Episode 2 of Surface starts with Sophie continuing her therapy, this time turning her attention to hypnotherapy. She's slipping back into old memories, trying to establish a baseline that she can work off to try and piece together the missing moments of her life. It's all fragments at this point but she does remember a dark figure standing, seemingly watching her fall off the boat. Was Sophie pushed? Hollywood morality strikes again. Now, I'm not saying James and Caroline are saints because they very clearly aren't but Sophie doesn't really have a high horse to stand on either. We know that she's abrupt, a little bit rude, a compulsive liar and she's cheated on her husband. But yet, she's suspicious of her husband for a work trip that he doesn't seem to have been on... and he's the bad guy? Of course, we're not seeing the whole picture here but our protagonist is really unlikable and it's mixed in with a cliched story arc we've seen so many times across numerous different mediums. Sharp Objects and Tabula Rasa are two that come to mind immediately and both of those are far superior to this. However, the ending hints that we're going to get some answers going forward, and that could well be the much-needed turning point to turn this show around. Let's hope it is because with 8 episodes and a cliched story, this could turn into a slog quickly. Sophie's therapist, Hannah, believes this is just a manifestation of her subconscious and a way of trying to justify what she did. Sophie doesn't see it that way. She's becoming ever-more suspicious of her partner James. Her partner who, I may add, she's been cheating on Anyway, Sophie decides to look into James' history and, specifically, his trip to Portland he went on several months back. Apparently there's no record of it on the work system, which only compounds Sophie's concerns. So naturally, she tries to access the accounts to look into this further. Only...she's locked out and can't get in. Sophie probes James about her being locked out from their bank cards. James admits that after the accident he had to file for conservatorship. It's a standard procedure for those suffering from memory loss and having attempted to commit suicide. James promises to try and figure something out though.
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