After Will's breakdown at the police station, he is back to his old “I want to save journalism” self.
The episode opens up on September 23, 2011 with Will covering the Republican debate in which the audience booed an American solider for being gay. He then compares the GOP candidates to “witless bullies and hapless punks” for not defending the solider, Stephen Hill.
After the show, Mac brings up the voicemail that Will left her the night of the Bin Laden coverage. Mac only knows the first part of the message (“I'm not just saying this because I'm high...”) and begs Will to tell her the rest. Will claims he doesn't remember, but Mac persistently pesters him all episode.
Charlie informs Will that gossip columnist, Nina Howard, knows that Will didn't actually have the flu for the 9/11 show. Charlie wants to ignore her, but Will wants to confront Nina in hopes she will just drop the story. He believes there is some “humanity” in her after she dropped the story of the voicemail and the Osama/Drug night ordeal. He also goes on a frenzy to find out who the leak was.
After meeting up and offering her mimosas, Nina decides to drop the story because Will told her the truth. But things become clear as Will asks Nina out on a date. It is obvious that Nina has a crush on Will as she replies, “I would love to, but I won't.” She explains the end of the voicemail that Mac has been nagging about and says it is undeniable that there is something still between Will and MacKenzie. (In case you forgot, the voicemail said, “I'm not just saying this because I'm high, but I've never stopped loving you. You were spectacular tonight. Can you believe we got Obama” - he meant Osama, but this goes to show how high Will actually was).
Sloan tells Don she is pretty sure that she is the leak. She had been invited to a wedding, but realized she could not go because she would be doing the 9/11 coverage. She told her date (who just so happens to be Nina's agent) that Will had the flu before he actually “had the flu.” The real story here is that Don is clearly uncomfortable with Sloan going on a date.
Meanwhile, Jim is still having trouble in New Hampshire. Jim wants answers and continues to bug the entire campaign bus. He eventually calls out Hallie for backing down and tries to get her on his side. Of course, Hallie eventually stands up with him and they try to rally the rest of the reporters to do so as well. Only one other reporter joins in (the annoying one who always reads aloud) and the three are kicked off the bus.
Will and Charlie realize who actually leaked the story – Reese Lansing. They try to blackmail him again with a previous recording, but turns out the recording did not work.
In the newsroom, Maggie gets ready for her trip to Africa; Neal continues to push for the Occupy Wall Street story; and Jerry gets a team together to do some digging on Genoa after his one-on-one with the source.
Mac decides to call Nina and thank her for letting the story go. She also asks Nina about the voicemail, but Nina lies and says that it was just about the show that night. After the two are off the phone, we realize that Nina is at Will's apartment.
Charlie and Mac decide to shut down the search for more Genoa tips. As they are getting ready to leave, tweets come in from hammi8 describing “Americans,” “white smoke,” “burning,” and “willie pete” - the nickname for White Phosphorus. MacKenzie announces, “He's describing Genoa.”
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