‘Succession’ Season 4: Gerri Just Dodged a Major Bullet With Logan’s Death

Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Succession Season 4.For a fleeting moment in Sunday night’s installment of Succession Season 4, we were worried about our favorite girlboss Gerri Kellman (J. Smith-Cameron). A reliable member of the Waystar team since the very beginning, Logan (Brian Cox) makes the outrageous decision to have her fired in one of the episode’s earliest scenes, manipulating Roman (Kieran Culkin) into delivering this information. Roman complies miserably before leaving a voicemail to his dad, saying he feels “horrible” about it and questioning whether Logan is deliberately “being shitty” with him. Roman is unable to contemplate this for long, though, as a little while later, he and the rest of the Roy siblings receive news that their father is dying.

So, with Logan now dead, is Gerri still fired, or did she just get incredibly lucky? There are only a few other characters who actually seem to know about the plans for Gerri’s removal, including Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) and Karolina (Dagmara Domińczyk). Nobody’s aware yet that Roman actually went through with it, and we can’t confirm whether Logan indeed formalized the dismissal while he was still alive. The new mid-season trailer shows that Gerri’s still around in some capacity, so we’re pretty sure that regardless of her employment status, she’s going to be a key player in the rest of the series. But are her days on the Waystar payroll ancient history?

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Why Did Logan Want to Fire Gerri, Anyway?

Logan had been entertaining the idea of firing Gerri since the end of Season 3 when he received an unsolicited “dick pic” sent by Roman and intended for Gerri. Upon realizing the sexual undertones to Roman and Gerri’s relationship, Logan called Gerri “a million years old” and their association “fucking disgusting,” despite having an even larger age gap with his own partner, Kerry (Zoe Winters). Logan wanted Gerri out but agreed to let her stay in order to avoid bad optics and the risk of litigation. However, by the latest Season 4 episode, Logan was set on firing Gerri again — so what changed?

Logan presented Gerri’s firing as a consequence of her supposed poor job in handling the fallout of the company’s sexual abuse scandal, during which she served as Waystar’s General Counsel and interim CEO; he wanted to “hang Cruises around her neck.” But this was obviously not the only reason, nor the most important one, for Gerri getting the chop. Repulsion towards Roman and Gerri’s dynamic was no doubt part of it — so was, perhaps, the fact that Gerri laughed with Hugo (Fisher Stevens) at Kerry’s ATN audition tape in the previous episode. And we wouldn’t be shocked if Logan was just downright threatened by the idea of a woman as CEO, no matter how temporary. But why now? Roman’s return to Team Logan was most certainly instrumental in Logan’s decision. It gave him a way to not only test Roman’s renewed loyalty, but to punish him for his prior transgression of siding with Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Shiv (Sarah Snook). Roman has always had a hard time saying no to his father, a fact that Logan happily uses against him.

Roman Could Be Gerri’s Biggest Obstacle

Initially, we felt confident that Roman would jump at the chance to reinstate/un-fire Gerri now that Logan’s gone. In the episode, he’s highly reluctant to dismiss her but knows that ultimately, he doesn’t have a choice. Beyond this, it’s been made clear on numerous occasions that he cares about her outside a professional setting — probably much more than the unsentimental Gerri cares about him. Their complex connection has already endured several seasons of shenanigans, so it would be a dramatic turn of events if it were to fall apart in the final stretch of episodes.

Unfortunately, since Gerri’s dismissal was Logan’s final “wish” of sorts to Roman, this is likely to complicate his feelings about the situation. We can see him being determined to honor Logan’s last request by ensuring that Gerri stays sacked — especially as he’s begun to question whether he even said he loved his dad before he died and if his angry voicemail to him contained the last words his dad ever heard. Not to mention that things between Roman and Gerri are looking pretty frosty if the new trailer is anything to go by — and there’s also their freshest encounter, in which Gerri ignores Roman while he awkwardly angles for a hug. We don’t want to see Roman turn on Gerri, and it’s sad to think that Logan might have such a strong grip on him even in death.

Is Gerri a Genuine Contender for Waystar CEO?

Luckily, Gerri’s fate might not be up to Roman. In the latest Season 4 episode, Karolina expresses surprise and presumably disapproval at the news of Gerri’s firing; we also expect Frank (Peter Friedman) and Karl (David Rasche) to advocate for her staying. That leaves Tom, whose power is confined pretty exclusively to ATN rather than Waystar as a whole. And isn’t Gerri literally still interim CEO?! For all we know, many will see her as the default pick to succeed Logan. And while this might put a target on her back, at least she has some people in her corner for now.

Gerri’s discussion of the statement on Logan’s death shows that she’s still, at this point, involved in all the critical conversations. She might know the ins and outs of Waystar better than just about anyone, and if the rest of the “old guard” want to see one of their own take over — and prevent the next-gen Roys from doing so — Gerri is potentially their best bet. Maybe even more significantly, Gerri would offer stability and continuity as Waystar enters a new phase. Now isn’t the time to get rid of a competent, experienced, and trusted member of the company — if anyone can get Waystar back on track, surely it’s Gerri.

Throughout the series, Gerri has continuously been teased as a possible successor to Logan. She was used as a placeholder in Season 2 to stall picking a real heir, and in Season 3 she was formally made interim CEO. The trailer seemingly shows her agreeing with Karl that the siblings aren’t “equipped” to fulfill the role, so maybe we’ll see her go after the position herself — and if she does, will she be successful? Our first instincts are to assume that Kendall, Shiv, Roman, or even the burgeoning Tom, are more likely to be winning candidates. But we wouldn’t be mad at seeing Gerri up there — she might just be the most compelling option out of everyone.

New episodes of Succession Season 4 premiere every Sunday on HBO and HBO Max.