Surface (Season 1), Episode 4: Recap and Ending Explained: Surface, the new Apple TV+ presents a gripping tale of a woman trying to revive her memories. Stuck with the pieces of information shared by the ones around her, she is determined to find her way out of the mystery and be aware of her memories beyond. With an excellent central performance by Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Sophie, we enter the world of this psychological thriller and get immersed in her confounding tale. Her raw emotional journey is conveyed in a neatly stylized manner that keeps the intrigue intact. Now that the series has reached its second week of streaming, there’s more information being shared to take us, along with Sophie, closer to the truth of her situation.
Surface (Season 1), Episode 4 Recap:
The fourth episode of Surface is titled ‘Psychogenic’ which shows Sophie (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) trying to work with different options in her hand to bring back her forgotten memories. She pushes the boundaries of recovery, hoping to make sense of the secrets from her past and of the brief glimpses of memories that she revisits through her dreams. While traveling, she comes across information about an alternate form of therapy that she hopes might be able to help her with her goal. Later, she is joined by Baden (Stephan James) on the street, who informs her about a minor development in the embezzlement case against James (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). They speak about the possible ramifications of this development.
When Sophie meets Hannah (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), she mentions her interest in pursuing an alternate method to revive her memories. Because of the conservatorship, she can’t finance it on her own. And a letter of approval with her signature as a therapist would help Sophie to pay for it. But Hannah advises against it due to Sophie’s fragile mental state where that method can have adverse effects. At the office, Harrison, to whom James had admitted that he was the one to take the money, gives him an ultimatum of 48 hours to return the money. As a complicit, he would also be subjected to investigation which makes him threaten James to tell about his fraud to the authorities. James insists that he will manage to retrieve the money with someone’s help.
Later, Caroline (Ari Graynor) visits James, at his office where she learns about his need for the big amount and she agrees to help him out with it. Meanwhile, in order to find a way to finance the alternate form of therapy, Sophie goes out to sell some of her jewelry. When she learns that the money will be returned to her source account James, she requests him to help her with cash instead – so that James won’t get to know about the transaction. While that happens, Baden comes across James’ assistant Todd (Andres Joseph) at a bar and makes a drug deal with him. At the time, Todd does not know that Baden knows about his identity.
Meanwhile, Sophie goes to the clinic for her desired therapy process and while she learns that she will be treated with hallucinogens, she still goes along with it. Through her memories, she sees herself in some romantic moments she was enjoying with James coupled with a few brief glimpses she was seeing earlier involving a horse. She sees herself kissing another woman who refers to her as Tess. Back at home, she finds a necklace with their anniversary date engraved on it. When James returns home, she asks him why he hadn’t told her that it was two months ago and tells him about the booking she had made to celebrate it. While he initially refuses to go there, he eventually agrees. At the bar outside the suite, she sees an escort speaking with the men but her chain of thought gets interrupted by an update about their suite.
Surface (Season 1), Episode 4 Ending Explained:
James gets a call from Todd who informs him about the investigating committee at his firm asking for access to his files. He tells Todd not to share anything and to stall the process until he comes and does it himself the next day. Meanwhile, in the ladies’ room, Sophie pays the hooker she saw before at the bar, for a kiss – hoping to rekindle the spark from the memory she revisited through the new therapy. The kiss makes her unsure about her sexuality. Later, she asks James to show her to the ballroom and he agrees. He starts speaking being frustrated due to her condition and how he misses the old Sophie. She gets emotional and kisses him. In this way, she earns his trust for the time being.
By using the same trust, Sophie tries to make him speak about the investigation, back at home, when James confesses to the problem he is facing and also mentions the amount he is supposed to return. Later, when she meets Baden, she states that she recorded James’s confession when he was vulnerable and they progress in their mutual mission to convict James of his crimes. Meanwhile, she also meets Hannah who mentions her knowledge about Sophie’s visit to the wellness clinic. She tells Sophie how she threatened to shut down the clinic if they take another appointment for her.
While that does not sit right with Sophie, Hannah mentions the reason behind her apprehension. Sophie’s mother suffered from a psychotic disorder, which, in her opinion, can be genetic – which makes hallucinogens particularly harmful for her. While this episode takes Sophie and Baden further in their mission, it takes just a brief leap in sharing the information about her alternate or previous identity as Tess. While the episode does not reveal everything that we would like to know about her character, it keeps the suspense about her understanding of herself intact.
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SURFACE (SEASON 1) EPISODE 4 LINKS – IMDB, WIKIPEDIA
CAST – GUGU MBATHA-RAW, OLIVER JACKSON-COHEN, ARI GRAYNOR, MARIANNE JEAN-BAPTISTE
Where to watch Surface
