Alex makes her triumphant inevitable return to The Morning Show in this week’s The Morning Show, but there’s another comeback during the episode in which I’m far more interested.
No, it’s not Mitch’s — though we do find out where he’s living and how he’s doing during the hour, which is titled “It’s Like the Flu.” Instead, I’m obsessed with Chip’s return to UBA, which seems like it can only bring him heartache and heartburn yet which he welcomes as though it were a sweet-smelling infant placed lovingly in his arms. Dude, you… you remember last season, right?
Read on for the highlights of the episode.
THE QUEEN RETURNS | Cory is waiting for Bradley in the hotel lobby when she returns home. She’s still fired up about losing out on the evening-news anchor seat, but he blows past that by announcing that Alex’s return to The Morning Show is almost a done deal. “Don’t worry, it’s all going to work out,” he says. That news only pushes her past “livid” and into “apoplectic” territory; she tells him she won’t be coming to work in the morning.
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Meanwhile, Alex, her assistant Isabella and her agent, Doug (Arrested Development‘s Will Arnett) make a surprise visit to UBA headquarters to take a look at her new office. It’s a power play, and it works: She, Doug, Cory and UBA news president Stella wind up having a meeting, sitting criss-cross-applesauce on the floor of the sunny, unfurnished room. In a not-wholly expected turn of events, Alex is being heralded — at least by the network’s young female employees she runs into during her visit — as a feminist hero. Though she may not be super comfortable with the label, the accompanying attention feels good.
Holed up in her hotel room while she’s “sick” and still not at work, Bradley calls Chip, who reports he’s engaged and happy. She asks for advice about Alex, wonders what she’s really like, “The one thing I would say is,” he cautions, “you have to watch out for her.”
‘I’M NOT GOING TO BE YOUR F–KING SIDEKICK’ | Bradley also better watch out for herself. Cybil, a UBA executive, calls Cory and demands that he fire Ms. Jackson, who is on Week 3 of calling out sick. He says he’ll comply. But when he knocks on her door to remind her that she’s invited to a Morning Show dinner party he’s hosting at his suite upstairs, she refuses to come. He sells her on how Alex’s return is going to be good for her, as well, but she’s not a receptive audience. “If you don’t make this work for you, you are only f–king yourself,” he warns her. But she won’t budge, so he returns to the party.
Soon after, Alex makes her grand entrance at the soiree. She swans around the room, hugging and kissing her former co-workers, but at least one of them is not having it. Daniel hasn’t forgotten the role Alex played in his not getting the co-anchor seat on The Morning Show, and he lets her know that. Alex apologizes, but he doesn’t accept.
At the last possible second to play it off like she always planned it, Bradley shows up. It’s all forced smiles and fake gaiety as the meal unfolds. They all joke about COVID, though Daniel argues that someone on the team should be covering the illness’ rapid spread in China. (Later in the hour, the higher-ups agree… and Daniel gets the assignment.) Yanko calls Donald Trump’s upcoming impeachment trial a “sham,” which is a surprise to his co-workers.
But simmering underneath the whole thing is Bradley’s resentment for Alex, which erupts when the two women walk to the elevator afterward. Bradley points out that, when they had their big announcement about everything going on at the show, she was trying to out the network but Alex was trying to get Bradley fired. Moving forward, “I’m not going to be your f–king sidekick,”
Bradley vows, “I’m going to be your equal.” At one point, Alex has had enough and starts yelling back about how Bradley should compete with her for stories and stature. She adds that they only worked together for a month, so “I didn’t owe you a thing” when she left. “What about Chip?” Bradley shoots back, and that brings Alex up short as the elevator doors close between the two women.
THE INEVITABLE OCCURS | What about Chip? Alex hasn’t talked to him, her producer of 15 years, since the day she left. But she shows up on his doorstep the next day and asks him to come back to the show and be her producer. He considers the proposition for about 2 seconds. “When do I start?” he asks.
A VERY GOLDEN PARACHUTE | Remember how Hannah’s family is suing the network? Cory just wants to “end it” by giving the family whatever they want, but it may not be that simple, because they want $119.2 million — which happens to be the exact value of the golden parachute UBA paid former big boss Fred to go away.
WHERE’S MITCH? | Speaking of guys we don’t love: Mitch is living in Lake Como, Italy. He’s alone in a giant villa with a dog, and he seems rather miserable. One day, an American woman confronts him outside a gelato shop in town, loudly denouncing him and his “entitled male behavior.” Then an Italian woman stands up and starts defending Mitch — who, by the way, looks like he wishes the ground would swallow both him and his gelato. Afterward, as Mitch tries to slink away, the Italian woman, Paola (played by Hot Shots‘ Valeria Golino) follows him and asks to pick his brain about media-related stuff. He tries valiantly to get out of it, but she’s just odd enough that she refuses to let him go before he relents. Eventually, he gives her his number, then scurries off.
At the end of the hour, Fred shows up at Mitch’s Italian hideout.
Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!
