The Newsroom S3 Ep2

It kind of feels like this season is a movie that is being broadcast on TV – not that I’m complaining, you understand, but that makes watching and caring about it rather like drinking from a fire hose.

In summary, things continue to go wrong for ACN in just about every way possible. Reese’s twin half-siblings (one of whom is played by Kat Dennings!) are jerks and want to sell the company as soon as it’s theirs. Only Leona and her awesomeness stand in the way. The problem there is that her plan to save the company requires her to buy it from the twins with four billion dollars that she doesn’t have.

Probably the longest time any Sorkin characters are silent on any of his shows. Ha!

Meanwhile, Hallie has sent out a horribly insensitive tweet about the Boston bombing from the ACN account and, though she deleted it minutes afterward, then came in to work on a Saturday just to be fired for it because she knew it wouldn’t go away. Charlie obliges. Jim manages to be genuinely sympathetic to her afterward while still a bit condescending, because he’s Jim. Also he clearly still loves Maggie.

Speaking of, Maggie displays a lot of journalistic ethics on a train with a guy who works for the EPA. She ends up scoring early access to a climate report, plus an exclusive interview. It’s the least interesting plot of the episode, but at least Maggie still gets to be competent.

Don may or may not have committed insider trading by following a stock tip Sloan gave him before she broadcast it. This depends on whether or not they’re actually a couple. They test each other about their mutual willingness to be labeled as such. In the end they tend toward acknowledging their couple-ness (and they continue to be adorable). What this means for Don’s maybe-crime is yet uncertain.

And the biggest deal, of course, is Neal’s espionage. There is a debate through the whole episode as to whether Neal should just keep his mouth shut, thereby not bothering anyone and not going to jail, or run the story and, to the best of everyone’s knowledge, only face a few days of jail time for contempt of court (for not giving up his source). Will, as well as ACN lawyer Rebecca Halliday, root for the former option. Neal, Mack, and Charlie all prefer the latter.

The FBI raids ACN.

Finally, in a turn of events I only partly understood (but it’s about Doing The News Well), Neal makes the call that will confirm the story and bring the FBI down on ACN’s heads. The FBI (team led by Mary McCormack, whom I love) informs us all that this whistleblower is a really bad guy and Neal could end up in federal prison for a long time. But not yet, because Will has encouraged him to flee. He ends the episode literally on the run.

Quite the cliffhanger. I honestly don’t know what to expect next. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.