War Recap Season 1 Episode 6 ‘The Simple Act of Paying Attention’
It was always going to be the little things. Johnny has been a good, often conscience-free spy, able to develop a friendship with Molly and Saeed, and an intimate relationship with the client he was betraying, Carla. Would War give space to interrogate how one of its central villains was a working class kid who has struggled to find and keep jobs? Probably not. To be honest, I don’t even feel comfortable calling any of the characters villains, not even the deliciously villainous St. John. Most of the characters march to the beat of their own desires. There was no side of the angels, only war.
All right, let’s do a quick recap on the Ferrari Testarossa that (almost) led to the unmasking of Johnny. Carla joked about owning a Testarossa during the asset list meeting. Saeed was the one tasked to take notes, and since he was not certain that was a joke, he took note of it. Saeed asked Molly to type up the asset list, which she did, then she showed it to Serena. Serena recognised the Testarossa error and asked Molly to redo it. But, Serena did not get rid of the faulty document. She left it on a document tray, where Johnny in his role as Cathcarts spy photographed it and sent it to David.
David, who probably had a lot on his mind, with his newborn baby in the hospital and Cathcarts having turned down his requests to become partner multiple times, mistakenly sent Johnny’s asset list to Suzie for printing. This document, with the Testarossa, was sent back to Taylor & Byrne. Molly, of course, knew she took out the Testarossa on the asset list that Taylor & Byrne sent to Cathcarts via official channels. How did Cathcarts get the Testarossa document? It was Johnny himself who gave voice to the suspicion of a mole.
Johnny’s problem was that given their roles and document access, the mole could really only be amongst the three — Molly, Saeed, and Johnny. Johnny tried to make Saeed and Molly suspect each other, which did not work. Molly was determined to do right by the firm, and she emailed her concerns to Serena. Molly had Nick and Serena so high up the pedestal, I wonder how she would react when she realised they were human, that contrary to what she believed, they did not always put the client first. Serena of course told Nick about the mole, and they brought in Bernard, but that was a far as the circle went.
Johnny, for his part, was starting to lose his cool. He left New York under a professional cloud. He could not find a law firm job in London, not until David thought to install him as a spy at Cathcarts. Now, his lies were catching up to him. He erased his past correspondence with David and deleted his phone’s data. He tried to reach David, but David knew how serious an ethical breach this was, and kept dodging Johnny’s messages and calls. Eventually, David was forced to go to St. John, who immediately tried to distance himself from the problem. But, there was no fully effective way to insulate Cathcarts should it be revealed that they — or even just David — planted a mole in a rival firm, and so he decided to step in.
St. John met up with Johnny himself, cooly figuring out that Johnny was using his burner phone to record the meeting and taking it from the kid. Johnny threatened St. John, as he had previously threatened David. St. John gave him a new phone and told him if he got proof of the honey trap, something from Carla, he would rescue his career. Johnny took that to mean St. John was offering him a job, and bluntly told him he did not believe him. ‘I really can’t help you with that.’ In War, we get St. John just the right amount. His few lines often dripped with aristocratic condescension and boredom that were so thoroughly entertaining.
Johnny first went to Flora’s house, but her mother told him she was not home. He then headed to Carla’s house. At some point in between houses, someone in a car photographed him. He carried a fake document, just another junior lawyer playing courier for the client.
It was the night before the start of the trial, and Carla was nervous. She was convinced Cathcarts was going to find Flora. Johnny asked if she had called or texted Flora. Carla claimed just a couple of times, but she deleted them. Johnny offered to check her phone, to which she agreed, because this young lover who had been cheating on his girlfriend with her was one of the few people she trusted. Johnny found the messages in the Recently Deleted folder, innocuous ones, just two friends checking in with each other, nothing that he could take to St. John.
Johnny returned to an office buzzing with activity. Saeed had been working whilst Johnny was out. He handed Johnny his laptop with the little that remained of the work, just proofread it and send it to Nick. Johnny wrote a confession email and sent it.
The email was sent to Cathcarts, where Johnny made it appear as though Saeed confessed to sending them materials he should never have disclosed, including the asset list, in an attempt to impress them as future employers. Johnny had planted the seed with Nick and Serena earlier, when he told them there were rumours of the firm’s financial issues, and that some have been trying to impress Cathcarts. Suzie received the email and went to David, who had her forward it to Nick. A protesting Saeed was quickly escorted out of the building. Johnny even hugged Molly to comfort her.
Just when Johnny thought he was in the clear, his own tongue tripped him up. In a casual conversation with Serena as they walked up to court, he mentioned David’s favourite quote: ‘The simple act of paying attention can take you a long way.’ Johnny had forgotten who said it, but Serena, who had worked at Cathcarts, had not. Now, she knew without a shadow of a doubt that Johnny was the mole.
Most of the episode was taken up by Johnny’s desperate attempt to save himself, but I would like to briefly discuss Morgan, who was rapidly realising just how under siege he was. Eric told him they (Gillian too) arranged the meeting with Ancker because they wanted Morgan to hear the number he offered. They did that knowing that if Morgan accepted the offer, Ancker would want him to step away from the business. They felt that Zephyr could benefit from a change in leadership and pointed out the divorce had not been the best look.
Morgan sharply figured out that Eric himself received a generous offer too. He reminded Eric of how his own daughter was stalked in Ancker’s platform. Morgan insisted that he created Zephyr as a safe alternative; if they sold it, that was it, it was the last social media platform that still cared for the safety of its users. Eric accused him of only finding his conscience when it became profitable. Would Eric have spoken to him that way before he transferred at least some of his shares to Zephyr?
This is actually what I wanted to clarify here. The share transfer was ongoing when Nick threatened St. John with a Mareva injunction to stop it. Since Nick turned down St. John’s 110-million offer, I would assume Budgie pushed through with the injunction. A good percentage of the Zephyr shares were transferred to Gillian (and it seemed, to other employees as well) but not all that they meant to transfer. Those shares would determine the balance of power in Zephyr. Given that both Gillian and Eric seemed willing to piss Morgan off, when they were solicitous employees to him before the share transfer, they must see an off ramp for them here. Or perhaps, they were arguing strenuously because of the two billion dollars Ancker offered, and whatever else bonus for them should they find a way to push the deal through.
Why does this matter? Because I am reminded of how Beatrice from the beginning pushed for a settlement. She warned against unknowns. She could fight, but something bugged her about this fight. Of the lawyers we have met so far, Beatrice seemed the most far sighted.
Rating: B+
Strays
💼When discussing Carla’s statement, Budgie insisted that Carla tell her everything, which of course Carla did not because she did not disclose the rather massive issue of her sleeping with one of the junior lawyers working on her case.
💼Carla told her lawyers she just wanted what was fair. Serena and Budgie explained to her that Budgie would have to go for as much as she could get, because that was how they would arrive at what was fair.
💼Prudence was the Cathcarts barrister who scared even the Cathcarts lawyers.
💼Taylor & Byrne’s security is not very good, when Johnny could just access any computer terminal and the user’s email.
💼I wondered what happened to Flora’s text to Morgan; it turned out he just ignored it. She texted again, and he decided to call her. He apologised to her and told her what happened should not have happened. Flora told him she never would have done it unless she wanted to. She was telling him she wanted to sleep with him. Morgan remembered how tabloids once hacked phones of high profile individuals and quickly hung up. I really wish this season had more of Rose Williams.
💼Why did St. John keep the letter Morgan wrote for Carla that he (St. John) tore up?
💼Bernard said they had the option to call Cathcarts and confront them about the mole. They could say they found the mole and want to do a deal to bury it.
💼Nick was suspicious of Johnny whilst Serena defended him. I should give Nick credit for having good instincts this time.
💼By the fifth episode, we were at 1 and 1. I am docking another point off Cathcarts this episode for Johnny stupid quoting David Schill to Serena. Cathcarts: 0 Taylor & Byrne: 1.
Episode Title: The Simple Act of Paying Attention
Episode Writer: Chloe Mai White
Episode Director: China Moo-Young
Original Release Date: November 5, 2026