Summary
There’s a lot going on in “The Revolution Will Be Televised”, but the plate-spinning feels relevant and timely, and the character drama spinning out of it is undeniably compelling.
The Morning Show is already off to a breathless start in Season 4. The premiere was dizzying enough, but Episode 2 shifts into another gear, building a deliberate feeling of disorientation for several characters, all of whom feel hemmed in by their circumstances and uncertain of where to turn. The drama is arguably spread too thin, and it can be difficult to keep up with everything in the way it’s structured, but it’s undeniably compelling in many different areas and builds to a ruthless cliffhanger that feels like the show is picking up even more steam.
This is all bonkers, by the way. Long-time viewers of this show will be used to that by now, but it’s always worth reiterating. The critical reception swirling around this season has been less than stellar, but most of that revolves around its approach to hot-button political issues and — generally — a seeming refusal to really condemn characters for being self-serving (and right of centre). Very few people watching The Morning Show are expecting it to painstakingly reinforce their personal politics. It’s a deeply silly show that uses real-life happenings as a backdrop for silly plotlines, with the caveat being that they’re being performed by very good actors in Emmy-worthy performances. It’s deliberately idiosyncratic in that way, and “The Revolution Will Be Televised” embraces that in the messiest way possible.
Consider Bradley, for instance. Her triumphant return to television goes off the rails immediately when she stumbles over an explanation about Hal being radicalised during the pandemic and subsequently imprisoned for storming the Capitol. It might not be morally satisfying that Bradley has basically gotten away with covering things up — insofar as she has actually gotten away with it, which, to be fair, remains to be seen — but that’s all part of the fun. Seeing her stammer into implicating herself while trying to privately figure out who “GaiaWarrior96” is is much more entertaining.
Chip can help. She meets with him before attending a clandestine meeting with her source, and while he plays dumb initially, he eventually recalls being instructed to spike a story about the chemical company, which was apparently cleared of any wrongdoing. The source doesn’t attend the meeting for reasons that are unconfirmed but seem easy enough to figure out — more on this below — and Chip later has another revelation, based on the use of English spellings in the communiques with Bradley. He thinks the whistleblower is her old assistant, Claire Conway.
But let’s back up a bit, because in a roundabout way this comes to involve Alex, even if only peripherally. She begins The Morning Show Season 4, Episode 2 believing she’s attending a meeting with Stella about Bradley, only to walk headlong into an ambush. Celine and the legal department are on hand to ask Alex some tough questions about the Iranians, including whether she planned and facilitated the defection ahead of time without anyone’s knowledge. This theory is reinforced by the CCTV footage of Alex talking with Roya, which seems to have recorded Alex saying things she’s absolutely adamant she didn’t say. She’s the victim of a deepfake.
Nicole Beharie, Reese Witherspoon and Nestor Carbonell in The Morning Show Season 4 | Image via Apple TV+
This rabbit hole is unintentionally pretty hilarious. Alex becomes extremely paranoid because of the scary likeness of the footage, and the fact that nobody seems to believe her, especially with her father’s key role in the constitutional referendum in Iraq and efforts to relocate a dissident translator making it seem like they’re in cahoots to destabilize the Middle East. Alex doesn’t know who to turn to. She tries Cory, who warns her that Celine will take it to the board and advises her to kiss the ring of Leslie Reynolds as a preventative measure, then she goes to Mia to try and get airtime on The Morning Show to share her deepfake experience, and then when that idea’s nixed she goes to Bro, putting up with his unsubtle workplace sexual harassment to try and guest on his show — which is blessed by no editorial oversight — and make her case there. The payoff here is Alex Googling “Alex Levy deepfake” and being confronted with countless results she’d much rather not have seen.
On her way to catch Leslie, Alex trips and falls into Bradley’s subplot, finding herself in the midst of an Extinction Revolt environmental protest outside of a renewable energy summit. She live-streams the event and interviews a protestor who is adamant that the summit is a cover for backroom oil deals, and when Bradley sees the footage, she recognises the symbol on the protestor’s shirt. It’s the same one — it seems to be the same shirt, actually — as is being worn by whoever was recording the footage of the child with black teeth she was sent by GaiaWarrior96.
As it happens, Alex is exonerated almost as quickly as she was implicated. Celine goes to see her at home to tell her that the security team discovered the audio had been doctored, and they suspect the Iranians as revenge for Alex’s role in the defection. I’ve got to be honest, I’m not sure that explanation would necessarily put my mind at ease.
In all this, we can’t forget about Cory. He goes to Stella to try and drum up funding for his movie and is met with a cold shoulder. Stella later mentions this to Miles, and since Miles goes back a long way with Cory and apparently “knows where all the bodies are buried”, he invites him to his loft to gently talk him out of schmoozing UBN, which turns out to be a colossal mistake. Stella left her lighter behind, and Cory recognised it immediately. After confirming with the building staff that she has been in and out multiple times, he is suddenly armed with all the kompromat he needs to strongarm Stella into giving him a new deal at UBN.
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