The Morning Show (Season 3), Episode 3: The third season of ‘The Morning Show’ returned with surprising changes and a swift narrative progression. Alex returns as the host for TMS whereas Bradley becomes the voice of the UBA’s evening broadcast. While Bradley followed the case related to abortion rights, the network pulled the plug on this story at the last minute and let her down. Alex, who was supposed to go on a space mission with tech billionaire Paul Marks, bails on her responsibilities and decides to follow Bradley’s story.
Alex’s sudden decision leads to Bradley replacing her for the space trip. However, an issue with the broadcast ends up ruining the friendship between Cory and Paul. Later on, UBA faces another conflict regarding cybersecurity. In the midst of its chaos, the officials realised the leak of information about all the employees. Among them is also Bradley’s private video from when she was in a relationship with Laura. Unfortunately, the network refuses to pay the ransom to the terrorists even if it puts their employees at risk. In the end, Cory goes out on a limb, to prepare a detailed plan for UBA’s deal with Paul’s company.
Now, the third episode focuses on a racial conflict within the network. A contract negotiation becomes public, which leads to a clash between Christina and Cybil. We see white privilege getting stripped down in the public eye.
*Spoilers ahead*
The Morning Show (Season 3), Episode 3 Recap:
Episode 3: White Noise
The episode begins with Mia Jordan (Karen Pittman) waking up from her office couch, and getting ready for work. After getting dressed up, she walks up to the stage and sits in the TMS chair. Suddenly, someone walks in, and the lights bring her back to reality. On Eagle News, a competitor news anchor (June Diane Raphael) talks about the leak that happened in UBA. Meanwhile, Earl (Jack Conley) shows Cory (Billy Crudup) a part of their unreleased emails. Upon seeing that, Cory decides to fast-forward his deal with Paul Marks (Jon Hamm). He also agrees to accept Paul’s initial offer at his price without any negotiations.
The Racist Mail
During the TMS broadcast, the anchors get a few moments of breathing space while talking about a dating app. So, Yanco (Nestor Carbonell) and Alex (Jennifer Aniston) ask Christina (Nicole Beharie) about how she met her partner. Christina talks about her days during the Olympic tests when Marcus (Alano Miller) found a way to get her attention. After the show, Mia learns that TMS is back on top of the viewership charts. With good news, she also hears some bad news. Layla (Amber Friendly) brings Mia’s attention to the Eagle News anchor talks about a racist mail found in UBA’s records. In that email, Cybil (Holland Taylor) referred to Christina as Aunt Jemima during her hiring.
Mia and Stella (Greta Lee) go into crisis-management mode. Stella finds the email where Cybil talked to the rest of the board about Q3 financials in 2020. During a comparison being made between her and Bradley’s paychecks, Cybil made an ignorant & highly racist remark – that the Eagle news anchor talked about. Before working on this problem, Stella decides to check on Chris first. At the time, Chris was at Cory’s office. Instead of talking about his systemic problem and creating a better working space that takes inclusivity seriously, Cory wants to put a lid on this issue and not let UBA become news by itself. He also agrees to offer her a huge bonus in exchange.
Cybil’s Ignorance
Cybil seeks help from Alex to advocate for her out of the email-related problem. She expects Alex to interview her on Alex Unfiltered so that she can maintain her reputation. Cybil is scared of getting cancelled and does not realise the seriousness of the remarks she made. Since Alex denies letting her have that chance, Cybil tries to blackmail her by reminding her how she helped her in the past. Alex does not wish to let Cybil use her show to let her make a statement. But she knows that Cybil will want to find to clear up her name, one or the other way.
However, Cory does not mind throwing Cybil under the bus i.e., for her to get cancelled. Unlike him, Stella thinks UBA should give a chance for Cybil to speak on Alex Unfiltered. That’s how UBA can claim that they are taking the racial problems within the network seriously. Cory agrees but only when he gets to approve the final cut. Then, he suddenly storms out of the room, maybe for not knowing what to say next, maybe because he wants to make a power statement, maybe both. Meanwhile, the issues of racial inequality get brought to notice even more prominently.
Pay Disparity
Layla sees a document that makes the pay disparities within UBA evident. She reckons how only the leak of information of a rich and famous person led to the network taking this issue seriously. Mia learns that the staff may stop working the next day onwards if they are not paid fairly. So, she and Stella bring in the staff to clear the air. Layla and Julia (Shari Belafonte) address their concerns. Yanko shares his two cents that end up in his tirade against wokeness. Meanwhile, Chris gets tired of getting this issue blowing up in all the wrong directions and leaves the room.
Mia follows Chris to check on her. Chris shares her concern about Cybil getting a chance to speak on Alex Unfiltered. But Mia could not stop this from happening since the decision was above her pay grade. Later, while discussing this issue with Stella, Mia points out that Stella has more power over such decisions than her. Eventually, Mia opens up about a secret history with Paul. From her experience working with Paul, Mia understands that he can be ruthless. Meanwhile, Chris returns home and discusses the issue with Marcus. She notes that she does not want the reputation of someone who sued an organisation. Suddenly, Alex drops by her house to offer her a chance to interview Cybil on TMS.
In the midst of the scandal, Cory continues with his attempts to secure UBA’s future. He tries to understand from Leonard Cromwell (Stephen Fry) what the board thinks of their deal with Paul. Cory offers Leonard a chance to replace Cybil if she is voted out of the board. But, at the time, Leonard refuses to be Cory’s tool to clean up his mess. The next day, Stella talks Cory into letting Chris interview Cybil on TMS. Cybil starts panicking over the thought of getting confronted by Chris on a live television broadcast. She appeals to Alex to not let that happen. But Alex firmly believes that is how Cybil should work on her issue.
The Morning Show (Season 3), Episode 3 Ending Explained:
What are the repercussions of Cybil’s actions?
On The Morning Show, Chris finally approaches Cybil to speak about her problematic emails. Cybil accepts that her remarks were inadequate and apologises to Chris about the comments. Chris questions whether Cybil even knows the actual history of Aunt Jemima and how her image was used to capitalise upon by a brand while presumably not giving her any profit participation. She asks Cybil what brand she represents for UBA in her eyes. Cybil diverts the topic to another discussion and tries to leave the blame on Cory. Chris makes her realise that she is deflecting. So, Cybil eventually agrees that they should have transparent discussions about such issues.
Chris brings the discussion back to the central topic and exposes Cybil’s lack of knowledge about her hiring. Cybil was not aware of the lengthy process Chris had to go through as compared to her white colleagues – to prove that she was worthy of being on TMS. In the end, Chris puts Cybil on the spot to confront her about her racially motivated decision. Cybil gets defensive about being reduced to this single incident from her career. After coming to the topic of racially-charged exploitation, Chris makes her contemplate how the climate of inequality is everywhere.
Cory is elated by Cybil’s character assassination since it helps him in getting her out of the board. He believes it will smoothen his way of dealing with UBA. But to his dismay, Paul does not want to associate himself with an organisation like UBA that does not know how to stop such problems from happening in the first place.
