This is a story recap of Netflix’s Anatomy of a Scandal and will contain spoilers as it details what happened.
Anatomy of a Scandal is a scintillating courtroom mystery series starring Sienna Miller, Michelle Dockery, Rupert Friend, Naomi Scott, and Josette Simon. Directed by S.J. Clarkson (Collateral) and written for television by David E. Kelley and Melissa James Gibson, the series looks at an up-and-coming politician who has an affair with an underling. What makes this different? The colleague, Olivia, has now accused him of rape. Did he do it? That is the issue in question.
The series is based on Sarah Vaughn’s wildly successful novel of the same name. Here is a story recap of what happened in Anatomy of a Scandal Season 1.
Story recap – what happened in Anatomy of a Scandal season 1?
Episode 1
The pilot episode of Netflix’s Anatomy of a Scandal establishes the miniseries’s three main characters. Sophie Whitehouse is the wife of James, and he is involved in a scandalous story of sleeping with a coworker named Olivia. He manages to survive the political smear campaign and even his marriage. (The Prime Minister, an old college chum, having his back helps matters considerably). However, he is stopped by two constables who inform him he has been accused of raping the woman he had an affair with. Finally, you have the Queen’s Council’s barrister Kate Woodcroft (Michelle Dockery), who is pondering taking the case of defending the accuser.
Episode 2
This episode gets into Olivia’s side of the story, the rape, ramifications, and the interpretations of “signals.” Olivia describes how James initiated their initial affair by holding her arm that lingered for too long. She asked about his wife twice, and he finally said she trusted him. This is too much for Sophie to handle. She has a panic attack in the rafters overseeing the court.
Episode 3
In this episode, James’s barrister, Angela, tears apart Olivia’s story, and Kate tries to patch it back together. She goes over the fact she is an apparent jilted lover and the police report documenting she never said no. Olivia said, “not here.” Angela feels there is a difference and makes Olivia pay for it. She initiated a signal to James that she found arrogance attractive (James was upset he was being called arrogant by a reporter). James, in turn, led her into an elevator. As she put it, the attraction was still there as an explicit initiation. She then describes the rape in detail, saying she told him no and not here, but he went ahead anyway.
To save himself from being let go, he calls his old chum, Prime Minister Tom, to cash the get out of jail free card. We do not know what he did to earn it.
Episode 4
This episode focuses on the Queen Court barrister, Kate. James is now accused of raping a student in his Oxford days by the school administrator, but they cannot locate Holly Berry’s study. She was Sophie’s study partner. James claims he does not know her. During the flashbacks, we see Holly leaving school. In another, at a party, Sophie’s flashback turns into watching a young James raping Holly at school. He even says that famous phrase, “Don’t be such a prick tease.” The camera then reveals that Kate is thinking back to the day.
Holly is Kate Woodcroft.
Episode 5
Here, James tells his side of the story. He says it was Olivia who initiated them entering the elevator. She grabbed the back of his head to kiss him. Olivia wrenched her blouse, bra, and ripped her panties. Oh, and the love mark he made above her left nipple? It was a moment of passion, but it was certainly not his intention.
This is when Kate cross-examines him, and both James and Sophie put things together. Kate is, in fact, Holly, and Kate gets James to be more arrogant than usual, and he yells at her in open court.
Episode 6
Finally, James is found not guilty. However, Sophie still decides to divorce him. She meets up with Kate and tells her that, even though he got away with it, she called the press to give them the story of James and Tom, the Prime Minister, bringing heroin to a party, causing the death of a fellow student at Oxford, then covering it up.
And there you go, a story recap of Anatomy of a Scandal season 1 and what happened. What are your thoughts on the story? Comment below.
