Surface Season 1 Episode 7 Review: It Was Always Going to End This Way
Well, I can’t say I didn’t see this coming.
There are seemingly two sides to every character on this series, and as easy as it is to get sucked into the version of themselves they’re presenting to Sophie, everyone’s true colors are bound to come out in the end.
Surface Season 1 Episode 7 saw the unraveling of Baden, who was suddenly public enemy number one to Sophie, once she discovered he wasn’t being as truthful with her as she believed.
Baden has been pushing his anti-James agenda for a long time, and while perhaps some of it seemed motivated by his feelings for Sophie, he was undoubtedly building a solid case. Even with all signs pointing towards James being red herring, there was no denying the missing money.
But once the true nature of that crime came to light during Surface Season 1 Episode 6, Baden didn’t have much of a leg to stand on. Continuing to pursue this case would bring Sophie down, which is the one thing he’s been pretty keen not to do.
Baden never fit the “bad” guy mold, no matter how hard James tried to fit him into that box during this hour. He was just as misguided as everyone else, drawn into Sophie’s web and doing whatever he could to keep this version of Sophie for himself.
Because at the end of the day, that appears to be what everyone closest to Sophie is trying to do. They’re unwilling to give her the complete picture of her past because they’re hoping to keep this Sophie. The vulnerable Sophie dependent upon them, and not the other way around.
It’s wild when you think about how much misled she’s been, and straight-up lied to at times by the two men who will claim over and over again to love her most.
Finding out that Harrison initially hired Baden to look into Sophie isn’t as shocking as the show would like it to be, though it puts many things into perspective. Their initial meet-cute is now tainted with the knowledge that Baden knew exactly who she was when they met, which ultimately casts a shadow on their relationship.
Do I believe that Baden fell in love with her? Yes. But do I think Sophie loved him back? That’s a lot more complicated.
I’m not sure that Sophie is fully aware of what love means or that she ever felt it with either of the two men in her life. She’s a very confused and self-serving woman, and it’s hard for someone who only thinks of themselves first to be truly capable of loving someone else properly.
But for his part, Baden was in deep. And it appears that history may have started to repeat here, where he was looking for more than Sophie was willing to give him.
Baden: You can’t do this?
Sophie: Really, why not? Because if you can’t have me, no one can?
If he’d originally wanted her to run away with him and she declined, he probably saw her memory loss as a second chance for him to get what he wanted. And he did his due diligence this time, crafting a perfect story to reel Sophie in and get her to distrust her husband, who did himself no favors with his refusal to be honest.
So, now Sophie’s got two men in her life claiming to love her and want what’s best for her, who’ve both decided to pounce on this opportunity to fit Sophie into the box they’d like her to fit into.
This hour spirals until its logical conclusion, which is Baden in a lot of trouble.
And you can’t help but feel bad for him, just like you couldn’t help but feel a little bad for James before. They’ve both got issues, but they also aren’t the devil.
Baden’s biggest issue was his blatant deception. He was better off being open with Sophie and not getting caught in the middle of his lies because Sophie is tired. She is literally exhausted from the past few months and trying to piece together her life.
He should have left town the night Sophie confronted him and faded away, but it’s clear he couldn’t leave without proving himself to Sophie, which would be sweet if it wasn’t all twisted up in so much deception.
It’s unclear when Baden got his hands on that video, but I imagine he got it during the indeterminate time between Sophie’s blackmail campaign and his showing up in that restaurant. Because there’s no way he would have continued to push the James pushed you angle knowing Sophie actually jumped, right?
Perhaps, that’s a stupid question. Because just like James was happy to push Baden as a suspect, Baden was just as eager to paint James in a negative light.
But giving Sophie that video does feel like Baden’s final act in getting Sophie to see that even through it all, he did care about Sophie. It sounds odd to say that showing someone footage of them jumping off a boat would help them, but anytime someone is truthful with Sophie, that’s helping her.
Knowing Sophie really did jump now brings the question back to the why of it all. She had a plan in place when she took that money and headed for the ferry. She was running away and seemingly getting ready to start anew, so what changed from the time she fought with James to then?
Someone else was on the ferry deck, and even if they didn’t physically push Sophie, you have to wonder if there was some kind of confrontation between them that ultimately led Sophie to want to take her life.
It’s a leap, but with each passing hour, you can’t tell me that Harrison was all that concerned with Sophie’s well-being. He’s had a suspicion about her from the start, and going as far as to hire someone to look into Sophie, shows that he was highly invested in her downfall.
But why would he have been on the ferry? He didn’t seem to know about the money back then, and with Baden going rogue, what kind of information did he even have on Sophie?
With the information we have right now, it doesn’t make sense for him to have been on that ferry, but I’m not ruling anything out. There are still more mysteries out there, and here’s hoping the final hour will give us the complete picture of that fateful day once and for all.
Everything Else You Need To Know
- What happened to the girl from Sophie’s past? With only one episode to go, we better find out what her deal was.
- James blaming literally ANYONE but himself or Sophie for what they’re going through is rich.
- Do we think Baden died because his cover was blown? Usually, I would say yes, but you can’t trust anything on this show, so if we find out James hired someone to kill Baden, I would not be surprised.
We have reached the conclusion of this stellar first season, and while we have a lot of answers to the question we’ve been asking, there are still some loose ends hanging out there.
Let me know in the comments what you’re hoping to see in the finale because it should be another twisty hour!
As always, you can watch Surface online via TV Fanatic, so you don’t miss a minute of the action!
Whitney Evans is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.
