Not the romangerri antis literally starting discourse again. I’ve seen this at least 4 times. Now is the sexual harassment (which i would jump ship if it is) before that, roman was practically being abused by gerri. Y'all need to pick a narrative cos these are very different takes. Moral discourse around Succession should be prohibited tbh.
This show is full of terrible people constantly doing reprehensible things. Both Roman and Gerri are reprehensible people - we’ve definitely been shown more of the awful things that Roman has done but we’ve also skimmed the surface of Gerri’s moral turpitude (her involvement in the cruises scandal, shutting Tom up about it, etc). What this show does with these terrible people that makes it enjoyable to watch (because who’d want to just watch terrible people being terrible?) is that it fills these characters out, giving the audience flashes of true empathy for them before reminding you how awful they are, but it also sets the characters up for all kinds of strange/interesting connections between each other - and the Roman/Gerri relationship is definitely one of the most strange/interesting connections on the show.
Part of what makes their deal so potent is that it walks a very thin line, as is evidenced by the outrage it causes in some people - it’s either too weird to people because of the age difference, amplified for some by the fact that it’s the woman in the relationship that’s older (if that’s how you feel then congrats, you are with Logan in that scenario) OR it’s too weird to people because Roman is so aggressive about it while Gerri tries to cool him down. The funny thing is that the big complaints on either side cancel each other out - how can she be the older woman who’s grooming the 30-something if he’s the one pushing for a relationship that she doesn’t want?
There’s a screwed up balance there that I’ll agree has been tilted more toward the latter with this season (their whole thing has been a little one note this season with him wanting more and her reminding him of their need for boundaries, which, who knows, might have been planned in part as a way to prove the “grooming” minded people wrong) BUT there has still been a balance. Gerri has still been playing her part in their relationship. Obviously Gerri telling him to stop sending her the “items” and Roman going ahead and still sending them is very bad (again, these are terrible people, we know that Roman has these issues, and it’ll be interesting to see how he’ll have to suffer after finally getting caught in such an idiotic situation that he himself caused) BUT we have one more episode left for this season to see how things fall for Roman and Gerri and to most likely get a better idea of where Gerri stands with all this.
With the discourse ramping up again, I feel like it’s important to also point out that part of what’s so enjoyable about their relationship is that it’s been such a strangely sweet relationship (for Succession standards especially) - starting with her seeing his (very in the rough) potential and his desperation to do better in the eyes of his father and her being the only one to reach out to him and help him onto a more productive path toward his goal. He’d always just been the joke and had always been treated as such, but here’s this serious professional (who also already knows all about him) giving him the time of day like he might actually be able to amount to something. Of course Roman, who gets immediately attached to all kinds of people, became somewhat obsessed with her after that. Also, yes, she’s hot. And then for her, there was clearly some kind of thrill in getting that first phone call (she stayed on the line and then apparently there were more calls that she stayed on the line for if Roman’s comment at Tern Haven is to be believed) and things continued from there, always as a push/pull toward making things work for their professional team up and also for their personal team up. In a show with such cutthroat people, their little moments of looking out for each other and defending each other in front of the other cutthroat people (who are always looking for the weaknesses in everyone around them) are also such shockingly soft moments that it’s easy (for some viewers at least!) to want to root for them.
Gerri sending that “Well done, Roman” text was another example of the strange sweetness of their relationship - this season has been rocky for them, but the sweetness was clearly still there! At least… right up until Roman ruined everything, but again, there’s one more episode left to see where they are and to maybe get a better idea of where Gerri’s been this whole time - maybe we’ll finally get a more clear cut understanding of if she’s just been playing along with Roman or if there’s actually been more to it for her.
I just had a thought - are we going to get a “because my dad told me to” line but this time out of Roman, and said to Gerri as a reason for why he does something that’ll hurt her/signify him choosing Logan over her?
Roman -> talking about Gerri to his family when she isn’t there to hear it Succession 1x02, “Shit Show at the Fuck Factory” Succession 2x08, “Dundee” Succession 3x01, “Secession” Succession 3x02, “Mass in Time of War”
