Succession Had A Lot Of Twisted Moments, But The Worst One Happened In The Pilot

Succession is full of dark, twisted sequences, but there’s one Roman scene from way back in the pilot episode that still stands out as the absolute worst of the bunch. For the most part, Succession is a show about corporate strategy, but Jesse Armstrong and his team of whip-smart writers kept the series devilishly entertaining with a healthy dose of pitch-black humor and wildly unpredictable plot twists. Tom betrayed Shiv in the jaw-dropping season 3 finale. Roman accidentally sent an explicit photo to his dad and exposed his psychosexual relationship with Gerri to the rest of the board.

The darkest moments in Succession were as harrowing as any of the gruesome violence in The Sopranos or Game of Thrones. The horrific hazing ritual “Boar on the Floor,” which Logan uses to weed out the member of his inner circle who spoke to the press, is as unsettling as anything in any horror movie, and all the revelations that come out during the cruise scandal are unconscionable. But of all the grim, disturbing, or otherwise shocking moments in Succession, there’s one great Roman scene from the pilot episode that still stands head and shoulders above them all.

It Established Roman’s Sick Sense Of Humor & Devil-May-Care Attitude

TV shows usually take a few episodes to figure out who their characters are, but the Succession pilot told us exactly who Roman was right off the bat. There’s one scene in particular that showcased how uniquely horrible he was, and how Kieran Culkin would lean into that horribleness in darkly hilarious ways. On Logan’s 80th birthday, he flies the family out to a baseball field for their traditional celebratory softball game. When a bitter Kendall storms off the field and leaves them a player short, Roman decides to sub in the groundskeeper’s young son.

Succession‘s pilot episode was directed by Adam McKay, best known for directing Anchorman, Step Brothers, and Talladega Nights.

Roman offers the kid $1 million if he hits a home run. He even writes out the check and holds it up for him to see. As the boy rounds the bases, he’s tagged out by Tom. Roman then gleefully tears up the check in front of the boy’s face. That would’ve been a life-changing amount of money for this boy’s family, but for Roman, it’s pocket change, and he takes such sadistic joy in denying the kid that check. This might be the most messed-up scene in Succession’s entire four-season run, and it happened in the very first episode.

This told us how Roman and the rest of the family ended up the way they are; the Roys are so rich and powerful, they can afford to enable that kind of behavior.

This scene of Roman taunting a sweet, innocent young boy with a $1 million check perfectly encapsulated his character from the offset. It established his twisted sense of humor, his devil-may-care attitude, his immaturity, his one-percent entitlement, and his dismissiveness toward people in lower economic classes. The show twists the knife even more when Logan’s assistant is shown bribing the kid’s family into signing an NDA. This told us how Roman and the rest of the family ended up the way they are; the Roys are so rich and powerful, they can afford to enable that kind of behavior.

Roman Roy Was Almost A Very Different Character Based On The Pilot

The Pilot Introduced Roman’s Family, Who Were Quickly Forgotten About

Although Roman’s personality was well-established from the outset, he was almost a very different character. In season 1, Roman is in a relationship with a woman named Grace. But in the pilot episode, Grace is credited as “Grace Roy,” and they’re accompanied by a young girl named Isla. This suggests that the original plan was for Grace to be Roman’s wife and Isla to be his daughter, or at least a stepdaughter from one of Grace’s previous relationships.

HBO Told You How Succession Was Going To End Way Back In Season 1

No one saw Succession’s ending coming, but the show ingeniously foreshadowed how it was going to end way back in an early season 1 episode.

But the subsequent episodes would remove the daughter and establish that Grace was just Roman’s girlfriend. Their relationship would end shortly thereafter when Grace declared Waystar Studios’ The Biggest Turkey in the World to be a pretty good movie). This change allowed Succession to make Roman a much more tragic character; his deep-seated loneliness would become his most sympathetic quality.