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I knew The Morning Show didn\u2019t cast Nicole Beharie for nothing. Sure, Chris Hunter, the Olympic track-and-field gold medalist turned broadcast star, had a few standout moments when she joined the cast last year \u2014 her #AbortTheCourt, her on-air showdown with Cybil Reynolds \u2014 but someone with Beharie\u2019s level of talent still felt underused. This is not the case in season four. \u201cAmari\u201d is a showcase episode for Beharie, and she rises to the occasion at every turn. Of course, this means Beharie\u2019s character is forced into the hot seat when a rumor about her doping to win her medals gains traction on social media, and she must save her reputation and career. How does she go about doing this? By coming clean. Something quite novel for the people in this series!<\/p>\n
Not that Chris immediately tells the truth. When she first learns of the steroid story, she\u2019s quick to shut it down. When her husband Marcus talks about dealing with the rumor, she corrects him \u2014 it\u2019s not a rumor, it\u2019s a lie. And when she learns that the person who started all of this was actually one of her old teammates, Tunde Johnston (Ashley Romans), Chris wants to shut her down, too. She goes about doing so in the absolute worst way: Drunk after date night, she secretly gets her phone and leaves a belligerent, expletive-laden voicemail for Tunde. It starts off with \u201cI don\u2019t know who the fuck you\u2019re playing with,\u201d takes a turn into \u201cI\u2019m gonna drag your ass,\u201d and hits the traditional \u201cdo you know who I am?\u201d before she mercifully hangs up. To no one\u2019s surprise, the moment Tunde releases this voicemail, it goes viral. When Alex comes to berate Bro Hartman for airing it on his podcast and going after one of UBN\u2019s own, he reminds her that not only is he so popular can he basically do what he wants \u2014 \u201cmy ad revenue pays for your salary, right?\u201d \u2014 but if America\u2019s gold medal sweetheart is embroiled in a major scandal it\u2019s newsworthy and she knows it. She has no response for that. Well, I mean, she drops a lot of F-bombs, but otherwise, no real response.<\/p>\n
While Alex and Ben attempt to soften the blow this scandal could impart on UBN\u2019s upcoming Olympic coverage (remember, they recently made Chris the face of that coverage), and perhaps to some extent protect Chris\u2019s career, Chris finds a surprising ally: Mia Jordan. Oh, you thought Mia was pissed off before when she lost the Head of News job that was supposedly in the bag? You should see her after she is all but guaranteed a nice, new gig at Defy Entertainment until the CEO has a chat with Alex, who makes it clear that UBN will do whatever it takes to get Mia back. She even promises to host the CEO\u2019s charity ball the next year if she doesn\u2019t hire Mia. Mia does the only thing you can do when you have so much rage inside you might explode: Gets drunk and eats good food with her friend, calls up her hot ex-boyfriend Andre to remind him what he\u2019s missing by way of showing him how good she is at pool, and then when he tells her that she should stop playing by UBN\u2019s rules, she gets a great haircut, and returns to the halls of UBN to make some big moves.<\/p>\n
That first big move? Mia finds Chris to tell her that no one at UBN will have her back the way Mia will. Instead of handling Chris, Mia asks her something no one else has: What do you want to do? Chris wants to clear her name. Mia agrees and advises her not to play it safe. If you play it safe, you\u2019re out of the game. Mia would know. Instead, if Chris faces this whole thing head-on, people will respect her for it. Mia thinks Chris should go on Bro Hartman\u2019s show. That\u2019s definitely a risky next move, and it could easily be a disastrous one.<\/p>\n
It certainly feels more and more like a terrible idea when Chris runs into the other guest who will be joining her on Bro\u2019s show, Tunde herself. She tries to get her former teammate to hash this out in private before taking their problems to the manosphere, but Tunde isn\u2019t budging. It turns out she started spreading these rumors after she learned Chris turned down that opportunity to do some of her pre-Olympics coverage at her old high school. Tunde works there now, and they\u2019re trying to raise money for a new track. When Chris couldn\u2019t be bothered to help them out, Tunde couldn\u2019t stand it any longer. That brush-off on top of Chris somehow edging her out of the Olympic team so that Tunde wound up as an alternate was too much not to go nuclear. She will not go speak in private; she\u2019s ready to air this out live. She tells Chris it\u2019s time to cut the Oprah act.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s really hilarious about this entire thing is that apparently not one person did any prep for this interview. I don\u2019t expect Brodie to really dig into his guests ahead of time, but Mia? Mia on her comeback tour didn\u2019t at least try to get more info out of Tunde or press Chris a little more before sending her shot at television redemption on the air? Instead, not one single person was ready for the turn this interview quickly takes. At first, it seems like Chris made a career-ending decision to come on this show. Tunde has a lot to say to back up her accusations, and then, in a real shock, she has physical evidence \u2014 a prescription for steroids written out to Chris. When Chris gets a look at it, she knows what she has to do: she has to own up to it. But the true story is not what anyone expects.<\/p>\n
Chris opens up about getting pregnant after winning at the London games and promptly losing all of her endorsements because no one believed she\u2019d be able to win in Rio after having a baby. She and Marcus lost everything. And then, five months into the pregnancy, after going into premature labor, they lost their son, Amari, too. Chris talks about being broken in every possible way a person can be. She talks about getting back on the track and having to tape her abs together to even get out of bed. She was so slow. So she sought out steroids to help her in the lead-up to Rio. When she admits that the drugs made her sick, but she liked it because she \u201cdeserved to be punished,\u201d it\u2019s devastating. She threw herself into training in order to forget the loss of her son and eventually needed the drugs after Nationals. She won in Rio but was so disgusted with herself that she decided to walk away and start a new career. Beharie is incredible in this scene as she tries to hold back sobs but continually fails to do so, revealing she is still very much that broken person. Bro, who apparently has some actual empathy, cuts to a commercial to give everyone a breather, but the emotions don\u2019t stop there. After the interview, Chris finds her husband in her dressing room, he, too, in tears, and she quietly goes to comfort him, too. Wonders never cease: This bonkers-ass show made me weep.<\/p>\n
The official verdict is still out on how this interview will be received, but almost immediately, things are looking up for Chris (I mean, aside from the deep, debilitating grief she carries for her dead son). And that means things are looking up for Mia. Alex tracks her down while still in the building to ream her out of pulling the Bro interview stunt, but Mia is so over Alex Levy\u2019s bullshit. She calls her out on fucking up her job prospects and pushes back with Alex, who tries to play it off like she was doing Mia a favor. So many people have informed Alex that she\u2019s almost evil levels of selfish, you\u2019d think she\u2019d take that feedback to heart. But no. If Alex Levy\u2019s going to do one thing, it\u2019s refuse to have any self-awareness. Mia will be back at UBN to discuss Chris\u2019s future there, but as far as her own, she\u2019s done with this place. And friends, that\u2019s the power of a perfect haircut.<\/p>\n
Chris Hunter is not the only one forced to come clean about a tricky truth. Oh, Bradley. I\u2019ve yet to determine if the famed Bradley Jackson is actually a good journalist or not, but I think we can safely say she is a terrible private investigator. Now that she and Chip have learned that it was Cory, at the time the newly minted head of UBA News, who executed the Wolf River cover-up, Bradley needs some answers from her almost-boyfriend. While on their first date, she pretends to be into his movie enough that he\u2019ll show her pictures from production. (I\u2019m still laughing that their comments about Big Sur were \u201cSee those rocks?\u201d and \u201cLook at the beach.\u201d Have they ever seen a coastline before?) She then invents a reason to get rid of him while she still has his phone. She searches his email for anything related to Kenneth Stockton and bingo, she finds a correspondence with Earl that includes photos of Stockton exchanging documents with a redheaded woman. Unfortunately, Bradley forgets a little thing called search history. When she arrives at Cory\u2019s apartment for their second date, he calls her out. Oh, he is so mad. Actually, more than mad, the guy is heartbroken.<\/p>\n
Usually when Cory is backed into a corner or feels attacked, he can still dish out one of his long-winded monologues, but here he actually screams at Bradley. She used him. She toyed with his feelings. And worst of all, she pretended to be interested in his movie. She explains what she\u2019s investigating, and Cory admits that yes, he ended that story, but only because he had just started in that job, Fred asked him to, and when he looked into it, the EPA had cleared the chemical plant of any wrongdoing. It was a nonstory. He seems genuinely surprised when Bradley informs him that the lawyer he had Earl and Eagle News smear killed himself. And then he goes apoplectic when he realizes that this means Bradley believes he\u2019s the kind of guy who would be part of something like that.<\/p>\n
She certainly doesn\u2019t help matters when she replies that Cory\u2019s always been that kind of guy, that he\u2019s always gone after anyone who attempts to go after him. She tries to add that she really does have feelings for him, but he cuts her off. \u201cStop trying to sound like a human being because what you sound like is a fucking liar.\u201d There\u2019s almost no coming back from that. Then there is really no coming back from what Cory says next, \u201cI spent a long time getting over you. This time\u2019s gonna be a whole lot easier.\u201d And as far as Cory Ellison lines go, that one cuts deep.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Bradley\u2019s obviously going to have to deal with some fallout with Cory, but she may have even bigger problems to attend to first: When she gets home after their disastrous second date, her handler from the Fed is there, and he has some things he\u2019d like to discuss with her.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Oh, now the New York Times has picked up the story about Martin Levy plagiarizing his first book. When Alex hears this, she completely ignores it. You know Jeremy Irons will be back and he will be seething!<\/p>\n
\u2022 Jennifer Aniston gets some meaty dramatic work to do in this series, but I love it when her comedic skills get some airtime. Her facial reactions in that scene when Bradley tells her she slept with Cory are award-worthy. She\u2019s a queen of comedy for a reason, people.<\/p>\n
\u2022 When Bradley tells Alex she slept with Cory because he feels safe, her response is a confused, \u201cLike an open-elevator-shaft kind of safe?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Bro Hartman revealing he has a human heart after all during the Chris Hunter interview is yet more evidence that he and Alex will be hooking up by season\u2019s end. And when she finds him afterward to first yell at him and then begrudgingly tell him that it was a really good interview? Well, that seals the deal right there.<\/p>\n
\u2022 I will be thinking about this Cory-Bradley exchange for a long time: \u201cI\u2019ve been thinking a lot about Jonathan Groff.\u201d \u201cYeah, I do that too.\u201d<\/p>\n
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