Succession season 3: Do UTIs actually make you disoriented?

We’re officially five episodes down on Succession season 3 and although Waystar Royco is in a better place than it was at the start of the season, Logan Roy (Brian Cox) is seemingly only getting worse. Fans will remember that he suffered a stroke in season 1, and his health has been questionable ever since.

In episode 5, “Retired Janitors of Idaho,” which just premiered on HBO tonight, we see an incapable Logan navigating through the rigorous job of running a company in dire need, and it’s proved that his family simply cannot survive without him.

Spoilers ahead for Succession season 3, episode 5.

The new episode follows Waystar Royco’s annual shareholders meeting, where Logan is set to make a speech in front of a large audience. Ahead of the big event, the company fails to strike a deal with Sandy (Larry Pine) and Stewie (Arian Moayed), and they’re busy trying to come up with a way to compromise.

In their negotiations, Stewie and Sandy express that they don’t want any of the Roy siblings to take over the company, and they also ask for them to stop using private jets. It’s a game of cat and mouse trying to meet the pair halfway, and Logan is not looking to make any sacrifices. The future of Waystar depends on this deal, but he won’t budge.

At one point, Logan basically loses it and tells his team not to take the deal, despite everything riding on it. Things only spiral from there, with Logan not making any sense and needing Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) to escort him to the bathroom. He then mistakes Shiv (Sarah Snook) for his estranged wife Marcia (Hiam Abbass), and believes there’s a dead cat under his chair.

Logan’s family is understandably very concerned, and it’s revealed that he’s experiencing symptoms from a UTI (urinary tract infection) he’s being treated for. He was prescribed antibiotics, but because he doesn’t take the correct dosage, he becomes disoriented. Is that a thing?

Can UTIs cause confusion?

If you’re anything like me, you had to fact-check that small part of tonight’s episode. For those unfamiliar, UTIs are infections of the urinary system, and the symptoms can be super painful. Someone with a UTI can experience pelvic pain, burning, a feeling like you need to urinate frequently when you don’t and even blood in the urine.

But what about disorientation or confusion? Well, according to Healthline, these are symptoms elderly people with UTIs can actually experience. The site reports that older people might not show the classic signs of an infection, which might be because of their immune system. There’s a chance for them to experience “agitation,” “lethargy” and “decreased mobility” with a UTI — which does check out with Logan in the latest episode.

Confusion and odd behavior because of a UTI can be linked to dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, Alzheimers.net reports. This, unfortunately, can make it easy for elderly people with infections to go undiagnosed and untreated.

Logan’s health has been a big part of the season so far, and though we don’t know what’ll happen next, it’s bound to affect Waystar. Be sure to keep watching Succession season 3 every Sunday night only on HBO and HBO Max.