‘War’ Season 1 Episode 2 Recap: Starts with an F, ends with a U 

For all us non-lawyers in the crowd, it’s gracious of Episode 2 of War on HBO to clearly and distinctly plot out the legal process by which a divorce occurs. A process, it also reveals, that its actual lawyers give a fuck about honoring. Last time, one party got served before the other party even started. And this time, Cathcarts partner Beatrice Ubosi dutifully explains the initial legal stages of mediation and arbitration — while in the same breath dismissing these processes as formalities good only for opposition research. “Just to be clear,” Suzie Levitniik (Kartanya Maynard) says in the Cathcarts war room, “there is no such thing as an amiable outcome?” Guffaws from the senior partners. Amiability? Agreements? Civility? Following the law to the letter? Not at the price point where they operate. 

It’s not like Cathcarts would deign to take a case that is beneath its perceived stature. But we wonder how this process would play out for a non-rich, non-powerful client. For Cathcarts’ current client, his indiscretions are just static to clarify and rise above. Dominic West is hilarious as Morgan Henderson when St. John Smallwood probes the man’s infidelity like a stern schoolmaster. “No,” he responds when Smallwood asks if any other extramarital bombs will drop. “No,” Morgan emphasizes; Smallwood waits. “NO!” he repeats, louder. And then a final “No.” But it’s very difficult to believe Henderson, because he and his wealth and power exist in a world where lawyers lie to themselves about the ethics of their very profession. Truths are lies and lies are truths — nothing matters but the win.     

Maybe that’s what Johnny Warren has decided for himself. The young lawyer from the wrong side of England’s class divide has gone full spy in the ointment. From day one at Taylor & Byrne as an eager junior associate on the Morgan Henderson-Carla Duval divorce, he’s shuttling information to David Schill (Miles Jupp), his handler at Cathcarts. “Just show them the real you,” says his richer-than-him girlfriend Bella Croft (Honor Swinton Byrne). She means it as first-day encouragement, but it’s seemingly what Johnny’s actually doing. He willingly funnels vital inside info about the case to the opposing side, and willingly takes the cash-stuffed envelope Schill offers. It’s a win for Johnny’s perceived stature. Fuck everyboy else. 

But everybody else is also fucking everyboy else! Let’s meet Mumsy. Melinda “Mumsy” Monroe (a terrific Camille Coduri) has injected herself, her leopard print wardrobe, and her flat’s leaky roof into her daughter Flora’s situation. When Sabrina Byrne pushes the young woman to sign a non-disclosure agreement, threatening her with consequences for a plan Carla, Taylor & Byrne’s actual client, came up with, Mumsy appears at the firm with a demand: “Flora’s not signing nothing unless she gets 20 grand.” 

Mumsy sees a payday, and an opportunity to stick it to “people like them,” i.e. the elites. But when Johnny intercepts her demand, he spins the payout to Serena and Nicholas Taylor as an opportunity, then sends to Cathcarts his voicemail describing the done deal. That’s the real opportunity. Flipping the script. Is this even lawyering anymore? It’s a lot like criminal behavior. We said this series would get messy, and it is succeeding in this, scene by scene by scene. Because while the war room at Taylor & Byrne feels empowered — their team is great, Cathcarts doesn’t know their strategy, etc. etc., all oblivious — Bea is licking her chops. The legal process they are using starts with an ‘F’ and ends with a ‘U.’ “We will win this,” Ubosi says gleefully at Cathcarts, “and they have no idea.”

In all of this, Morgan and Carla have also been inside the war rooms. But they are not leading from the front. The named parties in the divorce are just taking orders from the expensive attorneys they hired. Morgan rants about the prospect of giving Carla half his considerable assets, and having to support Gabriel (Aran Murphy), his stepson from Carla’s previous marriage, but ultimately takes instruction from Ubosi and Smallwood. And Carla agrees with Sabrina and Nicholas’s play, to vote for arbitration. “I’m an actress,” she says. “I know my lines.” Their side doesn’t know the dirt Cathcarts has, of course, so arbitration, the next step in the legal process, will also be messy. But the scene is another chance for War to establish Carla and Morgan as people still in a relationship, in a marriage, despite its fractures. She takes his hand during a session with the mediator. She sells it, because she’s a pro, but we can bet her touch is ice cold. “I can commit,” she says, looking right at her cheating husband. “For me that’s never been an issue.”

Discovery for War Season 1 Episode 2 (“No More Nasty Suprises”):

• It’s all about the songs! The smart music supervision in War continues with Episode 2, where jams mirror thought processes. “I’ve been a bad bad boy,” Paul Rodgers of Free sings in “Trouble on Double Time,” as Johnny Warren plays both sides. “I know I should be good; Been bad for so long, it must be in my blood.”

• “You are always on my mind…” While Mumsy gets nostalgic over an old Pet Shop Boys music video on the telly, the song’s lyrics lead Flora to her phone. She texts Morgan Henderson. “I want to see you.” No Carla directives — this is all Flora. Mumsy’s monetary demands might have only been the beginning of the disruption these two can cause in a high-profile case. All those “No”’s Morgan delivered to Smallwood? Probably won’t stand in the court of personal comportment.

• And we’ll also shout out War composer Oli Julian, whose “Being Fun Tomorrow” lends a sleek, propulsive sweep to shots of the opposing parties arriving to do divorce battling. Julian was also behind the music for the highly enjoyable Netflix series Sex Education.

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.