<i>The Morning Show</i> Season 4, Episode 1 Recap: All Roads Lead Back to UBN

Spoilers below.

We’ve been through a lot as viewers of The Morning Show, and although I’m not quite sure how the show will top going to space (oddly predicting Katy Perry’s Blue Origin space journey earlier this year), or placing its characters at the Capitol on January 6, one thing is for certain: These writers always have something chaotic up their sleeves. I often poke fun at The Morning Show for how audacious these storylines can be, but the truth is, I simply can’t wait for the inevitable melodrama and just how far they’re willing to go for entertaining television.

The new season opens with a foreboding meeting that once again positions the show directly in the center of our current topical frontier: Artificial intelligence and its impact on the media industry. In this case, we’re watching an AI Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) deliver a newscast for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics in dozens of languages. This staff town hall doesn’t go well: Apparently half the crew of The Morning Show has been laid off, and those remaining are justifiably concerned that AI will take their jobs. Stella Bak (Greta Lee), the new CEO of UBN after Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) was ousted last season, attempts to reassure them that won’t be the case. The team—and I, as a writer also in this industry where executives are definitely making decisions for the sake of profit—remain unconvinced.

But that’s enough on AI for now. The episode really gets going when Alex interviews Roya Nazeri (Ava Lalezarzadeh), an Iranian Olympian. In classic Morning Show fashion, this takes a dramatic turn. Her father hands Alex a note during their introductory handshake that says: “We want to defect.” Aniston has always been phenomenal in this role, bringing so much ethical strife and emotional maneuvering into the physicality of her performance. You can see the wheels turning in her head as she devises a plan mid-interview. She brings up politics, an off-bounds topic for this Q&A, causing an argument between the producers and Roya’s entourage that gives her an opportunity to shuffle Roya aside for a private conversation.

After confirming that Roya wants to defect to the United States with her father, Alex pulls the fire alarm and provides an escape route via the freight elevator and her driver parked out front. It is the exact kind of ridiculous, entertaining, and politically-charged nonsense I expect from this show, framed with such intense seriousness you can’t quite believe what you’re watching. The Olympian and her father make a very messy and public narrow escape in a car chase scene so crisply directed it reminds me why Mimi Leder is such a television powerhouse. This all happens in the first 15 minutes, by the way–what a way to start the season. We are so back!

This mess is obviously bad optics for UBN, given they have an $8 billion investment in the Olympics, an already politically tense arena and a contract that is likely to determine the fate of the new all-women guard at UBN: Stella, Alex, and newcomer Celine (Marion Cotillard), all in positions of power. At a late night emergency meeting, we meet Celine, whose first line on the show is, “I hate the Hamptons, no one dances at parties.” You can tell the Oscar winner is having a lot of fun with this character as one of the first regular television roles in her career. She’s here to save this “fuck cluster,” as she tells Stella, alongside Mia (Karen Pittman) and another newcomer, Ben (The Good Place’s William Jackson Harper). What is revealed at this meeting is that Roya’s father works on Iran’s nuclear program–so the stakes are a lot higher than Alex realized. Israel and Gaza are also both mentioned, which makes me curious to see if The Morning Show decides to delve further into that conflict, especially considering more journalists have reportedly been killed in Gaza than in any war on record.

For the sake of the Olympics, UBN’s reporting on Alex’s Jason Bourne moment is declared apolitical Switzerland: They’re not angling their coverage. Nobody objects, but Alex, feeling restless leaving the outcome of Roya’s defection in the FBI’s hands, pays her mostly estranged father (Jeremy Irons!) a visit for some advice. A renowned law professor, he’s quite condescending about Alex’s work and its worth. He rudely mentions how his students frequently ask about Mitch Kessler and Paul Marks. The scene helps fill in some more color to Alex’s psychology as a character; she seems somewhat indifferent to his rude comments, but not having the approval of your father has a lasting impact. It also shows how far Alex has come—she once cared a lot about her public reputation, going as far to protect men like Mitch and Paul, and here she is hoping to advocate for Roya’s asylum case despite the impact on her career. Maybe Bradley had an impact on her after all. Sadly, her father’s only advice is to keep out of it.

Back at UBN, with Alex now banned from doing any more Olympics interviews, Stella instructs Mia to encourage Christina (Nicole Beharie, who had a great break-out third season) to step up to the plate and shift away from her full-time commitment from hosting TMS. After some back-and-forth between Mia, Stella, and Alex floating Ali Wong as a potential temporary replacement, the only viable solution they come up with is bringing back Bradley. Duh! Alex is less than thrilled. “We could use a red state-friendly face on TMS,” Mia says.

Flash to Bradley, who’s still blonde for some reason, and enjoying her little life teaching at a community college in West Virginia (TMS secured the Beyoncé budget with that “Alligator” needle drop!). Mia ambushes her at her home and receives a lukewarm response from a clearly traumatized Bradley, who’s still reeling from the events of last season (covering up footage of her brother storming the Capitol, no Julianna Margulies in sight). The last thing she wants to do is be back in New York.

But it’s not Mia who is the ultimate convincer—it’s gaiawarrior96, an anonymous texter sending her messages about a cover-up at the network with ominous pictures and videos of the impact of a chemical plant in a small town. According to gaiawarrior96, someone at TMS is directly responsible for killing this story. The timing feels suspicious, but this is enough to pique Bradley's interest, the perfect bait for her journalist instincts. That said, she’s on close watch by the FBI, and the agent assigned to her case makes it clear that if she gets in trouble again, they won’t hesitate to actually prosecute her—their “agreement” (Bradley handing over information on Marks) has safeguarded her from the press thus far and prevented her from joining her brother in prison for the January 6 cover-up.

Ultimately, Bradley returns to New York and reunites with Alex over wine. The pleasantries don’t last long—Alex admits that if Bradley’s January 6 nonsense leaks to the public, UBN won’t survive the backlash. Bradley claps back by calling out Alex’s hesitation to report on the various allegations around Marks last season. The battle lines are drawn, all the girls are back, and everything is messy just as it should be.

Before I sign off, let’s catch up with a few stray characters. Chip (Mark Duplass), absent from this episode, is off filmmaking with a documentary premiering at Cannes, which ruffles Alex’s feathers a bit—she’s used to Chip as her lap dog. Cory is now a movie producer after “finding himself” at an Ayahuasca retreat, but he’s having a hard go at it: The Hollywood strikes, wildfires, and a lead actress (“Olivia” per her trailer—do we think Wilde? Munn? Colman?) quits his film at the last minute.

Despite Cory delivering the most passionate monologues to anyone who will listen, his new reputation as the executive who groomed Bradley—despite being cleared of wrongdoing—is haunting him. Based on Alex’s brief phone conversation at the end of the episode, it seems Cory may also be back at UBN before we know it. Hopefully his plotline doesn’t intersect with Brodie “Bro” Hartman (Boyd Holbrook), the host of “The Talk Back,” a super popular Joe Rogan Experience-esque podcast at UBN+ that covers masculinity and uh, America’s low sperm count. He would love a wrongly cancelled story.

I’ve saved the juiciest tidbit for last: Stella is sleeping with Celine’s partner (Aaron Pierre). My god, inappropriate on so many levels. Just the way we like it here at The Morning Show.