Oh wow, what an absolute delight to see Cory Ellison not in control of all the game pieces for once. It is especially delightful that this realization comes at the exact moment when Cory feels immortal like he has played everyone to perfection, like everything’s coming up Cory. The fact that we get to see his face as he takes in the news that his big plan to usurp the board and push through his deal with Paul Marks was all for naught — because, much to Cory’s dismay, the man can’t control the whims of billionaires — oh, well that is just the big ol’ cherry on top. It’s not that I dislike Cory — he always brings the right level of energy to this chaos, he is our Mad Hatter — it’s just that he is the most interesting when he’s floundering and in survival mode. Cory Ellison getting desperate? That’s going to be a real treat right there!
There’s another reason Cory’s failure is extra satisfying this time around: As Stella points out with a real gut punch to her boss, Cory has casually weaponized “400 years of racism to close a deal with a billionaire.” Cory’s always been self-serving, but this is a new low. It’s been two weeks since the hack, and while we get absolutely zero updates on if Bradley’s video got leaked, even though that seemed to be an incredibly important plot point last week, we do learn that heaps and heaps of private emails have been getting released almost daily. There’s even a website that catalogs them. The conservative news networks are gleefully reporting it all (June Diane Raphael, no notes). But what we come to learn is that the leaks to the media aren’t as arbitrary as you might think. Cory’s henchman Earl shows him a new group of emails they’ve combed through for incriminating information and highlights one page for his boss. Cory is intrigued and after a tiny internal deliberation, he tells Earl to “pull the trigger.” The next thing we know, Eagle News is reporting that a racist email from Cybil Reynolds discussing the hiring of Christina Hunter as a TMS anchor and comparing her to Aunt Jemima has been discovered. UBA once again goes into crisis mode and Cory just stands there as everything burns to the ground. It’s all part of his plan. Cybil, head of the UBA board, is the one person really standing in his way of selling the network to Paul Marks. If he gets rid of Cybil, he can move forward with his deal. I mean, that’s certainly one way of dealing with the problem.
Obviously, Cory doesn’t give a shit about the other person involved in this debacle — Christina Hunter. Oh, he calls her up to his office to show her how much the network “cares” by telling her they’ll throw tons of money at her if she promises not to sue. Very cool! The more the network attempts to handle the situation, the more Chris realizes how alone she is in this. Nicole Beharie is excellent in this episode. The Morning Show might be wack-a-doodle, but she plays Christina in such a grounded way here you actually feel emotionally connected with a human being on this show. It’s very disorienting! (If someone isn’t going to give Beharie top billing on her own drama series after this, you people are out of your minds.) We watch as she takes in the news — the comments on the article are just as bad as Cybil’s email — and as she tries to hold it together in front of everyone. We watch as she has a conversation with Mia, someone she thought she might have more support from, who basically tells her that everything will be fine and she shouldn’t let it get to her. We watch as she listens to her husband tell her it will all blow over. We also watch as Chris tries to figure out what to do next. You can see her weighing her options. She could just let it blow over and move on like so many are telling her to do, or she could stand up for herself as well as the other UBA employees of color who, as it comes to light thanks to the hack, are getting paid much less than their white counterparts. UBA, your institutional racism is showing. Christina very much wants to go with option two — you don’t become an Olympic gold medalist without a little fight in you — she just needs to figure out how to do it.
While all of this is going on, there’s another interesting dynamic at play — Cybil calls in Alex to help her through this. Cybil doesn’t want her legacy or her family’s legacy tarnished by one thoughtless email and she wants Alex to help her find a way out of this mess (because of sisterhood and all). Alex doesn’t laugh in her face, but almost! But even though Alex walks away from that meeting telling Cybil she wants to stay as far away from this as possible, she does turn around and tell Cory and Stella that she wants to have Cybil on Alex Levy Unfiltered. She isn’t wrong that UBA needs to tackle this head-on with more than a perfunctory apology press release — although, as Chris points out, it sure seems like UBA is trying to let Cybil “show what a friend she is to brown people.” Cory, of course, is whole-heartedly advocating against giving Cybil any kind of platform, not because he thinks she shouldn’t be given airtime on principle, but because he doesn’t want to chance Cybil somehow redeeming herself and staying in favor with the Board. Everyone in that meeting picks up on Cory’s enthusiasm to declare Cybil DOA, and Stella starts to piece his entire plan together.
While Alex lands that interview, she decides, very wisely, to instead give it up so that Chris can interview Cybil herself. Of course, The Morning Show opts not to show us that conversation between Alex and Chris, which would’ve been quite illuminating on both a plot and character level, but sure. Cory once again tries to fight against giving Cybil airtime but Stella calls him out and he can’t deny what he’s up to any longer.
The interview goes about as well as it could for Chris, now officially a morning news rockstar, and it is a complete train wreck for the wholly unprepared Cybil Reynolds, who seems to miss the point over and over again that her “boneheaded” and “casual” email is evidence of a much larger problem. It’s not long after the interview that the Board votes no-confidence and ousts their chairwoman. Cory stands at the windows like a real fucking creep to watch his nemesis go down just like he planned. Next, he goes for the final blow. He tracks down Paul Marks at a restaurant in Soho to tell him the good news. With Cybil out of the way, they can officially make the deal — and at Paul’s original price, to boot! Alas, Paul Marks isn’t an idiot. Since he’s been in conversation with Cory, UBA has been a complete shitshow (what did he think it was before??), and he kindly informs Cory that he isn’t interested in the drama or the chaos. The deal is off the table. Everything Cory just did was for nothing. He’s left to wander off alone into the New York night. Now that, my friends, is a true walk of shame if I ever saw one.
In Other News!
• Mia’s grappling with how, as a Black woman running TMS, she is actually part of the problem — especially when she tries to ignore the pay discrepancy and discrimination and her role in it. She takes a step forward when she finally gives Layla the promotion to anchor producer (she’ll be working with Chris) she’s deserved for a while now.
• I’m glad that The Morning Show is having a little more fun with the absurdity of it all this season. That transition from the story about long-lost twins finding each other during a pie eating contest to “up next, a conversation about race in corporate America” is a perfectly crafted doozy, and both Alex and Yanko look worn out after trying to manage that “fucking tough pivot.”
• I did laugh out loud when Mia screens her call from Bradley and Stella asks if she’s calling because she “needs her white guilt assuaged.” Everyone thinks Bradley is annoying as hell and that brings me so much joy.
• Mia and Stella drunkenly admitting that Yanko is “problematic but hot” was great. Another classic example of “the Office Ten.” Let these characters out of the UBA building more often!
• More of Stephen Fry as Leonard from the Board, please!
• Amanda (Tig Notaro), Paul’s assistant, when Cory walks up to the restaurant to demand a meeting with Paul: “You got some pep in your step. Recharged after sleeping in your coffin all day?”
