The Morning Show Recap: Dirty Work
It’s the most wonderful time of the year: Things are falling apart on The Morning Show. In a good way! In an “everything from the entire season is coming together to rain down chaos on our cute little characters” way. That’s right! If you didn’t think The Morning Show could somehow tie together the UBA sale, Cybil Reynolds’s ouster, billionaires being terrible, the January 6 insurrection, a cyberattack, and literal outer space, well, you don’t know this cuckoo-for–Cocoa Puffs show.
The official sale of UBA to Paul Marks is days away, and at times, it feels like everyone has set their hair on fire. People are panicking!! Alex, who seems to go back and forth on whether or not she wants to save UBA or dismantle it at least three times every season is, not surprisingly, wondering aloud to her fridge and Paul if Paul’s idea to sell off UBA is maybe not the best. He assures her that she owes UBA nothing, and this means they can use the money for Alex to start her own studio, do things her own way, make real change, blah, blah, blah. Of course, Alex doesn’t know that the reason Paul really wants to strip UBA for parts is because his Hyperion Two project — his next attempt at his rockets — is way behind schedule, and they’ve run out of money. If The Morning Show has taught us anything, it’s that Reese Witherspoon should never go brunette and that handsome people are not to be trusted. Those are life lessons, people!
The truth about Hyperion, however, is on the brink of going public thanks to the crack team of Bradley, Chip, and Stella. Just kidding — they are having very little luck getting anyone to talk about what’s really happening at the company. Their strongest lead, Stella’s friend Kate, has gone radio silent since getting fired and hinting at unsafe working conditions, and no one else they contact will even consider spilling, even if it’s off the record.
It’s not long before word reaches Paul that Bradley is digging around Hyperion — Amanda is a very effective assistant, and I hope she is compensated accordingly. So now, Paul has his eye on Bradley while also sniffing around the offices for some leverage on Cory. As we know, Paul’s plan is to get rid of Cory the moment the sale goes through, and that would be much easier if the guy was publicly shamed and would have to forgo his $150 million buyout. Cory’s not going to go quietly, and Paul knows it.
If only Alex knew how ruthless her new boyfriend is. Excuse me — if only Alex would listen to the people who tell her how ruthless her new boyfriend is. Bradley certainly tries. As Alex grapples with her decision of whether or not to support Paul’s plan, she has an interesting conversation with none other than Maggie Brenner. Alex asks her opinion of the sale and the future of UBA, and Maggie’s predictions are pretty bleak — she thinks that even with Paul Marks buying UBA, the network would only stay afloat for five years. The other networks are floundering, too, and eventually will “cannibalize” each other. It’s with this dark forecast on broadcast media that Alex goes and meets with Bradley. She doesn’t tell her about Paul’s plan, but she does tell her that after the deal goes through, she wants to start her own studio, and she wants Bradley to come with her. Bradley not only declines — she has commitments and work to do at UBA — she warns Alex about Paul being the shadiest of dudes. Alex does not take it well. In fact, she takes it so poorly that she goes home and tells Paul that she is finally 100 percent on board. They are going to take UBA down. We don’t see them having sex, but I imagine those two are very horny at the moment.
But things are much more complicated than Alex choosing her boyfriend over … well, everything else. Days ahead of this huge sale, Earl tells Cory that someone is buying a ton of UBA stock. In a delightful turn of events, that person turns out to be Cybil Reynolds. “Let me guess, you forgot your white hood?” Cory asks when the disgraced former chair of the board saunters into her office. Cory can give Cybil all the shit he wants, but she does have some valuable information for him. She’s been buying up all the UBA stock she can to try and stop this deal with Paul Marks from going through because a little birdie by the name of Genevieve Micklen — that would be Fred’s wife — informed her that Paul is “stripping the network for parts” and Fred’s helping him do it. “Do I have your attention now?” she asks. Oh, baby, Cory is livid. He punches the wall, as one does, and then pays a visit to Alex Levy — the closest he can get to Paul at the moment. He knows she must know and goes off on another one of his epic rants that Alex really doesn’t care to listen to anymore. They are both pretty much calling the other out on their self-righteousness — if only they would admit to how similar they are! Alex remains firm in her decision, and Cory goes to rally the board for a last-minute change of plans.
But guys, the ramp-up to a Morning Show finale is the gift that keeps on giving because there is more: Paul is so close to making this UBA sale final and getting the money he needs to keep Hyperion Two and his dreams of sending his penis rocket into space alive, which means he is not going to let the two obstacles in his way, Bradley and Cory, stop him. He swiftly takes care of both of them.
First, he stops by Bradley’s dressing room minutes before she’s supposed to go on air for the evening news. Bradley’s already pretty distraught because Laura just dumped her after screaming in her face about Bradley’s betrayal of both her country and their relationship to once again clean up her brother’s mess. It’s pretty devastating, honestly. But then Paul arrives. In no uncertain terms, he tells Bradley to stop looking into Hyperion because he knows all about what happened with the January 6 footage, how both she and Cory lied to the FBI, and somehow, he even knows that Laura knows the truth, too. All of them could be in serious trouble if the truth comes out. He wishes her a good show and goes on his way. On air, Bradley attempts to hold it together, but she can’t — and so she launches into a good-bye speech. In tears, she thanks the people who helped her at UBA, says that her time here has been a privilege, and then announces that she’s resigning, effective immediately. UBA is plunged into chaos.
But! We’re! Not! Done! Stella runs in to see Cory, but she’s not there to talk about Bradley. A new story just broke on The Vault with a photo of a very drunk Bradley being carried by Cory in the Archer Gray elevator that says there are reports that Cory Ellison was grooming Bradley (not true) and that when she rejected him, he outed her and Laura in retaliation (very true!). This is how Paul Marks is going to topple Cory. And those boys just had that nice photo together on the cover of Forbes, too!
In Other News!
• That scene when Laura confronts Bradley about Hal and January 6 is Julianna Margulies’s best work on this show. Laura putting together in real time that Bradley got the evening-news gig out of it? Come on! “How do you sit in that chair every night? It is obscene!” My blood pressure was raised.
• On the other hand, Laura’s call to Hal to suss out if her assumption about Bradley covering for him is true is laughably terrible. She couldn’t even fake a little friendliness? How Hal doesn’t realize she’s trying to trap him in a lie is insane.
• It’ll be interesting to see what Laura does next since when she meets with the president of NBN (hello, Elizabeth Perkins) with some hypotheticals about a story that would implicate a loved one, Elena tells her she needs to pursue it because of journalistic integrity, etc. When Laura confronts Bradley, she tells her that she won’t report it because she doesn’t want to be anywhere near it. She’s disgusted. And now that Cory knows Laura knows … well, Laura Peterson is in a rough spot.
• In the middle of everything, The Morning Show tosses in a scene in which Chris Hunter gets offered a pretty tempting job at a sports network. If that means losing Nicole Beharie next season, let’s cross our fingers that she turns it down, even though leaving TMS is absolutely what Chris should do!