All eyes are on Stella Bak this week. After letting Paul Marks know what his callous, manipulative treatment did to her while she was a college student in one of his tech incubators, thanks to the yet-to-be-aired Alex Levy Unfiltered interview, you might recall that the guy went and offered her a job. Not just any job — the Job. The president of UBA job. The job is currently occupied by Cory Ellison. Now, while Cory is a psychotic asshole most of the time, Stella also considers him someone who took a chance on her at one point. What’s a tech gal turned head of the news division for a legacy media company to do?
On one hand, this is everything she’s been waiting for. Once Amanda hands Stella the super-secret employment agreement from Paul and her team crunches the numbers, they all agree that this is a once-in-a-lifetime type of thing. But signing the agreement comes with a risk: If the deal between Paul and UBA falls through and Cory finds out what was going on behind his back, Stella will most definitely lose her job and everything she’s worked for up to this point. Then again, a short but potent conversation with Mia reminds Stella that “there are only so many jobs at the top” and “white men don’t give them up willingly.” She also reminds Stella that it’s not like she’s above getting her hands dirty. She’s “stepped over a few bodies” to get where she is today. “The only difference between us and them,” Mia tells her, “is that we let the ghosts torment us.” Now, listen. The Morning Show is patently silly, and I do not take it seriously 92 percent of the time for health reasons, but wow, wow, wow, what a sentiment! If only Mia would do anything remotely close to this apparent cold-killer life philosophy she has at the moment. She is yet another character (cough, Bradley Jackson, cough) whose personality changes with the tides. Regardless, at this moment, Mia empowers Stella to say, you know what? Fuck Cory Ellison. She takes one step further toward signing those papers and throwing him under the bus.
Would Stella’s attitude toward Cory change if she knew the emotional torture he is not only going through at this very moment but that he apparently lived with his entire life? Would it change if she knew he was raised by some frighteningly hellish psycho who can really harmonize on “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”? Maybe! Let’s meet Cory’s mommy, shall we?
Cory gets an annoyed plea from chairman of the board Leonard that there’s a political consultant bugging the DOJ about the Hyperion deal that has the potential to tank the whole thing, and could Cory please take care of her? Cory ropes Bradley — who popped by to let him know that the Hal situation has been handled, which is hilarious because you know that little felony will be back to haunt us all — into a road trip to Connecticut to deal with the political operative, hoping her presence will force this person to behave. He pulls up to a nice suburban house and blasts “Kokomo” to … pump himself up? Calm him down? Please, never reveal the answer; it’s better this way. Bradley still doesn’t know who they’re going to see until they walk through the door, which is so funny to me. She didn’t ask once in the car ride? Isn’t she a journalist? Her literal job is to ask questions. She’s the one who is always like, “I want the TRUTH.” What did they talk about the whole time?
Anyway, the visit home grows more and more unsettling by the minute. Things seem okay at first. Martha is proud of her son, even if she calls the media industry “all smoke and mirrors,” and worries the Hyperion deal is a bad one. She still brags about him to Bradley. Cory is proud to tell Bradley that his mother was the press secretary for Geraldine Ferraro back in the day. Bradley was the perfect person to bring along — Martha is a fan and calls her a “true feminist” and an “icon,” which maybe should’ve been the first sign that something is off here.
Things take a turn when Bradley mentions they won’t be able to stay for dinner because she has to go, you know, deliver the evening news. Martha’s mood changes. She lays a guilt trip on him about his father leaving them and no one wanting to be around her. It’s quietly and expertly done, and Cory gives into it. Of course, they’ll stay for dinner. Martha just happens to have a bunch of live lobsters to whip up, so that’s great news for everyone. (Except for the lobsters, I suppose.)
Things level out for a bit until Cory mentions why he’s there: to talk to her about not getting involved with his big business deal — meddling moms, am I right? It doesn’t matter how carefully he phrases “Please back the hell off,” Martha gets upset and leaves the table anyway. She never raises her voice, really, which I think is the part that makes it the most unsettling and uncomfortable. She lays into him about how women of a certain age are ignored and forced to stay silent. Cory walks off into the next room and begins to play “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” to calm her down, which works, and the two share a little duet. Surprisingly, none of this is a fever dream. Not even the part when Bradley starts to tear up thinking about her own mother and not about how this whole dynamic is totally fucked.
The little song trick works for about five seconds because as soon as it’s over and she hears Cory apologizing to Bradley for not being there for her when her mom died, the switch flips again. She tells her son that he deserves to be alone. She warns Bradley that he’s just manipulating her. She tells Cory to leave with the heartwarming kicker: “There’s something really wrong with you.”
In the car ride home, Bradley tries to get Cory to talk about growing up with a mother like that, to assure him that he can confide in her, and she reminds him that he’s a good person (which is debatable). As they head back to UBA for the big UBA and Valentino fundraiser for FIT, they soon have bigger problems on their hands — everybody does. The SCOTUS leak about reversing Roe v. Wade comes out.
As if The Morning Show didn’t torment us enough with that flashback to 2020 and 2021, now we have to relive the alternating rage and heartbreak that came with the news of women’s bodily autonomy being ripped away, so that’s cool and fun. Why does The Morning Show hate us so much?
In the midst of people processing what’s happening, Bradley delivering the breaking news, and Alex and Chip making The Handmaid’s Tale references that feel too soon even now, Stella gets a visitor. Her friend Kate has arrived in the middle of the chaos to tell her old friend that Paul Marks fired her for having an opposing viewpoint in regards to some project they were working on. She worked for him for 12 years, and one day, she showed up, and her badge wasn’t working anymore. While Kate may have shown up looking to commiserate with someone who understands how horrible Paul Marks is, she quickly realizes Stella is not that person. She’s suddenly making excuses for the guy, protecting him, and Kate knows that he must have offered Stella something really good to get her back on his side. With a little “this is how you are with him, he owns you,” a hint of “you two belong together,” and a dash of “you’ll always choose him,” Kate is off.
While Stella and Kate’s friendship might be ruined, the encounter does make Stella take a hard look at what she’s doing with Paul. She goes to see Cory, and, in a surprise turn, she tells him exactly what’s happening behind his back. In an even bigger surprise, Cory tells her to sign the papers. He wants Paul to trust her. He wants to see how this all plays out. “It’s not the first time you’ve been underestimated around here,” Cory tells Stella. Now they have the upper hand on Paul Marks.
But just because Cory has a plan doesn’t mean he’s not pissed as hell. Stella’s news, paired with his time with Mom, has rattled him up. Like his mother, Cory can change personalities in an instant. We see him do it here, with Leonard. The two, thus far, have had a pretty affable relationship, but here, he makes sure Leonard knows who is the real boss. He tells him to do his job and get the board in line to back Cory’s plans. When Leonard tries to pull rank, Cory reminds him of who disposed of both Fred Micklen and Cybil Reynolds. “[…] Their heads are on pikes in the armoire of my office where I keep my extra shirts,” he tosses in for good measure. Suffice it to say, Cory’s in a real mood at the moment!
In Other News!
• Alex and Paul have themselves a little lost sex weekend! They’re opening up about their divorces and how scary it is to try again and just really connecting post-coital, you know? While they may try to keep things under wraps, knowing their relationship would ruffle feathers with the UBA board and stockholders, it works for only two days. Pesky tabloid The Vault has a picture of the two making out, and there is nothing they can do to stop it from coming out.
• Chip catches Alex and Paul kissing in her office, and he looks downright heartbroken about it. Will this man ever learn?
• Christine may say she’s just starting to get a handle on “the whole social justice warrior thing,” but she certainly dives in head first once the SCOTUS leak comes out. She writes “Abort the Court” on the bathroom mirror in lipstick and takes a selfie with it, middle finger blazing.
• Shouldn’t the fact that Mia’s boyfriend has been missing in Ukraine for two weeks be a bigger deal? She gets half a scene to process this crisis while we get a full lobster dinner and a show with Mother Ellison. How embarrassing for André.
• Fingers crossed we get an entire episode just from Yanko’s perspective one day because that man lives in a different reality. A sad one! Where he continually gets stood up by the same woman but doesn’t do anything about it!
