The Newsroom season 3, episode 5, “Oh Shenandoah,” just aired. Check out our recap and let us know what you thought of the episode!
‘The Newsroom’ season 3, episode 5, ‘Oh Shenandoah,’ recap
Will is ushered into his cell. He soon gets a roommate who is quite chatty. We quickly find out that the roommate is in for domestic battery, and when he threatens Will, Will is quick to put him in his place.
Charlie shows Mac and Don the new opening credits, and they are not happy. Not to mention that the new marketing phrase is ‘#uracn’ which Don thinks looks like ‘urine’ (it does). Don goes on to be a little insubordinate with Charlie, but that’s pretty much par for the course at this point.
Mac is getting an info dump from Gary, and he talks about a woman that shot herself on the steps of the D.O.J. When Mac asks for her name, he tells her it was Lily Hart. The woman was the infamous ‘source’. Mac immediately goes to Rebecca Halliday for advice.
Sloan gets a complaint from Erin Andrews (yes, THE Erin Andrews) about being followed by paparazzi after the ‘ACNgage’ app marked her every move. Sloan and Don confront the guy behind the app about taking it down and he kind of schools them. Sloan buckles just to shut him up and invites the guy on her show. She is definitely going to tear him to pieces on air.
Jim and Maggie are checking in for their flight from Moscow to Havannah, Cuba and discover that ACN did not purchase their tickets while they were in the air before, like they were supposed. When Jim tries to buy another guy’s ticket for twice the price, he learns that this flight is going to be full of reporters eager to get the Snowden scoop.
The Newsroom fun fact: Will was a speech writer for H.W. Bush before he worked at ACN and eventually became an anchor.
Rebecca and the government guru we’ve seen before visit Will in prison. The guy tries to get Will to confirm that Lily is the name of the source, but Will refuses to confirm or deny. Rebecca knew what his answer would be before they ever entered the room.
Sloan asks Mac for time to interview the new ACN digital guy that she confronted earlier. Mac doesn’t get the chance to tell her no before Charlie comes in to order Mac to fit in an interview with Lady Gaga’s manager about her defense of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in some tweets from earlier that day.
Don goes to prepare for an interview he has been ordered to do regarding a website that gives rape victims a place to discuss the events surrounding their attacks either anonymously or not. Don tells the woman who started the site how he found her (which we must admit was an impressive showing of his detective skills, some real Veronica Mars stuff right there), and then tells her he is there to beg her not to do the interview.
Maggie and Jim are stuck waiting in standby for the flight to Havannah, and Maggie tells Jim to call Hallie and just tell her that he needed to hear her voice. As Jim steps away and is about to make the call, he rethinks it, and returns to the line.
Don continues talking to the woman, and she tells him why she started the site. She didn’t want to feel responsible for anyone else that might possibly be raped by the men that attacked her since her case will never go to trial.
Jim thinks waiting in standby is a waste of time, and they find a couple that are honeymooning and barter for their tickets. Jim gives up pretty much everything he has for his ticket, while Maggie only has to give up her ACN cap. (Jim’s Sochi Olympics get up is seriously adorable.)
Don gives the woman his case for why she should refuse to do the interview live on the show. He tells her that he has no doubt that she will be horrifically slut shamed and brought down by the uglier side of the internet for confronting the man she accused of raping her live on air. She insists that she has nothing to hide or lose at this point, and he leaves, letting her know that they will be in touch.
Jim is more than a little perturbed that the seats he and Maggie have are directly across the aisle from Edward Snowden’s seat, but he simply isn’t in it. They know that they are about to fly away from the story and Jim couldn’t be more upset about it. Maggie asks him why he didn’t call Hallie, and he tells her about how he feels about her. After an awkward moment between them, Jim goes to switch seats. Some time later, Maggie taps his iPad and tells him to follow her back to his original seat. They buckle in and she kisses him. (Awwww!)
Sloan interviews the ACN Digital guy about his app, which maps celebrity sightings instantly, giving the public and paparazzi a treasure trove of information for stalking and bothering these people just trying to go about their daily lives. Sloan eviscerates the guy as he has literally no defense of why his app classifies as journalism. Shortly after Sloan closes the show, Charlie flies into the newsroom to get to the bottom of how that interview came to be.
Mac, Sloan, and Don refuse to cooperate, calling it an intervention, as Pruett enters the room and calls for Sloan and Mac to clear out their desks. Charlie then tells him that, courtesy of Leona Lansing, only he can fire ACN personnel. Charlie goes to discuss what just happened with Pruett, and he suddenly drops to the floor. Sloan, Mac, and Don run to his aid.
Will clears out his cell after Rebecca filed an uncontested motion to free Will, and it is instantly clear that he never had a roommate. He was communing with his father the entire time. Mac greets him as he leaves the prison, and she tells him that Charlie had a heart attack and died hours before.
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