[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Surface Season 2 finale “Unearthed.”]
It’s time for Sophie (Gugu Mbatha-Uncooked) — and the viewers — to hopefully discover out extra about one other a part of her life, ought to Floor return for a 3rd season.
The second ended with Sophie bringing information of the place her mom’s physique is buried — on the property of the highly effective Huntley household, after the spouse of Sophie’s organic father shot her — to the police, after her former good friend and (shock this season!) sister Eliza (Millie Brady) realized. However the police instructed her there are warrants out for her arrest (below the alias Tess Caldwell), a shock to Sophie. Elsewhere within the finale, Quinn Huntley (Phil Dunster) and Grace (Freida Pinto) did get married, regardless of a few of the questions she had about his household, and journalist Callum (Gavin Drea) selected to assist Sophie and James (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) escape the cops.
Under, govt producers Veronica West and Lauren Neustadter break down the Season 2 finale and tease what we may see ought to the present be renewed. (Try our deep dive of the finale with Mbatha-Uncooked right here.)
When did you know the way Sophie’s mom died and the way did you decide on that?
Veronica West: It’s one thing that we labored on as a workforce within the writers’ room looking for a suspect who we utterly understood her motivations, but additionally felt surprising for the viewers. And I feel Joely [Richardson] did such an incredible job bringing that battle to life. I completely love the scene together with her and Millie Brady on the finish the place she is explaining it with tears in her eyes after which simply says, “Let’s return to the get together.” I feel that actually represents how she felt about what occurred, like, “I’m not going to let it destroy my life,” regardless that it’s clearly a supply of battle for her.
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Speak about having Eliza come to Sophie’s protection on the finish and any struggles about that. How did you land on that?
West: It’s a must to perceive the place she comes from and the emotional ties she has to her complete household. Principally by selecting Sophie and selecting that aspect, she’s risking dropping the connections with all people else she loves. So regardless that I feel in her coronary heart, Eliza knew what was proper from the second she came upon, that’s why you see her spinning out [and] self-medicating. You see her so conflicted. I nonetheless suppose it’s a tough selection for that character to make and one which makes her an thrilling character to proceed to observe, what’s going to occur within the aftermath of such a selection. It truly is a cliffhanger for Eliza as properly.
When Sophie walks into the police station, does she suppose she’s about to get the closure she’s been looking for with the data that would make them a mom’s physique on the Huntley property? Is she feeling perhaps essentially the most optimistic about getting that closure?
West: I feel that she believes she has the smoking gun in a way. She is aware of who did it. She is aware of the place the physique’s buried. That’s why the episode title is “Unearthed.” She actually does have the proof that she wants, however she’s very a lot conscious that she’s going to should take duty for the crimes she is aware of she’s dedicated. Lucas is useless in a area someplace. She’s despatched James off on the run. She has stolen $8 million from the enterprise capital agency in San Francisco. She has faked her personal loss of life — which now we have had many arguments within the writers’ room about whether or not that’s technically unlawful or not, jury’s nonetheless out. These are the issues she is aware of she’s going to face.
She doesn’t know that there’s this host of different crimes that her previous self has dedicated, and that was what was so thrilling to us as a workforce, I feel, trying ahead to a possible Season 3, is we see Sophie is type of actually good at cash laundering. She’s positively good at identification theft. She has discovered these expertise in the middle of the 2 seasons we’ve watched, however the place did she learn to do that stuff?
On the finish, she simply appears to be like so shocked as a result of that’s the factor which you can play with due to the reminiscence loss, is all of the stuff that she doesn’t know. However how would you say Sophie is feeling with regards to her future?
West: Completely shocked.
Lauren Neustadter: I feel extremely overwhelmed, proper? She’s strolling into that police station and feeling like that is the exhale that she has been ready for, that she’s getting into and it’s all going to be higher. And it’s truly fairly the other. So I feel overwhelmed is the phrase that involves thoughts for me, and he or she’s bought one other mountain to climb now and the way is she going to get out of this one? We at all times actually attempt to make it possible for our viewers and our followers are going to really feel happy, but additionally on the sting of their seat about what may be coming subsequent. And I feel Veronica and our workforce did an incredible job of attaining that with the tip of this season.
What are you able to say about these warrants and what’s subsequent and the way a lot folks that we’ve already seen may be concerned?
West: The clues are within the story we’ve instructed up to now in realizing that Sophie can learn to launder $8 million in crypto in six weeks. She clearly has some untapped expertise that she wasn’t conscious of, however what’s thrilling to me in regards to the present is that there are individuals round each nook that Sophie has had relationships with, that she has betrayed, which have betrayed her, that she doesn’t know but, and that enables us to proceed to reinvent the present each season. And in a possible Season 3, I’m simply questioning, the place was she from the second she left Eliza within the Huntley property to the second we noticed in 106 within the flashback when she met James? What had been these eight years, and what males, girls, household, who else may she have come into contact with?
How does Sophie really feel about Eliza and James and the way do they every really feel about her on the finish of the season? These relationships are so difficult.
West: It’s messy for positive. I feel she and James, on the finish of this season, are in all probability extra trusting of one another than they’ve ever been in our collection up to now. From the second the pilot begins, Sophie’s uncertain of her relationship together with her husband. Now they’ve lastly instructed one another the reality about all the pieces however this horrible accident leading to Lucas’s loss of life has separated them once more. In order that they grow to be these star-crossed lovers in a approach that actually feels central to the present and we’ll in all probability convey them again collectively in some kind or one other.
After which with Sophie and Eliza sister dynamic, there’s a lot to discover there.
West: It’s juicy. We all know that Eliza has determined, in her thoughts and her coronary heart, what’s proper, however that doesn’t imply that she’s essentially forgiven Sophie for all the pieces she’s accomplished. So I feel the dynamic between them shifting ahead would completely be difficult and thrilling and adversarial however nonetheless have this undercurrent of household, which is one thing they’ve by no means actually recognized about earlier than or been in a position to expertise.
Neustadter: And I like that Eliza does the precise factor within the finale. Millie Brady does such an exquisite job of taking part in this difficult character with all of those massive feelings, and you’ll inform that she’s actually making an attempt to determine what’s the reality and what’s her north star. And I feel Veronica, once more, and the workforce did an incredible job of form of weaving all these complexities by way of the season, and also you don’t actually know what she’s going to do, and also you don’t actually know the place her loyalties lie. And I feel it’s so revelatory on the very of that finale when it picks up the cellphone and he or she calls Sophie. It’s only a actually great second within the lifetime of the collection.
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Is there a world by which Sophie would’ve left with James?
West: Completely. I feel that’s what they wished to do of their hearts by the tip of this season. However there’s one factor that trumps that for Sophie, and that was getting justice for her mom and telling her personal story. That trumped her personal security and her personal capacity to run from the crimes that she’s dedicated. After which she sits down and faces these warrants and such an even bigger bomb than she ever anticipated to drop that I hope guarantees even greater excessive stakes world for a possible Season 3.
Henry (Rupert Graves) killing his father (Julian Glover) — what went into that call and the way is he going to be dealing with that? As a result of we see him take that second after which he goes again into the get together.
Neustadter: You didn’t see that coming!
West: Yeah, that was a pitch from Dan Lee West within the writers’ room, and it’s a type of pitches the place you’re shocked, how may that probably occur? How may we probably see Henry kill his father? Nevertheless it was one thing that Rupert and Julian had been extremely into from the start, and Julian truly wrote a few the traces that he says to Henry that actually push him over the sting. He dug deep into villainous territory, which I used to be so grateful for, however it was one thing that shocked everybody after which additionally makes absolute sense. This resolution that William made actually ruined Henry’s life. I feel there was an alternate timeline the place Henry and Emma had been collectively and so they raised Sophie and had a special life, and Sophie grew as much as be a special individual with so much much less baggage.
Which traces did he write?
West: The meanest ones on the finish, the final couple traces that he says that actually pushes Henry over the sting about Sophie by no means being an actual Huntley, which, it’s fascinating as a author to jot down villains and say issues which can be actually horrible which can be stuff you would by no means suppose as an individual or write. And it was fascinating of Julian to simply get a lot in that character’s head that he was in a position to go so deep.
Why did Quinn and Grace undergo with their marriage ceremony?
West: All of it got here all the way down to that final dialog proper earlier than. I don’t suppose Grace was going to undergo with it in any respect. When Quinn instructed her, “You’ll be able to’t belief James, you possibly can’t belief Sophie, they’ve been utilizing you. They lied to you and so they knew who you had been from the beginning, they had been focusing on you,” she says, “Oh my God, I used to be going to select this aspect, however perhaps the person standing in entrance of me, who I’ve been in love with, is the one individual I can belief although I do know the issues that he’s accomplished,” and that I feel makes her a Huntley, that acceptance of, I might be with somebody who I acknowledge has accomplished these horrible issues. That’s what Olivia did, and that’s now what Grace is doing, following in these footsteps for higher or worse.
Callum helped Sophie to nice extent, and who is aware of what this implies for his profession? Does he remorse something that he did this season?
West: That’s a superb query. I feel what’s thrilling about telling these tales about journalism is that they get to behave as investigators, and telling the reality and discovering out the reality and defending the harmless is Callum’s ethical code. So I feel he would at all times have been keen to sacrifice himself, whether or not it was to avoid wasting Sophie or Phoebe Davis or whoever the subsequent individual is, and that’s what makes him a compelling character to proceed to observe.
How does he really feel about Sophie?
Neustadter: You actually can inform that he cares deeply about her, and maybe in one other life they could’ve been collectively in a roundabout way. I feel that the characters are woven so intricately on this present that you just by no means know precisely what’s coming or what the connection shall be or how one thing will take an surprising twist or flip. And since Sophie and James are so unbelievably related, I feel there isn’t room to discover that. Nevertheless it doesn’t imply that there isn’t one thing that’s unrequited in Callum’s coronary heart that informs the dynamic and his selection within the finale to in the end look out for her. And I feel he actually does. He thinks about her and he cares about her. I feel a few of that’s as a result of he’s a deeply ethical individual, and possibly a few of it’s as a result of he has a sense or two for her.
West: They positively have chemistry. By no means say by no means.
Can Sophie ever have any form of relationship with Henry?
West: Wow. I feel that Henry regrets all the pieces that occurred. I feel he genuinely needs issues had gone completely different. And I feel killing his father just about reveals which lane he’s picked. So who is aware of, if she finds out that he wasn’t the one and the way deeply he regrets his actions, I feel there could possibly be a path ahead.
Does Quinn remorse something he did?
West: I feel Quinn regrets all the pieces he’s accomplished. I feel he’s continually residing in a loop of, which fork within the highway ought to I’ve taken? He’s trapped in such a tough state of affairs, however Phil Dunster brings such life to that character and actually lets you join with him and perceive his vulnerability even when he’s doing essentially the most terrible issues. And that’s what makes the character a lot enjoyable to look at.
Neustadter: I additionally suppose it’s captured in these quiet moments in a approach that makes the character extremely fascinating that I feel the factor that we had been very intentional about doing over the course of the season was seeing him in moments the place he wasn’t managing different individuals, however he was actually reconciling his personal feelings and emotions. And I feel that that’s a superb glimpse into his character and the way difficult issues are for him emotionally.
Can he change? He’s in that household…
Neustadter: I don’t know. I don’t suppose he can. What do you suppose Veronica?
West: Truly, I feel after we met Quinn, yeah, perhaps he partied a little bit, however he didn’t order anybody’s homicide. I feel it was form of a pink herring that he was the villain in the beginning and he truly wasn’t. And now by way of this season, he’s chosen that path, felt backed right into a nook that that was his solely selection. And now I feel that guarantees a season of an much more unpredictable villainous Quinn. To me, that’s what could be thrilling, is to see him double down and decide to the trail he’s chosen and the results that it brings.
How are you each feeling in regards to the possibilities of a 3rd season?
Neustadter: Hopeful. I feel this present has such a loyal fanbase and individuals who watch it like it a lot. So I hope that we’ll have the prospect to proceed to inform the story. I feel clearly what’s extremely necessary is that the individuals who like it want to inform all people else how nice it’s so that they will watch it. As a result of I feel we’re in a second and in a panorama the place there are such a lot of decisions with regards to content material, and it’s actually nearly form of diving in and discovering it earlier than later as a result of I do suppose all people who finds it does like it and actually needs extra.
What may we see in a 3rd season?
West: We’ve had the chance to consider it and to speak about it as a bunch and Gugu and I’ve collaborated, and there’s this lacking chapter the place Sophie discovered these extremely expert legal actions. That guarantees a relationship with anyone who in all probability nonetheless does these type of legal actions. And to get out of the state of affairs that she’s discovered herself in, which is turned herself in for 15 warrants all through the EU, she’s going to owe individuals some fairly massive favors. So I feel there’s a very enjoyable, thrilling, heightened story to inform in a possible Season 3, and I hope we get the prospect to do it.
Would most or all the solid be again?
West: I feel there’s a chance to inform extra story with completely everybody we’ve seen in Season 2, in Season 1. Sophie burns loads of bridges, and there’s lots of people on the market who would love a face-to-face.
Floor, Season 2, Streaming Now, Apple TV+