Succession season 2 premiere recap: The Summer Palace

The season 2 premiere f HBO’s Succession looks at the aftermath of Kendall Roy’s accident and cover-up, plus Logan proposes a successor.

At the end of season 1 of Succession, Kendall (Jeremy Strong) had a car accident which killed his passenger. His fleeing the scene forever put him at the mercy of his father, Logan Roy (Brian Cox). It was fortunate for Logan, in a perverse sort of way, as Kendall was engineering a hostile takeover of the family business. Also, quite simply, Logan never really liked his son, referring to his stint in rehab as being in a “nuthouse.” No doubt this partly inspired Ken’s coup attempt. Of course, Ken isn’t merely a slime-ball villain. That’s implied even by the car accident itself, which happened after he swerved to avoid hitting a deer.

He also seems to feel guilt over fleeing the scene, no doubt fearing a stint in prison and what it could do to his already tarnished reputation. While this doesn’t let the character off the hook, it isn’t so difficult to understand his reasoning. Who wants to risk prison time? His dear old dad just swooped in and took advantage of the tragedy, as many cynical, old corporate patriarchs would.

The cleanup effort

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The Succession season 2 premiere kicks off with Kendall on TV, where he is pressured to give a public declaration of withdrawal from the scheme to take over Waystar Royco (Logan’s empire). Karolina (Dagmara Domińczyk) coaches Ken on what to say about his decision: “I saw their plan but dad’s plan was better.”

Before the live broadcast, Kendall has a bloody nose, likely indicative of cocaine use. When Ken delivers the line as scripted, Logan calls it “The first f***ing thing my son’s ever done right in his life.” Being a skilled manipulator, Logan eases up on Ken, to reward his compliance. In fact, now that he has some approval from his father, Ken even seems eager to help him, offering to give inside info on his would-be partners. He also explains that “they think you’re emotional, unstable, not necessarily logic-driven.”

To sell or not to sell?

Logan seems to take the “unstable” critique into consideration. Many suggest he should sell Waystar Royco, as it’s looking like a dusty old legacy company. “Tech” is in while newspapers and TV are on their way out. Realistically, though, the company could probably expand beyond its present scope, unless the government does something to prevent that. After all, Logan’s other son, Roman (Kieran Culkin) was placed in charge of a failed rocket launch last season (which he addresses in the premiere by explaining, “I’m not a rocket scientist” to the press).

Similarly, Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) has been in charge of the Parks and Cruises division of Waystar Royco, narrowly avoiding a sex scandal by having Greg Hirsch (Nicholas Braun) shred company documents. So it seems the Roy empire could do a bunch of additional things, even if not very well.

Speaking of not managing things well, Kendall has sent Greg out to fetch him some coke (and not the soda). He is disappointed when Greg returns to hand him “park coke,” urging him to “go take it back for a refund.” It’s a sign that Ken needs a crutch to deal with his blackmail burden. Of course, the situation’s also an excuse to go back to using. Meanwhile, to assess the future of his family empire (and ostensibly the Roy family itself), Logan calls together a family meeting at the episode’s titular “summer palace.”

An unwanted smell in the summer palace

When everyone gets to the palace, everyone immediately experiences a stench. Roman likens it to a dead kid in a shallow grave nearby (an open invitation to crazy fan theories). Of course, this is a clever idea for Succession, as it symbolizes something rotten going on despite the house’s outwardly refined presentation. So when Logan asks if Kendall’s alright, there’s a strong sense the concern isn’t genuine.

On the bright side, Ken is privately briefed on the clean up of his car accident. Other than his key card found at the scene by Logan’s investigators, there are “no indicators of another individual” and it will be regarded as death by misadventure. Still, the situation’s pretty overwhelming for Kendall. When Roman and his sister Shiv (Sarah Snook) mock him, he doesn’t fight back.

Eventually, the smell is revealed as dead raccoons in the house chimney. Logan then tells caterers to throw out all the extravagant food for “being in the stink.” He also later blames a construction crew for it, saying he’ll only pay $100,000 for their work, not the $300,000 originally agreed upon. he also emphasizes that he won’t negotiate.

Shortly after that, Logan says his family can speak freely to him at a round table discussion. However, sensing the freeze effect of a group setting, he settles instead on one-by-one meetings. During his turn, Roman tells his dad to keep the news for political power while using “all the unpleasant people at our disposal” to maintain control of the company.

Shiv’s big chance

When Logan talks with Shiv, she is initially hostile, telling him to sell it while disparaging the family name. However, much of that changes when he offers her the role of new CEO. In fact, in order to get her to agree, he threatens to instantly sell the company. To sweeten the deal, it appears that her husband Tom will become Chair of Global Broadcast News for ATN. What experience does he have in that field? Possibly none, but such is the nature of power. Anyway, Kendall and Roman are assigned to temporary Co-Chief Operating Officers. While Roman doesn’t like sharing the role with his backstabbing brother, there’s every sense that he’ll fall in line.

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By the end of the episode, Kendall meets with his would-be takeover partner, Stewy (Arian Moayed). When asked why he abandoned their plot, Kendall follows a familiar script: “I saw your plan and my dad’s plan was better.” This arouses Stewy’s suspicions, but Ken won’t budge when asked what’s really going on. When another co-conspirator, Sandy Furness (Larry Pine), rejects a deal, Ken suggests that it will get brutal, and perhaps literally.

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