I have a feeling with the arrival of James, Tess' life is going to get even more complicated in London. Will he be a friend or foe? We get a bit of an answer to his feelings in this week's episode, Surface season 2 episode 3, "Kintsugi." Here's our review of the Apple TV+ series' newest episode SPOILERS BELOW.
James plays games with Tess
The drama does a good job of showing us how James manages to track Tess down and find her with just enough information but not dwelling on it too much. I feel like sometimes shows will take up a whole episode to explain something, and I don't think we needed that here. So I'm glad James' appearance in London was told quickly but efficiently.
Now what I didn't really enjoy is the fact that he doesn't answer Tess and stays away from her for most of the time. This is to get under her skin and I mean she does kind of deserve it. Tess is definitely a complicated lead character. But this just leads to Tess stressing about him and nothing really moving forward in the story until the final moments when the two meet up. He tells her it does something to a person thinking your wife is dead, then not.
Calling this couple's relationship complicated is definitely an understatement. I don't think Tess was really moved very much. And I mean, come on James. Clearly she doesn't want anything to do with you. Take the hint, buddy.
An underwhelming answer to Tess and Eliza's history
Something interesting that comes up is the fact that apparently Quinn was not behind Phoebe, who was working with Callum to expose the Huntleys, falling off the balcony. Was it really a suicide, or did someone else step in? Or is Quinn lying? After all, she did tell Callum that Quinn admitted to her that the dark rumors surrounding his family may not just be rumors.
As for the big thing that happened between Tess and Eliza and why she's angry with her. When the two were teens, they had too much to drink the previous night. But the next morning, they still got up hungover and went to the stables. Eliza had a nasty fall and then Tess just left her there and disappeared. I mean, ok... That was a really crappy thing for Tess to do, don't get me wrong. But this felt a bit underwhelming.
Not to sound inconsiderate but really Eliza? This was something that happened years ago when you were teens. It's really effecting you that much? I get it. She's probably more upset about the fact she lost her friend rather than Tess leaving her. Which, again. Really crappy move. But I have a feeling there's more to the story here. Perhaps Tess finds something out about her mom that she can't remember right now, and that's why she left? The episode ends with Eliza inviting Tess to the country house so they can go riding like old times. And this is the perfect opportunity for Tess to do some investigating.
Surface season 2 episode 3 review
Overall Surface season 2 episode 3 wasn't a bad episode. But I would have liked to see some more revelations or something that moves the story along a bit more. I don't need to be watching 50 minutes of content just to get Eliza's I fell off a horse and Tess left me. Like, nothing interesting really even happened between Tess/Sophie and James. I know we're only in the third episode though, so maybe I need to give the season a chance. We're only at the start.
I'm hoping in next week's new episode the plot lines will start to move along a bit quicker though. I don't know what it is about this season so far, but the first season just managed to hook me with the storyline so much better. I feel like there's something missing here, I just don't know what it is. Episode grade level: C.
Surface season 2 releases new episodes Fridays on Apple TV+.