This post contains spoilers for season 4, episode 5 of "Succession."

When exactly did Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun) become the worst character on "Succession?" Over the course of the series, Greg Hirsch has had quite the journey from his days as a bumbling theme park mascot. Not long ago, Greg was just the show's dependable comedic relief — a 6-foot-7 idiot with middle class taste struggling to navigate the corporate world, tasked by his mother to claim their own part of the Waystar Royco pie. In a show full of potty-mouthed white collar drones, there was a refreshing innocence to Greg and his unsophisticated lack of swagger: A cajun chicken linguine from California Pizza Kitchen and deck shoes kind of man.

After three seasons of the show and under the guidance/degradation of his "Disgusting Brother" Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen), Greg has suddenly become one of the most important faces at Waystar Royco, by utilizing his blood connection to the family at the core of the multi-media conglomerate. In the "Succession" season 3 finale, we watched him betray the Roy siblings, choosing to throw his lot in with Tom instead. In a particularly frustrating scene from last week's episode, "Honeymoon States," Greg sycophantically sucks up to Marcia while she humiliates Kerry in the Roy estate while she gathers her belongings.

If you also recently decided you love to hate Greg Hirsch, this week's episode, "Kill List," makes it clear that you're not alone. Even the Roy family are starting to get tired of Greg's bootlicking tendencies, especially in the absence of Logan Roy (Brian Cox). But how did Greg go from likable idiot to corpo-parasite?

Greg Is Desperately Holding On To The Roy Fortune

In episode 5 of the final season of "Succession," Lukas Mattson (Alexander Skarsgård), the tech billionaire CEO of GoJo streaming, invites the Waystar Royco crew to Norway to see if the state of the company post-Logan's death is something he can still invest in. Tom tasks Greg with getting to know Mattson and what makes him tick. However, in the wake of Logan's death, Tom's position of power in the company is in question, which makes Greg wonder if continually sucking up to Tom is still an advantageous strategy. Greg starts withholding from Tom, and introduces himself to Mattson next to Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Roman (Kieran Culkin), and Shiv (Sarah Snook), as a Roy family member himself.

As seen by their active annoyance, it's obvious to his cousins why Greg is suddenly trying to portray himself as one of their own, and why Greg robotically tried to connect with them at the estate. With no inheritance or security to fall back on, maintaining his relationship with the Roy heirs is all he has to fall back on.

Despite his childish demeanor and sometimes incoherent speech patterns, Greg is not dumb as he looks — and if we look back on his behavior throughout the show, you can see that Greg is really just a monstrous product of the culture at Waystar Royco; the Roy family's own creation. It's an institution built on corruption and abuse, and Greg has shown us how someone who once had "principles" can become a perpetrator of that system.

A Series-Long Degradation Of Character

Right from the pilot episode of "Succession," Greg has consistently found himself at the mercy of Tom Wambsgans. Before they were the "Disgusting Brothers," Greg was Tom's glorified punching bag. Throughout all of his marital problems and work pressures, Tom took Greg under his wing to show him the decadence of obscene wealth, at the cost of forcing Greg to do his dirty work — starting with shredding documents to cover up a sexual harassment scandal in the company cruise line. Between Kendall pressuring Greg to do cocaine and Logan's cruel game of "Boar on the Floor," there aren't exactly any positive role models in the corporate world.

But between Tom's abuse and the Roy family's general selfish negligence, there's only so much one can endure before they start to learn and adapt for their own survival. And that's exactly what Greg does, adopting the self-preservation tactics he observes around him. When tasked by Tom with destroying the cruise line documents, Greg keeps some pages stashed away and ultimately uses them to advance Kendall's agenda against Logan — one of the more cunning moves he's made in the show so far, and one that led to the pivotal moment of Kendall exposing his father in the season 2 finale.

Unfortunately, the Greg that Waystar created is not a man of principles, as he immediately jumps back to Logan's side when a promotion is in his direct interests. It's all about the money in the end, and despite his lack of loyalty, Greg feels that he has a unique entitlement to the Roy family fortune; he was even willing to pursue legal action with Greenpeace for a bigger slice of the pie.

Boo, Souls!

The Greg we were re-introduced to in season 4 of "Succession" is a husk of his former self. Logan wasn't a saint, but every character on the show has had some sort of space to grieve for the man out of complex emotions and nuance. Greg, however, immediately looks for a way to save his own skin. Season 4 Greg is ridiculously self-serving, insensitive, and pathetic (and not in the appealing Kendall Roy way). Almost out of nowhere, the character we once loved for his total obliviousness has become just as evil as the rest — yet this is not a sudden shift in character, but rather the trajectory Greg was always on. Maybe Logan himself even wanted it this way.

In fact, it's a testament to the writing of "Succession" and its large cast of dynamic characters that we're able to hold such huge contradictions at once. Is Greg one of the worst characters on the show, or is he just the worst possible reflection on the characters we love? After all, Greg wasn't corrupted by money overnight. His transformation from bumbling idiot to self-serving corporate bootlicker is a reflection of the culture of Waystar Royco that the Roys have upheld for decades. Really, Greg is just a product of the corporate world — and no matter how much we sympathize with the Roy siblings, their ultimate path is to protect that world. As Tom said, there are way more Gregs out there.

Who needs souls, anyways?

Read this next: 10 Worst Things The Roys Have Done In Succession

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