'Surface' Creator & Cast Unpack the Season 2 Cliffhanger Ending

For the entirety of the second season of Apple TV+’s mystery/thriller, Surface, protagonist Sophie Ellis/Tess Caldwell (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) has made it her mission to peel back the proverbial layers of the onion that is the powerful, old monied Huntley family of Britain. 

Of course, that’s a little ironic, considering Sophie is a serial dodger of her own shady past, much of which she couldn’t remember due to a case of extreme amnesia. But by the end of Season 1, Sophie confirmed that she’d blown up her life before; was an embezzler using multiple pseudonyms, including that of Tess Caldwell; and then abandoned her equally deceiving American husband, James (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) in San Francisco so she could recover more of her hazy origin story in England. 

Back in London, Sophie doggedly pursued the Huntley family for answers because her pre-amnesia self had collected a file folder’s worth of evidence pinning the blame for her mother’s death on someone in their family. By season’s end, Sophie discovered that she was the product of a relationship between Henry Huntley (Rupert Graves) and her mum, which in turn laid the groundwork for her mother’s murder on the Huntley grounds. A sorrowful outcome in the end, with no easy answers as to what comes next for Sophie and James. 

Curious about some key moments in the finale, we spoke with Surface creator/showrunner Veronica West, and cast members Mbatha-Raw and Jackson-Cohen about the ambiguous closure for Sophie and James, plus that big cliffhanger.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Telly Visions: When did you decide that the Huntley matriarch, Olivia (Joely Richardson) would be the murderer of Sophie’s mother?

Veronica West: We tried all of the suspects. It was definitely part of casting Joely Richardson. She is such an amazing actress and brings depth to those moments. Like that scene with her and Eliza at the end where she says, "But there's such a beautiful party going on. Why should we let that disturb this?" Watching that scene was one of my favorite moments, just between her and Millie, seeing the pain of the depth of everything and just that waspy, like, "The party must go on." That vibe just gave me chills. To me, that was more unexpected than, obviously, the suspect that Sophie puts forth at the beginning of the season. 

TV: Gugu and Oliver, for your character’s goodbye at that train station, did it go through many iterations? There’s a lot of restraint in the scene, even when she remembers their trip to Paris. It's incredibly bittersweet, despite many unresolved emotions between them.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw: I think on the day, we were both directed in slightly different ways. It's always got to be finally judged at that point, and I think there has to be a level of restraint there. And that's what we ended up with because this isn't tied up in a bow. Yes, they are at a train station, which could be in any other show, a quintessentially romantic setting. But actually, it is a goodbye. But there is a poetry to it, and it's bittersweet. It also leaves the door open, which was very intentional on Veronica West's part.

Oliver Jackson-Cohen: It's also incredibly true. I don't know how they repair it, you know what I mean? When someone, realistically, in the real world, has been through all of this, is it repairable? Potentially. I also really respect the fact that Gugu and Veronica and all of the Hello Sunshine and Apple, there was not this need to...this is where we want to start, and this is where we want to end, and it has to be this. They allowed us to leave it in a grayer area, which is incredibly honest.

Mbatha-Raw: And more interesting. As an audience member, I certainly lean into that. I don't want to be told how to feel. I want to interpret and ask questions for myself.

TV: In the last minutes of the episode, after Sophie turns herself in, she finds out she’s like a Russian doll of trouble with a lot more warrants out for her previous, still unremembered actions. When did it come to you to end on that cliffhanger?

West: We always knew that Sophie would end this season caught. She got away with everything she did in San Francisco. She faked her death. She came to London. Now, there's a dead body. She and James, can they realistically go on the run forever? Is that going to work? It just doesn't make sense. So, we knew she was going to have to sit there and kind of face her past, face her mistakes, and pay for the crimes that she committed. 

Once you get your character into that space, we talk as partners and collaborators [and ask], what’s next? How do you move forward from that moment? How do you get out of it? Well, the fact that she didn't know everything that she was confessing to and that the person sitting across from her says, "Oh, honey, there's ten warrants out for your arrest." There are all of these other mistakes in these crimes. You thought you were coming in here taking responsibility for these two things. Well, there's actually 20, and what are they going to be? We always wanted to have a new chapter open for Sophie, just as it opens at the end of Season 1 when she discovers a passport with a different name on it. We want to evolve the show and escalate the tension again at the end of Season 2.

Surface Seasons 1 and 2 are streaming now on Apple TV+.