#bc Tom is p much the only person that would ever embrace this side of him

[wambsgraham-archive]

The thing that really gets me about "What am I gonna do with a soul anyways" is that it's not just one of the most honest Greg lines in the series, but one of the most true and honest lines in the series, period.

Everyone in Succession is a pretty horrible person, but we see the characters follow two very different schools of dealing with this. Logan, Roman, and Tom are all well aware that they're shitty people doing underhanded things, and to one extent or another, they all own it. They might not all be happy about it, but they can at least admit morality is not what guides their actions. Meanwhile, Kendall, Shiv and Connor seem entirely set on deluding themselves into thinking they're the good guys. Ken and Shiv both couch their bids for power with talk of being the moral one and "fixing" the culture of Waystar, and Connor talks about fighting the elite from his penthouse. To one extent or another, all of them are hiding from the truth of what they are.

And Greg—Greg has been leaning toward the self-deluding side for a while. He wanted to leave ATN in s2 because he was uncomfortable with the company's immorality, but also because he wanted to move up the ladder from being an assistant, and when push came to shove, the latter was more important. He went on about wanting to avoid ATN because of his "principles," but look at how quickly he took the offer of a big promotion instead of a transfer. Look at how easy it was for Logan to sway him into abandoning Kendall and the pursuit of "justice" in s3. His discomfort with evil is outweighed by his desire for money and influence quite easily, but until All the Bells Say, he never once came close to admitting that. His only response to Ewan listing the evils of Waystar in Dundee was to point out that they also make movies he likes, and he couldn't even blackmail Tom in s2 without insisting what he was doing wasn't blackmail.

Now, though, everything is laid bare. Tom offered Greg a deal with no context other than the suggestion that it was underhanded and the promise that it would bring Greg money and power. And Greg took it! Not only that, but he took it without a single attempt to justify his doing so. There was no bumbling and over-explaining, no "if you insist" to shake the blame. He looked Tom right in the eyes and said, "what am I gonna do with a soul anyways?" He said, in so many words, "I know accepting your offer is bad, but what’s the worth of being good?”

Greg is a duplicitous, self centered, power hungry worm of a man. He’ll do anything or betray anyone for his personal gain, no matter how wrong it is or how uncomfortable it makes him, and when he makes his deal with the devil, he admits that truth out loud. He’s not pretending to be better than he is, because Tom encourages that honesty.

We see Greg getting much more comfortable with Tom at the end of s3 than he's ever been before. The fearful awkwardness is fading, and he seems to be genuinely relaxing and enjoying his company. He tells him all the manipulative little details of his plot with the Contessa. He calls him Tommy. They're chill. And if there's one thing that Greg knows about Tom, it's that Tom is quite open about tossing his morals for power, and he encourages Greg to do the same. Tom is the man that laughed in his face for putting "principles" above a chance to get close to Logan at ATN. Tom is the guy that called him "slimeball" like it was adoring praise.

Besides Tom, the people Greg is currently closest to are Kendall, Comfrey, and maybe the Contessa. Kendall spent most of s3 convincing himself he was a righteous crusader for women, and Comfrey and the Contessa seem to be normalish people that presumably possess moral compasses. None of them are exactly in a place to be cheering for Greg to embrace his evil side, and he has to know that. There’s no way in hell Greg’s gonna look his girlfriend in the eye and ask her what the use of having a soul is. He is quite right to worry that his "real me" won't be accepted, because his true self is a little bit awful

Greg can only admit the truth of his morals with someone else that embraces immorality, but when he gets that rare opportunity, he really takes it. Alone with Tom, the person he’s closest to and most comfortable with, Greg is honest about his own nature in a way that almost nobody else on the show has ever been. Kendall and Shiv's grasp on their own "souls" is tenuous at best, but you'd never in a million years catch them owning that like Greg just did.

If he continues down the path of "souls are boring," Greg could land quite firmly on the side of embracing his own awfulness, which is a dangerous prospect for a little bastard like him.