Succession's Kendall Roy: The Modern Rich Young Ruler

Can the ultra-rich be moral? Jesus and Succession say no.

I was late to HBO. I didn’t watch the Sopranos until the beginning of the pandemic when they made it available to everyone for a while. I didn’t see Veep until about the same time. I watched Game of Thrones long after everyone else was outraged about the end, but I still watched in case every other person in the world was an idiot. 

And that means I came to Succession after it was already a critical darling and winning all of the Emmys. When I came to the show, it was all the way. 

I have watched the first three seasons countless times. I love it because more of the jokes reveal themselves to me the more I watch. And the more I watch, the more there is to see in the background of each shot. For a show that you could almost listen to as a podcast, given just how dialogue-heavy it is, there is a lot going on in the frame. Way more wide shots than one might expect in a drama like this, where the norm is a medium shot or a close up of whoever is speaking. I just think it’s genius and I love it deeply. 

But for all of the things I love about the show, I mostly watch it for Jeremy Strong and his portrayal of Kendall Roy. Don’t get me wrong, there’s not a character on the show I don’t love in some way, but Strong is just :::chef’s kiss::: brilliant. With everyone else, I love some aspect of their character, but with Kendall, I love it all. 

Part of what I love about Kendall is that he is the only one who seems to want to be a good person. Logan and Roman don't care at all about being good, they simply want money and power, which is why they’re my next favorite characters. The two of them are awful, but they’re probably the most honest. Shiv and Connor might seem like they want to be good, but the truth is, they just don’t want to be seen as bad and as long as they can avoid that, being good isn’t super important. 

Kendall wants to be good. Over and over he speaks openly about wanting to do things better than his father, to be a more positive influence in the world. But no matter how much he wants to be a good guy, something always gets in the way.

I haven’t been to a Sunday School class in decades, but one story I remember being a staple back in the day was that of Jesus and the rich young ruler. The story goes that a young man approaches Jesus and asks him how to have eternal life. Jesus tells him to obey all of the commandments, which the young man says he has, then Jesus tells him to sell everything he has, and the young man nopes out because he is wealthy and that doesn’t sound very good. Then Jesus says that it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.

Later, the apostle Paul echoes this sentiment when he tells his protege Timothy that the love of money is the root of all evil. And really, what is wealth accumulation but a love of money?

The Bible is pretty clear that wealth is in direct opposition to the gospel, and I think Succession generally, and Kendall specifically, show us why.

The reason that Kendall can’t be good is because the threat of losing his wealth is always in the back of his mind. Every time he wants to make a choice for good, it puts his affluence at risk, and he is unwilling to do that. Near the end of season 3, he has dinner with his dad and he tells Logan that he wants out of the business because he feels like it’s his only salvation. He tells Logan, “I thought that I could change things, but there’s things you’re able to do that I can’t. You’ve won because you’re corrupt, and so is the world…I don’t wanna be you, I’m a good guy.” 

But one episode later, he’s not looking for a way out, he’s looking to take over everything yet again. Because the other option is to leave with nothing, and that is not an option that he’s willing to accept. Like the rich young man in the Bible, his wealth is worth more than his morals. He can’t be saved because chasing opulence keeps him from being saved.

I think it’s fascinating that in a show where someone can put together a full minute supercut of Brian Cox saying “Fuck off,” it’s one that is speaking directly to much of American Evangelicalism right now. Despite Paul calling hoarding money downright evil and Jesus saying that wealth will keep you out of heaven, there is a brand of American Evangelicalism that extols prosperity. And in most churches, wealth accumulation wouldn’t crack the top ten list of sins to avoid, even though it is warned against very plainly throughout the Scripture.

Much has been written about the “He Gets Us” ads. The goal of the ads is to rebrand Jesus as one of us. In one spot, they show a number of people living in poverty and then include the text, “Jesus struggled to make ends meet, too. He gets us. All of us.”

First of all, it’s hard to know who the “us” is here, given the massive amount of money this group is spending on advertising. If you’ve got millions to drop on a Super Bowl ad, you’re not getting money from people who are struggling to make ends meet.

But more importantly, it’s just wrong in saying that Jesus struggled with poverty. Jesus worked as a carpenter, but chose a life that was not focused on creating capital. His followers and the people he kept closest to him were those who worked, but didn’t see money as the most important thing. When wealth accumulation shows up in the story, it’s because when the disciple who betrayed him, he did so for money. There’s no indication that Jesus was forced into a life of poverty, but rather that it was a deliberate choice that he made. Poverty isn’t something Jesus “gets” about us, but rather, it is something Jesus calls his followers to. But if you’ve pulled in billions of dollars from wealthy donors, you’re probably not going to want to talk about how that money is considered evil. 

I’m excited about season 4 of Succession, and I’m rooting for a redemption arc for Kendall Roy. But the truth is, the only way that Kendall, or any extremely wealthy person, can be redeemed is to lose everything. We’ll see if the Church is willing to listen to this sermon.