Love & Anarchy Season 1 recap: Episode 1, ‘How It All Began’

Love & Anarchy Episode 1 begins with Sofie starting a new job and immediately getting off to a rocky start with the IT guy Max.

Love & Anarchy  Episode 1 kicks off with a seemingly normal family morning as Sofie (Ida Engvoll) helps her children get ready for school and chats with her husband about dinner plans. But before she leaves for work, Sofia locks herself in the bathroom to masturbate to porn. There’s nothing wrong with self-love. However, is the morning frenzy really the best time to do it? Is Sophie a porn addict?

Sofie arrives at a publishing house called Lund & Lagerstedt and is somewhat reluctantly shown to her cluttered new office. We learn that she is a highly sought-after independent consultant who has arrived to help them go digital within the next months. In the middle of her introductory spiel, Max (Björn Mosten) the IT guy, arrives late via elevator, interrupting her and then further causing discord when he opens a fizzy drink that goes everywhere.

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Immediately, things get off to a bumpy start between Max and Sofie as he begins drilling, loudly, into the ceiling. Something about fixing the internet connection. Sofie, who is busy trying to declutter her office, asks the receptionist to tell him to stop or drill more quietly, somehow. Pissed, Max gives up and leaves for the day.

Next, Sofie meets with Friedrich (Reine Brynolfsson), the Literary Director, and Denise (Gizem Erdogan), the Head of PR and Communication. They’re the only two people who read the manuscripts received by the publishing house before deciding on publication.

Sofie is somewhat shocked to learn they don’t base their publishing decisions on any data, just on their gut instinct of what’s good and what isn’t. Based on the brief interaction between Friedrich and Denise, it would seem they don’t agree often.

During dinner with her family, Sofie recounts her experience at the office. She’s appalled by how outdated the practices at Lund & Lagerstedt are, especially since digitizing the publishing house was sold to her as an easy job.  “I accepted this job because it was supposed to be a cakewalk, but I’m going to have to clear my schedule.” Later that night, after dealing with a call from her technologically-inept father, Sofie returns to her porn.

We return to the publishing house where Denise, Friedrich, and Hilma meet with a new author, Tove-Lo (Disa Ostrand). Everything is going well until Tove-Lo notices a random author walk by who Friedrich greets like an old friend. We cut to a tense office meeting between the three publishing house employees.

It turns out that the author, Claes — one of the company’s biggest moneymakers — previously sexually harassed Tove  Lo by sending her an unsolicited dick pic. Hilma wants to fire him altogether, but both Friedrich and Sofie think they need to “consider the business side of things.”

Not long after the meeting, Max returns to his drilling, and Sofie berates him for being so noisy. She demands he start coming to the office earlier or “get creative” in finding a way not to be so disruptive to her work. Well, after a mild tantrum, Max does as Sofie tells him to.

Love & Anarchy Episode 1: Max catches Sophie in an inappropriate position at work.

He returns to the office at night after everyone else has gone home. Everyone but Sofie that is. She’s decided to stay late and is in her office masturbating to porn yet again. Max happens to see her do it and takes a blackmail-worthy photograph with his cell phone.

Max confronts Sofie the next day while they’re getting their morning coffee. He wastes no time in dangling the compromising image over her head, telling her that he’ll “get back to her” later with what he wants in return for deleting the image. Then he starts drilling again, and this time, Sofie is powerless to stop him.

Sofie doesn’t have too much time to worry about Max as she gets a call telling her that her father has been accused of shoplifting. Upon arriving at the store, her father says it was a mistake and not his fault, The store just made buying stuff more difficult. In reality, the store has gone cashless, and he doesn’t have a debit card. Sofie scolds him for not setting up a digital card like she previously instructed. He asserts that it’s a matter of principle. “I refuse to be a victim of a digital system.”

At home, Sofie tells her husband what happened at the store. We learn that her father is sick and likely hasn’t been taking his medicine. It sounds like he suffers from paranoid delusions. She also mentions the “annoying IT guy” at work. Her husband tells her to fire him; instead, she starts looking through his social media.

Cut to Max, who is trolling a cafe for someone to hook up with and goes home with a woman for a night of intense sex in what I presume is a one-night-stand and a frequent hobby of his.

Love & Anarchy Episode 1: Sofie holds Max’s phone hostage as payback.

The next day, Sofie confronts Max at the publishing house and asks him how much money he wants for his blackmailing scheme. “Buy me lunch, and I’ll delete the picture.” Over a meal, Max asks Sofie why she masturbates at work — she doesn’t seem like the type.

Before she can answer, they’re interrupted by a woman named Elin (Yasmine Garbi), who greets Sofie like an old friend. Elin is the wife of Sofie’s husband’s best friend. Sofie claims she’s just trying to take Max around the area since he’s new. The entire interaction is filled with strange, awkward tension. Max immediately picks up on it. We don’t get an explanation just yet, but I’m wondering if Elin and Sofie’s husband previously had an affair. Perhaps that’s why things have gotten stale and strained in her marital life.

Once she leaves, Max deletes the picture. He even gives Sofie his phone, so she can permanently delete it from his “recently deleted folder.” Then, Sofie comes up with an idea to keep her little chaotic relationship with Max going. She holds his phone hostage until he does something “f—ked up.” It’s her version of payback.

When she returns to the office, Sofie walks into some drama concerning Tove Lo and Claes. Tove Lo shared the NSFW photograph he previously sent her online, and now people are upset their company is still working with him. The publishing house’s reputation is taking a significant hit. Then it gets even worse because someone suddenly posts a clit picture on the official Lund & Lagerstedt Instagram account.

Denise worries it will seem like they’re mocking Tove Lo. Sofie realizes that Max did it for his challenge and can barely keep herself from giggling while everyone panics that they’ve been hacked. Ultimately, she gives Max his phone back and then goes to the bathroom to let herself laugh.

She returns to Max’s desk afterward. “That’s my favorite lipstick, so tell me what I have to do to get it back because I desperately want it back.” Game on.

Love & Anarchy Episode 1: Final Thoughts

I was pleasantly surprised by Love & Anarchy Episode 1. From the trailer, I had assumed the series might get into murky territory concerning blackmail and consent, but the trickiest parts were solved by the episode’s end. Max intruding on Sofie’s private moment — no matter how inappropriate it was at work — and photographing it was obviously an invasion of privacy made worse by his desire to blackmail her.

Luckily, it resulted in them having lunch and nothing creepier. By that point, Sofie levels the field by taking his phone and issuing him a challenge. Come the episode’s end, she’s offered him his lipstick and officially created a mutual competition. They’re both now consenting adults in what is sure to become a devilishly tricky game between two people who are clearly attracted to each other. Sofie’s porn obsession and overall demeanor make it clear that she’s rather bored in her marriage, and perhaps her life, in general. Max is new, dangerous and exciting.

The allure for her is doing something that she could get caught doing, as evidenced by her public masturbation. She didn’t even close the blinds all the way before she started! It’ll be interesting to see how it all pans out.

• Stream it or Skip it: Stream it!
• Grading Love & Anarchy Episode 1: B

What did you think about Love & Anarchy Episode 1? Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below.

All eight episodes of Love & Anarchy Season 1 are now available on streaming.