Rivals Season 2 Episode 1, 2, 3 Recap: Why Does Rupert Resign? Is He Removed From Venturer?

Hulu’s ‘Rivals‘ brings back debauchery and mayhem in Rutshire as things heat up for its many residents. The first season ended with Cameron Cook hitting Tony Baddingham and leaving him bleeding on his office floor. Meanwhile, Declan O’Hara and his team celebrate Venturer’s winning bid to compete against Corinium. In the kitchen, Rupert Campbell-Black kisses Declan’s daughter and 17 years his junior, Taggie. It seems like the beginning of their romance, but things don’t exactly pan out that way. Running away from Tony’s office, Cameron seeks out Rupert, asking for protection, which he promptly delivers. But this also means that he disappears, leaving Taggie hanging and wondering when, if at all, he will return. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Tony Baddingham Makes a Comeback

Freddie and Val have moved into a new house, which they call Bella Vista, and everyone is invited to their first party. This includes Declan and the other partners in Venturer as well as the polo players, who catch Taggie and Caitlin’s eyes. Despite Val asking people to behave and specifically not to go skinny dipping in her pool, no one quite listens to the rules. Taggie also sneaks a peek at Basil while he is shirtless in the pool. While Declan and the others discuss Rupert’s mysterious absence, Taggie overhears them talking about how he usually goes underground after a sex streak. It makes Taggie roll her eyes, but it still doesn’t answer why Rupert is missing. She thinks something awful must have happened to keep him away from her after their kiss.

Unfortunately for Taggie, Rupert knows how to make the best of a bad situation. He is in hiding with Cameron at his cottage in Devon, where they spend their days having sex. It seems whatever feelings Rupert confessed to Taggie in the kitchen weren’t nearly as strong as they were. Meanwhile, Tony Baddingham has survived, thanks to his secretary finding him shortly after Cameron ran away from his office. A few stitches and some quality time at his house, and Tony is as good as new. He tells everyone that he doesn’t remember how he got hit, but secretly, he keeps the search on for Cameron. And eventually, he finds her. He arrives in a helicopter and takes her away, while Rupert watches helplessly from afar.

Back at Tony’s office, Cameron is given a choice. Either she can face the consequences of her actions and go to prison, following which her career on both sides of the pond would be over. Or, she can come back to Corinium and help Tony take down Venturer and Rupert, once and for all. She accepts his offer, which is kinda shocking, because Tony declares to the whole team that she was working as a spy for him and has revealed many of Venturer’s secrets. Meanwhile, Rupert finally finds his way to the O’Hara residence, but doesn’t have time to talk to Taggie. He reveals everything to Declan and the others. He believes Cameron needs their help, but the others concede that she is a grown woman who knows what she is doing, so perhaps they should let her leave her to it.

Cameron Beats Tony at His Own Game

Declan pitches a Yeats documentary narrated by himself to the BBC, who accept the idea. Later that night, he visits Maud, who is working on a play, though her role isn’t as significant. She is happy to find out that Declan came to see her show, and their reunion is marked with a lot of sex. Later, however, Maud discovers that Declan didn’t actually watch the play, which leads her to throw him out of her hotel room, naked. Back in Rutshire, Venturer prepares for another major event. They are to film the polo match and then sell the footage to the BBC. However, Corinium also arrives on the scene, sparking the first major clash between the two parties. The match gets pretty exciting, but in the end, the Venturer team wins.

Another win lands in their court when Tony accepts on live TV that his injury was an accident. Being absolved of any responsibility, Cameron is now free to leave Tony again, which she does in front of everyone by kissing Rupert. As if this wasn’t humiliating enough, Tony’s planned surprise of launching Sarah out of the sky and parachuting into the ground fails. It turns out Sarah is pregnant, and she cannot go through with the act. So, Deidre is forced to do it, and she crashes into a tree. The spectacle turns into a huge loss for Corinium, prompting Monica to chide Tony for being so desperate to win that he ends up losing easily. In addition, Gerald’s announcement to Henry and Hermione Hampshire’s daughter, Caroline, aka Muffy, is made after the polo match.

This surprises Charles, but that doesn’t stop his and Gerald’s sexual adventures from continuing. It also turns out that Sarah’s baby belongs to Tony, who now has another problem to tackle on top of the mess Cameron left him in. Later, at the O’Hara residence, as everyone celebrates their win, Cameron notes that she will need to find a new house. This prompts Rupert to ask her to move in with him. He later seeks out Taggie, who is heartbroken about how he moved on from her to Cameron so quickly. He points out that he had already been sleeping with Cameron when he kissed her, which he shouldn’t have done in the first place. Later, when Rupert and Cameron go home, they find Tony waiting for them.

Sarah’s Pregnancy Puts Her Personal and Professional Life at Risk

Tony leaves the trophy with which Cameron had hit him in the head, but he reveals that he is not going to use it against her. He says he has something worse planned for them, and he proves true to his word by the end of the episode. But before the world comes crashing down on them, Cameron and Rupert spend their days having sex at his lavish mansion. And then, his ex-wife, Helen, comes around to drop off his two children because she is going on a vacation to Venice with her new husband, Malise, who used to be Rupert’s mentor. The children don’t take well to their father’s new girlfriend, and Cameron struggles to connect with them. This irks Rupert, but there is nothing he can do about it.

Elsewhere, Sarah and Tony have a chat about her pregnancy. Tony deduces that she is trying to use it to elevate her position in Corinium, especially after she has had to share the Uncensored show with Beattie. But he tells her she is not as cunning as she thinks he is. He points out that the pregnancy will hurt her career more than his, not to forget, it would ruin her marriage to Paul. So, he advises her to quietly get an abortion and end the matter there. At home, Paul has no idea about what’s going on with Sarah, and he is entirely focused on the upcoming elections. He decides to throw a party and tells Sarah to prepare for it. The problem is that she can’t cook. So, she hires someone to cook for her: Taggie.

Declan’s Yeats documentary is a go, but he and Cameron clash when he suggests they should film it in Ireland. In the hopes of getting a break from Cameron and spending some time with his kids, Rupert tells Declan to take Cameron with him to Ireland to persuade her to his cause. Meanwhile, Rupert’s children meet Taggie, and they love her, though they also pick up on the fact that Taggie doesn’t like their father. In any case, Taggie has somewhere else to be. She drives to Sarah’s place, receiving instructions for what to cook. Sarah also tells her to hide in the pantry if someone comes into the kitchen because no one should know that she didn’t cook the dinner. While cooking, Taggie has her eyes on Rupert’s interview on the TV, which leads her to ruin a dish.

Taggie and Rupert Reignite Their Connection

While Taggie panics about the dish, Rupert calls Sarah. He is surprised to hear Taggie’s voice, and then decides to help her by getting the dish from the restaurant. Meanwhile, as people start to arrive, the party gets more chaotic by the minute. A lot of people hide in the pantry and the cupboards, which leads them to overhear things that were not meant for their ears. Like, Lizzie overhears Sarah and James talking about Lizzie’s pregnancy and her revealing that it is not James’ and she is getting rid of it. Sarah, Taggie, and Rupert overhear Tony and Beattie talking about an expose that will lose someone their job. Later, Paul overhears Sarah and Tony talking about her pregnancy and how she needs to get rid of it.

In all this chaos, almost everyone finds out that Taggie is the one who cooked the entire dinner. Later, Taggie spends some time with Rupert’s children, and she is invited to have lunch with them. Taggie notes how different Rupert is around his children, while he notes how good Taggie is with his children. He later laments that Cameron doesn’t share the same connection with them, which prompts Taggie to agree to be their babysitter. They take the children back to Helen, who isn’t entirely surprised to see Taggie there. She also tells Rupert that some news people had come sniffing around about him, which he believes is due to the upcoming election.

Meanwhile, Paul gets his wish and gets an interview on Corinium with Sarah and James. He uses this opportunity to reveal that Sarah is pregnant, which upends her whole career. It turns out that Paul still thinks it’s his child and, in a rather selfish move, instead of talking to Sarah first, he told it to the whole world on TV. So, now, she cannot get an abortion. Their fight ends with Sarah deciding to leave Paul, and the person she goes to is Rupert, which is rather unfortunate because it happens right when he is talking to Taggie. Later that night, everyone tunes in to Uncensored, with Beattie being the sole host. Sarah believes that the episode will be about her, but shockingly, it turns out to be about Rupert.

Tony Makes a Fatal Blow on Rupert

Beattie’s expose turns out to be about Rupert and his many sexual exploits. It turns out that in the last season, when they hooked up, she kept a recorder under the bed. So, all the things that Rupert told her in confidence were recorded, and now, his dirty laundry is being aired in front of the whole world. This is perfectly planned on Tony’s end, because the episode airs right before election day, almost confirming Rupert’s loss. It also throws Venturer into a tense situation. While the BBC had greenlit the Yeats documentary, they have now pulled it back because they don’t want to be associated with Rupert. The board is divided about what to do next. It is proposed that Rupert should be ousted, because this is what would have happened had it been someone else.

Cameron, however, stands up for Rupert and tries to convince everyone otherwise. Meanwhile, Rupert spirals. Having spent the whole night awake and drinking, he is worried that Helen is not picking up his phone. So, he storms to her place, where he finds Malise, with whom he has a very cathartic conversation. It turns out that, despite Helen being with him now, Malise still sees Rupert as his son (because his real son died years ago). He sobers him up, gives him freshly ironed clothes, and tells him to take whatever comes next with dignity. Meanwhile, a happy Tony gifts Monica peacocks, even though he thinks they are rats in a costume. They decide to go watch a play later that evening, before the election results are announced.

While the Venturer board is still considering what to do next, Maud calls Declan to tell him that the lead actress has decided not to come in, basically because she was also named in the episode about Rupert. Because Maud was her understudy, she has the lead role now. Declan is too caught up in his own worries to focus on his wife’s play, but later, Monica and Tony show up there and are blown away by her. Monica advises Tony to cast Maud in the lead role of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ Initially, he isn’t sure about it, but the fact that this will mess with Declan’s head makes him agree to it. After the show, they take Maud out to dinner, and when she is offered the role, she doesn’t think twice before accepting it.

Rupert’s Wins Turn Into Losses

While the others are dealing with their complicated relationships, Lizzie is still unsure about continuing her affair with Freddie. She calls it off after the polo match, but then, after the board meeting, Freddie shows up at her house. He tells about the vote to decide on Rupert’s place. When she suggests that they should stick by their friend, Freddie reveals that he said the same thing, but the decision rests on Declan now. The conversation extends to Freddie spending time with her children. Before he leaves, they kiss each other, proving that things are not going to end between them so easily. Later, he spends time with his family, especially as they celebrate his son’s acceptance into Eton.

In the evening, the election results are announced, and against all odds, Rupert wins, but not everyone is happy about it. When Helen finds out about it, she expresses her frustration about how Rupert never seems to lose. She notes that had the expose been about a woman, she would have been dragged through the streets and lost everything. But here Rupert is, acting as if nothing happened at all. The conversation turns into an argument between her and Malise, who still has a soft spot for Rupert. Meanwhile, Rupert celebrates his win with his team, while Cameron returns home. She finds Sarah still on the couch and advises her to return to her husband, who also won the election but did not mention her in his speech.

Elsewhere, James spends his time trying to get someone at the station, like Beattie or Daysee, to spend the night with him. When he fails, he returns home to his wife and has sex with her, failing to notice that she doesn’t enjoy one bit of it. The next morning, Paul finds Sarah back at home in the kitchen, ready to play the role of his perfect wife. Cameron also feels wifey toward Rupert, but things get awkward when she says she loves him, and he says he adores her. He is saved by Thatcher calling him to her office, and soon after, he announces his resignation from his seat in the light of the expose. This makes Tony happy, who would be happier to know that things get worse for Rupert when he returns home to discover that he has also been dropped from Venturer.