Season 2, Episode 1: ‘The Summer Palace’

Has anybody ever been less comfortable in his own skin than Kendall Roy?

In the Season 1 finale of “Succession,” Ken (Jeremy Strong) looked as panicky as a lost child as he stumbled from one catastrophe to another at his sister Siobhan’s wedding. First, he unconvincingly threatened his dad, the tyrannical media magnate Logan Roy (Brian Cox), with a semi-hostile “bear hug” takeover. (“I’m not sorry for what I’m doing, but I’m sorry for how it makes you feel,” he squeaked.) Shaken by his pop’s unruffled response — and in desperate need of cocaine — Kendall then accidentally killed a young cater-waiter by driving the kid’s car into a deep pond.

By the end of the episode, even as Logan was calling him his “No. 1 boy,” Kendall appeared broken … a barely functioning human being.

So what now? Well, Kendall, whom we rejoin in Season 2 just days after the accident, is in no better shape than we left him. If last season he nearly betrayed his own family, he begins this season betrayed, in turn, by his own body. Right before a pivotal TV appearance, he gets a nosebleed and the sweats. His brother Roman describes his appearance as “demented” and “shiny.” His new brother-in-law, Tom, compares him to “an unshaven candle.” With inadequate time to rehab, he remains in the grip of cocaine withdrawal. He is, to put it mildly, a little off.

There were a lot of standout performances in Season 1, but by the end, Strong’s turn as Kendall came to represent the show’s haunted soul. At once opportunistic, overmatched, opinionated and drug-addicted, he was warped by a lifetime of undue privilege and severe paternal disapproval. His paralyzed reaction to the many train wrecks happening right in front of his eyes came to embody what this drama is about.