The action of The Newsroom jumps back to New York on March 16, 2012. Back to the Season 1 format of the show, this episode revolves around one news show.
As Will is about to go on-air, he receives a call from his dad. We know that he and his father don’t have the greatest relationship from Season 1, where it is revealed that Will’s father was an abusive alcoholic. He is obviously thrown off and later learns it wasn’t his dad calling, but someone informing him that his father has had a mild heart attack.
In the news tonight, Tyler Clementi’s suicide and George Zimmerman’s 911 call are two headliners. During the beginning of the show, breaking news reveals a bombing in a government building in Damascus, Syria.
Meanwhile, there is an argument going on in Charlie’s office. Reese is obviously angry yelling about Sloan, Charlie is arguing back, and a silent Sloan slumps in a chair. Reese upset about some nude pictures of Sloan posing for a camera that have leaked.
During a commercial break, Will tells Mac what is going on with his father. She badgers him to call back and leave him a message. Neal walks in on the conversation to tell Will about some negative tweets circulating about him. Apparently a writer claimed she ran into Will and he snubbed her.
During the break, a woman calls the newsroom claiming her husband is stuck in the rubble in Syria and that she had him on the phone. Jim asks Mac if he can “do some good” and infers he is going to put the man on-air.
Don is flustered after reading a story where he was used for a source on a less than credible website. After rushing to his office to try and get the story retracted, he finds Sloan crying. She is crushed and humiliated by the photos. She explains the pictures by saying she let an ex-boyfriend take some with the camera she bought him for Christmas. After breaking up with him last night, he immediately leaked the photos on RevengePorn.com.
It has been 6 months since her trip to Africa and Maggie seems to be doing okay. She still has her blonde locks and is working as usual. She sits and waits for the 911 call to download and Jim awkwardly hovers over Maggie’s shoulder the entire, lengthy download. They talk about Hallie’s feminist writing and Maggie takes some passive aggressive digs at the reporter. Jim randomly calls Maggie out on her smelling like alcohol and asks about her activities after work. Obviously, Maggie isn’t as put together as she seems.
Worried about Maggie, Jim asks Gary, “How long did it take you to straighten out after Africa?” Gary says, “I wasn’t holding the kid.”
Mac continues to ask Will if he has called and left a message for his dad. Neal informs Will of more negative tweets. While Mac thinks the tweets are unimportant, Neal shows her one that Mac did take interest in.
Mac went to the hair and makeup room where the tweet was sent from. She confronts a guest who is there to talk about the suicide of the gay Rutgers student. Apparently, the guest, Jesse, was going to come out on the show. Mac explained that News Night was “not that kind of show,” and left the room.
Charlie has more to handle than just the Sloan ordeal. An intelligence officer confronts Charlie about Jerry digging into a chemical weapons story. While he seems to want Charlie to stop looking into the story, he hands over a document about Genoa. Charlie shows the document to Mac, stating that this proves that Genoa was real.
Don gives Sloan a huge pep talk about how she does not give herself enough credit and Sloan tries to help Don of out his jam. The sexual tension between the two is continuously growing.
Maggie made an error in cutting the Zimmerman 911 call by cutting off the operator’s question. In order to correct the mistake, Mac decides to take off Jesse and play the entire 911 recording instead. Jesse is upset about being taken off, but Mac believes she is doing the kid a favor.
Mac is back in the control room when Jim says he has the callers from the Syria bombing on speakerphone. Mac exposes the callers as frauds and explains that the knock on the door they are hearing is the authorities to arrest the callers.
After her pep talk, Sloan decides to go confront her ex. She walks in on him during a business meeting and knocks him out, not forgetting to get a picture of his bloody nose before she leaves. The guy tries to run after Sloan, but is stopped by Don.
Jim confronts Maggie about her mistake and Maggie legitimately defends herself. Maggie does let it slip that she is having trouble sleeping alone so that is why she goes out at night.
One more break left in the News Night segment, and Mac again goes in to check on Will. Will tells Mac that his father had passed away before he could leave a message.
They go back on the air and Will freezes. He is tearing up and is obviously distraught about his father’s death. He pulls it together after an awkward silence, but the audience definitely sees a human moment from Will.
The Newsroom is on Sunday nights 10pm EST on HBO.
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