In prestige TV, few families fuse business, politics, and resentment like the Roys. Searchers looking for Succession Character Relationships want a clear map through loyalties, marriages, and betrayals that shift across seasons.
Expect a grounded walkthrough that highlights who holds influence, who seeks proximity to power, and where alliances collapse under pressure. Context lands first, then practical takeaways you can use to read any scene quickly.
The Roy Family at a Glance
In the Roy dynasty, bloodlines and board seats intersect. Logan Roy builds Waystar Royco, then weaponizes affection and access to control adult children and senior lieutenants.
Siblings Kendall, Roman, Shiv, and half-brother Connor compete for proximity while pretending not to. Extended relations, including cousin Greg and uncle Ewan, orbit the empire with their own limits and agendas.
Think of this as a compact map: founders, spouses, heirs, and auxiliaries who amplify or blunt the patriarch’s reach.
Logan Roy and Inner Circle
Power in the Roy orbit flows through Logan’s approvals, grudges, and carefully staged tests. Expect sharp pivots that reposition children and confidants in a heartbeat, especially when an external deal threatens control.
In later episodes, the vacuum after Logan’s death triggers a scramble that exposes unspoken dependencies. The names here anchor early contexts and ripple through every later conflict.
Logan Roy
Logan’s biography begins in Dundee hardship and ends in boardroom dominance. The company spans news, studios, parks, and cruises, and the culture mirrors his appetite for control.
Scandal management defines the corporate rhythm, which feeds the Waystar Royco hierarchy and narrows the circle around the leader. References to health and mortality intensify succession games, since access to Logan is the only currency that truly appreciates.
Marcia Roy
Marcia protects position through quiet leverage, measured distance, and contract discipline.
After marital fractures, she negotiates terms rather than emotions, then reappears when a unified front offers value. Her presence unsettles Logan’s children because it dilutes their influence. Marcia and Caroline influence becomes a running theme in late-stage maneuvers.
Caroline Collingwood
Caroline, mother to Kendall, Roman, and Shiv, treats the company as a bargaining chip rather than a home.
Sarcasm masks strategy; the remarriage and settlement revisions demonstrate how paperwork can decide outcomes more efficiently than shouting matches. When big deals surface, Caroline’s signature often matters more than filial outrage.
Ewan Roy
Ewan functions as the skeptic on the family’s board. Environmental and social views clash with Waystar’s posture, yet kinship keeps him at the table. Ewan Roy politics sets boundaries for Greg’s inheritance and for Ewan’s occasional interventions when governance lines are crossed.
The Siblings: Kendall, Roman, Shiv, Connor
Sibling dynamics pivot between temporary unity and rapid fragmentation. Joint fronts emerge when threatened by Logan or an outside buyer, then dissolve as soon as a personal edge appears.
Reading each sibling’s core need clarifies their patterns: validation for Kendall, credibility for Roman, recognition for Shiv, and dignity for Connor.
Kendall Roy
Kendall wants legitimacy stamped by results, not speeches. Addiction history and a fatal accident cover-up haunt every victory lap. Public crusades against Logan alternate with reconciliations when leverage runs thin.
Kendall and Roman rivalry frames strategy meetings, birthday theatrics, and last-minute vote-wrangling.
Roman Roy
Roman performs bravado to hide uncertainty. Inappropriate texting and misreads of professional boundaries complicate executive standing.
When momentum swings his way, timing issues and impulse control undercut progress. Roman’s sharp instincts still surface during deal scrutiny and gut checks on outside operators.
Siobhan “Shiv” Roy
Shiv pursues recognition as a peer in rooms that undervalue her. Political consulting past provides language for coalition building, although overpromising harms execution.
Marriage choices intersect with corporate plans, and Shiv and Tom marriage becomes both bridge and trap during high-pressure negotiations.
Connor Roy
Connor rejects the corporate knife fight yet craves stature. The presidential bid grows from identity needs more than viable math, and Connor Roy presidential run absorbs attention, funds, and emotional bandwidth.
Relationship stability with Willa redefines what “win” means to someone living outside the succession track.
Partners and Spouses In The Crossfire
Partners carry the family’s stress tests. Access to private conversations, exposure to legal risk, and public optics make spouses and companions pivotal.
Read these relationships for leverage more than romance, then watch how quickly vows bend when prosecutors, shareholders, or election nights intervene.
Tom Wambsgans
Tom pursues safety inside the machine, then trades favors for altitude. Sacrificial posturing around legal exposure sets a precedent he later exploits. The Greg and Tom dynamic delivers humor while telegraphing who takes the next fall when optics demand it.
Rava Roy
Rava prioritizes distance and stability for the children. Interactions with Kendall toggle between guarded support and firm boundaries. Her apartment turning into a temporary war room shows how family life becomes collateral during corporate battles.
Willa Ferreyra
Willa evolves from paid companion to partner managing trade-offs in public. Marriage to Connor offers predictability and a platform for creative ambitions. The union signals a personal victory for Connor, separate from quarterly earnings or poll numbers.
Extended Roys and Cousins
Allies outside the immediate line sometimes carry the most sensitive information. Paper trails, board votes, and testimony risks converge in these characters, who often lack the insulation enjoyed by the core.
Greg Hirsch
Greg enters as anxious comic relief, then learns to archive leverage. Opportunism meets naïveté, which keeps doors ajar even after missteps. Alignments shift between Kendall and Tom depending on which path looks safer that week.
Marianne Hirsch
Marianne appears briefly yet signals Ewan’s distance from Waystar’s daily grind. Pressure on Greg to avoid corporate contamination underlines the family’s split over money, ethics, and legacy.
Key Alliances That Shape Power
Short context helps you decode quick shifts during crises. Track these patterns to understand who gains when the music stops.
- Logan and Marcia stabilize optics when outside threats rise, then renegotiate terms in private for control.
- Kendall, Shiv, and Roman form temporary coalitions against Logan or buyers, then fracture once titles surface.
- Tom mentors Greg while extracting loyalty, then offloads risk when legal pressure heats up.
- Caroline and Marcia influence pivotal paperwork, which tilts outcomes during divorce or acquisition talks.
- Ewan sets guardrails for Greg’s money and conscience, then withholds support when corporate ethics fail.
Company Stakes and The Matsson Undertow
Sale talk to Lukas Matsson reframes the contest as timing plus signatures rather than a coronation. After Logan’s death, interim leadership labels grant status without certainty, and the board’s appetite for a clean exit intensifies.
ATN’s election-night calls pull Tom into a more radioactive seat, while Kendall and Roman test executive authority against skeptical directors. In practical terms, the Waystar Royco hierarchy becomes a scoreboard that updates whenever new filings, polls, or DOJ notes change the risk curve.
Psychology That Drives The Conflicts
Family systems explain more than finance here. Kendall’s “outside-in” esteem strategy keeps failing because public stunts cannot fill private gaps. Roman’s impulse toward humiliation complicates intimacy and decision quality.
Shiv’s hunger for recognition fuels overextensions that weaken coalitions. Connor exemplifies magical thinking when jumping straight to national office, then finds emotional stability in marriage. Read scenes through those lenses and plot turns feel inevitable rather than surprising.
Season Four Flashpoints, Minus Red Herrings
After Logan’s sudden death, silence becomes the power tell. People who speak first usually reveal neediness, while people who count votes quietly tend to win.
Proxy math, funeral optics, and the GoJo transaction compress timelines that once stretched across seasons.
Board members weigh reputational risk against exit price, and siblings learn that access without paper lacks force. The succession question shifts from victory speeches to binding documents and final tallies.
How To Read Any Roy Scene Quickly
Context beats volume in a show where word count often masks intent. Use these cues during tense meetings or family gatherings.
- Track who controls the calendar, since meeting timing signals leverage and preparedness.
- Watch who moves to the side or sits behind, because seating implies sponsorship or exile.
- Note who speaks in numbers versus feelings, since numbers tend to decide the next step.
- Listen for contract words like amendment, board consent, or proxy, which matter more than promises.
- Scan for off-camera calls that end scenes, because those calls usually carry the real decision.
Final Takeaway
In Succession, power concentrates where proximity meets paperwork. Family bonds collapse under the weight of staged tests, while outsiders convert gaps into options.
Reading relationships through stated incentives, recent betrayals, and document control gives a reliable forecast of who will matter in the next episode and why.
