Dick Pics and Penis Power on 'Succession'

This article contains spoilers for the latest episode of Succession

When is a dick pic just a dick pic, and when is it a thinly disguised metaphor for the unbridled masculinity and ego-driven power plays of business? On Succession, the show which uses light touch symbolism like compliment tunnels filled with fragile egos, and a room inspired by the womb of the Oedipus complex-afflicted protagonist's mother, you can bet it's probably the latter.

This week's episode sees a classic comedy of errors as Roman finally puts on his big boy trousers and takes command of the Waystar–GoJo deal. Both his confidante Gerri and his father are impressed, sending him text messages in quick succession, to congratulate him on his business nous. Roman responds to Gerri's niceties with a picture of his dick, an image he naturally has on hand in his camera roll, but because sex can never have any flavour of enjoyment in Succession he accidentally sends it to his father. What to do if you send your father a dick pic becomes the moral quandary of this week's episode, a uniquely Succession problem. Roman's answer is to downplay the whole thing and try, excruciatingly, to explain to his father that kids these days basically use it as an evolved emoji. Logan isn't having it.

On Succession, sex is usually grim and never really about the act itself. Think back to Roman's eyebrow-raising window jerk in season one, an almost too on-the-nose metaphor for him marking his territory. "It can seem sort of charged in that way but there’s almost no sex in the show," Culkin told Esquire. "I did have a sex scene with Tabitha where she had to be a corpse, which shows you the kind of sex scene we’re talking about in this show."

The will-they-won't-they of Gerri and Roman has always felt less about genuine sexual tension, and more about him eroticising his puerility while she attempts to steer him toward growing up. This season has seen Gerri back away from their dirty conversations and left Roman with his limp dick in his hand. The dynamic is uncomfortable and strange, but it takes them being exposed while at the office for the uneasiness of it all to really register.

This week's incident isn't the first dick pic exchange we've seen on the show. In season two Naomi Pierce bullied Kendall into sending her one, chanting "dick pic! dick pic! dick pic!" down the phone at him. The sender is usually the one trying to assert power, but in the instance of Naomi and Kendall, a relationship which began with her humiliating him, the exchange showed who really had the upper hand.

In 'Chiantishire', Roman's dick pic fiasco is a joke which quickly spirals out of his control, as Shiv spots something she can use against him and switches on her manipulative girlboss mode to Gerri. Roman's left exposed in his nakedness, with his penis now ammo which these women can use against him.

If a penis is perhaps the most potent metaphor for power, then Roman proudly revealing his when he feels on top of the world reduces him to a boy mumbling in embarrassment to his father in a few agonisingly long minutes. Roman has showed his hand too soon, and the power trip that was making him hard has become an instant boner-killer.

'Succession' is available on Sky and NOW on Mondays at 9pm and on demand