"The Summer Palace"
"I saw their plan, but Dad’s plan was better."
— Kendall
A few days after the previous episode, Kendall is pulled from rehab as Sandy and Stewy have gone ahead with their takeover without him. Logan wants him to publicly announce he is withdrawing from the endeavor, which he does.
Logan brings the family to their mansion in the Hamptons to strategize, where Kendall is met with varying reactions from the family — Shiv, fresh from her honeymoon, and Roman, fresh from a Japanese press conference about the failed satellite launch, both spite him. Logan meets with his children individually. During his talk with Shiv, he offers her the position of CEO. Also, Tom had asked Shiv to put in a good word for him with Logan, so he is promoted to head of global news at ATN.
Kendall later meets with Sandy and Stewy, reiterating his position of aligning with his family.
Tropes in this episode:
- Badass Boast: Played with. Kendall threatens Sandy that Logan will crush his takeover attempt underfoot with a grandiose line, but Sandy just shrugs it off.Kendall: He will send men to kill your pets and fuck your wives and it will never be over.
Sandy: Good. Then let’s move ahead with that process, shall we? - Big Fancy House: The titular "Summer Palace" is a lavish house in the Hamptons where the wealthy Roys spend some time.
- Conspicuous Consumption: Logan orders all the expensive food for lunch be thrown out because it sat around in a dining room with a dead raccoon stuck in the chimney. Somewhat inverted when they order a bunch of pizzas instead.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The sexual abuse metaphor is so not subtle, with Kendall having to go on TV and say his relationship with his father is great, Logan isolates him from everyone as this is their secret, the fear on Kendall's face whenever Logan touches him note , Roman outright saying that he's like a Sex Slave for dad to fuck, and Stewy the worried friend on the outside trying to get his battered looking friend to tell him something.
- Empty Promise: The Swedish men reassure Kendall that he can stop Sandy and Stewy by going on live TV, but they give him a card to recite and all it says is “I saw their plans, dad’s plan was better”, a really shitty excuse that will just humiliate Kendall some more.
- Heroic BSoD: In the midst of a big one, Kendall learns that Andrew was alive on impact, and even though he dived a few, hiding trying to find an alibi wasted precious time.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: After Kendall’s press conference, Roman gets in a graphically detailed (including dog motif and some more his brother sucking off their dad jokes) rant on how he’s humiliated himself and can never come back from it.
- Motif: Kendall starts out the episode submerged in hot spa water, trying to find comfort in it instead of it being a Trauma Button. Later on, Roman makes a crack about the smell being “dead kid, shallow grave”.
- No Sense of Personal Space: As touch-starved as Kendall is, he looks terrified and like he wants to crawl into a hole and die when he gets shuffled around and touched by Logan, Marcia and Colin, all of who know about the waiter.
- Rejected Apology: Kendall tries twice to apologise what he did, Logan just tells him to fuck off and Shiv would have respected him more if he wasn’t such a weak willed narcissist.
- Rule of Symbolism: A constant smell of death and decay haunts the Roys' mansion, symbolizing their rottenness. It turns out to have been a dead raccoon in a chimney.
- Self-Deprecation: Kendall is already being humiliated by his father on television, so he goes for even more debasement, saying there were unstable personalities involved while knowing what Logan thinks of his mental health.
- Skewed Priorities: When Kendall gets a nosebleed and looks like he might just collapse or burst into tears, most of the producers only care about the clean shirt getting ruined.
- Stepford Smiler: Kendall gets dragged out of rehab to be good on live TV, say he pulled out because his dad’s plan was better and say the relationship is fine because they’ve always been close, all while knowing this is just the start of his Humiliation Conga.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich: Logan is so disgusted by the stench of a dead raccoon in the house that he tells the staff to toss out all the expensive steak and seafood that they cooked.
