Succession season 1-4 spoilers below
Roman has long been Succession’s most endearing character (for some of us anyway) – after watching him for 29 episodes it’s almost impossible not to have a soft spot for the crude and impulsive youngest Roy, who takes himself so much less seriously than everyone else in the family.
But then, in season four, episode two something quite remarkable happened – something in Roman’s character suddenly, noticeably, shifted, and he stood out, not only as the only half decent person in the whole show, but as an actual viable candidate for taking over Waystar Rocyo.
For some it was a jaw-dropping moment: how good are Jesse Armstrong and the Succession writers that, just like that, a character as prominent as Roman can seamlessly surprise us all?
For others, it was a longtime coming: although Roman never seemed likely to take over the family business, his character has opened up episode on episode, turning from pervy rascal, to complex pervy rascal, with his behaviour working as both a meditation on being the youngest sibling and on how people deal with trauma.
Is he actually quite business savvy?
This new revelation about Roman expands gradually over episode two. First up Roman proves to be far more business savvy than his siblings, which is saying something given that he’s the same guy who used to masturbate at his office window, who managed a rocket launch project so badly that the rocket literally exploded during take off, and spent much of the early season storming around calling business meetings “f***ing bullsh*t”.
The episode’s major plotline sees Shiv and Kendall pushing for the Waystar Rocyo board (backed by old stager Stewy and Sandy Furness’s daughter, er, Sandi) to ask Matsson for more money for the buyout.
But while Kendall and Shiv are spinning out of control, chilled out Roman, who does not have an ulterior motive, tries to convince his siblings that Matsson will leave the deal completely if they push him – he knows this because he’s been speaking to Matsson, showing that he’s still an important player in the Waystar Royco-GoJo deal. The youngest Roy has never looked so level-headed next to his siblings who come across like they’re absolutely obsessed with their father, which of course they are.
And, maybe even quite nice?
Then, just when you’re pondering over the fact that Roman is being peculiarly sensible, he also starts being quite nice (for him, of course; the bar is low). He still lobs a few Roman-esque quips, such as telling Connor that he should toss Willa another $10,000, or get “a snowmobile and some teeth-whitening vouchers” to get her to stay. But that’s about as far as he goes – these are noticeably restrained comments from Roman. Is he growing up?
We have to remember that this is, after all, the guy who told Kendall that their father probably wishes Kendall had been born a can opener so at least he would be useful, who told Shiv she was a b**ch when she told him she loved him, and who threw dollars at some of Tom’s non-billionaire friends “for coffee” when he chose not to invite them to Tom’s stag do. He’s big on the takedowns and the humiliation. Roman isn’t exactly known for being a sweetie.
But in today’s episode, he holds his tongue when they see Willa on the stairs – does he even look concerned? – and he makes sure that Shiv and Kendall go up to see Connor (at Connor’s literal wedding rehearsal dinner; I repeat, the bar is low) rather than go and have a meeting about the GoJo deal. In the pub, when Shiv explains what Logan did with the lawyers, he says “yeah that sucks, I’m sorry” and seems genuinely bad for Shiv. Bizarre.
Roman is an actual human being, too
Just as this noticeably non-Roman-like behaviour starts to sink in, it’s to the karaoke room towards the end of the episode, one of the most explosive scenes in the entire series. Logan swings by, trying to pacify the kids saying the jaw-dropping words “I’m sorry”. It’s shocking because for a moment, Logan seems genuine. For a moment, you forget he’s a monster and feel sorry for the old man facing his furious and fire-spitting children, who are scornfully laughing at his apology.
“Sorry for hitting Rome when he was a kid?” asks Kendall. Then, a line that’s difficult to hear from Roman: “I mean, no, everyone hit me I was fucking annoying,” he says. Is it one of the most quietly devastating moments in the entire show?
It’s a blunt reminder that Roman is much more complex than viewers of the early seasons may have given credit: sometimes a bastard, but also irrevocably damaged. Scene by scene he swings from weak and silly, then to insecure and submissive, then to outrageously confident, then to caring.
It doesn’t take a seasoned psychologist to notice that Roman’s explicit jokes and erratic behaviour are just (almost certainly subconscious) distraction techniques, which hide a deeply pessimistic, actually super alarming, worldview.
From the morsels we’re given about his childhood, it seems he was the kid who felt the brunt of Logan’s narcissism. Remember that scene in the sex club where Roman talks to Connor about when he was locked in a dog cage as a kid and made to eat out of a bowl? That was weird wasn’t it? Connor said Roman liked it and asked to be locked in the cage, and that the food was chocolate cake, but dog cages do not scream a pleasant childhood, no matter how you spin it. In fact, very much the opposite.
Then, the episode hurtles towards its denouement: the karaoke scene was just the warm up act.
And now, potentially, his father’s successor?
The last scene opens on Roman with his dad; why he’s there we don’t know. Logan, in his stride as master manipulator, who knows he has total power over Roman, says he needs his son’s help with Matsson the next day, and asks him to come with him to the meeting, adding, “I need you.”
And in that moment everything changes. The episode belongs to Roman who is conspicuously kind, then level-headed and then who seems, potentially, to start to become positioned to follow his dad into business. Who knows if it will all come crashing down, but it feels like this may be the start of Roman’s season.
Plus Roman has been joking about taking over the family business from the very beginning – it’s just that he never seemed serious. Remember in season two he said, “I land the deal, I kill Kendall, I’m crowned the king. Just like in Hamlet. If that happens in Hamlet, I don’t care.” He’s been dropping little comments like this since day dot. But with Kendall’s chaos and Shiv’s ambitions, perhaps we just didn’t pay enough attention to the youngest Roy.
Of course, we’re not getting overly excited here. We have to remember that this is the same guy who threatened to destroy his personal trainer’s life, just for fun. Who pretended that Connor molested him as a child during therapy, and who sends outrageous pictures to Gerri, Waystar Royco’s general counsel, (and once, by mistake, to his dad) and who asked his girlfriend to pretend to be a corpse so he would get turned on enough to have sex.
So sure, he’s weird. But we’re fickle and forgetful, and somehow we’re happy to park all memory of Roman’s foibles and past disasters to get onboard with the (potential) rise of the new Roman empire.
