Less is going on in this week’s episode of The Morning Show, which isn’t saying all that much—we’re dialing it down to 95 from the usual 100. Last week’s episode was about the insurrection and the pandemic, two weeks ago saw UBA facing a racial reckoning, and this season opened with a huge network hack. So an episode with just one fiery interview is pretty tame, in comparison.
The interviewee is Paul Marks (Jon Hamm), The Morning Show’s own version of Elon Musk, who is currently working on a merger that would see him buying UBA for $40 billion. The newsroom throws together a last minute Q&A session with Paul, offering employees the chance to ask him any questions about his plans with UBA. No, he doesn’t want to fire a bunch of employees. Stella (Greta Lee) will still be in charge of the newsroom, meaning there won’t be a conflict of interest if UBA ever has to cover anything relating to Paul and his company, Hyperion.
Alex (Jennifer Aniston) wants to interview Paul on Alex Unfiltered. Just a few episodes ago, the pair began some short-lived flirtations that led Paul back to UBA after the racial reckoning. Now, their relationship is strictly professional. Although Paul is camera shy, he agrees to the interview with Alex. Chip (Mark Duplass) will research talking points, Paul will host the camera crew in his Hamptons home, and Cory (Billy Crudup) doesn’t need to know about any of this.
Meanwhile, tensions rise between Paul and Stella, who was once an employee at Hyperion. Paul tries to clear things up with Stella—he will kiss the ground she walks upon; he will offer up anything she wants for the news division of UBA. Stella is hesitant about all of this. Instead of accepting Paul’s offers, she goes to Chip and Alex with some sort of secret she suggests they should broach in the interview. Scandalous!
It is scandalous, until the actual interview. Alex puts Paul on the spot: Was he responsible for stealing a Stanford student’s brilliant new tech, leading the student into a spiral of depression where they attempted suicide? He allegedly took the student’s face identification technology and sold it to police departments around the country, who have been using it to racially profile people. It’s all kind of confusing. (He legally bought the tech, so isn’t this all squared away? Also, how many times will we hear Alex say “tech”?) Plus, it’s not as dramatic as other historic big reveals in The Morning Show.
Paul shields himself from the allegations and apologizes. If this were a recreation of Elon Musk—not saying it has to be, but come on, you don’t get a number like $40 billion out of nowhere—it would be a bad one. Musk is unfunny, uncharismatic, and terrible at interviews. He stumbles over his words. He is not sexy. Hamm as Marks is the opposite of all of the above: super hot and incredibly conversational. Paul spends the night with Alex in his bed, thanks to his undeniable allure. Musk could never.
Although Paul’s situation with the stolen tech is a bit of a bore, there’s a spicier twist. That Stanford student was actually Stella. She offers to quit the company because she hates the idea of working with Paul, but he wants to make amends. Paul will fire Cory when the merger is complete. Stella will take over as the President of UBA. By signing this deal with Paul, Cory is shooting himself in the foot.
Meanwhile, Bradley (Reese Witherspoon) has a far more interesting storyline, as she continues covering up her brother Hal’s (Joe Tippett) involvement at the insurrection. Bradley has deleted the footage of her brother, but every other video she took at the Capitol was used on TMS. Now, in 2022, Hal brings his daughter and wife to New York to visit Bradley. When the pair step away for a second, Hal tells Bradley these are their last moments together as a family—he’s going to turn himself in to the FBI.
This is a real Catch-22 for Bradley. If Hal turns himself in, she’s vindicated from hiding the footage from the FBI because he’s been imprisoned. But then again, the FBI could accuse her of concealing evidence. To convince her brother to stay quiet, Bradley invites him and his family to a live taping of the evening news at UBA, where she not-so-subtly interviews a rioter who has been imprisoned for treason. He’s lost everything—his family, his life, his job—and he regrets his choices.
It’s Laura (Julianna Margulies) who eventually saves the day, begging Hal to reconsider his plans to imprison both himself and his sister. She begs him to give her a chance at life. Hal agrees and leaves Bradley with a note saying he’s changed his mind about everything. But this is The Morning Show, and there’s no chance Hal and Bradley are escaping this situation unscathed. They can’t stay safe for much longer.
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