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This story contains spoilers for season four of Succession. Every week The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald will be recapping the latest episode of Succession. You can listen to our recap podcast here.
As Succession edges closer to its grand finale, there is a lot of chatter about who might “win” the show. After four seasons of backroom deals and backstabbing, which of these desperately unlikeable characters will come out on top?
But there is an argument to be made that perhaps the winner has been standing in front of us all along. From girlfriend-for-hire to first-lady-in-waiting, no one has had a better glow-up on Succession than Willa Roy (née Ferreyra).
In season one, Roman (Kieran Culkin) described the character as a “hot-party-girl-who-wouldn’t-look-twice-at-you/hooker” whose main function was to appear as set dressing for Connor Roy (Alan Ruck).
Initially, Willa was a guest role, two to three episodes, tops, but it soon became clear to everyone on set, especially creator Jesse Armstrong, that Willa wasn’t going anywhere.
“Turns out she is kind of hard to shake,” laughs Justine Lupe, the actress who plays Willa on the hit HBO show.
And the winner is….Willa? Justine Lupe’s Succession character might be the only person on the show to find her happily ever after.Credit: Marija Ercegovac
Lupe is joining me on Zoom from a villa in Rome, which feels very on-brand for Succession.
I am half expecting Logan to rise from the dead and waltz past in the background, but instead, Lupe is surrounded by a flock of curious roosters who seem intent on interrupting our chat.
“I might just need to move inside,” says Lupe, carrying her laptop indoors. “I bet you didn’t think roosters would ruin this interview.”
The 33-year-old is disarming in much the same way her Succession character is; likeable, unguarded and honest. It’s these same qualities that have helped transform Willa into an audience favourite, a reminder that not everyone on this show is as awful as they seem.
Connor (Alan Ruck) had grand plans for the presidency.
“There’s a tenderness to Willa, the way that she navigates things, and I think it’s rare to watch someone on the show display empathy and compassion,” offers Lupe.
“She’s pretty transparent about why she’s there, but I think the audience respects that from her. Everyone wants something, but at least she’s upfront about it.”
It also doesn’t hurt that Willa gets handed some of Succession’s most memorable lines. She may not have as much to work with as other characters, but it’s a quality-over-quantity situation.
Midway through this season, Willa shared a tense exchange with Logan’s ex-wife, Marcia, after she attempted to reduce Willa to a social climber, telling her, “Look how far you’ve come.”
Willa doesn’t miss a beat, reminding Marcia they are two sides of the same coin: “Well, look at us both, right?”
The internet declared it one of the season’s best moments, a win for the little guy.
“The writers do an impressive job of giving her satisfying interactions, and that one with Marcia was just so good because it’s fun to watch someone serve it back,” says Lupe.
“It worked so well because she just doesn’t get flustered by these people, she doesn’t have any relation to this family, she doesn’t come from wealth, and she doesn’t work with them, so she can just be cool.”
‘There’s a tenderness to Willa … I think it’s rare to watch someone on the show display empathy and compassion.’
For much of the series, Willa has been a bit player, content to exist in the long shadow cast by Connor and his more dominant siblings, Roman, Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Shiv (Australia’s Sarah Snook).
So it kind of made sense that her character’s big moment, marrying Connor in episode three of this season, was dwarfed by the show’s biggest moment: the death of Logan Roy.
“Just my luck, the most important day of Willa’s life and then her husband’s father drops dead,” laughs Lupe.
Despite Logan’s mile-high death, the wedding went ahead, though it remains unclear if Connor and Willa found their happily ever after. Shortly before they tied the knot, Connor asked Willa a question audiences already know the answer to: is she only with him for the money?
A nice day for a white wedding! Until Logan drops dead.Credit: HBO /Binge
“Well, there is something about money and safety here,” says Willa. “But I’m happy.”
Conditional happiness might be the most you can hope for in the world of Succession, a place where relationships are strictly toxic or transactional (we’re looking at you, Tom and Shiv). But Lupe argues that while Connor and Willa may have started as a fantasy, it’s developed into something more real.
“I listened to a lot of like Esther Perel and read her book Mating In Captivity, and her whole thing is that there’s nothing off the table in relationships,” explains Lupe.
“If you have a contract between the two of you, an understanding of this is what we’re doing, whether it be polygamy, swinging, open relationships or something less conventional, there is something respectable about that.”
“And Connor and Willa always check in; they always revisit their arrangement, and I think that makes them one of the more functional relationships on the show.”
If things had gone a little differently (OK, a lot differently), we might’ve had Connor and Willa in the White House. In episode eight, Connor’s delusional attempt to run for President came to a limp end.
The eldest Roy sibling conceded with a speech only Connor could make: “I happen to be a billionaire … sorry! But honestly, America, you flunked it.”
Sadly, we will never see Willa as First Lady, though Lupe has her own ideas about how that might’ve panned out.
Justine Lupe with co-star Alan Ruck at Succession’s season four premiere.Credit: Invision
“Willa would be a detached FLOTUS, someone who’s got their own thing going on,” she says. “Maybe she’s writing off-Broadway plays in the White House?”
Instead, as Succession nears its end, the focus has shifted to the future of WayStar and, by extension, the fortune of everyone who relies on the company.
Predicting how the show might finish is impossible, but should the siblings fail spectacularly and Willa and Connor become collateral damage, how does she think her character would react?
“That’s a hard one; I think she’d be there like brainstorming with Connor about what the next step might be, but she’d figure something out; it’s part of her disposition,” says Lupe.
“Willa is a survivor; she’ll probably outlast them all.”
The final episode of Succession is on Monday, May 29 on Foxtel and Binge.
Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.
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