In case it hasn’t been obvious enough, The Morning Show makes clear in “The Revolution Will Be Televised” that the dynamic shared between the series and its audience is very much the audience going “this show is insane, what could be more batshit than this?” and The Morning Show going “hold my beer.” And then it does something like have the Iranian government go after Alex Levy with deepfakes. The Iranian government. The more bonkers this series gets, the more I enjoy it, and that is simply my truth.
Of course, it takes some time for the team at UBN to discover the Iranians have hacked into the CCTV footage of Alex trying to figure out how to help Iranian fencer Roya and her nuclear scientist dad escape the building and defect to the U.S. to make it look like Alex had planned this for them from the beginning; That she set up the interview as a cover for their defection. This fact, too, is laughable because wouldn’t at least one person bring up the fact that Alex just pissed off the Iranian’s like two days ago? Instead, Celine, Stella, and John from Legal are just standing around looking at a panic-stricken Alex like she’s already guilty. Who would ever try to do this to you, Alex? Who would even have the capability? It’s wild that it’s Alex who has to point out that they literally just made AI tech with the ability to make it look like Alex can speak in over 40 different languages and not, I don’t know, Queen of AI Stella, who was all hyped up about welcoming UBN into the future with her pet project last week. Stella is also highly tech-savvy and, oh yes, was very much around for Paul Marks hacking into UBN just two years ago. She can’t give Alex just a tiny benefit of the doubt? They assure Alex they’ll look into things with their mouths, but their eyes definitely say we are going through the motions until we can fire you on Friday. Why does Alex work here again?
With even Mia telling Alex that she can’t get in the middle of this and let her wax poetic about deepfakes on TMS because she’s still waiting to nab that Head of News position, Alex winds up seeking help from two unlikely sources. One is UBN’s resident douche, Bro Hamilton. Are these two going to hook up at least once before the season ends? It would certainly carry on the tradition of Alex’s terrible taste in men and their banter in the elevator — “It’s like the first act of a romantic comedy,” he tells her. “Or a slasher movie,” she responds — is pretty fun. I hope it happens and I hope it’s sloppy. Anyway, when Alex is all out of platforms to plead her case, she decides to ask Bro for a spot on his show. He gives her a lot of grief, but eventually agrees. He also warns her to never, ever search “Alex Levy deepfakes” online, which is sort of nice even if it means that is exactly what Alex goes home and does. I would’ve thought Alex Levy running internet searches of herself would be part of her bedtime routine, but sure, she’s never looked up her own deepfakes before. And Bro is right, of course. Alex stumbles upon true pornographic nightmare fuel.
Alex’s second ally in this mess is Cory. Cory has arrived at her place to chat about Bradley’s return and make a peace offering to thank her for “vanquishing Paul Marks,” but Alex is interested in neither of those things at the moment. She’s so distracted by the deepfake situation that she has no real choice but to spill to Cory. When he hears how Celine and Stella are handling the whole thing, he tells Alex that she’s being gaslit, to which she responds as if she had never heard of gaslighting before. Again, like half of The Morning Show’s storylines are about gaslighting people, but yes, I guess Alex never considered that term in regards to this situation. He does offer some sage advice, though: If Celine is talking about a meeting on Friday, that means she’s bringing the situation to the Board, and there is no way they don’t fire Alex. If she has any hope of surviving that, she needs to make nice with Cybil’s daughter, Leslie, since the Reynold’s family still owns 20 percent of the company. If Leslie has Alex’s back, she should be safe.
Alex’s assistant, Remy, figures out Leslie’s lunch plans the next day, and Alex heads out to get some face time. She is quickly thwarted. The streets are all blocked because of a massive protest outside of a major Climate Summit. At first, Alex plans to fight her way through it to get to Leslie’s restaurant, but then, like magic, she sees a protester’s sign about being gaslit, and she knows she must cover this. She is a journalist. Also, she could use some positive publicity. She gets it in droves. She live streams her coverage of the protests, gets covered in oil, gets tear gassed, and is able to corroborate the leader of Extinction Revolt, the group organizing the protest, when he informs her that the “climate summit” isn’t actually about renewable energy, it’s just a cover-up for oil lobbyists to sell drilling contracts. It’s a huge story and she breaks it in quite the dramatic fashion. She misses Bro’s show because of it, and even he remains impressed with her skills. I guess that means little to Alex since she does refer to him as “human trash” to his face, but I did want to note it for when these two eventually do it.
In some actual good news: Celine comes to see a post-tear-gassed Alex and informs her that hey, it’s a good thing they did look into the CCTV footage, because would you look at that, it was tampered with and most likely by the Iranians. It’s really not shocking that this network is constantly on the brink of bankruptcy. Everyone is terrible at their jobs.
Oh, speaking of, Bradley’s back at work. All of the TMS producers who were hoping the “Bradley Jackson magic” would help them with ratings are immediately disappointed. Bradley is so preoccupied with her secret mission to investigate the Wolf River chemical cover-up and figure out who her anonymous source is that she is entirely too distracted to anchor TMS. Her first segment is supposed to give her the chance to clear up some of those January 6th details regarding her brother (remember, no one knows she deleted footage), and she flubs it completely. When Yanko is the one trying to bail you out on live TV, you know you’re in trouble.
All is not lost, though. Bradley does make some major headway on the Wolf River stuff. She enlists Chip to help her since they were such a great team when they worked together to bring Paul Marks down. He is hesitant, telling her that leaving the network behind has given him back part of his soul and he’s made his peace with what happened there; He doesn’t want to get involved with that place again. But once he remembers a meeting he had in 2019 regarding shelving the Wolf River story — he says a report from the EPA came out and cleared the chemical company, so Fred Micklen had them stop the story — he worries he was inadvertently involved and wants some answers.
The anonymous source winds up flaking on the meeting they had set up with Bradley, but she and Chip put a couple of details together and believe they’ve figured out who has been contacting them. (See? They are a good team!) Bradley believes whoever it is must be on the assistant group chat because they were apparently all talking about Bradley’s return before Mia even arrived in West Virginia. Chip realizes that some of the words in the messages to Bradley use the British spelling — like “theatre” — and there is one former assistant from the U.K. they both know: Claire Conway. Claire definitely has a deep hatred for UBA after everything that happened with Hannah, and Chip remembers that she was in that 2019 meeting about Wolf River getting coffee for everyone. She fits.
Our two little investigators also realize, thanks to Alex’s reporting on the protest, that the leader of Extinction Revolt is wearing the same shirt as the faceless man in the video of the kid with black gums Bradley’s source sent her. If Claire is part of Extinction Revolt, she could’ve been arrested during the protest and that’s why she missed their meeting. The most exciting part of Claire returning is one thousand percent what it is going to do to Yanko, but yes, also, let’s hope Bradley and Chip crack this case!
Those two aren’t the only ones who piece a few clues together for a major reveal. Cory has returned to catch up with Alex about Bradley, but he’s also back in New York for some self-serving reasons. (Are we surprised?) He wants to talk to Stella about funding for his “Oscar bait” film that he says, or rather monologues at her, will be perfect for audiences who “want to be numbed from the hellscape of America in 2024.” But Stella has no time for Cory’s monologues (no one does; it’s very depressing) nor his attempt to save himself from ruin. “It hurts, doesn’t it? That the whole world keeps spinning without you?” she tells him before chugging her martini and heading out.
Little does she know that she and Cory are connected in some surprising ways. She tells Miles about Cory hitting her up for some UBN money and Miles tells her he actually knows Cory from way back. He can handle him for her. So Miles has Cory over to the loft and after reminiscing about their drug-fueled days in Los Angeles, tries to persuade him that getting involved with UBN for his film is not the answer. It would be bad for everyone. As Miles fixes his friend a drink, Cory takes a self-guided tour around the studio, and what does he spot on the nightstand? The gold lighter Stella had been playing around with during their meeting at the bar. He realizes Stella is sleeping with Miles — the husband of the President of the Board, remember — and he knows he has all the leverage he needs.
Cory gives his pal Stella a call the next day, and just as she is about to put him in his place again, he tells her what he’s discovered. He’s even backed up his theory with evidence from the doorman at Miles’s building. He owns her now, and his price for silence has just gone up: He wants a big ol’ development deal with UBN, including an office suite and a full slate of programming. Stella is apoplectic, but knows Cory has her. “He has risen,” he adds with the kind of demented glee we know and love him for. Cory Ellison has got his groove back.
In Other News
• Where’s Mia’s storyline headed this season? She’s doing everything she can to please Stella and Celine so that she can get that Head of News position she’s been promised, but in the meantime, she’s having issues keeping TMS afloat. She butts heads with Chris, who is clearly overextended, when Chris runs out on a promo shoot to try and make it to her daughter’s recital. She has to run there to make it in time, but isn’t allowed in because she forgot her ID. Mia is livid that she blew her off for nothing. To Mia, this show should be top priority. Chris doesn’t see it that way. Seems like that could be a problem!
• Other people are beginning to notice Mia’s lack of control over her talent. UBN Sports guy Ben, who is running all of the Olympics programming, sees Chris steamroll Mia. Mia plays it off like it’s fine. “She’s the boss,” Ben says about Chris. That stings! I’m excited to see what else William Jackson Harper is going to do on this show.
• Justice, the student reporter writing about Martin Levy, pops into Alex’s office for the scheduled interview, but it is just as Alex is running out to track down Leslie. But Justice (of course) knows exactly how to play Alex — by telling her Martin warned that Alex would probably back out. Alex has Justice join her in the car and assist once she goes live with the protestors. Something tells me this article might not be the “light and fluffy” one Martin is expecting.
• An interesting development: Cory tells Alex that Celine’s family disowned her and “exiled her from the empire” when she began dating Miles. To spite them, she married him. (But Cory’s quick to add that love was involved too, probably.)
• “The enemy of my enemy gets overpriced sake.” Oh, Cory. What a special weirdo. Our special weirdo.