Succession: Tom and Cousin Greg’s Fascinating Relationship Just Took a Major Turn
Is innocent Cousin Greg finally breaking bad?
Photo Courtesy of HBO
Though all of Succession’s characters are interesting (and horrifying) in their own ways, no two have been such meme-machines as the social-climbing Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) and the innocent, thrown-into-the-lion’s-den Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun). They are two outsiders who, by choice or circumstance, have found themselves in the orbit of this insanely wealthy and powerful family. Neither is very good at navigating those dynamics, but together they create (for viewers, at least) an incredibly hilarious and oddly emotional pair. In “Safe Room,” they reached a watershed moment that has been building for such a long time and is incredibly tangled up in personal feelings, and it was incredible to watch unfold.
So first, the path to this pain: In Succession, everything is about power, rank, and hierarchy; the Roy siblings are constantly jockeying for power against one another and their father, Logan, who (as we saw in the humiliation game “Boar on the Floor”) holds supreme power over everyone. In the Roy Power Rankings, Tom is the lowest. He’s an in-law, a recent one, and doesn’t bring much to the table on his own. Most of his power is gained from his wife, who until recently wasn’t connected to Waystar at all. So when Cousin Greg enters the scene in Season One, Tom immediately sees a way to move himself up the Roy ladder one rung at least by taking Greg under his wing.
There are many underlying factors when it comes to Tom’s interest in Greg, and most of them fall into shallow or nefarious categories (as is the way with the writing of Britain’s New Cynics). For one, Tom sees someone he can mentor and feel above, showing off what he has learned and making him look like a big shot in the eyes of someone who doesn’t yet see (but may start to) what a fraud he really is. There’s also an opportunity here for Tom to ingratiate himself further into the Roy family by getting another ally on his side. With both Shiv and Greg in his corner, he’s better off than most of the siblings when it comes to family squabbles. Further, it’s clear that Tom worships Logan and his Machiavellian style, and thus tries to emulate it to some degree with Greg, the only person he has any shadow of power over. As such, he does a pale imitation of the “bullying / bringing you close” strategy that Logan employs. But because he can’t really offer Greg anything (and is also a total pompous clown about most of it), the cracks in that dynamic are already starting to show.
On the other side of this relationship, though, are real (::long pause by Tom::) feelings. There were hints of it in Season One, but the last two episodes of Season Two (the “Boar on the Floor” scene as well as the panic room confrontation, which I’ll get into more in a moment) have shown that Tom is loyal to Greg and actually might care about him. It’s not pure in any way; Tom is still mostly focused on manipulating Greg and using him for his own gains. And yet, it’s clear that has also morphed into Tom feeling responsible for Greg and forming a bond with him in his own way. To wit, Greg pleads with him while being pelted with water bottles in the panic room, “You’re my best friend!” In some twisted way, that’s probably true.
In “Hunting,” we saw Tom protect Greg’s secret (of having accidentally met with the biographer) by keeping his mouth shut and playing Boar on the Floor. For once, Tom was willing to humiliate himself to protect Greg. Now, you can read that one of two ways: that Tom actually was willing to to protect Greg in a genuine way, or that Tom knows Greg has a much bigger secret on him with the Cruises scandal and the paper shredding. But whether it was selfless or self-serving, regardless, Tom was willing to go there.