One of the rare Jesse Armstrong input saying the relationship was always so dangerous. Not sure how that could change unless Roman starts understanding the real world a bit more and that his actions have consequences. There’s something super interesting when Kieran says part of Roman “means what he says and another doesn’t”. It often feels like he’s following his genuine feelings and impulse in order to test everything to the brink, to the point of implosion like a child pushing and testing all boundaries around him. But there are boundaries with other people that he just can’t understand because they don’t operate under the same rules. He can propose marriage, send dick picks, endorse a nazi, shove his brother because nothing really happens to him, no one takes it seriously enough to show him the real consequences. And if actions don’t have consequences, how can they have meaning?
I’m kind of thinking now that Gerri’s feelings, although there are boundaries to them because they’re so dangerous, are more genuine? This season has been a parade of what she has done for Roman, she has promoted him, talked him out of his mistakes, she didn’t report him when Shiv threatened her own position...
For Roman, it’s like Kieran says, his thing with Gerri is simultaneously something and nothing. And this season, he hasn’t done much FOR her. All of his feelings have been so self-centred; from his jealousy to the dick picks, these are wholly about how HE is feeling. Sure, he kind of says something to his dad “don’t fire her”, which is more than what he does for anyone else, but the next episode he’s like yelling at her to take that grenade, to help him even though he’s not thought about her perspective in this - from the start, he wants her to be all about him, nurture him, help him crack the egg - and poignantly that’s Gerri’s final exchange with him this season ; what is my interest in following you wherever you’re trying to take me “what about me? how do I fit in all of this, tell me how I fit”.
