Surface (Season 1), Episode 7 Recap and Ending Explained: Created by Veronica West, Surface maps out the mindscape of Sophie (played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw) after her traumatic incident. With its second last episode streaming on Apple TV+, it is safe to say that it is easily one of the weaker shows on the platform.
While it has a great central performance, it tanks largely due to its dull and uninspired writing that utilizes tropes and places them in a narrative filled with two-dimensional characters. The unnecessarily convoluted seventh episode filled with bad dialogue-writing often turns its scenes into laugh-worthy moments. Still, if you are invested in Sophie’s life and her discovery of truth, let’s dive into the events that occur in this recent episode.
Surface (Season 1), Episode 7 Recap:
Episode 7 titled ‘It Was Always Going to End This Way’ starts with Sophie (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) in her therapist, Hannah’s office where she is apologizing for making her open up about her relationship with her mother. While ignoring that apology, Sophie mentions how she is at fault for what happened to her – as a result of the revelation from James (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). She conveys guilt about what she has done but can’t share what she has done.
Later, on her evening run, she comes across Baden (Stephen James) whom she inquiries about the evidence. She tells him to hold it for the next 24 hours until she clears out some of her concerns about it. When she comes back home, James tells her that he has been tipped off and he is about to get further questioned in the ongoing investigation from his firm. He tells her to empty the bank account by the name of Tess Caldwell, the following day for her to be on the safer side. While she curiously asks for more details about the case, he asks her back about Baden’s involvement in the disclosure of the fraud. She agrees to it stating her involvement in it. She also plays the recording that Baden shared with her about the last transaction to Tess’s account.
Later, she goes to the bank and tells the manager that she has been a victim of a home invasion attack where she lost all her documents including her passport and her ID. She asks her to let her access the bank account despite not having the very documents necessary to do so. She states the reason for her withdrawal is a crucial business opportunity for which she urgently needs it. Yet, since she wishes to empty the account, the manager stops her midway to abide by the security protocol. Even when Sophie passes the security questions test, she is not given access due to it being such a huge ask.
Back at the office, James speaks with Harrison (François Arnaud) about the issue he is facing. Both wonder how that is possible and thinking James’ assistant Todd (Andres Joseph) is involved, they decide to interrogate him. Harrison starts threatening him after which Todd confesses. He mentions doing it out of fear not knowing before that he was a cop. Later, when James blurts out Thomas Baden’s name, Harrison remembers that Thomas is whom he had hired in order to check on Sophie’s background.
When she meets Baden, she informs him about what she has learned – how James was only trying to help her. He tells her not to believe in James and how he’s still lying as he has always done. She requests him to destroy the evidence stating how it would affect not just James but her. Baden mentions how he can’t due to the legalities and requests her to rather run away from all these problems with him.
Once she gets out of his house, she finds James waiting for her in his car. On their ride back home, he discloses to her that Baden was hired to know her background after which he started falling in love with her. He mentions how Baden was only stalking her at every place she saw him. She later inquires Baden about it who states his innocence in all of this. She storms out of the place in anger telling him to stop manipulating her any further and to leave her alone.
Back at home, she mentions her dream to James telling how she saw being pushed from the ship, unlike the report that states that she jumped. He says how he didn’t believe she would want to end her life either – sharing her opinion that the decision was taken by someone else. He obviously points the blame at Baden and when she leaves the room, he even calls him to threaten him to not pursue the case against him and to leave Sophie alone.
Surface (Season 1), Episode 7 Ending, Explained:
At night, James takes Sophie on a date to take her mind off of this case. Over there, Baden shows up apologizing to her for not revealing who he was. He mentions he had only the best intentions while helping her out and how he is still in love with her. James comes up and starts punching him in anger. On their ride back home, they speak about Baden where she mentions an attempted hit on him. She asks James whether he was involved in it in any way which angers him. Back at home, she watches a video from a USB stick she was given, which clearly shows her jumping from the ship. Shocked by this revelation, she heads straight to Baden’s place and finds him dead.
After this another shock, she returns home and tells James about the video and how she believes how she did in fact jump from the ship. Despite him having speculated it, he tries to pin it down on her stating how she mentioned that Baden pushed her. By his constant efforts to degrade Baden, it also seems that he is the one behind his death. With this, the series ends its second last show which seems to unnecessarily stretch its dailysoapic drama with almost no mystery left.
<< PREVIOUS EPISODE
SURFACE (SEASON 1), EPISODE 7 LINKS – IMDB, WIKIPEDIA
SURFACE (SEASON 1), EPISODE 7 CAST – GUGU MBATHA-RAW, OLIVER JACKSON-COHEN, ARI GRAYNOR, STEPHAN JAMES
Where to watch Surface
