While Surface season 1 often felt like it dragged on unnecessarily, season 2 of the AppleTV+ psychological thriller series seems to be doing a bit better at controlling its pacing, although its plot still remains a bit too far-fetched. After having realized that she was the illegitimate daughter of Henry Huntley, Sophie had decided to conduct her investigation even more intensely, as she suspected that this was all the more reason for the Huntleys to have killed her mother. This investigation continues in Surface season 2 episode 6, as she finally has a confrontation with her biological father, while James finally seems to get into a lot of trouble after he continues to plot against his estranged wife.
How does Sophie react to having found out her real identity?
Surface season 2 episode 6 opens with Sophie Ellis still reeling from the effects of having learned that she had been given a fake identity by the Huntleys, which was revealed to her by the investigative journalist, Callum Walsh, at the end of episode 5. While she had already realized that her mother, Emma Antoine-Day, had been in a relationship with Henry Huntley and that she was the illegitimate daughter of the aristocrat, the documents that Callum had given her had truly shocked her. It was evident that Sophie had been given the fake identity of Tess Caldwell in order to hide her real parentage so that she would never find out about her connections with the Huntley family even after she grew up. She was taken in by the local church and given the identity of Tess Caldwell, a young girl who had already passed away, while a death certificate was issued in the name of Sophie Huntley.
Sophie now brings this fake death certificate of hers to Hyde Park, where she meets with James once again, still unaware that he had feigned closeness with her just so he could learn the code to her cryptocurrency thumb drive. She does not want to discuss who Callum is and how she has been working with the journalist, most possibly because she knows that James will only get jealous of her spending time with a different man. But the immense shock that these revelations have caused makes her want to share them with her husband, especially after she mistakenly felt that he had opened up to her about all his troubles.
It initially seems a bit strange that Sophie had been given the surname Huntley after her birth, since the aristocratic family did not want anything to do with Emma and the baby and wanted to distance themselves from the family. However, it had also been mentioned earlier that Henry had very much wanted to marry Emma and make her a part of the family, and it was his father, William, who had objected to such a union. Therefore, it must have been that Henry had agreed to let his daughter take the family name, but when things got out of control and his father forced him to step away from them, he came up with the plan of changing Sophie’s entire identity.
At present, Sophie tells James about her very first memory of the Huntley estate, which had suddenly come back to her when she last visited the place with Eliza a few episodes ago. In this memory, she had been standing by the fireplace while a priest, Father Martin, spoke to her about the new life that she was about to be given. She figures that this was when the switch had taken place, and she was pronounced dead simply to protect the Huntleys’ reputation. Therefore, Sophie grows all the more determined to find out what had happened to her mother, and she wonders whether Emma is still alive. Just like Sophie, Emma might have also been falsely pronounced dead while she is still living under a different identity, and this is what Sophie wants to investigate now. However, it is still unclear how Sophie had first found out about her real identity ten years ago, after which she had taken up the job as the stable hand at the estate.
Is Richard Wilcox about to take Sophie’s side?
Since the major secrets are now out of the bag, Sophie does not hesitate in calling up her biological father with the intention of seriously confronting him, and much to her surprise, Henry picks up the call as well. Although Henry is as polite and well-mannered as an aristocrat can be in such situations, there is also a slight tinge of genuineness in his voice, almost as if he is honest in stating that he wants to have a word with his estranged daughter. Henry asks Sophie to come to a specific location in the evening, for he wants to discuss something important with her, and there is no reason for her to turn down the offer. Although Sophie knows that the Huntleys will still try extremely hard to hide things if they had indeed done something wrong to her mother, she still wants to have conversations, and possibly negotiations, with them.
But when Sophie reaches the spot that evening, she realizes that Henry has not suddenly turned very eager to help her out and is instead still quite invested in protecting his own image. Henry does not show up himself for any discussion, but he sends his lawyer, Richard Wilcox, in order to hold certain negotiations with his illegitimate daughter, as he still wants her out of the picture. In the previous episode, it was Richard who had advised Henry to reveal his secrets to his children before they got to know of them from other sources, and so the lawyer is definitely trusted by the family. After this meeting with Sophie, it is quite clear that, despite being so close to the family, he does not, after all, know all their dirty secrets.
During the meeting, Richard introduces himself and then hands Sophie an envelope, which contains a contract agreement that the family has come up with in response to the old secrets tumbling out of the closet. The Huntleys have offered to pay Sophie a large sum of money in exchange for her promise to brush her real identity under the rug and to never make it public that she is actually directly linked to the esteemed family. However, Sophie obviously turns down this offer very quickly, and it is clear that she had been expecting a development like this, although she must have felt that her father himself would come to deliver the contract.
Along with refusing to comply, Sophie also tells Richard that her mother had also been given a similar contract by the family, so that she gave up Sophie for adoption and allowed them to cut all ties between themselves and the young girl. She is quick to mention that Emma had had to face more severe consequences, though, as Sophie now firmly believes that her mother had been killed because she had refused to give up on her. Although all this is still Sophie’s speculation, or just a theory she’s entertaining, about what had happened to her mother, it seems to strike a chord in Richard’s mind, as he now suspects that his employers have not been completely honest with him.
Thus, Richard somewhat confronts Henry Huntley during their private meeting later in the episode when he says that he does not agree to the terms that were mentioned in the contract. Richard suggests that Sophie had told something serious to him, and this immediately piques Henry’s interest. Henry asks his lawyer what new information he had learned, but Richard does not reveal anything just yet. This discussion seems to suggest that there might soon be a rift between him and his employers, although Henry tries to win his trust back by stating how he will help Richard climb up rapidly in his career if he helps the family out in this situation. It will be quite interesting to see if Richard sides with the truth, meaning that he helps Sophie out, or if he ultimately chooses to remain loyal to the Huntleys and help them bury their secrets further.
Is Henry Huntley lying about what had happened to Emma?
Although Sophie is unable to meet her father at the first chance, only because he cowers behind his lawyer and the contract, she does not give up on her plan to confront him. Thus, when she learns that the whole family is about to gather to celebrate Quinn and Grace’s engagement, Sophie decides to gatecrash the event and have a direct word with Henry. She initially asks for James’ help in sneaking into the event but then has to mostly work by herself and is ultimately helped by Grace as well. Grace has already learned about Sophie’s real identity, surely from her fiancé, and is very supportive of the protagonist. The fact that Grace also has complaints against the aristocratic family is very clear, and there is no doubt that she will support and help Sophie against the Huntleys if any such situation arises in the episodes to come.
Sophie manages to enter the party and walk up to Henry Huntley, to then be politely escorted to a different room by the man, who once again seems very eager to talk to her. There is a sense of guilt and remorse in how Henry speaks to Sophie, although it might very well be an act he’s putting on, especially because the man seems to stutter a bit too much during the conversation. When he asks Sophie what exactly she wants, the protagonist clearly states that she has no interest in being a part of the Huntley family or in experiencing the love of her father, which suggests that she also does not want any part of the inheritance either. All that Sophie is looking for is information about what had happened to her mother and if Henry and William had done something horrible to her.
This is when Henry opens up about the past, as he is quite surprised that Sophie does not remember what had happened to her mother, since he does not know that Sophie had gone through certain adventures in the US that had wiped her memories. Henry states that when Emma was driving away from the Huntley estate after a heated argument with him one day, she had made a fatal mistake on a dangerous curve on the road and had crashed her vehicle. The car had immediately caught fire, and although Henry had rushed to help Emma, it was already too late, and there was no chance of saving her. Thus, Henry claims that Emma had died in a car crash, following which he had put Sophie up for adoption since he could not raise her.
Henry claims that he genuinely regrets making Sophie go through the adoption process and the forced change of identity, and he almost swears that he had no part to play in Emma’s death. However, Surface season 2 episode 6 seems to suggest that the man is lying. Firstly, when Sophie hears of her mother driving away from the estate, she has a flashback from her childhood, in which she is sitting inside a car while it rains heavily outside. Therefore, it seems like Sophie had been inside the car when Emma had crashed it, meaning that it did not catch fire, and so Henry might have used the opportunity to kill Emma and pass off her death as an accident. Interestingly, Sophie also records this entire conversation with Henry and gives the recording to Callum, asking him to write a report on the matter, although she does not want her name to be mentioned in it.
Towards the end of the episode, Eliza is seen looking at a photograph of her father with a family car, and she seems to come up with a theory of her own about the past. Earlier that day, her mother, Olivia, had been telling Eliza about how Emma was just a distraction to the family and how she had been helped by Henry in every way possible, most notably with money and also with a car. Eliza knows her family well enough to know that her father must have given an old car to Emma, and not a new one, and she now suddenly realizes that it must have been the same car in the photograph. Emma had seen the same car lying in a rundown condition at a spot inside the forest when she had last gone to the place with Sophie. This was the very spot that Sophie’s coordinates had led her to, meaning that the whole mystery could be solved using this car. It now remains to be seen whether Eliza directly helps Sophie by taking her to the car and investigating it or whether she further complicates the matter by confronting her father first.
Who abducts James in the end?
James Ellis continues to be a despicable character in Surface season 2 episode 6, as he keeps plotting behind his wife’s back despite pretending to be helping her out. By the end of the episode, Sophie realizes that James had taken advantage of the fact that she had let him back into her apartment to steal everything that she had. Most importantly, James had seemingly broken open the safe in her apartment and taken away the cryptocurrency thumb drive before cutting off the power at the place and leaving. However, it is also to be remembered that the loss of power means that the security camera footage cannot be seen, which might suggest that someone else might have broken into the apartment.
After all, James is seen walking through the streets that night when he is abducted by a few men in a van, and it is left unclear as to who had ordered this crime. It might be that James had been telling the truth about him owing money to some dangerous criminal gang, and so they might be back to get their money. This theory would suggest that James has not used Sophie’s thumb drive yet despite having stolen it, since he would have cleared all dues by now otherwise. It might also be that James was actually picked up by goons hired by Quinn, since the Huntley man had seemingly found out about James’ romantic night with his fiancée, Grace. Quinn was seen ordering his men to find out whether James had left the country yet, and he might have finally decided to punish the man. Lastly, it can also be that James was abducted by men hired by Henry Huntley, who might have mistaken him to be someone Sophie cares about, and so Sophie might just have to come to James’ rescue in the end.
