Sophie Hutchison
This article contains spoilers for Succession.
Succession’s third season kicked off over the weekend, and at its premiere J. Smith Cameron (who plays Roystar Wayco’s general counsel, Gerri Kellman), dressed in a glitzy plunging gown, crept up behind her co-star Kieran Culkin (a.k.a Roman Roy, youngest and most wayward son of Roystar CEO, Logan Roy) during an interview with Variety and pulled bunny ears on him, a cheeky grin on her face. Culkin, barely turning around, rolled his eyes and sighed. “Look at this behind me. What, did you think you could sneak up on me? With that perfume?” he smirked, giving her a glance up and down.
I, along with all my fellow Gerri-Roman shippers, died a little inside.
It’s not the most conventional of pairings. Spoiled brat Roman is ostensibly in his late thirties (though he acts much younger), whilst Gerri is presumably in her early sixties. Gerri, then, is theoretically old enough to be Roman’s mother, and it’s implied she’s known Roman since he was a young boy, given that she’s been a high-ranking player in the Roys’ media empire for decades. So what is it about this pairing that’s making Succession viewers go totally feral, and do we all have underlying mommy issues?
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Firstly, the pair – by their own admission – have undeniable and palpable chemistry. In an interview with Stephen Colbert, the actors discussed how the sexual tension between their characters came about because of their unscripted flirting. Whilst filming a scene in Season 1, the writers apparently noticed them absent-mindedly ’check each other’s butts out’ and developed a storyline around it.
In addition, perhaps the thing that makes us Gerri-Roman fans so insatiable is that their storyline is a masterclass in the art of the tease. Succession’s writers have given us just enough; little tiny glimpses of glances and comments that have made us pause and ask ‘did they just…?’. In Season 1, there were moments that easily passed as Roman just being his cocky, forward self. Gerri has always been a formidable character, a senior figure in the company who’s totally self-assured and never without a plan, but over the course of season two, these attributes that once seemed maternal became – at risk of sounding a little oedipal – sexy. Her no-bullshit attitude switched from that of a chastising parent to more of a dominatrix, thanks to the escalating sexual tensions between her and Roman. Scenes of her doing up his shirt buttons and batting away his seemingly-jokey advances turned into scenes of phone sex, and now we find ourselves asking when are they gonna just do it already?
At least part of the appeal of their still-undefined relationship surely lies in the fact that we see it from both characters’ perspectives. It’s hard not to pity Roman at times, who despite always playing the joker clearly harbours some bizarre fetishes and struggles greatly with intimacy. Throughout the first two seasons of the show, he fails to ever have sex with his girlfriend, Tabitha, until he finally reveals that he wants to “make [sex] kind of wrong”, which she rebuffs him for. Gerri, on the other hand, who’s widowed and whom we might assume hasn’t gotten much action in a while, doesn’t shame Roman – rather, it seems there’s a mutual enjoyment in his humiliation kink. In the episode Tern Haven, Gerri’s excitement is written all over her face when Roman shows up at her bedroom late at night and she shuts him in her bathroom, calling him a “disgrace” and a “fuckup” whilst he masturbates on the other side of the door. The twist was unexpected and initially kind of cringeworthy, but clearly touched a nerve in many viewers – whilst it could easily have been played off as a joke, the relationship between the two of them is treated with respect and dignified by Succession’s writers.
The much-anticipated first episode of Season 3 sees Roman encourage his father to choose Gerri to be the next CEO of Roystar – clearly, there’s feelings of fondness and respect there, though Roman might not admit it. Of course, the highlight of the episode is seeing the pair stuck in a hotel room together, where Roman tries and fails to convince Gerri to have sex with him – “I’d lay you badly, but I’d lay you gladly,” he sings. Though Gerri states that their relationship is nothing but professional (sure Gerri, sure), she was tooootally thinking about taking him up on his offer before a phone call interrupted the moment.
I suppose what keeps me and fellow Gerri-Roman fans on their toes is that the unconventional nature of their relationship makes it unpredictable. Sure, we all want to see them get it on, but it’s hard to imagine them actually having sex, let alone getting into an actual romantic relationship. That’s not because of the age gap, per-se. Though the combination of an older woman and younger man is uncommon in media, the combination of an older man and younger woman certainly isn’t, so it’s refreshing to see the roles reversed. And, if nothing else, it’s good to see an older woman shown as being even somewhat libidinous and not totally decrepit for once. We seem to have an aversion as a society to admitting that older women can be hot, but let’s not beat around the bush here: Gerri is hot!
Alas, what’ll happen next with everyone’s favourite Freudian ship is anyone’s guess. And truth be told, I’m not sure what I’d like to happen – would a clandestine hook-up ruin everything? Will they end up betraying each other? Could they end up sailing off into the sunset on a super-yacht? I find myself at the mercy of the show’s writers, continuing to watch and hoping that something, anything happens between the two of them. I only know one thing for sure – Gerri and Roman are the weirdest, hottest couple on TV.
Featured image courtesy of Pom’ on Flickr. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
