Thanks to this week’s episode, one of Succession’s longest-running mysteries has finally been resolved. In Season 4 Episode 9, Ewan Roy (James Cromwell), the estranged older brother of Logan (Brian Cox), chooses to deliver his own eulogy at the funeral despite attempts from the children and Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun) to object. Ewan is arguably the Roy family’s only moral member, assuming there is such a thing. Although he is far from flawless, he has never been afraid to expose Logan for what he truly is. He doesn’t hold back when paying tribute to Logan either, but in the course of doing so, he provides the solution to a long-standing mystery regarding the ancestry of the patriarch Roy.
Who Is Rose Roy?
You may recall that Rose Roy was referenced in the Season 2 episode “Dundee,” which saw the Roys visiting Logan’s boyhood home. Rhea Jarrell (Holly Hunter), a future Waystar CEO, is instructed by Kendall (Jeremy Strong) to pay tribute to Rose, which immediately enrages Logan.
There hasn’t been much information available about Rose up until now. We are aware that Logan holds responsibility for her demise and that she passed away in circumstances that have never been discussed before. You may assume that Rose’s passing was caused by Logan’s temper and propensity to harm his children and grandkids in fits of rage, but Ewan discloses a much sadder truth during the eulogy he performs for his late brother.
What Happened to Rose?
As Ewan relates, Logan and he were evacuated from Dundee, Scotland, during World War II for their protection. But when their ship’s engine failed, they were abandoned in the water without the convoy. Ewan says it this way: “They warned us kids that if we spoke or coughed or moved an inch, that the U-boats would pick up the vibrations through the hull, and we would drown in the drink, right there in the hold. With a four-year-old and a five-and-a-half-year-old chatting with our eyes, we remained silent for three nights and two days.
After the two were moved to Quebec, Canada, the boys were reared by their uncle, Noah. Logan most likely inherited Noah’s aggressive and demanding personality qualities, and there are obvious scars on his back that show that the torture he endured at the hands of his uncle was also physical, as was revealed early on in the television series Succession. However, Logan was sent away to school because their uncle and aunt had money and could afford to send him to a better one, Ewan says in his eulogy. Logan detested the situation and became ill with polio shortly after; according to Ewan, he grumbled until he was eventually brought home “under his own steam.”
Rose, their younger sister, had already moved to Quebec by this time, but as Ewan explains, Logan was sure that he had taken his illness back with him and was ultimately to blame for Rose’s death: “He always felt that he brought home the polio that claimed her. Ewan adds to a surprised church, “I don’t even know whether it’s true, but our aunt and uncle certainly did nothing to disabuse him of that view. “They allowed him to handle it.”
What Does This Mean for Logan?
We can get a better understanding of Logan by adding this last piece of the puzzle. He didn’t treat his sister cruelly or violently, and Rose didn’t pass away as a result of an accident that was caused by him. He spent his entire life blaming himself for her illness-related death. He was told by his aunt and uncle that he was to blame for her passing, and it stayed with him ever since, making any subsequent reference of Rose by name painful for him.
There is no question that Roman (Kieran Culkin) and potentially his other children were physically abused by Logan Roy in the past. Roman even alludes to this in this week’s episode when he claims his father “made him breathe funny.” He undoubtedly used them as weapons against one another and manipulated their emotions. Consider how different the patriarch Roy would have been if he hadn’t gone to Quebec in the first place or if he had remained in school. It’s a what-if game with no definitive answers, but at least we now know more about Logan himself as we approach the show’s finale the following week.
On Sunday, Succession Season 4’s finale will debut on HBO and HBO Max.
