‘Succession’: Nicholas Braun Reveals Cousin Greg’s First Date Strategy

Libby Hill
·3 min read
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[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “Succession” Season 3, Episode 7, “Too Much Birthday.”]

One of the sweeter, goofier elements of a “Succession” season mired in a quagmire of delusion and dysfunction has been the budding romance — which is to say, a largely one-sided fixation — of the Roy family’s favorite bumbling, outsider cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun) and Comfry (Dasha Nekrasova), one of Kendall’s (Jeremy Strong) public relations reps.

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Things between the two took a huge step forward in the most recent episode of “Succession,” “Too Much Birthday,” but first, let’s review.

Greg’s crush on Comfry was clear from the very first episode of the season when, upon meeting, he said, “I wrote down a lot of tweets, relevant tweets, that could be important— is that useful to pass on?” She assured him that they could find them as they were, in fact, on Twitter. And thus an epic love story was born.

Since then, Comfry has been friendly, if not particularly warm, when Greg would engage her in conversation in all sorts of settings, but there was little, if any, indication that she might return the flirty feelings that her conversational partner was fostering.

But all that changed this week. Greg works up the courage to ask Comfry on a date while at Kendall’s epic (i.e. assholish) 40th birthday party. While in no way, shape, or form was it a sure thing, she agrees to go out with our, as Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) described him, “nine-foot Cro-Magnon man,” but only after finding out that her employer forbade the the union from happening. Drama.

In the aftermath, Greg finds a drugged-up, depressed Tom and the pair wander through the bizarro “compliment tunnel” — listen, if you want anything said about the episode to make sense, you need to go read Ben Travers’ review first — as the former moons over Comfry and expresses excitement about his upcoming date while the latter is, as aforementioned, depressed.

All of which is to say that, by the time the episode’s end credits roll, and another soul-crushing glimpse in the larger Roy family shenanigans has come to a close, the only ray of sunshine that audiences have left to cling to is Greg’s date.

Dasha Nekrasova, Jeremy Strong, and Nicholas Braun in “Succession” - Credit: Macall Polay / HBO
Dasha Nekrasova, Jeremy Strong, and Nicholas Braun in “Succession” - Credit: Macall Polay / HBO

Macall Polay / HBO

The good news is, we have thoughts. Or, more accurately, Nicholas Braun has thoughts. In a recent interview with Braun, IndieWire inquired as to what the actor thought a first date with Greg might look like and the actor was predictably insightful.

“I think it’s something quite sweet or like, classic date-y. He might visit the Brooklyn Botanic Garden,” Braun said. “Or I can imagine him going to a fair or an amusement park and playing the games. Shooting water guns into the [clown’s mouth] and riding a Ferris Wheel.”

Cousin Greg folded up like a pretzel next to Comfry and riding the ferris wheel at Coney Island? Sign us up for that indie rom-com.

“I think he isn’t that creative. It’s just like, what is a typical date?” he said. “And I think that’s very sweet. I don’t think he tries to be super slick.”

Braun went on to muse about how Greg’s date plans would meld with Comfry’s whole deal.

“She’s so cool, this no-nonsense publicist. They’re so different, but I think it’d be nice for them to go on a sweet date together,” Braun said.

If the Roys are off to Italy next week for the kids’ mom’s wedding, one can only assume that the finale is dedicated entirely to Greg’s courtship of Comfry, right? Date night on the boardwalk? Anyone? No? You think it’s about the ongoing turmoil of one of the richest families in the (fictional) world? Ugh, fine. A girl can dream.

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