Kerry vs Marcia

Do you ever wonder, like, who else is fucking your man?

There are few things in life more painful than losing a loved one. A person you share part of your soul with leaves, and you have to pick up the pieces. As the world continues, you’re left with the sinking feeling that grief is forever. For Logan Roy, that feeling is felt strongly by one person. His lover, his friend, his companion…Kerry.

I think we all owe the Waystar mistress an apology right about now. Or at least a nod in her direction whilst she’s shoved out the servant’s entrance. As the vultures convene in the apartment Logan Roy once called home, her arrival was a shocking reminder that people may actually miss that man. Begging for the chance to go up to his room just one last time, she’s carted off with a kick and cab fare.

A woman who seemed poised at the start of the season to at least find some success via her benefactor is now an embarrassment. The Kerry of season four is emotional, volatile, and most importantly, completely alone. As much of a mess as she had been on the plane, her veneer of professionalism shatters as she is confronted with the wife.

Yeah, remember her? She’s back! #TeamMarcia

When we last saw Marcia Roy, it was in the context of another affair, which seemed to have permanently broken the bond they shared. For the Lebanese third wife of the media magnate, this was more than just an unfortunate fling. Marcia’ advice to Willa (and, by extension, Tom) had always been to have a baby to secure the relationship. Unfortunately for Marcia Roy, that didn’t happen. That made her vulnerable – a distasteful position to be in. Ultimately, she didn’t need a child. In the end, she just had to outlive a man who was already on borrowed time. But Kerry and her presence represented something absolutely unacceptable. A real rival for his affections, and worse, for his fortune.

Marcia is shopping, in Milan. Forever.

Logan was, by the estimate of Connor, working on his “baby batter” at the end of season three, with the explicit intention of having a fifth child with Kerry. A new heir. That was a direct threat, and Marcia had responded early by re-establishing and cementing her financial position. Their tender affection from season one was dead by the third season. And now, after what feels like years of exile, she’s immediately back in the fold. Dressed in funeral drag, veil pinned tight, playing the widow to perfection. Logan can’t stop her now, and so the flailing assistant gets sent out the back door.

We’ve only ever gotten glimpses of Kerry’s relationship with her employer and…boyfriend? They weren’t verbose or dramatically romantic, but one thing was for certain, and that was the trust he had in her. A trust reciprocated (unwisely) on her side. She was the first to know about everything, from his jokes to his UTI. But more than anything, Kerry is responsible for maintaining lines of communication between father and children. Much like how Marcia spent her time in seasons one and two attempting to hold the family together after Logan’s near death experience, Kerry is constantly on the phone to them on his behalf. With the wife driven away from the household via infidelity, Kerry slid in as not just a quick fling, but an emotional support.

She’s more than just a body. Her duties as an executive assistant is to get things done quickly and quietly, but her role in the relationship was basically as a surrogate wife. Not a nurse, but a partner. They shared jokes, laughed at the president’s tantrum, eye fucked in the parlour. Season four saw Kerry at her height, and while she was humiliating herself via her audition, she was also working the room. There was an openness to her conversations at his birthday, a confidence that comes only from the conviction that you can’t be torn down. Maybe they were even secretly engaged, as she babbles to Roman during her humiliation. But a dead man’s promise means nothing at his funeral, and while Marcia stoically shoulders the grief of losing her husband, Kerry begs for just a moment. She can have it on the train.

We’re calling Kerry a taxi to the subway so that she can go home to her little apartment.

Every relationship the Roys have is transactional, but in Kerry’s case, that transaction was never completed. Marcia got financial security, Willa got her play made, and Tom got to play at being an executive. Even Rhea got the comfort of leaving on her own terms. But what was the reward for Kerry in the end?

·      A few trinkets in a plastic bag.

·      A cab to the nearest public transport – likely down the road.

·      Maybe a 6-month severance package?

Her conviction that great things were coming was pure hubris. It’s never a good idea to think you can survive off of a whisper between the sheets. Much like Tom, Kerry is a victim of putting her eggs into a geriatric basket. One filled with holes and arteries that get clogged because he’s too worried about looking sexy to wear his compression socks. The metaphor might be a mess, but so is this situation.

But unlike Tom, her role in the company is easily voided now. Maybe it already has been. She was his assistant, part of his entourage, and likely won’t be doing the same for his sons. Maybe her news anchor dreams were an attempt to establish herself outside of Logan Roy, but she should have dreamed higher. Done more to protect herself. The again, when your ship claims to be unsinkable, why bother with life rafts?

Marcia and Kerry have earned their roles at Logan’s death. One had the foresight to see that this was always the end goal, the other was just being taken for a ride. With or without that baby, Kerry is just the side piece of a dead man. Not even a particularly sympathetic one to those unaware of his marital estrangement. Grief for a lover isn’t going to cut it to a public who knows he has a wife. You can’t be the Madonna, so you’ll be the whore.

If there’s one thing everyone is becoming hyper aware of now, it’s that optics matter. Logan was a walking legend, but everyone else is mere mortals. That’s why the completely inexperienced Shiv is getting squeezed out of the trio, and why Tom is throwing himself at anyone who can save him, but particularly her. It’s also why Tom felt the need to undercut Logan’s death by saying he died fishing his phone out of the toilet. He’s scared and everyone knows why. Greg, the barnacle of Waystar, is choosing to save himself aligning himself with the family, rather than the corporate bodies that are in danger of being tossed to the side. Alliances are being reforged in these fires.

For Marcia, it’s why her grief needs to be performed.

Connor is right about history being written now that his father has passed, but it isn’t along the lines of some silly political theorist babble. They’re establishing who he was and who he loved. That’s why the paper is important, that’s why Tom being with him is important, and that’s why Marcia needs to establish that the marriage never died. I don’t believe Logan was calling Marcia every night. He was too busy micromanaging the news and sleeping with Kerry. But she doesn’t need it to be believable to the family, she needs it to be known to everyone else.

Kerry has nothing going for her now but her memories. I hope they were pleasant ones. At best, she’ll be the woman he impregnated in his last days. A side panel on the front cover of a trashy tabloid, and a footnote in his biography. More likely, she’ll be left off a web listicle about the love life of the late media magnate.

But with amazing bangs.