The Big Picture

  • Roman's brief stint as a husband and father in the pilot episode of Succession was quickly disregarded and rewritten in later episodes.
  • Roman's character development makes him more interesting as a bachelor than as a married man.
  • Roman's sexual deviancy ties into the themes of power and influence in Succession, and his inability to have a successful marriage aligns with the dysfunctional family dynamics of the Roy family.

Jesse Armstrong's HBO series Succession cleaned up at the 75th annual Emmy Awards, and rightfully so. Among the big winners of the night was none other than Kieran Culkin, who, for four impressive seasons, wowed us as Roman Roy, everyone's favorite little revolting worm. We know what you're thinking after reading this headline: Wait, Roman Roy had a wife... and a child? At least that’s what the pilot episode says, even if virtually every single episode has outright ignored, if not rewritten completely, the thought.

In "Celebration," the series' first episode, Roman can be seen wearing a wedding ring whenever he appears on-screen. At Logan’s (Brian Cox) eightieth birthday party, Roman is joined by a woman (Molly Griggs), referred to as Grace Roy on her IMDb page, and a little girl named Isla (Noelle Hogan). Roman feels fatherly as he preserves little Isla’s innocence from Connor’s (Alan Ruck) speculation that water will become a resource that people will "kill each other for." Later, at the dinner table, while Roman and Siobhan (Sarah Snook) chat, she sarcastically assures him that she remembers his daughter.

succession-poster
Succession
TV-MA
Drama
Comedy

The Roy family is known for controlling the biggest media and entertainment company in the world. However, their world changes when their father steps down from the company.

Release Date
June 3, 2018
Creator
Jesse Armstrong
Main Genre
Drama
Seasons
4

Roman Roy Is More Interesting as a Bachelor

So, for a short little hour of Succession history, Rome was not only a husband, but a father. It makes for an image of semi-functional paternity that couldn’t be further from the Roman Roy we’d see in the later episodes of Succession, the little skeevish pervert that he is. Ultimately, “Sad Sack Wasp Trap” and “I Went to the Market” rewrote Grace to be Roman’s girlfriend instead of his wife, and a wedding ring was never again seen on his finger. And so, he became the pervy little bachelor that we know and love, and this easy-to-miss plot detail has largely become lost to time.

It would seem that the Succession writers rewrote this character detail in favor of something else, and thankfully so. When it comes down to it, Roman works much better as a bachelor than he ever would have as a married man. Succession is a show of fantastic character development and we’ve seen the Roy family transform into fascinating, psychologically complicated figures. Roman’s definitely no exception to this, and while he first felt just like a spoiled asshole, we learn that he’s not just a spoiled asshole. He’s got depth. He’s got psychological trauma. He’s got feelings hidden somewhere beneath his crassness and insensitivity.

But Roman being grounded in a marriage would have taken the character in a different, less interesting direction. Kendall’s (Jeremy Strong) past marriage makes for an interesting background for his character because it reflects not only the consequences of his cataclysmic substance abuse, but also the way that his obsession with climbing the ranks of the business world interferes with his personal relationships, just like his dad. Shiv’s voiced unwillingness to have kids shows her feminist defiance of traditional family values and her impervious sense of commitment. Shiv, Kendall, and Connor all have their own distorted versions of the American family, and it makes for a more interesting Roman Roy for him to be generally incapable of starting his own.

Roman Roy's Relationship With Intimacy Is Complicated

Gerri Kellman (J. Smith-Cameron) looks at Roman Roy (Keiran Culkin)
Image via HBO

It’s long since become a running joke that Roman can’t get himself to have “regular” sex. It’s like he’s scared of it. He has a fundamental inability to treat it in any way that isn’t distorted by his deep-rooted inferiority complex and mommy issues. In “Sad Sack Wasp Trap," he gets what’s presumably some psychosexual pleasure out of humiliating a young waiter (Peter Evangelista) who, so Roman thinks, was making a move on Grace. The couple later uses her vibrating phone (the waiter’s calling Grace, since Roman got him to ask for her number) as a sex toy. Roman’s attempts at romanticism continuously outline the psychological issues that have plagued him long into adulthood. He stumbles in and out of relationships with no apparent aim. After Grace (his apparent not wife) he dates Tabitha (Caitlin FitzGerald), who bemoans Rome’s alleged lack of sexual interest in her.

Related
'Succession' Season 4: What the Roys' Eulogies Mean For Their Characters
The trajectory of the Roy kids in Succession is impressively executed in their eulogies for their father.

Throughout the series, he makes attempts at sparking an initially kind-of reciprocal pseudo-sexual relationship with Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron), a clear Freudian replacement for his mother. Of course, all the Roy kids have severe daddy issues, but enough can’t be said about their mom (Harriet Walter). She is arguably even more narcissistic and emotionally detached than Logan and more sadistic in her cruelty, and it shows in Roman’s obsession with Gerri.

It’s not an Oedipus complex, exactly. In the Season 4 premiere, Roman seems to be the only one who doesn’t want to metaphorically kill his dad. He’s really the only one who can’t ever seem to get enough of the old bastard. Meanwhile, he sends unsolicited dick pics to Gerri (who’s old enough to be his mother, and who, at certain points in the series, takes on the maternal role of being his boss) and makes jokes about his mom’s vagina at Kendall’s lavish (or gaudy?) birthday party. He talks about his parents having more sex than anybody else you’ll ever meet, and he seems to get genuine pleasure out of it.

Roman Roy as a Bachelor Makes Sense for 'Succession'

One of the key themes underscoring much of Succession is how economic and political power are so tightly intertwined with each other, and how each is similarly intertwined with virtually every aspect of life, including sexuality. Shiv uses her sexuality against Tom in a way to show her dominance; she forces him to become more emotionally and sexually dependent on her than she is on him. Connor literally buys sex, misunderstands it as love, and ultimately buys love by essentially bribing Willa (Justine Loop) to marry him. A lengthy and consequential plotline about sexual abuses aboard Waystar highlights the tragic reality that crimes of sexual violence are frequently disappeared through means of power and influence. Roman works well to tie these themes together through his sexual deviancy.

He finds power in the playacting of his sexual powerlessness. In most, if not all, of the moments that we see Roman with any sincere interest in sexuality, he’s being insulted and verbally humiliated by Gerri. He’s often dismissed as the baby, and he has a history of being abused (it’s hinted that Logan had used violence against him as a child) and bullied (there’s the story about young Kendall locking an even younger Roman in a dog cage). Here, he fetishizes his own humiliation in order to commandeer it and acquire some power.

It would make little sense on a narrative level for Roman to be married, and even less so for him to be a father. He doesn’t have the tools to have a successful marriage. None of the kids do, considering that they’ve never truly seen one. It’s a family so polluted with arrogance, selfishness, and narcissism that they’ve got nothing besides their ego and own methods of psychological manipulation. Succession found out early on that Roman could never be a father or husband, and the fact that Grace was essentially rewritten as a girlfriend instead of a wife was a huge benefit to the series. Roman Roy is much more fascinating as the pervy little emotionally stunted manchild who could serve as a template for Freudianism in psychology courses everywhere. He’s gross and troubled, and that’s why we love him.

Succession is available to watch on Max in the U.S.

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