Ah, the spiral of chaos deepens. This time, it manifests physically as guilt, adding a delightful twist to the drama! If Alex Levy wasn’t already teetering on the edge of sanity before—honestly, what does Alex even look like when she's not slowly unraveling?—she certainly is now. And it all circles back to Maggie Brener’s tell-all book.
Maggie Brener’s exposé on the disaster that is TMS and UBA has loomed ominously over everyone’s heads for the entire season. Yet, with Alex making her grand return to the network and taking charge of the Las Vegas Democratic Debate, it seemed to momentarily slip to the back of her mind—for about five minutes, which is an eternity for our Spiral Queen. Then, in walks Miss YDA herself, Audra, played with impeccable chipperness and a perpetual smile by Mindy Kaling, who makes it crystal clear that she will be interviewing Maggie Brener about her book on YDA. It’s just a heads-up, she says, but everything else about the interaction screams otherwise, and Alex knows it. The highlight of this scene is Alex attempting to “cut through the bullshit” with Audra, asserting that she’s always been “gracious” to her. Audra’s response? A sarcastic, drawn-out “Oh wowwww, you actually believe that,” before she saunters out, still smiling. Coupled with Laura Peterson’s subtle dig about how she suspects Alex had a hand in her being outed to the folks at YDA, and then seeing Laura avoid her by crossing the street shortly after, I find myself yearning to watch a show set 10 to 15 years ago, chronicling Alex Levy’s rise to power at TMS as she tramples over everyone in her path. Alex seems like she was (and let’s be real, still is) a force of nature, and I’d love to be engrossed in the daytime TV drama of anchors engaging in devastatingly passive-aggressive warfare.
With that single, unwelcome interruption, Alex is once again consumed by what lies within Maggie’s book. She berates Chip when he claims there’s no way to obtain a copy, reminding him that he’s going to be featured prominently in it as well. When she spots Laura Peterson joining them on the UBA jet to Vegas for the debate (having fortuitously secured an interview with Pete Buttigieg and the opportunity to hang out with Bradley for pre- and post-debate coverage), she launches into a tirade directed at Chip about how Laura has never been remotely nice to her, prompting Chip to question her sanity. Plus, she’s convinced that her worsening back pain is some monstrous entity lurking within her body that she can’t expel. She’s stressed, exhausted, and what she can’t bring herself to say is that she’s absolutely terrified because deep down, she knows Maggie’s book will reveal her affair with Mitch, and she can’t bear to be tainted by association with him. To her, it’s the absolute worst fate imaginable.
Of course, she can’t yet bring herself to voice these fears aloud, mainly because Alex exists in a truly remarkable state of denial. After debate rehearsal and a drink with Chip, the two return to the hotel, and Alex can’t stop obsessing over what’s in Maggie’s book. Why Chip even wants to be around her remains a mystery. Sure, he’s in love with her, but why? She’s a nightmare to most people, especially to him. Her great hair and Aveeno-drenched skin can only take her so far. Surely, this man dubbed Chip can’t have all his self-respect issues stemming from just his name, can he? I have to believe that even Chip the Teacup would look at her and think, “Nah, this woman is pure chaos,” especially after living in a cursed castle with a Beast prone to the most chaotic mood swings for so, so long. Why does he love a woman who, when he reminds her of her past statement about not wanting Mia as a producer because she didn’t want “Mitch’s garbage,” completely denies it? More than denies it, she yells at Chip to make him agree that it isn’t true, even though we all know it is. He tells her she has a peculiar way of “conveniently” forgetting things (also true), and she has absolutely no patience for that. She accuses him of leaking details to Maggie, but while he did speak to Maggie for her book, it was only to help Alex’s image—and his own, naturally. He wanted people to know that he leaked the Mitch story to the New York Times so he wouldn’t seem like a complete villain. When he brings that up, there’s an entire unspoken moment between them that says VOLUMES because we know they both know that Chip leaked the Mitch story because of his feelings for Alex, and these two still haven’t addressed it. Their dysfunctionality is almost painful to witness.
Anyway, Alex simply refuses to let go of any of this. She's barely able to walk due to her excruciating back pain, yet she still manages to drag herself to Maggie Brener’s hotel room. (Maggie is in Vegas to cover the debates, but let's be honest—she's also there to torment Alex, depending on whose side you're on.) Alex essentially arrives at Maggie's doorstep, practically begging her to take a look at the book. It's an awkward and embarrassing scene for everyone involved. Eventually, Maggie deduces that Alex's primary concern is the exposure of her and Mitch’s sexual relationship. To make matters worse, Alex stumbles upon a mockup of the book, titled *The Wrong Side of the Bed: Corruption, Cover-Ups, and a Crisis of Culture at America’s Number One Morning Show*, with Alex and Mitch’s faces plastered all over the cover. In tears, Alex screams that she’ll sue Maggie for libel if that’s what the book contains. Maggie, unfazed, retorts that Alex can sue if it’s untrue. They both know it isn’t. At least Maggie agrees to keep this little meeting confidential. “So don’t say I don’t care,” she tells Alex as the latter hobbles out, looking more defeated than ever. Has this woman ever hit a lower point? Not surprisingly, Alex calls in sick for the debate—hey, Bradley’s wish has been granted!—and instead, we find her on a plane, flying to who knows where, but definitely getting the hell out of Las Vegas.
Meanwhile, Cory Ellison continues to spiral. Two major issues in his life are unfolding simultaneously, converging in the most nefarious way possible. The first is Fred Micklen’s ongoing attempt to launch a smear campaign against Hannah Shoenfeld by planting damning stories about her, hoping to pressure her family into settling or dropping their wrongful death lawsuit. Cory’s attempt to reason with Fred goes nowhere; the man is beyond negotiation, taking matters into his own hands. He reminds Cory that, due to their deal—in which Cory secured him a $119.2 million buyout in exchange for taking over as UBA CEO—if Fred goes down, Cory goes down with him. Cory resorts to Plan B: He flies to Green Bay, Wisconsin, to meet with Hannah’s father, pleading with him to accept the settlement money. It’s the best he can offer, he argues. But it turns out Hannah’s father isn’t interested in the money; he wants to punish UBA and make a statement about how reprehensible it was for them to pay Fred Micklen off to silence the whole ordeal. Shockingly, he doesn’t care if terrible stories are written about his daughter; he refuses to settle. When Cory warns him about the content of these stories, his only response is, “Well, is it true?” Just when you think you couldn’t feel worse for Hannah, right?
Cory realizes that to stop the Hannah story from being published by the one outlet planning to run it, he’ll need to offer them something even more scandalous. And wouldn’t you know it, one just falls into his lap. His assistant, Kyle, tries his hand at some assistant-boss gossip time, telling Cory that his friend saw Laura Peterson and Bradley Jackson together, and it definitely looked like they were dating. “Nobody likes a gossip, Kyle,” Cory says, but that’s a lie. We all love a good gossip! Billy Crudup delivers a masterclass in acting here, as we watch Cory’s face shift from confident disbelief to doubt, then to jealousy and anger. Season two is really going for the “Cory loves Bradley” angle, huh? Don’t say this show never aims high!
Just to confirm your suspicions about Cory’s feelings, we even get a flashback to right before Bradley’s big board meeting after her suspension and Cory’s brief firing. We see Cory and Reese Witherspoon’s Brunette Wig character engage in some drunk, close-talking, and light, flirty touching. The Brunette Wig says something about there being “advantages” to Cory not being her boss, and maybe they hooked up? Will we ever find out? Anyway, Cory loves Bradley, and he is devastated when he learns she’s with Laura. So devastated, in fact, that after confirming their relationship by catching Bradley in a lie while she’s in Vegas and overhearing Laura in the same room, he has a long, emotional chat with Bradley about her being his moral compass, his “Jiminy Cricket,” if you will. If she tells him to do whatever it takes, no matter what, to stop the Hannah stories from coming out, he’ll know it’s the right decision. Of course, she says to protect Hannah at all costs. She doesn’t realize yet that “all costs” means Cory will trade Hannah’s story for the story of Bradley and Laura secretly sleeping together. It’s a truly despicable move, to say the least. Everyone is terrible! If only we could all hop on Alex’s private jet and fly far, far away!
