Yep, you’re still a fucking newsman, Don. When you’re not being a jerk.
On the plane, Don is whining (big surprise). Elliot tries to encourage him, and Don snipes that Elliot should stop looking on the bright side, as a Jew. “If it helps,” Elliot returns, “we should probably be concerned about violent retaliation.” Don says that does help. Heh. Don says he wishes he could have been in the newsroom with Charlie, Will, “her” (with a head tilt toward Sloan), and Elliot. Elliot remarks that he didn’t say anything about Maggie. Oho, so are they actually setting up Don/Sloan? Interesting. Before we can delve too much more into Don/Maggie/Jim (thank goodness), some other passengers start asking about the news they’ve just gotten on their wireless devices about the impending White House address to the nation. This drives Don to stand up and start to address the plane to calm fears that there’s been a terrorist attack. But Flight Attendant Lady comes back just at that moment, telling Don he is not allowed to take control of the cabin, no matter what. In this context, Don ought to realize continuing to argue with her is especially jerky, but he doesn’t seem to notice yet. Flight Attendant Lady calls the captain. Don is about to yell at the captain, too, when he sees the United logo on the captain’s uniform, and he realizes what a supremely stupid and disrespectful thing it would be to yell at these people right now of all times. Instead, he very respectfully reports the news of OBL’s death, stating that it was on their behalf. Yeah, I teared up a little bit.
Back at the newsroom, Jim goes over to Lisa who’s standing sadly in the corner (poor Lisa). He sweetly and honestly announces that while this wasn’t his idea and he’s been cowardly in several instances, he wants to ask her out on a first date, a do-over. Lisa doesn’t answer, and I hope she says no despite how cute Jim is and how non-insane she’s turned out to be. She told Maggie she wasn’t going to do this to her, so she ought to keep that in mind.
Just then, Lonnie comes storming into the building, trailed by the two police officers from earlier. Lonnie is still furious. However, Will calls him over and passes along the news. Lonnie is stunned. He says Will should tell the police officers. Will says Lonnie should tell them.
In the conference room, Charlie is sitting alone. He gets a call from his source, who reveals that he works for the NSA, monitoring illegal electronic surveillance being done by AWM. Dun dun DUN! Before Charlie can ask if this means TMI has been doing illegal surveillance like other tabloids, the source hangs up. I am very intrigued to see how this storyline unfolds.
Don’t mix those up on air, Will. It would kind of spoil the moment.
Mack and Will storm into the room (well, Will just sort of follows Mack absently). Mack wants to go with the story now. Charlie still wants to wait until they have something from the White House. Mack demands that Will check his email to see if he’s gotten anything. Will eventually manages this complex operation, only to find that twenty minutes ago, he got a personal email from Joe Biden telling him to “knock ‘em dead, just like we did.” By now they’re only a few minutes before POTUS’s announcement, but they manage to break the news just before President Obama speaks. Before he goes live, Tess hands Will two pieces of paper. One reads “OBAMA GOOD” and the other reads “Osama bad.” Heh. “Good thinking,” says a still-stoned Will. But when he goes live, Will is perfectly on point, succinct, and eloquent. “Throughout our history, America’s darkest days have always been followed by its finest hours,” he finishes. Then he introduces the President, and over the credits, we hear President Obama’s address begin. We remember.