’s tallest farmer Arthur Hoggett, played by Cromwell, winning a sheepdog herding contest after initially being ridiculed for having a pig do a dog’s job. “And though every single human in the stands or in the commentary boxes was at a complete loss for words, the man who in his life had uttered fewer words than any of them knew exactly what to say,” the narrator says in the closing seconds. Those words: “That’ll do, pig. That’ll do.”

Crowell, who probably hasn’t gone a week without hearing “that’ll do” from a stranger since Babe came out, repeated his iconic line in Sunday’s episode of Succession. The moment occurs about halfway through “Mass in Time of War,” when my sweet boy Greg (New York’s most eligible bachelor, Nicholas Braun) reaches out to his grandfather and Logan’s brother, Ewan, about getting a lawyer. When Ewan agrees to help him, Greg goes in for a hug, but gets dismissed. Instead, he’s met with a “that’ll do” (and a grunt).

It’s peak Succession to turn a heartwarming moment into a grandfather’s cold rejection of a grandson’s hug. But the Babe reference was not lost on viewers.

Source: https://uproxx.com/tv/succession-james-cromwell-babe-thatll-do-season-3-episode-2/