NEW YORK, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Gugu Mbatha-Raw says Sophie, the California amnesiac she plays in the mystery thriller Surface, heads to London in Season 2 because she suspects the answers to who she is might be linked to a wealthy British family.
New episodes of the show air on Apple TV+ Friday nights.
"Sophie is on a mission to find out the truth about her past and that really is her focus," Mbatha-Raw, 41, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.
"She becomes a little bit more ruthless. She's got nothing to lose, as she says at the end of Episode 1, and she's there to sort of infiltrate this family, the Huntleys, really get back into the life of Eliza (Millie Brady) and try and find out what happened to her mother."
Season 1 ended with Sophie leaving a hidden video for her husband James (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) revealing she hadn't taken her life as she led everyone to believe, but that she doesn't want him to try and find her because they aren't good for each other.
"Sophie leaves San Francisco. She leaves James," Mbatha-Raw said.
"In terms of the video, she is sort of showing her hand a little bit. That was always her intention. I think maybe it's slightly a bread crumb in the hope, perhaps, that he will follow, but I guess she doesn't know."
Oliver Jackson-Cohen, 38, described James as having endured a "roller coaster" of emotions in Season 1 -- twice being told by authorities that the woman he loves tried to kill herself, while also learning she stole millions of dollars from his company and left him on the hook for it.
"He has kind of been put through the ringer. He feels quite broken at the end of Season 1," he said.
"That's the thing that I think is interesting -- when people are in that place, it can go either way," the actor added. "They'll either stand up and fight back or not, [depending on] how much rage has built up inside of him. So, entering into Season 2, he comes back with a real need for vengeance, a real need to make Sophie understand just how badly he's been hurt."
James doesn't want to resume living as man and wife, Jackson-Cohen emphasized.
"He's not there to get her back," he added. "He feels like he hasn't got anything to lose, and so why not [try to track her down]? It creates this very interesting kind of cat and mouse game. He's giving her a bit of a taste of her own medicine."
While Sophie is in London trying to uncover all these secrets about her past, Jackson-Cohen said James is obsessed only with her, not trying to rehabilitate his professional image or deal with his legal woes.
"James kind of drives a truck through her life to ruin it all. It's very stressful," the actor laughed.
Jackson-Cohen was careful not to spoil any Season 2 surprises, but did confirm viewers won't see James mending bridges with his emotionally exhausted friends Harrison (Francois Arnaud) and Caroline (Ari Graynor) any time soon.
"I feel like he would be able to," Jackson-Cohen said.
"Right now, he is broke. He has lost everything in his life. I don't know if he's thinking anything other than, 'I need to find my wife.'"
Mbatha-Raw chimed in: "This season takes place in London, so, for the moment, the characters that we left behind in San Francisco are kind of not the focus."
Brady, 32, called Eliza "a very prominent figure in Sophie's past."
"Both of them are trying to, basically, piece their relationship back together and to understand who they are to each other," Brady said.
"[Eliza] is part of a very influential aristocratic family who have a huge amount of darkness and secrets behind them and she is a trailblazer, I guess, in wanting to shake things up," she added.
"She doesn't want to repeat the same mistakes that her parents and her grandparents have made. She's torn between those two worlds constantly."
