Summary
The Morning Show brings a lot of old dynamics back into Season 4, and in “Tipping Point”, it’s Mia who ends up paying the price.
We’re three episodes into Season 4 of The Morning Show, and someone’s already on their way out the door. Not that anyone will feel much sympathy for Mia, of course. A determinedly loyal UBN employee who was willing to compromise just about anything for a promised promotion, those chickens come home to roost in Episode 3, “Tipping Point”, and unsurprisingly, their clucking doesn’t herald good news.
Bradley doesn’t help – not that she has any idea that she’s not helping. To be fair, her attention is so divided that she doesn’t have much of an idea what’s going on around her at all. Mia’s leading an episode of TMS, and Bradley literally doesn’t know what day it is. But she’s dealing with a lot internally, not least of which is Chip trying to track down Claire, which he finally manages to do here. She, reluctantly, directs Bradley and Chip to Bethanne, the former Head of News, and she slips Chip the next lead surreptitiously, without violating the NDA she signed as part of her exit deal. You know how it can be with all these corporate shenanigans.
Speaking of corporate shenanigans, Alex isn’t suited to them, and that’s in more ways than one. After somewhat accidentally breaking a story that Zeke Pemberton, a billionaire eco-capitalist, was secretly using a climate summit as a front for energy deals, Alex is pulled into the office by Stella and Celine to be informed that Zeke is one of UBN’s biggest investors, and the recent coverage has compelled him to potentially take his business elsewhere. Alex’s function as a reporter cannot supersede her function as an executive, so it’s now up to her to grovel in person.
Luckily, Miles knows Zeke – does this guy have any function in the plot beyond banging Stella and just knowing everyone in contrived circumstances? – so can facilitate an introduction at a conference… where Alex runs into Paul Marks, who is now dating another woman. As if she wasn’t stressed out enough about the apology, she now has to deal with this. Paul is willing to broker a deal, asking Alex to run a story provided by Zeke in exchange for his changing his mind about leaving the network, but there’s so much simmering tension here that Alex can barely think straight. Something tells me she’s not especially cut out for the executive life.
If The Morning Show Season 4, Episode 3 has a mandate, it seems to be reigniting as many familiar dynamics as possible. We’ve already had Paul, and there’s still Cory to consider. He’s busy leaning on Stella, threatening to expose her affair with Miles if she doesn’t get him a deal with the network, and suggesting not-so-subtly to Celine herself that he has a way of giving her leverage. He’s a slippery one, that’s for sure, but men in this show tend to be, pretty much exclusively.
To assuage Celine’s fears of a deal potentially making waves with Bradley, Cory also visits her, immediately reigniting old passions between them. Maybe her not having mentioned his name to the FBI is a bit of a turn-on. Who can say, really? Either way, it’s becoming very clear that for both Alex and Bradley, old habits die hard.
But about Mia. If you were wondering how all this relates to her promotional plight, wonder no longer. The decision is technically Stella’s to make, but thanks to Cory’s blackmail, she needs her deal with him, which Celine will only give her if she appoints her first choice, Ben, as Head of News. Thanks to a situation that’s really nothing at all to do with her, Mia doesn’t get her promotion, and the idea of a raise as a sweetener, after all her hard work, doesn’t quite cut it.
The meeting quickly turns hostile, and Mia does the only thing she can to leverage her position – she quits. That’s the only available power move. Perhaps in taking herself away from UBN, the network will finally realise how important she is to its operation. By then, it’ll probably be too late, of course, but at least the point will be proved. And if it’s any consolation to Mia, I highly doubt Stella is going to get out of this season unscathed either.
RELATED:
