The eighth episode of the fourth season of Apple TV’s The Morning Show is titled “The Parent Trap,” and fittingly enough, it is indeed about parents—well, how they make life better or worse, to be specific. Given The Morning Show is well-loved by the Emmy voters, as many as four people—Jennifer Aniston, Jeremy Irons, Billy Crudup, and Lindsay Duncan— should be getting nominations in acting categories, which they completely deserve. While this episode doesn’t particularly take the central plot (by which I mean the Wolf River story) forward too much, except for the cliffhanger ending, it still works quite fantastically thanks to the acting and subject matter. Some of you might not be too happy with this hour of The Morning Show, but if you ask me, I thoroughly enjoyed getting emotionally drained. This is exactly the kind of stuff I expect from this show. And thanks to this assignment, I’m going to have a great time writing about it.
Spoiler Alert
Alex is mad at Bradley
Alex versus Bradley, Alex and Bradley, Alex versus Bradley again… we all know the show runs on the ever shifting equation between its two main heroes (yes, I see no problem calling them that). Adhering to that, we find Bradley and Alex fighting it out at the very beginning of the episode. Alex is mad at Bradley for what she has done to Claire. Giving their source to the feds is the kind of thing no journalist would ever do, Alex says, but we know for a fact that Bradley didn’t have much of a choice. Her hands were tied; she had to protect herself and also the story. So she did what she did, and now, Bradley wants Alex’s approval—in a literal sense, as Alex is the one who authorized the story—to move forward. She and Chip have found a source—a woman who used to work at Martel Chemical, the company responsible for the Wolf River disaster—and Bradley has to go to Belarus to see her. Alex is baffled to see how Bradley is disregarding the whole situation—UBN in tatters, O24 pretty much a disaster, the whole Stella-Miles-Celine scandal, and now The Morning Show being raided—and just wants to selfishly pursue the story. I should mention that I see no wrong in Bradley’s action here; all she’s trying to do is find justice for a lot of people who suffered, and backing out at this point would be really out of character. But Alex doesn’t give her the official go-ahead; instead, she asks how Bradley is able to sleep at night. Of course, Bradley’s answer to that is she doesn’t sleep; it is also certain that she’s not going to stop just because Alex has put a hold on the story. We’re going to come back to this at the end of this article, but for now, let’s shift focus on the central theme of the episode—parents, good, bad, and ugly.
Sins of the father
Ever since we were introduced to the character of Professor Martin Levy early in the season, we’ve gotten the idea of the father and the daughter—Alex—not quite sharing a good relationship. Over the course of this season, it has only worsened. Martin has lost the chance to become dean of his university, thanks to plagiarism allegations, and Alex hasn’t been able to help her father with that, even though she tried—remember the interview she gave for his profile that didn’t quite go his way? Anyway, Martin doesn’t seem to handle his downfall that well, as Alex gets a call in the middle of the night from the university authorities regarding her father being caught urinating in public. She immediately picks Martin up and takes him to her home so that he can sleep it off. However, the next morning, Alex finds Martin missing. What’s even worse is Martin’s lewd act going viral on the internet, which is not surprising, as these days, every terrible thing is always filmed!
With UBN in shambles, Alex is trying her best to find a win, and it is revealed that she has been trying to secure an interview with the POTUS—Joe Biden in this case, as it’s still early 2024 here—for a while, and she’s about to meet a group of White House representatives. It’s already unfortunate that she had to deal with her father the night before the all-important meeting, and then Martin turns up at her work, demanding to be put on The Morning Show. Apparently, he needs a platform to prove his innocence over the plagiarism thing (and definitely not what he did the night before). Alex flatly refuses, and goes on to have her all-important meeting. While she has the meeting, where she is actually able to negotiate and secure a twelve-minute walk and talk with the president, Martin freely roams around the building, and as fate would have it, he lands in Bro’s studio. Bro being Bro, he offers Martin the platform he was looking for, and our professor goes on to talk major bullcrap about how the younger generation is failing the nation and men like him (he’s putting himself under a divine light). It’s definitely good for Bro, as his viewership is going to spike, but not at all good for Alex. By the time Alex reaches Bro’s studio, the damage is done. Bro seems to be in no mood to help Alex after what she did to him—he literally calls her out for ghosting him (and breaking his heart). While I understand his sentiment, what he has done here is grossly unacceptable and possibly ruins all the good work he has been doing lately.
Alex gets the bad news of the interview being cancelled while getting back home; she lets Martin hear it by putting the phone on speaker. But instead of feeling an iota of guilt, Martin keeps justifying his actions and blaming Alex for what she did to him. Enraged, Alex storms out of the car. But Martin follows his daughter home and angrily warns her to not slam the car door on him ever again—talk about the audacity of this intolerable old man! Alex, however, is in no mood to tolerate this nonsense, and this time around, she gets into a much-needed screaming contest. But this leads to a huge, devastating reveal. Martin ends up confessing that he has always resented his daughter because he holds Alex responsible for the loss of his wife. While Alex has always believed that her mother left because of how his father is, the real story is something else. According to Martin, he and his wife were doing great as a couple, but there was one hitch—she always wanted to have a child, and he was not in favor of it. Ultimately, he gave in, thinking it would make her happy, but after Alex was born, her mother was hit by postpartum. That left Martin in a hapless position, where he was taking care of a wife he couldn’t recognize anymore and a daughter he never wanted. His resentment for Alex only grew further when his wife left forever, and he had no choice but to raise the child. As much as I feel for the man, there is no way this justifies how he has treated Alex her whole life, through no fault of her own. Thanks to this reveal, at least, Alex now knows that the problem was always Martin, and never her. I liked how the writers chose to end this phenomenal scene—easily the best one in the entire season, rounds of applause for both Aniston and Irons—in a limbo, with Martin finally leaving and Alex not saying a word. Will we see these two reaching a point of resolution in the final two episodes? Only time will tell.
What’s up with Celine?
While every character is gray in The Morning Show, Celine is definitely more black than white, based on what she has done; just in case you’re wondering, she’s the one who killed the Wolf River story, which Cory has already figured out. That said, this episode reveals that Celine was only following her father’s instructions, as her brother (played by familiar French face Arnaud Valois) pays her a visit to let her know about how their father is disappointed in her for how things have turned out lately. Celine does try her best to convince her brother that things are still good, and she’ll soon turn things around for UBN as the board president and CEO. But given Celine is currently depending on none other than Bro Hartman for the big win, I’m not too hopeful. We’re not going to discuss more about this until further development. Meanwhile, Celine is not doing so good in her personal life. As surprising as it might be, she seems to be genuinely in love with her husband, and his action (and rejection) has hurt her a lot. When she tries to contact him, telling him she’s ready to talk, Miles texts back that he still needs some time. Dejected, Celine finds herself all alone and heartbroken until Cory Ellison knocks on her door. Let’s move onto his story now.
Like Mother, Like Son
If I have to be really honest, then I am not quite sure if we’ve discussed Cory’s mother, Martha’s dementia before. In my defense, the character has never really been part of the main narrative, although actress Lindsay Duncan has always been very impressive. But here we are now, in an episode where Martha calls Cory and lets him know that she’s not looking into the assisted suicide facilities in Switzerland and has decided to handle things by herself. Cory receives the call in the middle of a day that looks extremely busy, with the production of his movie finally seeming to be rolling, and he’s busy choosing a wig for a character. But all that can wait, as nothing is more precious to Cory than his mother, so he rushes to her, hoping he can talk her out of literally killing herself. Upon reaching his mother’s home, Cory is relieved to find Martha alive and even chilling in the backyard, but Martha lets him know that she has made up her mind. Life is getting more and more difficult for her with each passing day, and she doesn’t want to carry on this way anymore. That’s a statement coming from a place that has both courage and clarity, but obviously for Cory, he refuses to accept the reality. Martha tries calming him down by telling him she has arranged for everything, from the finances to the coroner’s arrival, and all Cory has to do is follow the procedures. Cory is still unable to fathom the whole situation, and to lighten the mood, Martha asks him to enact a scene from his upcoming movie. Thinking his mother has abandoned the plan for now, Cory happily does that, only to realize she was tricking him as Martha deliberately asks Cory to fetch the wig (the one he picked up earlier) from the car and takes the pills. All she wanted was to see her son happy as her last memory, another thing that she managed to plan. Cory sits beside his dead mother for hours, until the alarm rings, letting him know that the coroner is about to arrive and it is time for him to leave (to avoid trouble). Needless to say, this is also an example of foresight and also the infinite love for her son. Among many things, Martha doesn’t forget to let Cory know how much she loves him, calling him the best thing that ever happened to her. As a parent, that’s the best thing you can do for your child, I suppose, loving them without a condition, no matter what. Clearly Martin should have learned a thing or two from Martha!
After getting out of his mother’s house, Cory slips into his usual sassy mode—surely, that’s his coping mechanism, and he has inherited that from Martha as well. He ends up at Celine’s, and the two go on a drug-fueled bender that goes on until first light. I guess Celine is Cory’s oldest friend at this point, and for this night, he has chosen to look away from what she has done. Also, I’m glad that these two didn’t get physical, which would have been very trope-y.
And finally, is Bradley in danger?
The Morning Show episode 8 ends with Alex knocking on Bradley’s door, and Chip opening it instead of Bradley. Alex is only here because Bradley didn’t pick up her calls, where she wanted to let her know that she has given the approval—is that a result of what happened between Alex and Martin, by any chance? I’m just saying. Anyway, Chip tells Alex that Bradley has already left, which is not at all surprising. But the troubling thing is Bradley hasn’t given an update to Chip for at least six hours, as opposed to her promise of giving constant updates to Chip. That can only mean she is being detained, and if you’re a journalist, then that’s not at all good news if you’re in Belarus. So to sum it up, Bradley is in real danger. And we have no other choice but to wait for a week to find out what really happens to her.
