Hey, The Morning Show, come here. I have something to whisper softly in your ear: No one asked for this. This?! To relive one of the bleakest swathes of time in recent memory? It is the hardest of passes, okay? And I’m not just talking about how this rewind to March 2020 and the year that followed means we’re diving into the first few chaotic, terrifying months of a global pandemic, George Floyd’s murder and the reckoning that followed, and January 6, 2021 — but The Morning Show, which just can’t help itself, it seems, peppers in fun reminders of other terrible things going on at the time as a little treat, like ravaging wildfires and Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death. It’s like, we get it, it was awful. Please do not force us to go back there again. We just got out. No one asked for this.
From a story standpoint, we finally get some answers and clarification on several points that have been hinted at, but I still think it was a misstep to be so cagey with the details up until now, the fifth episode of the season. Wouldn’t it have been nice to have watched Mia’s relationship with photojournalist André in a much less time-hoppy way?
In “Love Island,” we get a flirty, lovely montage that reveals how much these two are in love and also that they are very, very hot. We also learn that after Mia tells André about her relationship with Mitch Kessler once she catches him watching the documentary that, yes, Cory decided to release on UBA+ because he is chaos’s No. 1 fan (and is desperate for ratings), the two hit a rough patch. André takes his big feelings about it all and heads out to three different bars, getting wasted and also possibly exposed to COVID-19, which is beyond a deal-breaker for Mia. She calls him a selfish asshole and moves into her UBA office. And that’s the condition their relationship is in when André gets called onto a job in Afghanistan. Have they seen each other in person since? It seems like no. I fear all of this means this man will die in Ukraine. You don’t get swoony montages and heartbreaking good-byes if you’re not about to face unmitigated tragedy, right? It’s like The Morning Show had to rewind to hit home that we should be invested in Mia and André so that whatever is about to go down works. Anyway, they are very hot together, and I am concerned for this man’s health.
But most of this rewind to 2020 and 2021 is to finally fill in the blanks on what’s up with Bradley this season. Back in March 2020, while Alex Levy was broadcasting her bout with COVID-19 live on UBA+, Bradley was holding down the fort at TMS and awaiting the all clear to join then-secret-ish girlfriend, Laura, at her cabin in Montana. Remember, Laura has a heart condition and is trying to stay as isolated as possible. It’s very cute of them to say things like “people will speculate,” as if the two of them being in the same pod and BROADCASTING LIVE FROM A COZY MONTANA CABIN EVERY MORNING wouldn’t almost immediately be on the cover of US Weekly. They make a big deal out of the moment Bradley finally calls Laura “Babe” on-camera and talks about her making stronger coffee as if the whole world didn’t know they were dating already. But they are wildly happy together, alone.
You know who is feeling a type of way about Bradley and Laura being together, though? Cory Ellison. You might recall that at the end of season two, as Bradley and Cory searched the streets of New York City for Bradley’s brother Hal, Cory took it upon himself to unload his feelings on Bradley. Sexy, right? He told her he was completely in love with her, and she was like, oh, I need to take a call. When Bradley tells Cory that she isn’t, like, fleeing to Montana because of what went down between them, she notes that it was “a crazy night” and that they “were both a little bit out of their minds.” Cory questions that assessment of what went down, and Bradley is adamant. Am I missing something or does this mean they fucked that night? Or is this just about Cory being in love? It’s hilarious that The Morning Show is so on the nose about certain things and so frustratingly vague about others. If there are dirty deets, by all means, provide all of them.
Anyway, Cory stays in New York and hooks up with his hot real-estate agent, and Bradley heads to Montana and has a glorious few months with her girl. But things start to unravel. There’s tension early on between Bradley and Laura when Laura comments about how Bradley’s brother and mother are uneducated after Bradley talks about how they refuse to wear masks and still go to crowded public spaces. The tension ends with Laura calling herself an asshole and them sharing some bisexual chocolate. But the tiny wound in their relationship festers.
It doesn’t help that Bradley’s not doing well being so isolated from the world, and it certainly doesn’t help when Bradley’s mom dies of COVID-19. Bradley has a complicated relationship with her mother, but she still blames herself for not rushing down there when Hal called to tell her the news. She takes a lot of her grief and anger out on Laura, blaming her for being the reason she stopped talking to her mother as much, telling her that Laura’s happy when people like Bradley’s mom die, and a nice little interlude about how Laura’s so elitist she treats Bradley like her “little white-trash pet.” Laura counters with, “Your mother was a piece of shit, and you’re the first person to tell everyone about it,” which is, like, way harsh, Tai. Even if it is a little true, the woman just died! In all fairness, Laura did warn us that she’s an asshole.
There’s no real recovery after a debacle like that, and TMS’s ratings begin to suffer with Bradley so obviously miserable. Finally, Stella gets Bradley out of Montana and puts her on election coverage in Washington, D.C. This, of course, is how Bradley happens to be at the Capitol when the January 6 riot breaks out. And she is in it, guys. The Morning Show doesn’t pull any punches, blending real and fictional footage of what happened that day. And there Bradley Jackson is, trying to look incognito and filming everything she can on her phone. After getting accidentally pepper-sprayed, she winds up in a hallway where several rioters begin assaulting a Capitol police officer. Eventually, one rioter and one police officer break away from the group, and the man is really kicking the shit out of this cop, and Bradley has it all on video. But then she realizes the man is Hal.
The next thing we know, the siblings are in a hotel room, and Bradley is furious with her brother. He tries to give her a bunch of excuses, even noting that he was only in D.C. to see her, and Bradley has to give it to him straight: “You assaulted a police officer. That is a felony, Hal, and I got you doing it on fucking camera.” You can see her spiraling, trying to figure out what to do. Then, Hal lays it on her: His wife (girlfriend?), Cheryl, is pregnant. He’s going to be a dad. It’s almost immediate: Bradley can’t bring herself to turn her brother in. She tells him to leave, to tell no one he was there, and not to contact her. Bradley goes to work, and although there’s a little hesitation, she quietly deletes the part of the video with her brother on it. And that, folks, as Bradley well knows, is a felony.
Perhaps thinking she deserves something for all of her trouble, or perhaps still being in denial of it happening, Bradley leverages her incredible footage to get that anchor chair on the evening news (in case you were wondering how she scored that job). But it’s not before long the truth of what happened comes knocking at her door in the form of a subpoena from the FBI for UBA to hand over all of her footage. The FBI is investigating one police officer’s assault and knows it happened near other bits of Bradley’s footage, so they believe she could have evidence. Bradley shows up at Cory’s swanky new Hamptons house (that front door!) and tells him he can’t hand the footage over because of “journalistic independence.” When he tells her this is an extreme situation and, hey, they could turn out to be heroes, she tells him the truth. She deleted the footage because Hal was on it, and it will be obvious if they get a look at the footage she has left. “Hal’s the only person I have left,” she tells him, trying to explain why she put herself and the entire network — who promoted her based on her January 6 footage — in jeopardy. But holy hell, this guy still has it bad for Bradley. He tells her he’ll take care of it; he’ll talk to the lawyers, and it will be fine. And then he tells her he wants her to leave. “I don’t want to hear another fucking word about this, ever.”
This is what Cory has been holding over Bradley’s head all season — he covered up her felony for her. Is the man completely gutted or simply realizing that he’ll never get over Bradley? Either way, once she’s gone and he does her dirty work for her, he tosses out his girlfriend’s bracelet and scrubs his entire kitchen clean.
In Other News!
• It’s Cory’s sort-of girlfriend, Salma, who leads him to Paul Marks. When she hears Cory complaining about UBA’s financial trouble and his need for some big money, she points out that there’s tons of money right around the big ol’ house he just bought, including loner surfing fan Paul Marks. Cory just so happens to bump into Paul on the beach one morning, and their conversation begins.
• We meet Stella’s old college classmate Kate, who works at Hyperion with Paul Marks. She seems pretty unhappy with her job and iffy about Paul. She offers very little information regarding what went down, but let’s assume Kate pops up in the present day at some point.
• To be fair to Bradley, I am well aware of Cabaret and Liza Minnelli in Cabaret, and I still wouldn’t have gotten Laura’s charade clues. Give her a break!
