Carla and Morgan agree to go to arbitration at the end of War episode 2. With no number reasonable enough for both parties, the lawyers gear up for the next battle that will ultimately decide who will win. For the time being, things are at a standstill; however, Cathcarts enjoys an unfair advantage because of Johnny’s betrayal.
His information has kept Cathcarts one step ahead of Carla and has eventually fueled the war in the divorce. What could have been solved amicably has become a bloodbath because both firms refuse to lose the case, even when their clients are exhausted and want it to end in their partner’s favor.
After mediation, Carla goes to see her son from her first marriage, Gabriel. It seems obvious that Carla and Gabe don’t enjoy a close relationship, and the latter’s attitude implies that Carla has been the less ‘caring’ parent. She takes her son to lunch and tries to show interest in his life, but Gabe knows right away that something is wrong.
Gabriel learns about his parents’ divorce
Gabriel immediately realizes through his mother’s stuttering words that his parents are getting divorced. He also almost instinctively pins the reason on Morgan cheating. Carla neither confirms nor denies the allegation, but she can’t lie to Gabriel. She insists she still loves and respects Morgan, but Gabe can tell things have already gotten worse.
At Taylor & Byrne, the team gets ready to tear up the prenup by creating an emotional story around how Carla helped build Zephyr. They will build their foundation on how unfair the prenup was and pick apart Morgan’s actual net worth. They then get ready to go to Carla’s for lunch, and Serena also invites Johnny along.
At Cathcarts, Beatrice worries that Johnny’s illegal activities as their mole will be traced back to them. However, St. John points out that even if it comes to light that David paid someone for leaking information, it wouldn’t affect them as individuals. However, Beatrice is insistent that they protect the prenup at the arbitration and settle the case as soon as possible.
They also plan to set a trap for Serena in choosing who the arbitrator will be. They’ll deliberately select four names that will seem the most lucrative choice to Cathcarts, automatically forcing Serena to go with the fifth option, which will actually be the arbitrator that Cathcarts wanted in the first place.
At Carla’s house, Serena tells her they practically have it in the bag even if Gabriel is still coming around. Carla complains that her son doesn’t understand what she had to give up to be there for the family. Serena thinks using Carla’s sacrifices as an angle for invalidating the prenup and raising the settlement number would be a great idea.
Since Carla tells them she turned down lucrative projects like superhero films, they can argue her worth and earnings were diminished because of her family, making her entitled to compensation in the divorce settlement. Johnny also suggests they sue the original firm over the prenup, but Serena declines because her husband was the original lawyer. Serena shutting down Johnny gives the latter a reality check that sabotaging this case wouldn’t be as easy as it seems.
Later, Johnny steps out to talk to Bella, who invites him to a party at her boss’s place. While talking on the phone, Johnny spots Carla, who has stepped out for a smoke. Bella tells him it is a black-tie event and kisses him goodbye. Johnny lights Carla’s cigarette, who happens to overhear his conversation. She figures out his girlfriend wants him at a party, but he doesn’t have a suit.
Johnny admits, embarrassed, and Carla tells him to go to Morgan’s dresser and get himself an expensive suit since he’s going to be paying for everything. Johnny is happy, but there’s something strange in his eyes, of course, besides the fact that he can’t take them off of Carla.
At Taylor & Byrne, Serena and the team strategize over selecting the right arbitrator. They obviously know that Cathcarts set a trap for them, so they’ll choose the opposite candidate. After doing thorough research on each arbitrator, they settle on Rachel Grann, who seemingly worked for Beatrice but has a solid stance on prenups being "inherently unfair."
Meanwhile, Morgan and St. John talk about how they don’t need to disrespect Carla in order to win. He doesn’t want to be unfair and just wants this to be over soon. While talking, Gabriel arrives to inquire about his parents’ divorce. Morgan is both surprised and happy to see Gabriel, but he seems upset that his son had to find out this way.
Gabriel demands to know the truth, but Morgan could only stall because he didn’t want to hurt his stepson. So, he instructs Gabriel to go to his hotel room and wait until he finishes his business. Gabe is agitated over his parents’ lack of inclusiveness and storms out of Morgan’s office.
Back at Taylor & Byrne, Michael talks to one of Carla’s supposedly declined movie’s directors and learns Carla was never offered a role. He tells the lawyers Carla was rejected because she was difficult to work with and wasn’t famous enough, which nullifies her claim that she lost work because of her family.
However, Serena thinks they can still argue that Gabriel and Morgan have a good relationship, making the former his dependent and ultimately leaving Morgan vulnerable to the prenup. Unfortunately, when she brings up the idea of posing as an uncaring mother, Carla becomes irritated. She doesn’t want to look like the mother who wasn’t there, but Serena persuades her to do it if she wants to get what she deserves.
Johnny gets closer to Carla
During the car ride, Carla scrolls through Gabriel’s Instagram, remembering the happy days, but finds a post of him saying he’s staying in London and is partying. Rightfully so, instead of staying at Morgan’s place, Gabe runs away to a friend’s house and gets drunk and high.
Johnny meets up with David at his fitting and informs him of Serena’s strategy to use Morgan as a way to prove that the prenup is outdated. When the prenup was drafted, Carla was a single mother, and now, since Morgan has accepted Gabriel as his son, the terms are no longer valid.
Back at Morgan’s place, his associates, Steve and Gillian, come up with a plan to protect Zephyr from getting split in the divorce. If Morgan were to transfer all of Zephyr’s share into someone else’s name, let’s say Gillian, then Carla won’t be able to claim something that doesn’t belong to Morgan. Although brilliant, Morgan is infuriated with the plan and tells everyone to leave.
Just then, St. John arrives to inform Morgan of Serena’s strategy. However, Morgan finds the idea of estrangement from Gabe distasteful, even if it meant winning the case. Carla calls Morgan to find out about Gabe, but St. John advises him to ignore Carla and let her handle her son.
With Morgan ignoring her, Carla has no one to turn to except Johnny, who happens to text her for the tuxedo right then. Meanwhile, Johnny arrives at Bella’s party, but before he can enter, he receives a call from a frantic Carla about Gabe’s whereabouts. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity, Johnny leaves to find Gabe.
Carla feels guilty for not listening to Gabriel, and now he’s out somewhere getting himself into trouble. Johnny reassures Carla and helps her locate Gabe via his Instagram account. Meanwhile, Gabe gets into a fight with his friend after he makes fun of his parents’ divorce. Thankfully, Johnny and Carla arrive before things get out of hand. Gabe is furious and wants to throw his life away, but Johnny consoles him and shares his own parents’ divorce story.
According to him, you can’t control how your parents feel or react, but you sure can’t waste your life just because your mom and dad aren’t together anymore. Johnny advises Gabe to concentrate on his life and make a man out of himself before life throws him a sucker punch that he’ll live to regret.
Morgan is cornered
After rescuing Gabe, Johnny wins over Carla’s approval while he also apologizes to Bella and makes up with her. By the next morning, Johnny is at the top of the world; however, it doesn’t last long because he has a long and painful arbitration ahead of him. While waiting, Molly tells Johnny that Serena is planning to use Morgan’s fatherhood as a weapon to break the prenup.
With the enemy in the building, Serena and Nicholas must be fully committed to bringing them down, but instead, they are worried about hiring a nanny. Serena is doubtful if she’s ready to leave her baby all alone, but she also doesn’t want to put a stop to her career. Nicholas consoles her and tells her they’ll figure it out, but right now, they have to win this case.
The arbitration begins, and Serena is adamant about dismissing the prenup. However, the arbitrator thinks that, viewed fairly, prenuptial agreements, in essence, represent equality, which aligns with the feminist perspective. Hearing the arbitrator say that shocks Serena and Nicholas, who thought Rachel Grann would instantly jump to dismiss the prenup.
They start off weak, but Serena isn’t the one to back down. She immediately makes her case, saying Morgan is more of a father to Gabriel than Carla ever was a mother. Serena argues the prenup is unfair in light of Gabriel’s involvement, which was essentially nonexistent at the time of the prenup. On those grounds, Serena appeals to dissolve the prenup as her client’s familial circumstances have changed.
Cathcarts counters Serena’s argument by presenting Carla’s voicemail from last night, in which she accuses Morgan of ignoring Gabriel and being a terrible father to him. The voicemail makes things worse because Carla is furious that Morgan would use such tactics to prove he doesn’t care about Gabe. As the two argue, Gabe arrives and is visibly angry over his parents’ behavior.
Morgan hates that Gabriel had to see all of that, and most of all, he hates how his son has been weaponized. In the heat of the moment, he orders Gabe to go back to school and apply himself to the best of his abilities instead of wasting his life mopping about his parents’ divorce. Unfortunately for Cathcarts, Morgan did the exact opposite of what they were arguing about. The arbitrator is convinced of Serena’ argument that Morgan cares about Gabriel.
After the arbitration, Morgan calls Gillian and tells her the prenup has been invalidated, and they should move forward with her plan. He tells her to move the money first thing tomorrow morning. As he sits sipping his beer, he traces his finger over the mark on the wooden table, presumably caused by Gabe opening the beer bottle. Morgan smiles at the irony of losing the argument over caring for his son.
War is currently streaming on HBO Max.
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