Note: contains discussion of subjects including rape that some readers may find upsetting.
In Netflix‘s Anatomy of a Scandal, Sophie Whitehouse (Sienna Miller) undergoes a radical transformation across the drama’s six episodes as her perception of both her husband and herself shifts.
Once the doting, unquestioning wife, the series concludes with her not only choosing to walk away from her marriage, but orchestrating James’ (Rupert Friend) arrest and the subsequent decimation of his career and reputation – or so one would hope.
He’s already wriggled out of one tight spot, so why not another?
Her soon-to-be-ex partner, however, remains unchanged. There will be no metamorphosis in which James sheds his old skin and re-emerges repentant, the pain of his victims weighing heavily upon him. He is the man he always was, trapped in stasis, unable to voice an ounce of regret because he cannot fathom how such charges were brought against him.
After the MP is found not guilty of raping his parliamentary researcher Olivia Lytton (Naomi Scott), he returns to his lavish home to sup on Champagne while boasting about his re-admittance into the political fold.
He is under the impression that his life, including his relationship with Sophie, will rumble on as before, unimpeded by the past few months, his existence once again the picture of success.
“It’s almost like you’re being rewarded,” says Sophie, visibly unnerved as he prattles on about his new position.
“Rewarded, no,” he responds with gusto. “Restored.”
For James, this is simply the established order in action – “Whitehouses always come out on top”; grave injustices are being rectified.
For Sophie, by contrast, the cracks in her formerly unshakeable worldview continue to deepen as she reckons with her husband’s ugly nature.
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“Of course she didn’t mean it,” sniggers James when pressed by his wife about what was really said and done in that lift. “It was a game we perfected.”
When she asserts that he can’t possibly have known the inner workings of Olivia’s mind, he replies: “I can and I do,” the tone of his response conveying an unwavering confidence in his behaviour, rather than someone re-evaluating their choices.
The entitlement that has been drummed into him from the moment he entered the world allows James to operate as he wishes, unencumbered by social mores, because there are always mitigating factors that work in his favour – not only did Olivia love “risky situations”, she couldn’t have possibly rejected the MP in that moment because on every occasion prior, she either invited it or initiated it. And she certainly couldn’t reconsider, her past behaviour denying her the right to leave that lift on her own terms.
She did still love him, after all.
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On another occasion when James admits to Sophie that he did “collide” with Holly Berry (Michelle Dockery), he bristles when she uses the word “brutish” to describe his actions that night, instead settling on the equally cold but less troubling “abrupt”.
“It was certainly 100% not rape,” he declares, and the expression splashed all over his face tells us that he “certainly 100%” believes that his encounter with Holly was consensual, which is a gross misreading of the facts.
What makes James such an unsettling character is his resolute belief that he did not impose himself on either women, their grievances merely the result of a miscommunication – and always on their part.
It was Holly’s “romantic expectations” that were to blame for how she interpreted their encounter, and not the stark fact that James raped her. And how could he have possibly known that Olivia was a fully-fledged human capable of changing her mind?
It’s an insidious tactic that removes the onus entirely from James and thrusts it onto the women he has harmed, leaving them vulnerable to blame from others and themselves.
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When James declares that he “would never ever” force himself on a woman, there is no hesitation or stutter; his pulse is regular, his gaze steady
There is no hint of doubt in his assertion because he is not peddling a falsehood, contrary to what we have witnessed. He believes, at his very core, that he isn’t capable of such an act, despite the fact that both Holly and Olivia prove otherwise.
The truth of who he is does not marry with the man he believes himself to be – a haunting realisation that Sophie finally grasps towards the end of the trial.
While those who revel in their misdeeds elicit horror and disgust from those who bear witness, individuals who are blind to their destructive behaviours, such as James, moving through the world with a lightness that belies who they really are, can often be so much more disturbing.
Anatomy of a Scandal is available to stream on Netflix. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.
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