Later, before a broadcast together, Sloan wants to hear about their date. Will explains about the gun, and Sloan seems nonplussed before she asks if they’ll go out again. Will says no. Sloan says he has to, because her friend will call and call asking why he’s not calling. Also, her friend is super jealous – Will hasn’t seen her crazy side. Will is understandably unimpressed that Sloan set him up with a crazy woman who’s armed. It seems that Jim was also not bowled over by Lisa, when Maggie asks him later. He says he probably won’t see her again. It’s just one of those things. Maggie kind of smiles to herself at that when Jim’s not looking.
That night, I guess, Will’s out with another woman. She brings up the tabloid article just to get it out of the way. Will begins to explain about Nina and her take-down piece. Unfortunately, the woman knows all about the Real Housewife that Nina was writing about, so you can see where this is going. Will becomes less and less impressed with the woman for watching and caring about the show. When she realizes this, the woman says it’s just a guilty pleasure. Will says no, it’s human cockfighting and it makes us mean and desensitized. His date asks if that makes her mean and insensitive, and after hedging for a moment he actually says, “Yes, but thank God you met me in time-” and that’s as far as he gets before receiving another drink to the face. He can’t believe how often this is happening, but he’s the only one. Moron.
See, Don, as we’ve pointed out before, there doesn’t have to be only jerk in the situation. And you’re usually one of them.
That same night, Don and Maggie discuss Jim and Lisa’s date. Maggie says Jim told her he wasn’t that into her, and Don insists Jim was lying. Maggie doesn’t believe him, but then she has to call Jim to tell him about a story. Meanwhile, Don sneakily calls Lisa at the same time, and they hear Lisa’s distinctive ringtone over Maggie’s line to Jim. Maggie hangs up. At first she’s mad at Don for doing that, although he claims that he’s maybe fourth on the list of bad guys in this situation. Hmm, maybe. And then Maggie asks if she’s done something wrong. Uggghh, Sorkin, quit writing women who go spineless when it comes to relationships! Now, Don says she hasn’t, but that doesn’t solve the issue here.
The next day, Charlie reads the next tabloid headline to Will in his office: “Serial Sleaze”. I’d say ‘serial condescending jerk’ is more accurate. Charlie wants to put out a statement now, to the effect that Will has been the victim of a series of mishaps, nothing more. Then he pointedly asks how Will’s dating life is going. Miffed, Will wants to know how many women Charlie dated before he found The One. Charlie retorts that it doesn’t matter, because he didn’t date anyone after. I like that line. I’m a sap. Will thinks it must have been nice to not have The One rip out your heart, bake it in a preheated oven, then serve it back to you. Charlie admires the vividness of that metaphor before wondering why Will is holding on so long to this grudge. Will says that’s the way it is – things don’t work like in the movies. Charlie still thinks Will should take another shot at being happy while he has the chance. Will just leaves.
‘TMI’ is a perfect name for a gossip magazine.
Everyone continues to give Will a hard time at work. He does another broadcast about stories they missed, about lies perpetrated on the American public, and he does it well. After a sleepless night (alone), Will is called into work at 11:00 on Saturday. Though at first he mistakenly wanders into Neal’s Bigfoot presentation (yeah, that’s why I didn’t recap that), Charlie takes him aside with Don and Mack. It turns out Sloan’s crazy friend with the gun has given a ‘tell-all’ story to TMI magazine.
In a resolution to the Maggie/Jim/Lisa/Don debacle, Maggie snarks at Jim during the Bigfoot meeting about his lying to her. Finally he takes her aside and sticks her on the assignment desk in punishment for talking to her supervisor like that in front of others. He then apologizes for lying to her – he was trying to spare her feelings. He also suggests that Don’s idea to set him up with Lisa in the first place may have had less than altruistic motives. Then he leaves, promising not to lie to her again. And the way the two of them are dancing around their attraction for each other so broadly in the fourth episode of the show is quite amazing.