‘War’: Dominic West, Sienna Miller & Cast Break Down Series Premiere Twists

The metaphorical match has been lit in HBO‘s new legal drama War as the series premiere uncovers the devious first step toward Carla Duval (Sienna Miller) and Morgan Henderson’s (Dominic West) divorce, which will be overseen by the firms of Taylor & Byrne and Cathcarts & Sons. Warning: Spoilers for the War Season 1 Premiere!

But as the premiere unveils, there’s a mole in the midst of this battle, with up-and-coming lawyer Johnny (Archie Renaux) accepting a gig at Taylor & Byrne, headed by married couple Nick Taylor (James McArdle) and Serena Byrne (Phoebe Fox), while also working undercover for Cathcarts & Sons after an agreement with David Schill (Miles Jupp).

The action kicks off with Zephyr tech founder Morgan falling into bed with Flora (Sanditon‘s Rose Williams), in a tryst that is apparently not altogether unfamiliar to him. This time around, though, Morgan is unaware that Flora is a pal of his actress wife Carla, and she’s promised to test Morgan’s fidelity. After he failed the test, Flora snapped a pic and sent it in Carla’s direction, which led her to reach out to Nick and Serena to begin divorce proceedings.

HBO / Sky

Miller says Morgan’s unfaithfulness is “the catalyst” for Carla pursuing a divorce. “Their lives are so independent of each other,” she explains, adding that the breaking point for Carla is that “she doesn’t trust him.”

The sparks were stoked further in the premiere’s final moments when Carla is served divorce papers at the red carpet premiere of her latest film, forcing her to smile for cameras alongside Morgan after the revelation that she’d been beaten to the punch. “We learned an interesting thing about billionaire behavior and all the big business people [is] they plan their divorces two years, several years in advance,” West explains.

In Morgan’s case, he was unaware of what Carla had been planning until he picked up a tabloid and saw Nick and Serena walking behind Carla in a photograph. That tipped off his team at Cathcart & Sons to get the ball rolling, and their mole insights from Johnny helped them deliver the divorce papers before Carla had a chance to even realize Morgan had been tipped off.

“It’s a business move,” West adds, saying, “There’s a business strategy behind it.”

Meanwhile, when it comes to the deception unfolding within the walls of Taylor & Byrne, Renaux admits that Johnny isn’t exactly second-guessing the scheme he’s taking part in. As viewers see in the episode, the underdog was waiting tables upon returning to London after a stint lawyering in New York, where some kind of mess-up occurred, forcing him to seek a new place of employment.

Related

HBO's 'War': A Guide to 14 Key Characters

With the pressure of his girlfriend and his own thoughts of self-worth at stake, Johnny dives in headfirst to the deception. “At that point he’s totally blinded by his own ambition, and he’s done heaps of interviews, and he’s got one chance, and he just sees that as his way, and that’s his foot in the door,” Renaux shares. “He doesn’t really [have] time to think about morals just yet.”

The mole approach could be especially hurtful to Johnny’s employer, Serena, who seemed to see something in him that others did not. “I think it’s very easy to be charmed by Johnny,” Fox says, but admits that she believes Serena connects with him because there’s a “scrappier quality to them both.”

While Taylor & Byrne have a lot to prove by taking on Carla’s side of the case, Cathcarts & Sons are the seasoned professionals in this equation, and it’s an especially exciting prospect for Bea (Nina Sosanya), who is informed of Morgan’s situation by colleague St. John (Pip Torrens). “They belong to a firm that has a huge reputation that has been going for a couple of hundred years,” Sosanya explains, “so it’s rooted in tradition and rooted in winning.”

Who will come out on top? That’s for fans to discover as Season 1 unfolds. In the meantime, check out the full video interview above, and keep tuning into War to see how Morgan and Carla’s divorce proceeds with the help of Taylor & Byrne and Cathcarts & Sons in the weeks ahead.

War, Season 1, Thursdays, 9/8c, HBO and HBO Max