What did you think of the The Newsroom season 2 finale, “Election Night, Part 2” that aired tonight? Check out our recap of tonight’s episode and discuss the crazy events of “Election Night, Part 2”.
What a finale! After a season fraught with worry and mistakes, it was seriously nice to see some happiness for some of our characters. We found out that Maggie is starting to heal her wounds, Mac and Will are engaged and still employed at ACN, nobody is leaving, Don purchased Sloan’s book (and she found out…and kissed him), and Hallie repaid Jim for that interview he gave up to her.
Recap of ‘The Newsroom’ season 2 episode 9, ‘Election Night, Part 2’:
The episode opens with Will at the desk about to call a few more states in the presidential election, reminding us that this episode is simply a continuation from last week, and quickly moves to Don’s office.
Don is on the phone confirming the Petraeus scoop with every possible source he can find before they make the decision between taking the scoop or running the Brody quote they already have. Don wants to go with the Petraeus story, as he believes it will distract from the huge Genoa mistake as well as earn them some good will. Charlie, Mac, and Maggie all disagree, and Don quickly joins them, choosing to better inform the voters rather than improve their reputation.
We are then transferred back to the News Night desk where Will is telling Taylor about their current predicament. He talks about the polls they have done, which tell them that no one trusts them. He also talks about petitions with tens of thousands of signatures they have received from activist groups demanding that Will, Mac, and Charlie be held responsible for Genoa.
Taylor goes on to ask Will if she would be overstepping if she asked Jim to work for a new company she is looking to start. He is startled to learn that the senior staff, including Jim, Don, Maggie, Gary, and Neal (amongst others) plan to resign as soon as Will, Mac, and Charlie’s resignations are accepted. He calls the staff into the studio, and we get the first of the sneak peek scenes from earlier this week.
The staff show Will their loyalty by standing firmly by their decision to support their bosses and highlight the principles that Will has been preaching about since the beginning of season 1. They show pride for their work and co-workers, and refuse to back down even when Will starts to yell.
After the staff leave the studio, Sloan turns to Will and says, “I think you insulted them a little by not thinking they’d stand behind you, Charlie and Mac.” She goes on to add herself to that number, hinting that she will not allow her bosses to take the blame for something they all believed in.
After a quick transition to the party on the upper floors of the ACN building, we see Charlie talking to Rebecca Halliday and Leona Lansing, who are amusing themselves with election news stories they found on Twitter. Leona tells Charlie that she will sue him, Will, and Mac for breach of contract if they try to force their resignations on her.
She also informs Charlie that she is letting Reese decide on their resignations, prompting Charlie to sigh in relief. After the conversation he had with Reese in the last episode, Charlie believes that they will all soon be looking for new jobs. While upstairs, Charlie crashes into Lisa, breaking about a dozen champagne flutes, and giving another server a picture on their phone that will prompt a few conversations later in the night.
Charlie makes quick work of going down to the newsroom and informing Will and Mac separately about Leona’s decision to let Reese decide their fate. There is a palpable feeling of relief in the room, although it is also tinged with regret and loss.
We then transition to Jim and Maggie anxiously awaiting the results of race in the Michigan First District, the race that you may recall Jim accidentally calling rather than the Mississippi First District last episode. The race continues to get closer and closer, causing Jim more and more stress as the impact of his mistake becomes real to him. He also takes a call from the campaign director of the Michigan First race’s projected winner asking if they should accept their victory publicly, or wait for someone else to call it as well.
Back in the control room, Mac finds out that they can now call that the House of Representatives will retain its Republican majority, prompting Will to force Elliot to take his seat and make the announcement. Mac takes her cues from Will and forces Don to take over as Executive Producer.
They are trying to prove that Don and Elliot can take on big announcements, thereby making them the natural successors when Mac and Will’s resignations are made public. Don and Elliot are resistant, but step into their roles seamlessly. Sloan also makes it abundantly clear that she is not on board with the change.
While Elliot and Don are running the show on air, Will and Mac meet in the make up room and discuss their complicated personal relationship history. Mac falls on her sword a bit and admits that she was wrong to accuse Will of refusing to fire her due to his vanity. She goes on to talk about her behavior in the relationship, and the mistakes she made.
Will then tells her about the ring bamboozle that he pulled on her last season. Her response, “Are you sure you’re not just a massive bag of douche?” is possibly one of her greatest lines to date. She makes Will step across the room so she doesn’t physically assault him, because going back on camera with a bloody lip wouldn’t be a great image to share with their already untrusting viewership.
Neal pulls Sloan aside to tell her that he appealed to the auction house’s softer side and they sent him a copy of the bidding sheet. He shows it to Sloan, and informs her that someone bid against themselves, using the names of fictional characters to run the total up to $1000. She then demands that he find out who it was, convinced that there was some sort of clue in the names used.
Cut to Don and Rebecca Halliday in his office, where he cites “intentional infliction of emotional distress” as the reason that he cannot be sued by Dantana. He goes on to explain that by doctoring the film and effectively manufacturing the story he wanted, Dantana intentionally inflicted emotional distress. Rebecca changes the subject and informs him that Leona is going to allow Reese to make the decision on the resignations.
The next scene takes us back upstairs to the party as we follow Lisa as she serves drinks to the guests. Jim confronts her about numerous things, including her relationship with Maggie, imploring her to change her mind and ask Maggie about Africa. We adored this scene when it was released earlier this week, and seeing it in context only makes our affection for it grow.
After Mac and the anchor at the Washington D.C. branch duke it out over lingering animosity from the Genoa disaster, Neal asks Jim to see if Hallie will post a story he wrote naming Mac the Executive Producer of News Night with Will McAvoy and the President of the Cambridge Union, thereby giving Wikipedia a source to quote, allowing her Wikipedia page to be corrected from Oxford to Cambridge. Neal is trying to give Mac the only gift she is asking for, since they all believe this could be her last night in the ACN building.
Next is a sequence of short scenes, including Sloan getting cut off repeatedly by Will on air, Don asking Mac if there is anything he can do to convince her that Genoa was not her fault (to which she replies, “There’s nothing that would convince me.”), and Jim asking Hallie if he has ever made her feel dumb, which is clearly him reflecting on his conversation with Lisa earlier in the evening.
Sloan and Don take a short break from the election coverage in his office, and are quickly called back to the studio to prepare for the biggest calls of the night. On their way out of the office, Sloan notices the old movie posters on Don’s wall, which brings her to the conclusion that Don was the one that bid on her book at the auction.
We shift back to the control room, where Mac is noticing Sloan is not in the studio, and they are ready to come back with the next call, Ohio. Sloan then bursts into the control room. She hurriedly signs the book for which Don paid $1000, walks up to him and kisses him. Don, admittedly shocked, turns to Mac as Sloan walks confidently out of the room and says, “What I have can’t be taught.” Cue massive amounts of charmed laughter.
As Mac watches the anchors call Ohio for Obama, and therefore declaring him the victor of the 2012 election, she begins to tear up, making it clear that she believes this is her last night in the studio.
Next, we transition back to Jim and Maggie in the newsroom watching the results of the Michigan First District come in. Jim confronts Maggie about her hair, asking if she cut it herself. She tries to cover her tracks, but eventually tells Jim about the little boy who had never seen blonde hair before, and how she has a strong case of survivor’s guilt over her role in that horrible tragedy.
Jim responds, “You pulled him out, and carried him on your back to the bus, what was your crime?” He tries to show her that she bravely risked her life to save that child by going back into the building, and that she should be proud of herself for having the courage to act.
He tells her how strong she is, prompting her to reminisce about the first time she truly noticed Jim. She tells him about how the first time she truly saw him was when he could not ignore the yellow news alert his first night in the newsroom. We see flashbacks to the pilot including Jim tripping over Mac’s luggage and sitting in the newsroom as the BP oil spill story comes in. Maggie looks at Jim and says, “He’s dead and I’m alive,” referring to the little boy from Uganda. Jim responds, “That’s what I’d keep in mind.”
On a lighter note, Sloan continues to be interrupted by Will live on air. She asks him, “Are you doing that on purpose?” Will answers her, “No, it’s just working out unbelievably well.” If there was ever any doubt as to Sloan’s place in this eclectic cast of characters, that was blown out of the water by a brilliant showing in “Election Night, Part 2.”
As Will and Charlie meet in Will’s office to grab a cigarette and discuss not resigning, Will pauses mid-conversation after saying, “I can’t let Mac think it’s her fault.” He seems to have had a revelation, and he runs to his desk and digs out the ring he told Mac earlier he had returned to the store. He then runs frantically around the newsroom looking for Mac, not finding her anywhere. He results to standing in the middle of the room and yelling, “Has anyone seen Mac?” which elicits her response from behind the news desk, “I’m right here.”
He pulls her out of view of the cameras and stumbles through a proposal. He tells her, “I didn’t return it because I’m in love with you.” He proceeds to ask her to marry him over and over again. While continuing to ramble on, Mac interrupts him and accepts his proposal. He then kisses her as the show’s theme music begins to play, causing fans the world over to giggle incessantly.
Reese, Leona, and Rebecca then walk into the newsroom, where Reese announces that he will not be accepting their resignations and that they will only pay Jerry Dantana when he wins the lawsuit. Charlie interrupts him to tell him that they are not resigning, prompting a Charlie vs Reese fight in which they try to decide who has taken the higher road.
Will walks Mac into the newsroom and announces their engagement, which is met with screams and happy faces all around.
The episode ends with a wonderful montage including Maggie and Lisa standing in a hallway talking, Sloan staring lovingly at Don from the studio, and Mac playing with her rather large diamond engagement ring.
The last image we get is Maggie noticing a yellow news alert and clicking on it as the screen cuts sharply to black.
What did you think of the finale? After the serious tone that largely made up season 2 of The Newsroom, was it nice to have a lighthearted, happy finale? Was there anything left unresolved that you wish hadn’t been? Feel free to sound off in the comments below and let us know what you think!
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