With Just A Few Lines, Gerri Is Still One Of The Best Parts Of Succession
This piece contains spoilers for the "Succession" season 4 premiere.
"Succession," the best drama on TV, is back for one last hurrah, kicking off its fourth and final season this week. The season opener sees the Roy kids make a ten billion dollar bid for the media company Pierce, snatching it from the clutches of their father Logan (Brian Cox) on the old man's birthday. The hour also saw Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Tom's (Matthew Macfayden) marriage take its last gasp, and Logan set his sights more firmly on ATN in the wake of his lost deal.
The premiere had all the trappings of a great episode of "Succession," from outlandish, creative zingers to subtle, fraught family dynamics to Logan being mad as hell. It was, however, in short supply of one thing: appearances by Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron), the Roy family's former general counsel and the current interim CEO of Waystar Royco. As the ostensible head of one of the biggest companies on the planet, Gerri is probably a little too busy to pretend to enjoy Logan's birthday party, but it's still surprising how little screen time the fan-favorite character gets here. Still, Smith-Cameron makes the most of what she's given, and Gerri still manages to come across as one of the coolest people in the room despite her reticence.
Waystar Royco's interim CEO is over it
If Gerri's demeanor in the latest episode of "Succession" can be described in a phrase, it would be "over it." The CEO shows up to Logan's party dressed in all-business black — an outfit that's more fit for a funeral than a birthday. She also utters roughly four lines over the course of the episode, but each one is more deliciously cutting than the last. Gerri gets called in for a war room meeting alongside Logan's other advisors, during which Karl (David Rasche) and Frank (Peter Friedman) fret about telling Logan that it's actually his own kids vying for Pierce in the bidding war against him. After goading Karl into delivering the update to Logan ("You're such a trusted adviser!"), she washes her hands of the whole business, saying, "Well, I don't know what the news is and it's beyond my purview and I'm walking away."
Gerri does walk away, too, because Gerri is CEO and she can do that now. Her blasé attitude likely also comes in part as a result of having been thrust into the center of a near sexual harassment scandal last season, when Logan discovered that Roman (Kieran Culkin) had been sending her potentially unsolicited nude photos. Gerri remained tight-lipped when Shiv tried to get her to report Roman, although it was tough to tell if she was worried about her reputation, her position in the company, or her kinky on-and-off relationship with the Roy sibling, which she dropped the second she became CEO. Regardless, Gerri obviously enters season 4 in a vulnerable position, with the Roman fiasco hanging over her head and the future of her career unfortunately determined by the Roy family's infighting.
It's 'all a bit horrible'
Gerri doesn't show an ounce of weakness in this episode, though, and instead snaps back at Logan with a single line that cuts through all the yes-man energy in the room. When the Roy family patriarch starts up an awful impromptu comedy roast while waiting for Nan Pierce's (Cherry Jones) decision, he goads each person in the room to come up with something "funny" to say. Of course, his definition of funny is interchangeable with cruel, and it quickly turns into an exercise in making everyone feel uncomfortable and bullied. "Gerri, been sent anything funny lately?" he asks her, in reference to Roman's pictures. She shuts him down immediately, saying, "All a bit horrible for me, thanks, Logan."
It's a testament to Smith-Cameron's acting and the show's great writing that Gerri's one-line refusal to engage with Logan's tyrannical games is as satisfying a moment of schadenfreude as the kids' eventual nabbing of the Pierce deal. In the moment, it doesn't seem to cut to the quick — Logan shakes it off, rudely — but it's a line that reveals a truth no one else is willing to speak; Logan seems to be losing power. The fact that his mind games, which used to hold rooms full of people emotionally hostage for hours on end (see: Boar on the Floor), are now met with casual dismissal shows that he's no longer viewed as the all-powerful bulldozer he once was. At least not by Gerri.
In a room full of yes-men, Gerri tells the truth
Logan's thirst for blood cools after Gerri's comment, largely because of a call from Pierce, but it's hard not to read Cox's micro-reactions (which tell us more than Logan's blustering verbal assaults) and see his deeper dissatisfaction with her response. It seems less like Logan is mad at Gerri and more like, without his kids, he doesn't have a proper sparring partner to make him rise to the occasion. He saves the worst of his attitude for the people he claims to love most, and perhaps the sadism just doesn't feel the same when they aren't there to witness it.
Regardless, Gerri still earns points for being the most casually brave person in the room, calling Logan out for his ghoulishness without so much as looking up from her phone. In that moment, she also speaks for all the viewers whose thick skin has softened in the off-season, making the insult-laden premiere seem perhaps more callous than usual after some time away from this cutthroat world. As the show's constant game of CEOs continues to unfold, Gerri will no doubt see her position in the company threatened as "Succession" winds down to an official end, but regardless of her role, the restrained power player is one of the best characters in "Succession." Smith-Cameron makes a meal of her limited screen time, portraying Gerri as the rare character who's a quiet observer when needed, but doesn't mince words when she speaks. We may not be ready to see an end to the Roy family drama, but Gerri is sure over it.
"Succession" airs on HBO and streams on HBO Max every Sunday at 9 p.m. ET.