The Poison Drips Through: Succession and the Consequences of Child Abuse.

Succession, Jesse Armstrong’s popular HBO drama series about a family-owned media conglomerate’s Shakespearean battle for relevance, is still being discussed a year after its final episode aired. One prominent theme that runs through the show is the cycle of child abuse, and how it affects victims into adulthood. Audiences follow the main characters, the progeny of the billionaire media mogul Logan Roy, as they struggle to break free from the shadows of their abusive father’s legacy while vying for control of the family business. The Roy children each experience individualized forms of psychological and emotional abuse, which uniquely affects their ability to form healthy identities and a sense of self. Through each of the three siblings, Succession can explore differing trauma responses and mental health patterns that stem from toxic parental dynamics.

However, before diving into the traumas each of the Roys are subject to, it is important to acknowledge what psychological forms and conditions create and enable their familial abuse. The psychological trauma Logan Roy inflicts stems from his children’s reliance on him for emotional development. In contrast, his physical abuse stems from viewing his children as being avatars of himself he has full ownership of. Logan’s greatest desire is to transform his children into ideal, disciplined employees who correctly demonstrate his definitions of masculinity and strength, no matter their gender, so he punishes them for failing to live up to such impossible demands. Because Logan acts both as his children’s primary site of emotional development and the source of their basic material needs, they grow dependent on him in an unhealthy cycle of repeated abuse.

This dependence is personified in Kendall Roy, Logan’s eldest son, who copes with his father’s abuse by attempting to destroy him. Demonstrated by his ubiquitous end-of-season betrayals, Kendall is obsessed with killing the image of his father—but he can only do so by becoming him. Whenever Kendall makes a move against him, every time he attempts to free himself from the weight of abuse hanging around his neck, he inevitably reverts to the familiar game of mimicry. This impersonation is embedded into all aspects of his identity, with Kendall viewing himself exclusively in the context of Waystar’s legacy. His theatrical betrayals and double-crosses act as a method of realizing himself as someone of importance, divorced from his father’s control. However, these actions only transform him into a pale imitation of his abuser, as he is unable to truly break free of Logan’s influence, forever a dog circling its cage. 

Logan’s control over his children is most prominent when examining Roman, the middle child to Kendall’s eldest. In contrast to Kendall’s rebellion, Roman’s reaction to the abuse he experiences is characterized by conformity, if not downright submission to his father’s will. This fawn response goes against Logan’s expectations of masculinity, being perceived as feminine and weak. Furthermore, the way Roman thinks and operates is influenced by trauma-induced, female-coded passivity, making him the living antithesis of Logan’s ideas of postwar masculinity. Despite this, Roman’s femininity is often useful for Logan, when utilized to practice the sexually charged dance of Waystar business dealings, with his partners always being other men. His relationships with powerful characters like Lukas Matsson and Jeryd Mencken are notable for their blatant homoeroticism, wherein Roman fulfills his role as the archetypal corporate seductress. However, this transgressive approach to business goes against Logan’s modus operandi, which is one dominated by masculinity and heteronormativity. Ultimately, Roman’s alienation from his father’s worldview due to queer coding and gendered expectations leaves him isolated in a way different from his siblings, making it easier for Logan to exercise his control and abuse.

As the only girl, Siobhan “Shiv” Roy is familiar with her father’s gendered expectations in a way Roman cannot be. Shiv’s womanhood inherently paints her as lesser in Logan’s eyes, her existence a blemish on the Roy family line of succession. Despite this, she is exactly what Logan wants in an heir: competent, strategic, a killer. Logan’s downright dismissal of Shiv as a meaningful player in the business world is an illustration of his misogyny and the importance of masculinity within his system of abuse. Throughout the series, Shiv is constantly insulted, mocked, and belittled for her womanhood, because within Logan’s ethical framework, to reject masculinity is a cardinal sin. By defining Shiv only by her gender, Logan utilizes the undercurrent of misogyny within the Waystar power structure to consistently deny her agency, love, and a voice in his corporate kingdom.In Succession, childhood trauma casts its silhouette over the entire narrative as the rotten root of the Roy siblings’s pain. Logan’s abuse manifests differently in each of the Roys’ lives, with the treatment they go through at the hands of their father being nonuniform and uniquely damaging. However, despite the differences in the abuse experienced by Kendall, Roman, and Shiv, their traumas are connected through Logan’s need for control, dominance, and ownership. Though it is a childhood the viewer never sees, its presence is felt throughout the entire series. The monster’s shadow is on full display, but the horrors of its face are known only by the siblings themselves.