‘Succession’ Season 4: No, There Won’t Be Any Real Consequences for Roman
Roman #Roman
Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Succession Season 4 Episode 7.If there’s one thing that unites the Roys on Succession, it’s their supreme ability for dodging the consequences. It could be something as massive as a nationwide scandal or as minuscule as a stolen Snickers bar—it doesn’t matter the situation: the Roys will make their way out of it squeaky clean.
While Roman (Kieran Culkin) has always tended to remain under the radar in comparison to his more pompous siblings, his recent choices as co-CEO of Waystar Royco has both his siblings and colleagues raising some eyebrows. For one, he fired Waystar studio head, Joy Palmer (Annabeth Gish), for absolutely no reason at an otherwise benign luncheon. And as if he was on some sort of high from that move, he then proceeded to unleash his anger on Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron), whom he also fired for no good reason.
While Roman uses his father, Logan (Brian Cox), to justify those successive firings, we have to remember one thing: Roman is not his father. Of course, this then brings up an important question: will Roman be able to squeeze his way out of these unjustified actions just as Logan would? The answer to that question is just as complicated as the Roy family itself.
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A Family Tradition
Historically, the Roys have had a pretty easy time weaseling their way out of otherwise explosive situations, coming out on the other end just the same as they were when they first entered. They’ve somehow been able to consistently dig their way out of sticky situations, and one of the first instances that we saw of this was with the accidental death of a waiter by Kendall (Jeremy Strong) at Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Tom’s (Matthew Macfadyen) wedding in the UK.
Logan took care of the situation without Kendall even having to utter a word about it, saving both Kendall and the Roy family from a massive scandal (No real person involved, remember?) The only problem with these seemingly easy Roy-dig-outs are that they leave one person in a constant beholden state to the one who dug them out, and in this case, the one indebted was Kendall, and he remained in that state practically until his father’s death. So, while there was no public consequence as a result of this situation, Kendall certainly bore the brunt of the internal repercussion.
Then, of course, there was the extremely public Cruises scandal, which ultimately found many of the Roys testifying in front of the Senate in their most upfront Roy dig-out yet. Tom, Gerri, Logan, Kendall, and Greg (Nicholas Braun) all testified, and while each had a rough go at it in their own ways, they ultimately came out of the situation pretty clean.
But let’s not forget the reason for this testimony: Waystar did everything in its power to cover up the fact that there were multiple instances of sexual assault, harassment, and even death among migrant and sex workers on their cruises. Instead of even copping to any of it happening, they proceeded to label the incidents as “No Real Person Involved” (NRPI) cases, a term just as much demeaning as it is blatantly wrong. Even when Shiv decided to meet with one of the victims, Kira (Sally Murphy), it was only as a ploy to silence her — not to offer emotional support or admit to any wrongdoing.
Because the Roys have this deep-seated history of committing crimes and getting away with them, each offense is merely another drop in the bucket, which has led to a pretty dangerous cycle for the family. Because each wrongdoing means less and less when you’re able to constantly and successfully dodge the consequences, less thought ends up being put into action, which leads us to situations like the ones we witnessed recently with Roman. When you idolize your father — and when your father is Logan Roy, manic acts of aggression don’t seem so out of the ordinary anymore.
Will Roman Be the Exception?
The short answer to that question? A resounding “No.” Why would we think—even for a second—that things would be different for Roman this time around? If they don’t chalk up his brash firings to the recent, sudden loss of his father then they’ll blame it on something else. That’s the common denominator among these Roys: it’s always something.
In the world that the average American lives in, there would automatically be a consequence for two outlandish, aggressive firings like that. It would be the sort of thing that someone doesn’t come back from—a career-defining choice that would ultimately lead to their downfall. But for people like Roman Roy, it’s just another blip on the radar. Even with Gerri holding a bunch of nudes that Roman sent to her, is that really going to matter after the previous crimes that Waystar Royco has weathered?
The main result of this constant cycle is that no one ever learns anything from their actions—it’s why the Roys are terrible people in general. When you don’t have anyone to shake you by the shoulders and tell you that you’re screwing up, you keep carrying on just as you always would; and for a regular person with less stature than Roman, that action not occurring probably wouldn’t be as big of a deal. But when you’re an extremely visible co-CEO of a major media company, every move you make occurs on the national stage: when you screw up and get away with it, it adds to the precedent that men in charge get off easy most of the time.
It’s something that’s not only dangerous to the person in question and those around them but also to the public at large. At this point, it would take something even larger for a real consequence to occur to the Roys, and after having come out on the other side of the extremely public Cruises scandal, it’s tough to even imagine what else could change the tide. As much as we’d like for the Roys to receive a good, old-fashioned punishment, it will likely never come: in that sense, it’s a reminder of just how much work still has to get done for real change to occur—and that goes for both inside and outside the Succession universe.