Picking up right from where they left us last week, The Morning Show delivers a tense hour that is filled with ups and downs, capping it off with a cliffhanger that perfectly sets up an explosive season finale next week. Even though there’s very little of Reese Witherspoon on screen, her character, Bradley Jackson, remains the central focus of the episode—as everyone keeps trying to rescue her (and some attempt to hinder the process). Let us get on with the discussion.
Spoiler Alert
What happens to Bradley in Minsk?
Right after landing in Minsk, Bradley is detained at the airport. All she’s able to do is record a little video before all her electronic devices are seized. She screams to the authorities that she’s an American journalist, but no good comes of that. Her computer obviously has all the important documents about the Wolf River story, and she doesn’t want anyone else—especially the Belarusian authorities—going through it, given that might put both her and her source (for whom she has taken all this trouble) in a difficult position. But for the time being, nothing seems to be in Bradley’s hands, and it’s up to her friends and colleagues in the USA to try to get her out of the situation.
And both Alex and Chip seem to be in no mood to waste time. They understand the urgency of this situation; if Bradley gets charged with some kind of conspiracy and gets arrested, then it’s all over for her (technically, she will have to spend an indeterminate period of time in Belarusian prison). So what they need to do is somehow find a way to put Bradley back on a plane to the USA before she is arrested, if that happens. Realizing she can’t do it alone, Alex takes it to Celine, Ben, and John (remember the legal guy from UBN?). She also has to tell them about the Wolf River story to explain why Bradley would take the risk of going to Minsk. That’s obviously a bad move, given Celine is practically the “big villain” Bradley is looking for, and now she is all alert, thanks to Alex. We can’t exactly blame Alex though, given she has no idea about Celine being corrupted, and the most logical thing for the moment is seeking help from the board president of the network. Celine, however, resorts to the state department handling it instead of doing something by herself. But Alex being Alex, she has to try something on her own. We’re getting onto what she does and what actually happens to Bradley, but before that, let’s just touch up on the subplots of this episode for a bit.
Chris gives her medal back
With Bradley unable to do her day job (for obvious reasons), Chris has to fill in for her. This makes Mia a bit mad, as she now looks after Chris’ welfare, and randomly appearing on The Morning Show was not on the cards. Chris, however, chooses to use this opportunity to fulfill her promise to return the medal she won from the Rio Olympics. And she does exactly that by handing over her gold medal to the runner-up, Jamaican runner Elaine, who’s gracious enough to accept it.
Checking up on Cory Ellison
After losing his mother (in the last episode), Cory Ellison is cooped up inside his apartment. I’m not sure whether anyone other than Celine actually knows about it or not. However, Celine, despite whatever is going on with her professional life—the whole Bradley/Wolf River situation—decides to check on Cory. It’s nice that instead of making a character a downright villain, this show keeps making the choice of highlighting the good and bad. There’s no doubt Celine did a terrible thing with the Wolf River, and she is doing a bad thing now as well by not putting her best effort into saving Bradley, but she’s also a person who cares for Cory. Although, while I talked about these two not getting romantic in the last episode, this time they cross the barrier. Thankfully though, thanks to the pleasantly organic chemistry between Billy Crudup and Marion Cotillard, it does work out. The conversation starts with how Celine can’t get over Miles even though he broke her heart before moving onto the “what it could have been” territory. It’s only normal that Cory did have a thing for her back in the day, and Celine says that she was actually waiting for him to make a move. But that never really happened, and now they’re here. The very sudden, messy make-out was always in the making, I suppose. Before they go any further, though, Cory gets this very unnecessary call from the florist regarding arrangements for his mother’s funeral. While he intends to proceed after that, Celine has to leave for some urgent matter (yes, addressing that soon). Although, she leaves with the clear hint that she wants “whatever this thing is” to continue.
What does Alex do to save Bradley?
Now coming back to the main plot, we know for a fact Alex would do anything to save Bradley, and vice versa. So it’s not exactly surprising to see her seeking help from none other than Paul Marks. Yes, that’s the bad guy from last season, but he did have a mini redemption arc earlier this season, remember? And why does Alex decide to seek help from Paul, out of all people? It’s because Paul happens to know this Russian oligarch, Dimitri Ivanov, who might be able to help by making a few calls to the Belarusian airport authorities. That is too much to ask for, and Paul understandably refuses to help—well, he doesn’t think it’s actually doable. But we all knew he would come around, because Paul 2.0 is trying his best to be a better person, especially when it comes to anything related to Alex.
With Paul on board, the next most important thing is to convince Ivanov to make the phone call. How does that happen? Well, Ivanov happens to have an actress mistress, Nadzeya, who’s not getting many work opportunities in Russia. So the plan is to help her out, certainly by getting her something in the UBN, and that way, Ivanov is going to return the favor by helping Bradley. I should mention here Mia has come into the fold—it was foolish to not include her in the first place anyway, and seeing Chip rummaging through Bradley’s make-up room, Mia pretty much figured out that something serious was going on. Alex doesn’t seem to be bothered by Mia being included; in fact, she seems relieved as she finally gets to apologize to Mia about not backing her enough for the all-important UBN head of news job (which Ben got ultimately).
Anyway, Paul set up the meeting between Alex and Ivanov at an opera. Paul, who’s newly single—about which Alex gets to know only when Paul is speaking to Ivanov—arrives alone, while Alex comes with Mia as her date (it’s only customary). Alex gets jittery initially as Ivanov is a no-show, but the man finally pops up—Nadzeya was performing in the opera, so he was backstage. After Paul introduces the two parties, Alex lays down her proposal to Ivanov as Mia already gets into a work-related “conversation” with Nadzeya. Unfortunately, Ivanov seems to be a tough cookie, and he’s not going to give Alex what she wants that easily. He wants more (than his mistress getting some work) out of the deal. That “more” happens to be a tech deal, something he tried before with Paul, but it eventually failed. Paul now has his AI software ready to go, but obviously he can’t give it to a Russian oligarch just like that, as it’d put him in a questionable position with the US authorities. So Alex comes up with a plan—as UBN’s AI initiative has massively failed, she is going to register Paul’s software through UBN and then license it to Ivanov. Even that’s a risky move, and it can still put both Alex and Paul in murky waters, but Alex is willing to take the risk for Bradley. And for Alex, Paul is also willing to do so. Paul’s snooty assistant, Amanda, tries talking him out of it (do remember she hates Alex), but Paul is now on the road to redemption, so he decides to go forward with it.
Is Bradley ultimately rescued?
With the deal in motion, Bradley getting out of danger appears to be only a matter of time. But how can The Morning Show not add another shocking twist to the tale? Instead of getting onto a plane, Bradley is arrested (most likely) on conspiracy charges. Upon knowing it from Chip, Alex is shocked. She rushes to Paul and asks what happened, but he has no idea either. Ivanov is gone, and Paul is stranded with his failure to help Alex. Neither Alex nor Paul actually has any idea how their perfect plan failed all of a sudden. All they have is the cold fact: the deal couldn’t go through, and now Bradley is in more danger than she ever was. Her network, though, chooses to be there for her by broadcasting the news—of an American journalist unlawfully charged and harassed in a foreign country—every day on The Morning Show until Bradley is released. Chris Hunter says on air that the network is denying all the charges against Bradley. That’s some proper solidarity shown by Bradley’s colleagues, for sure.
But the truth that gets revealed at the end of the episode is going to shock everyone (I am referring to the characters here, not us, the audience). The deal between Paul Marks and Ivanov didn’t quite happen because someone obstructed it. That someone is none other than UBN board president Celine Dumont, who has used her family’s power to stop the deal from happening. It makes sense for Celine, as she doesn’t want the Wolf River story coming out and ruining her reputation. With a journalist as skilled as Bradley Jackson after it, she knows for a fact that if Bradley gets out of this mess, she’ll eventually out Celine. So it’s best for Celine to let Bradley rot in a Belarusian prison. That’s a proper, well-thought-out villain move. Although Celine wouldn’t be able to do this had Amanda not meddled in and let her know about the deal. No wonder Amanda is one of the most annoying characters to ever be on the show; no offense to Tig Notaro, who’s playing the part, given she is actually amazing.
Celine may have saved herself for now, but the episode doesn’t leave us there. Right at the very end, we see Cory Ellison taking a piece of documentation out of his jacket. And that happens to be a report about what happened in the Wolf River. Now, to jolt your memories a bit, Cory was looking into the Wolf River story on his own, and he did find out about Celine’s involvement (from his mother). But then things happened; his mother died, and Cory put that thing on the back burner. While we thought he chose to ignore it because of his own benefit, and Celine is his friend (maybe even a potential romantic interest), knowing Cory Ellison, I believe he will come good in the season finale and save the day. There’s no reason we shouldn’t gear up for another Billy Crudup masterclass next week. Will Bradley finally get out of danger? Will everyone find out about Celine? We are going to get all the answers, for which we can’t wait.
