Sienna Miller’s War character, movie star Carla Duval, has been making questionable choices from the start. But in the latest HBO episode, she takes things to an entirely new level.
**Spoilers for War Episode 4 “Sing,” now streaming on HBO Max**
Carla kisses Johnny Warren (Archie Renaux), the young, charismatic—and very much attached—lawyer assisting with her divorce. The situation is even more complicated than it first appears: Johnny’s compassionate advice and flirtatious charm are masking a secret. He is working undercover at Taylor & Byrne, passing confidential information to Cathcarts & Sons, the elite firm representing Carla’s estranged husband, Morgan Henderson (Dominic West).
The unexpected kiss arrives in the closing moments of Episode 4, “Sing.” Johnny visits Carla’s house to secure her signature on paperwork that would send her increasingly bitter divorce into litigation. Earlier, Serena Byrne (Phoebe Fox) and Nicholas Taylor (James McArdle) uncover evidence that Morgan has concealed assets. As a result, his $110 million settlement proposal appears trivial beside the billions they suspect Carla may be entitled to receive.
Carla admits that she feels as if she no longer knows her former husband. She is also terrified of the public spectacle that a courtroom battle will create for her and her teenage son, Gabriel (Aran Murphy).
Johnny tries to steady her with a passionate pep talk: “Carla, look. They want to get you what’s right, what’s fair. That’s the plan and no settling. Yes, it’s a fucking nightmare, but you go in there with [Celia Imrie’s] Budgie, you get what you deserve, and then you and Gabriel are set for the rest of your lives.”
Carla, clearly struck by his conviction, asks, “Why are you the one talking like this?” before adding, “Someone so junior.”
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Johnny barely has time to respond. Carla cuts him off with a simple declaration: “No, it’s what I want.” She then looks toward his lips, and the two kiss. In a stunningly reckless move, Carla—whose divorce strategy could benefit from proving Morgan’s infidelity—initiates a relationship with the junior associate working on her case.
Miller told DECIDER that Carla is acting on emotion rather than considering the potential consequences. “I think she’s fraught and she’s vulnerable, and he’s attractive and he seems to understand her and intimately know the intricacies of what she’s going through.”
“He’s a good looking ear. I don’t know that you legislate on matters of the heart I think she just jumps in.”
Renaux believes Johnny is equally incapable of thinking clearly in that moment.
“I don’t know, I think maybe there’s a little bit of a fascination with Carla and some sort of empathy there for her as well, what she’s going through,” Renaux said. “I think Johnny’s maybe looking for an outlet and someone to confide in outside of his own relationship, wrongly. I sort of think that’s how it happens is a slight fascination.”
Now the fallout looms. What impact will the kiss have on Carla’s divorce proceedings, and was this reckless moment merely a one-time mistake for Carla and Johnny?
New episodes of War premiere on HBO and HBO Max on Thursdays at 9 PM ET.