‘Toledo Truth-Teller,’ the local newspaper that once used to be a matter of pride, was in shambles when Ned Sampson was hired as the editor-in-chief. The first season of Peacock’s The Paper mostly revolves around the changes that Ned makes to the newsroom to generate quality news like the good old days. They had barely any budget, and the team mostly consisted of individuals with almost zero reporting experience, but Ned was determined to make it work. He encouraged his volunteer reporters to step out of the office and find real news through real interactions. Ned’s enthusiasm gradually started to show results. But the managing editor, Esmeralda Grand, was not happy with this sudden change. She didn’t consider print journalism worthy of her time; she believed that the actual fun was in publishing news on the Toledo Truth-Teller website. There were no word limits, plenty of room for ads, and a clickbait-y headline was all that was needed to grab the reader’s attention. She didn’t resonate with Ned’s idea of journalism, and she was afraid that now that he’d been hired, she would no longer be of much use to the company.
Spoiler Alert
Did Toledo Truth-Teller win awards?
After months of reporting local news, Ned was overjoyed when he was informed that Toledo Truth-Teller had been nominated in three categories at the Ohio Journalism Awards. Mare couldn’t believe that her short investigative piece on the sewer clogging issue in Toledo also made it to the nominations. Ned and Mare showed immense courage in publishing the piece even though it was a conflict of interest for the company. Since Softies, the tissue company owned by Marv, who was also the CEO of TTT, was responsible for the clogging, it was not an easy decision to publish a piece that tarnished their reputation. But Ned found a way. Since he was an ex-Softies sales employee with an exceptional track record, he managed to sell all the units in the storeroom before the article was published. The company faced backlash, but they didn’t face massive losses.
Oscar too was nominated for the most innovative games category. He’d started designing sudoku, and as it turned out, he was still in contact with Stanley (who spent most of his time busy solving sudoku in “The Office”) and asked for his opinion when his first sudoku was published. Every decision that Ned took was out of his sheer passion for journalism, there was no cynical award-seeking behavior on his part. While he pretended to not really care, deep down he was extremely anxious about the awards and hoped that Toledo Truth-Teller would win in all categories.
In The Paper’s finale, we discover that Oscar and Mare had won in their individual categories, and Ned too got a chance to go onstage, although briefly. ‘Toledo Truth-Teller’ won the award for Outstanding Print Coverage, and as the editor-in-chief, Ned was supposed to receive the award, but as luck would have it, he was not in the room at the time, and Esmeralda made it to the stage. She and Ken basked in the spotlight, but thankfully, Ned found his way to the stage eventually. Just as he was about to make his speech, Esmeralda collapsed, and once again she grabbed everyone’s attention. Ned didn’t mind; he was just happy to have won an award and to have brought prestige to ‘Toledo Truth-Teller.’
Why was Nicole in tears?
Nicole Lee started out in circulation, where her job mostly entailed keeping track of subscribers and also ensuring that they collected information through cookies from the readers who visited the TTT online website. But after Ned took over, Nicole started volunteering as a reporter. Detrick Moore, whose job involved selling advertisements for the paper, had a crush on Nicole. He wasn’t directly involved in the news team, but after Ned joined, things changed. He too volunteered, mostly because he hoped to interact with Nicole. His plan worked; he found a reason to talk to her, though she seemed pretty aloof. Things started to change gradually, though Nicole was clear from the start that she didn’t want to be in a monogamous relationship. She was offended when she found out that Detrick had removed the dating app from his phone. She always encouraged him to date other women, and Detrick tried, but he just couldn’t. He had fallen for Nicole, and he didn’t see the point in dating someone else just for the sake of it. But to keep Nicole happy, he made her believe that he was dating a weather reporter.
During The Paper’s ending, at the Ohio Journalism Awards, when Nicole spoke to the weather reporter, she discovered that Detrick had been lying to her. She felt betrayed and wanted an explanation for his actions. Detrick admitted that truth, and he suggested breaking up. He’d realized that Nicole would never want to be in a monogamous relationship, and he didn’t want to pretend he was okay with it. Nicole emphasized that they could also take a break, but Detrick knew that no amount of time would change his mind. During the ending of the final episode of The Paper, we discover that Nicole was in Mare’s room, and she was crying profusely. She’d seen Detrick with another woman at the bar, and clearly she wasn’t comfortable with the idea of him being with someone else. She perhaps wanted to protect herself from getting too emotional, but it’s evident that she’s in love with Detrick.
Are Ned and Mare in love?
From the day Ned joined ‘Toledo Truth-Teller,’ there was an obvious romantic tension between him and Mare. She was the only volunteer reporter with some experience (she’d written for the military newspaper), though she wasn’t quite as passionate as Ned. She was happy doing the bare minimum as a compositor, and she had every intention of switching jobs. But working as a reporter helped her see the potential in her job. Yes, there was no extra pay, but it was deeply satisfying and thrilling. She felt hopeful when Ned started to make changes, and there was no doubt that he’d inspired her. When they worked together on the mattress scam investigation, which turned out to be a great success, she realized that she didn’t want to leave the job. She ultimately declined the job offer she’d received. Ned knew that Mare was planning on leaving the company, but he was glad that he’d somehow convinced her that the newspaper was worth staying for.
Esmeralda noticed that Mare had become Ned’s favorite, and she didn’t take it well. She simply blurted out one day to Ned that Mare was asexual. She clearly didn’t want Ned to romantically pursue her, so she lied. Ned tried to be respectful of Mare’s sexuality, and during an assignment when Mare had to flirt to gather information, Ned repeatedly told her that she didn’t have to do it if she wasn’t comfortable. Mare later asked him the reason behind his strange behavior, and she was surprised to find out that Ned thought she was asexual. She couldn’t believe that he believed Esmeralda instead of asking her directly. She was all the more hurt because she liked him and she expected him to be transparent with her. Though eventually they did get back to talking terms. Mare made fun of Ned’s desperation to get Marv’s love and attention, and Ned accepted it without any protest.
Ned was with Mare when she received a call from a journalist who worked for the Cleveland Today magazine to discuss her experience while writing the piece on the Toledo sewer clog. She mentioned that her boss was very hands-off, and Ned didn’t take it well. He wondered if he should be a more controlling boss, because clearly that was the case in other companies. But that didn’t pan out well, and Mare lost the chance to investigate a story the way she’d intended. Ned ultimately realized it was silly of him to behave the way he did, and the Ohio Journalism Awards news helped ease the tension between them.
During the award ceremony, Ned and Mare spent time together away from the crowd. There was clearly something between them, but Ned didn’t wish to address the elephant in the room. Mare thought he would make a move, but she left when he didn’t. Ned ultimately realized that thinking about the consequences instead of living in the moment wasn’t a wise thing to do, so he decided to address his feelings. They spoke in the hotel’s hallway; Ned wasn’t sure whether he should go ahead and kiss Mare. He wanted to, but he was afraid that it would hamper their professional dynamics forever. Mare suggested that it was best if they got it out of their system, and Ned agreed with her. They decided to kiss and just get over the infatuation they’d developed for each other. When Ned and Mare kissed, they realized that they had very strong feelings for one another, and getting it out of the way wasn’t really an option.
What will unfold in season 2?
Now that The Paper season 2 has been confirmed, here’s what we think might unfold. The romantics will tune into the next season to find out if Ned and Mare’s relationship worked out. Considering they are a boss-employee duo, a relationship will hamper their dynamics in the office. But can that be reason enough for two people in love to stay apart? Well, they will surely try to maintain distance or at least keep their relationship hidden. Though that might backfire as well. It will be almost impossible for Ned to be completely fair in his workplace, so maybe they’ll choose the newspaper over their relationship and try to stay apart for the greater good, or at least they’ll try to do that. Probably the second season will revolve around Ned and Mare figuring out a way to deal with their situation.
We’re looking forward to the episode where Nicole will finally stop pretending to not care and admit that she was head over heels in love with Detrick! Esmeralda will continue with her antics and office politics, and so will her love-hate relationship with Ned. Ken and Esmeralda’s work relationship might also see some cracks, seeing as how Ken has realized that Esmeralda has very little power at present. The fallout will be extremely dramatic! Now that ‘Toledo Truth-Teller’ has won awards, Ned will surely try to push the envelope. They’ll take more risks and report news that matters, and also hopefully they’ll get a little funding to keep things moving. Here’s hoping that the next season will be funnier and more chaotic.
