The psychological thriller series on AppleTV+, Surface, continues with its 2nd season by building on the intense drama already introduced in the earlier episodes and also brings new complications into the plot. While season 1 of the series had been about the protagonist, Sophie Ellis, trying to figure out the events in her life from the recent past after she lost her memory due to an accident, this season goes back even further, as she now tries to solve the mystery of her mother’s death. In Surface season 2 episode 4, Sophie visits the Huntley estate and seemingly makes a shocking discovery about her mother, while James Ellis grows closer to Quinn and his fiancée.
Spoiler Alert
Did Sophie find anything at the specific spot in the forest?
Surface season 2 episode 4 begins with Sophie preparing for her short trip away from London, as Eliza is about to take her to the Huntley family estate finally, where a romantic chemistry had been sparked between them many years ago. To Sophie, this trip is a great chance for her to find exactly what had happened to her mother, or at least discover what she had found out about her mother’s death before losing her memory in San Francisco. Therefore, she once again goes through the main clue to investigate further, which is the coordinates she had written down on one of the newspaper clippings. These coordinates point to a specific spot in the woods behind the estate, and so Sophie clearly makes up her mind to go see the place for herself.
Just a few minutes later, Eliza arrives with her car and takes Sophie to the countryside, where her aunt Anne waits to welcome them. Upon arrival, they are greeted by the woman and also with a bit of bad news, that there has been a power cut and it still needs to be fixed, although this detail is ultimately not of much significance. It does make Eliza and Anne go into the house to draw open all the curtains and allow natural light to enter, which leaves Sophie alone to explore the place by herself. She is obviously nursing a personal motive at all times—to discover something significant about her mother, and so she quickly sneaks into the hallway and then into a grand drawing room.
It is in this room, when she walks up to the lit fireplace, that Sophie seems to have some sort of a vision from the past, or a very old memory seems to suddenly resurface and flash in front of her eyes, which also confuses and somewhat distresses her. A little girl is seen standing in front of the fireplace, while a man looks at her from the side. This girl does look like a young Sophie, which suggests that she had been at the house during her childhood as well, which only makes the matter even more mysterious. As far as she knew, and also according to everyone around her, Sophie had first been to the Huntley estate ten years ago, when she was a young adult and was hired as a stable hand at the place. However, this flashback suggests that she had been to the place even before, when she was just a young girl. While another clue regarding this flashback is provided at the end of the episode, the exact mystery will be solved only later on in the season.
For now, Sophie has to leave the room when Anne walks in and indirectly remarks about how she had suddenly climbed up the social ladder, which now allowed her to step anywhere she liked, even into the main house of the aristocratic family. Soon, Sophie is joined by Eliza as well, who wants to take her riding on the estate, just like they used to during their younger days, and the protagonist agrees. The two women ride their horses into the forest before Eliza stops at a spot and states that they need to walk the rest of the way. Much to her delight, Sophie realizes that they are very close to the spot mentioned by the coordinates and so ventures into the forest by herself a bit to discover that the spot has an old abandoned car parked there, which had been covered by plants and shrubs by now. Perhaps the car contains some further clues about her past, but Sophie is unable to explore it any more, as Eliza calls out to her.
This is when the real reason behind Eliza’s decision to bring Sophie to the estate house is revealed, for she is still looking for a valid answer behind Sophie’s sudden escape from the place ten years ago. Eliza recalls the last night they had spent together, when they were out in the woods partying, and Sophie suddenly left after seeing someone or something, which probably triggered her. Sophie spent the night at the stable and then left the estate house before quickly leaving the country as well, almost as if she was running away from something. Eliza’s attempt to make her estranged friend open up at present fails once more, and so she asks Sophie to leave the house without spending the night.
Does Callum give up on his personal mission to expose the Huntleys?
Towards the beginning of the episode, Callum’s boss at The Brittanian comes to his office and apologizes for her stern behavior earlier, because of which Callum had had to stop writing his article against the Huntley family. She states that she has been trying to protect Callum, and of course the newspaper, from any legal trouble, and it is only because of this that she had been extra careful of what the journalist was writing. However, we have also been seeing Quinn Huntley regularly chatting with someone at the news agency in the last few episodes, and it is most likely that it is the very boss who has been leaking information to Quinn.
It was clear from the text messages that whoever was on the other side owed some favor to Quinn because either he or his family had helped them out in times of trouble. While it might be that it is actually Callum’s assistant, Claire, who has been working as an informant for the Huntleys, it still feels more likely that it is their boss who is the corrupt one. Either way, in this episode, the person texting Quinn warns him that he has attracted unwanted attention by having a woman killed, but he denies having any involvement in the mysterious death of Phoebe in France. Incidentally, Quinn is also informed by his lawyer that although they had not done anything to the woman, someone had, for there had clearly been some foul play in the death of Phoebe.
Although Callum Walsh has remained very determined in exposing the dirty secrets of the Quinn family members, he also realizes that he is bound way too tightly by his current employers for him to write his heart out. If Callum even finishes writing the article that he wants to write, the Brittanian would never publish it, both because of the high-profile nature of the agency and also because of its associations with the aristocrats in the country. Therefore, he passes on the responsibility to a different individual, who seems to be a freelance journalist working for a not-so-reputed tabloid. Either this journalist also has some personal vendetta against the Huntleys, or he agrees to publish a news article on the basis of a video clip that Callum gives him. This video had been shot by Phoebe, and it showed Quinn having drinks with her. Thus, the article in the tabloid mentions how Quinn had been close to a sex worker who had recently died, that too under mysterious circumstances, and this is surely enough to create a stir in the media, the extent of which will be clear only in the next episode.
How does James get involved with Quinn and Grace?
Ever since Sophie’s estranged husband, James Ellis, arrived in London, his intentions have looked very suspicious, especially since he has not made it clear as to what he wants to do in the city. While James might have initially come only to look for Sophie, he had already found and even confronted her in the previous episode. Instead of returning, or trying to convince his wife to make him a part of her plans, James goes off on his own mission, which is to get close to Quinn Huntley. James wants to introduce himself to Quinn officially, because of which he makes a formal appointment with him at the office, but this appointment is suddenly cancelled when Quinn is too disturbed by the death of Phoebe, whom he secretly loved.
Being the extremely smart and almost unnoticeable (I’m being tongue in cheek, of course) man that James is, as proven by how easily he had managed to infiltrate Quinn’s engagement party, he now follows Quinn around the city and ends up at the same club where the Huntley goes to drink away his sorrows. Thus, James soon makes introductions with the man and claims that he is actually looking to partner up with the Huntleys’ business as part of some new strategy that he has been thinking of. During the conversation, James lies about having never married while he sneakily finds out about Grace. The men grow friendly very quickly and decide to go somewhere else to spend some more time together. Quinn takes James to an exclusive club, where Grace has also been waiting for him, after she has spent the day wedding shopping, all by herself.
Here, Quinn is publicly seen trying to get close to other women, and the conversation that he has with Grace soon after reveals the nature of their relationship. It seems like Grace enjoyed playing along with her fiancé getting close to other women, but only when they decided to meet new people together and were completely in control of such situations. But at present, Quinn’s drunken behavior does not impress Grace at all, and he refuses to tell her anything either, despite being evidently disturbed about something. As James thinks of leaving the couple, a scuffle breaks out between Quinn and another man, in which the Huntley is left injured. Therefore, James helps Grace take her fiancé back to their house, seemingly out of courtesy, or perhaps following a plan he had made.
After Grace puts Quinn to bed, for he is literally in no state to do things by himself, and has a drink with James to thank him for his help, she receives a few messages from her close friends that turn her life upside down. The messages contain links to the tabloid article about Quinn’s close association with the sex worker, Phoebe, and this seemingly confirms Grace’s suspicions that her husband had been cheating on her. Therefore, seeking the best way to get revenge on him, or maybe deciding to give in to the attraction and chemistry that she had been feeling throughout the night, she ends up kissing James. Grace is even seen pulling James into one of the rooms at the house, clearly intending to get intimate with him, and this is bound to have serious consequences very soon.
What does Sophie realize about her mother in the end?
When Sophie and Eliza return to the estate from their short trip to the woods, they find themselves amidst a situation of emergency, as William has managed to get out of the house after being left unattended. The powerful patriarch, who had apparently committed some heinous crimes as well, is now a senile old man who has to be kept under strict monitoring at all times. His escape creates quite a ruckus, and this once again gives Sophie the chance to sneak into his house and explore the place. She has to leave when someone comes looking for William there, but Sophie is absolutely shocked when she is suddenly held at gunpoint by the old man, who seems to recognize her or mistake her for someone else he knew.
The reason for this suspicious behavior by William Huntley is seemingly revealed at the end of Surface season 2 episode 4, when Sophie finds a dark room used to process photographs taken by someone in the family, and she finds old photos of her mother as well. Then, she sees a music box in Eliza’s room, which is extremely familiar to her, and she is shocked to learn that Henry Huntley had given similar music boxes to each of his children in the past. As it happens, this music box was the only possession that Sophie’s mother had left her, and it seems extremely likely that Sophie is actually an illegitimate child of Henry Huntley. While it is possible that this might not be the case, the manner of this revelation definitely suggests that Sophie is actually directly related to the very family she is trying to expose. But despite this revelation, what had happened to Emma is still not clear, and so what new direction Surface takes from here will be interesting to see.
