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| Will and MacKenzee Wedding Photo |
The Best Laid Plans…
Nothing is working out according to plan for our friends in The Newsroom in episode 304, Contempt, which aired on November 30,
2014. I’ll examine the unraveling in this recap and review.
The biggest unraveling of well-laid plans was Will McAvoy’s joust
with the FBI and the courts. Will is refusing to reveal the source of stolen
classified documents. He thought he would
escape being jailed for contempt of court because he was a big star. Apparently, he is not a big enough star. The episode
ends with him in hand-cuffs being marched off to jail.
MacKenzee had to abandon her well-laid plans for the-wedding-of-the-year
in response to the jailing of her fiancé, Will. She had just hours to prepare for
a wedding in City Hall before Will was taken to jail. The rushed wedding was
done partly for love and partly because a wife cannot be forced to testify
against her husband.
The wedding part of the show was great fun as everyone in
the newsroom rushed around getting flowers, music, and a cake. It might not have
been the wedding of MacKenzee’s dreams, but gosh darn it, it was going to be
stylish. MacKenzee looked every bit the beautiful bride in an ivory knee- length
sheath. It was all so romantic, including the last passionate kiss
MacKenzee bestowed upon Will as he stood in handcuffs. Evidently, the rest of the honeymoon will
have to wait.
There was a scurry of plans to find a “White Knight” buyer
for the company so ACN could avoid a hostile takeover. Sloan found a
billionaire who was interested in buying a media company and she and Don had a
lunch meeting with her. They thought she was about to save them. It turns out,
she took that lunch because she was using ACN as a ploy to negotiate a better
deal with another media company. It worked out for her, but it left ACN in a
awkward position. Charlie, the president of the news division spoke some angry
imprudent words to Pruitt, the new buyer, thinking they had escaped his clutches. Everyone
at ACN is a hot-head.
At least. ACN will have a big scoop when they report on the
stolen documents. No, that plan goes awry as well. It turns out that Pruit does
not want the financial liability that the story will bring so they must quash
the story. But they ship the files to someone at the AP so she can run the
story. Will the story get out? Will ACN survive new ownership? Stay tuned.
The relationship between Jim and Hallie is not working out
very well. It’s a case of strange bed-fellows because Hallie is now working for
a rival news outlet. Haillie took advantage of information that she learned
from Will for her own story, and then to top it off, she wrote a personal
tell-all about their relationship. Their relationship ends in a hail of
accusations and recriminations. And also
a bit of sorrow, because their commitment to their relationship was strong, but
their commitment to their work was stronger.
Sloan and Don’s attempt to keep their relationship secret
from the HR manager failed also. It failed because Sloan had submitted the form
reporting their relationship to HR weeks earlier, and the HR director finally
got around to checking his inbox. Don is flabbergasted to learn that he has
been working so hard to keep their relationship secret, and all the while, Sloan
knew she had already reported it. But this is the very basis of Jim and Sloan’s
relationship—head-games. (In the last episode, they played “gotcha” with each
other as a way of testing the other’s commitment to their relationship.) Fortunately,
the HR director likes games also. He was only pretending to be opposed to their
relationship.
Even Maggie’s new relationship with her ethics professor has
collapsed. It seems her new suitor has realized that Maggie is still carrying
the torch for Jim, and he doesn’t want to be second fiddle. I think this break-up
is Maggie’s good fortune. Mr.Ethics was
constantly blurting out things about Maggie to her co-workers that could hurt
her career. For instance, Maggie turned down an exclusive story with a
government source because it might have been borderline unethical to take it.
She was trying to impress Mr.Ethics at the time.
Another reason Maggie’s new relationship had to end--there
are only two episodes left until the series finale, and plot arcs must be
resolved. Jim has broken up with Hallie, and Maggie and Jim are now both free
to be each other’s one-true-love again.
What plans does the series have for viewers? Will is in jail
and ACN may be “sold off for parts.” But,
at least, everyone’s love life seems to be going well.
If you enjoyed this review and recap, please like, share , and tweet.
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