Everyone is hunting for dirt on everyone else on The Morning Show. Paul (Jon Hamm) wants to find something to oust Cory (Billy Crudup). Bradley (Reese Witherspoon) and Stella (Greta Lee) are going after Paul. Amanda (Tig Notaro) and Laura (Julianna Margulies) are looking for evidence to indict Bradley for erasing Insurrection footage. Several graves are being dug over at UBA—the question isn’t who will be slaughtered but, rather, who will be the first to be killed. Once one person falls, down goes UBA.
So much gossip, and all Alex (Jennifer Aniston) can manage to think about is running her own Alex Unfiltered studio out of UBA. Get your head out of the clouds, girl. Paul has promised his woman of the hour a prominent position at UBA and told her about his plan to dismantle the entirety of UBA, and Alex doesn’t care. She’ll be the sole survivor building it back up. Alex seeks counsel from her enemy, well-respected New York magazine journalist Maggie Brener (Marcia Gay Harden), who tells her that UBA will be nothing in a few years. But Alex Levy, she says, will always be a huge name.
Chris (Nicole Beharie) is facing a similar situation, as another anchor outgrowing UBA. After her viral “Abort the Court” Instagram post, Chris has been receiving death threats. UBA won’t let her cover the ongoing Roe v. Wade dilemma. There’s a sports network that wants to make Chris the face of their programming, but Chris isn’t so sure she wants to leave the heavy stuff behind for exclusively promoting the lighter news.
The Morning Show is heavy-handed with its hints. Someone is buying out a lot of stocks, all from one LLC. Paul? Alex? Who could it be? This is mentioned around five times before we get an answer. In the meantime, Alex and Bradley go head-to-head about the deal with Paul; Paul continues to fail at finding a scoop on squeaky clean Cory; and Amanda mentions safety issues at Hyperion. We’re always getting a bunch of teases, which will inevitably lead to several bombs going off at the end of the episode.
Laura is digging into this Bradley situation. She calls Bradley’s brother Hal (Joe Tippett), inviting him to spend the summer in D.C., and Hal lies about having never been to the Capitol despite having posted photos on his Facebook. Laura puts the pieces together; she stops reporting on Bradley but also ends things with her girlfriend. If Bradley ever shows her face to Laura again, Laura promises to leak the news to the press. But these two break up and get back together constantly, so don’t be shocked if Season 4 reignites their love.
The Morning Show really loves to revive characters from the dead—first came Fred (Tom Irwin), and now Cybil (Holland Taylor) is marching through the UBA offices like she still owns the place. Cybil is behind the LLC buying all of UBA. She informs Cory about Fred, who is helping Paul strip UBA and sell it for parts—including Cory’s beloved UBA+. They can take everything, but not UBA+! Cybil offers to help, but Cory is sent into a frenzy before he can even give her an answer. A jazz score soundtracks Cory’s breakdown, creating that classic frenetic energy we love from the Morning Show.
Cory busts into Alex’s office: “Are you part of this?” he demands to know. Alex doesn’t even respond before Cory feels the betrayal. “Oh, you are. Of course you are.” But how can Cory be mad when he was the one trying to sell Alex on Paul in the first place? Cory pushed Alex into Paul’s arms; now, Cory is upset that they fell into bed with each other. Cory is gripping onto the edge of the cliff, and his hands are sweaty—he’s going to fall at any moment, now.
Paul confronts Bradley. He knows about Hal and the deleted footage. He offers her a simple deal: Quit snooping around Hyperion and leave UBA, then the Jacksons will be safe. A tearful Bradley quits UBA while live on the evening news, “effective immediately.” But the question here is: How the hell did Paul find out about Hal?
So, the answer to the very first question—who will be slaughtered first?—is Bradley. The dominoes come crashing down. Cory is next. An article detailing the fact that he was “grooming” Bradley is published on TMZ-knockoff The Vault. Cory is escorted out of the building.
Nothing is official yet, but Paul Marks practically owns UBA.
