‘Surface’: Gugu Mbatha-Raw Says Sophie’s in ‘Shock’ With Latest Reveal About Her Past in Season 2 Finale

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Surface Season 2 finale “Unearthed.”]

Sophie (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) walks into a police station thinking she has everything she needs about the truth of what happened to her mother — her murder, at the hands of Sophie’s biological father’s wife, was covered up — but she’s in for a shock in the final moments of the Surface Season 2 finale.

The detective knows she goes by the name of Tess Caldwell as well — just one of her multiple aliases. There are other warrants out for her arrest, it’s revealed. There are quite a few people looking for her since she’s been running for a long time. Is she ready to tell the truth?

Below, Mbatha-Raw reacts to that ending and shares her hopes for a third season (the series has yet to be renewed). (Check out our deep five into the finale with executive producers Veronica West and Lauren Neustadter here.)

Sophie walks into the police station and she feels she has what she needs to prove that her mother was murdered. So before that interrogation room scene goes sideways, how is she really feeling about what she has and what could happen next?

Gugu Mbatha-Raw: She’s kind of reached a point of acceptance that she’s going to sort of hand herself in. She has the information, she knows that there’ll be consequences, but I think she feels like she’s finally sort of getting to the bottom of the mystery. So she feels like she’s surrendering to her fate in a way. And then once she steps in and she finds out that there’s even more layers to her backstory and her history that she didn’t even know… On the one hand, I think she just feels like she’s accepting her fate, but then things get a whole lot deeper.

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Can you say if these warrants are actually for Sophie and things she doesn’t remember doing, or could someone else have used that name?

Well, this is the big cliffhanger of the whole season. I don’t want to spoil what could be a potential Season 3 journey, but I think essentially that we have the chapter with James [Oliver Jackson-Cohen] in San Francisco. We know about her childhood, but there is also a big gap in the middle before she met James. Season 1, Episode 6, when they first meet, we know that she had this past where she worked in Europe, she did other jobs, she meets him as a waitress. There is a whole chapter there that we haven’t really explored, that idea of Tess Caldwell, and this is up for [creator] Veronica West to say more on, in different stages of her life and which chapters of her memory has she unlocked and which ones are still a mystery.

So in Sophie’s head, she just resigns to, oh, here’s something else I don’t know about? There’s no question that it was her own actions in her own mind.

Well, she doesn’t know. That’s the thing. I think it’s such a big shock in the moment. I think that she feels like, okay, there’s this one case and it’s personal and it’s her mother, and that’s what has been her focus for this whole season. So to know that there’s other journeys in her life and other chapters of her life is kind of a real rug pull even to her because she wasn’t anticipating that and she’s really just in shock.

How much did she trust Callum (Gavin Drea) in the end?

I know! Well, obviously, Callum is a journalist. He’s on this story. But I think what I really love about the dynamic between Sophie and Callum especially towards the end, is that he does — I mean, it’s a question whether he has some kind of feelings for her — come through, he does help her out in the last minute. He gives her and James in the safe house an opportunity. He misdirects the police in that final moment. And I think that is him really showing his true loyalty and feelings towards Sophie. So I think, even though it’s really subtle, that he has earned her trust throughout the story.

The relationships by the finale are so complicated for all the characters,  but how does Sophie feel about Eliza (Millie Brady) and James and having either in her life going forward in any capacity? There are trust issues on all sides.

Yeah, I mean, it’s complicated and I think the dynamic with James at least is there is an open-ended moment there when they have to say goodbye at the train station. When she mentions about this little blue door in Paris and where that could be, I always wondered whether that was kind of a clue to James and her kind of potentially reuniting in France. But there’s so much to do. He’s kind of wanted for murder, what’s gone on the Huntley estate with Lucas and everything. So I think there is sort of an acknowledgement that there is a deep, deep love there, but just for their own lives and their own safety, they have to go their separate ways, at least for now.

In terms of Eliza, I think time will tell. I think there is a genuine bond there. And I think Eliza has, throughout the show and throughout her relationship with Sophie, always been one of the Huntleys that has wanted to push against the family legacy, push against what they’re known for. And I think it will be interesting to see now that everything has been exposed — and Eliza is a big part of that in terms of letting the police know about what’s at the estate in terms of the body and everything of Sophie’s mother. so I think there’s most hope for Eliza in terms of breaking away from the family legacy or even a curse in some ways. But it’ll be interesting to see how if her and Sophie can mend their friendship and their family relationship.

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They have to figure out what it means to be sisters.

Exactly. There’s a lot to work through.

How does Sophie feel about being a Huntley at this point? It doesn’t feel like she’s had much time to really even process that since she found out.

Yes, and I think that will be a question if we get to do a Season 3. How does this family connection help or hinder her in this situation she’s now in? Does she embrace it? Does she use those family connections? Can they help her in any way get out of this very sticky situation that she’s in at the end of the season? I think it’s been so fast paced since she’d made that discovery that, like you say, she hasn’t had a chance to sit with it and really figure out how that’s going to change her life or how she’s going to embrace that new identity as a Huntley or reject it. I think she has those choices ahead of her.

Was there ever a world in which Sophie would’ve run away with James?

I think she’s definitely torn. They’ve been through so much together, and I think in this season with James sort of more of a combative energy and that cat and mouse game that they’ve had at the beginning, but then he becomes a partner to her. He does support her. He does help her on this journey. And I think she’s definitely torn, but she knows that this is, in a way, something that she started and something that only she can come to peace with. And again, his safety — while they’re together, they’re a target. I think they can move more safely separate for now. I think she needs to sort of heal parts of herself before she would be able to be a good partner to him. I think her whole mission has been about her own journey and resolving everything with her mom. Ultimately, I think for now, she knows that she needs to finish what she started.

Does she regret anything that she’s done up to this point?

I’m sure she has a lot of regrets. I feel like the whole dynamic with her father — again, I don’t think that she’s had time to reflect at this point. I think probably post the moment in the police interrogation room, that will be the beginning of a chance to kind of reflect on it all. I think she’s been in fight or flight survival mode for quite a lot of time, but once the dust settles, she may have regrets about how she’s treated people or how she’s used certain situations. But they were all at the service of her main purpose. So yeah, maybe after a little bit more time in the police station, the regrets of some of the dynamics and the relationships will start to haunt her.

Related

'Surface': Gugu Mbatha-Raw on Sophie's Meeting With Her Father, More

Speaking of her father, I can’t imagine those two ever having a real familial relationship.

Yeah, you never know. You never know. I think that obviously she’s recorded their conversation. She’s using that as evidence. Neither of them really trust each other. And I think that’s obviously really hard to have any kind of relationship when there is no trust or when people are using each other for information. But that is her family. And now she’s in the U.K., she doesn’t have James, she’s not in America anymore, in a way, family is all she has and they are a powerful family. So who’s to say that she may still be able to at least form some kind of relationship with her father again, at least to help her out in this difficult situation?

How are you feeling about the chance of a third season? 

This season has been such a roller coaster and I feel like the finale is so climactic, and I know that there are many more questions than answers still. So I hope that people are enjoying the show. I would love to do a third season if people watch it and that’s the choice.

What are you hoping to explore with Sophie in a third season?

Oh my gosh, there’s so much, isn’t there? Obviously can’t give too much away about Veronica West‘s plans, but I think there’s definitely these other elements of where she’s been as well. Has she been in Europe? What are these other warrants out for her arrest for? What are these other skills that she has, these other sides of herself that she doesn’t know, and where is that going to take her? I think it’s been fascinating to go from San Francisco to London, and if she gets out of this situation, then where does she go next? Because I think this has been quite exposing in London, so there may be other places that she needs to start over.

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