Anatomy of a Scandal recap guide: Episodes 1 to 6

Anatomy of a Scandal episode 2 recap

Things move quickly in Anatomy of a Scandal episode 2. After Olivia makes her accusation against James, the media is immediately on top of him and Sophie, clamoring for answers and wondering how Sophie can sleep with an accused rapist. Through it all, the Prime Minister remains loyal to James, drawing raised eyebrows from many of his constituents. If James is convicted how will it reflect on the government?

At least one person asks the PM if James has something on him to generate such loyalty to which Tom responds that James is accused, not yet convicted and should be perceived innocent until proven otherwise. That said, Tom still asks James point-blank whether he raped Olivia or not.

James denies Olivia’s claim and immediately tells Sophie what happened after the detectives corner him outside of Parliament. Sophie had just started to wrap her mind around the affair, only for this new development to crop up and now she’s left questioning her husband yet again, whether she wants to admit it or not.

The trial moves forward, set for three months down the line. Barrister Kate Woodcroft represents the Queen’s Counsel (or the prosecution as we would refer to it in America) while QC Angela Regan (Josette Simon) is James’ defense. Between the time of the bail hearing and the trial start date, James tries to mollify his children and keep them distracted from the media frenzy with a new puppy, who they affectionately dub “Velcro.”

Before Anatomy of a Scandal skips ahead to the trial, we take a brief detour to the past again. This time, we get to see more of what Sophie was like in college. In the present, she and James have a frank discussion of her schooling and Sophie’s desire to return to literature and look for a new job once everything blows over. James jokes that she used to complain about her old job in children’s lit, but Sophie claims she just didn’t like the preschool division. “I didn’t mean to imply you weren’t a serious student,” James adds.

Well, the flashback indicates that Sophie wasn’t a good student. She’s shown using her friend Holly Berry (Nancy Farino) to do all her work and trading beers for essays instead of doing the assignments herself. The foray into the past doesn’t reflect well on James either, as we see him at a raucous party with his frat-like group of fellow Libertines.

One of his friends gropes a horrified waitress in front of everyone and they all laugh it off. James watches the incident and tries to pay her for her troubles (or to keep quiet) before brushing the entire incident off. It’s yet another textbook example of the “boys will be boys” mentality and toxic sexism running rampant in James’ youth.

At one point in the episode, he also calls Kate Woodcroft a c*nt, claiming he’s just using a word he heard another man use to refer to her as if that makes it any better. James definitely has misogynistic tendencies that stem from his posh, white-privileged, straight male upbringing. But does that mean he raped Olivia? We’ll find soon find out.

We skip ahead to the trial start date. An apprehensive Sophie agrees to attend court to show support for James. He manipulates her into it by mentioning if she skips court, it’ll look like she thinks James is guilty.

Olivia takes the stand and relays how their relationship started. It sounds similar to what James has said thus far, except for one thing: Olivia says she was in love with James, a far cry from James telling Sophie that the entire thing was meaningless and “just sex.” Maybe that’s true on his end. Maybe he didn’t know Olivia loved him. I find that hard to believe and apparently so does Sophie since Olivia’s revelation sends her reeling.

She immediately leaves the courtroom, hops in a cab and heads home. Spinning out, Sophie can’t help but imagine Olivia and James together and she faints. The episode ends with yet another weird, melodramatic edited sequence of Sophie envisioning herself falling through the floor and down into the courtroom. Is every episode going to end with someone flying around?!