What’d you think about The Newsroom season 2, episode 8, “Election Night, Part 1” that aired tonight? Check out our recap and the promo for next week’s episode, “Election Night, Part 2”.
Tonight’s episode begins with Jim sitting on the spiral staircase talking to Hallie off the record about what has gone on at ACN over the last day or so. He tells her about how Leona refused to fire or accept the resignations of Charlie, Will, and Mac, and therefore none of the other staffers resignations either. Hallie comments on how groundbreaking it is that ACN is standing behind them and begs Jim to let her use him as an unspecified source, to which he asks if she knows what off the record means.
Next we see Charlie, Will and Rebecca Halliday in Charlie’s office discussing (again) Leona’s refusal to accept their resignations. Rebecca continues to be the dry and sarcastic person she has been throughout her character’s arc on the show, and matches Charlie wit for wit. We also find out that Ms. Halliday needs to talk to Don that night, which leaves us wondering what that could possibly be about.
Charlie and Will have a moment in which we learn that Mac is taking the Genoa failure harder than anyone else. Charlie suggests to Will that he could fire her, and seems to lead that it would be merciful of him to put her out of her misery.
The scene cuts to a familiar shot and we see the sneak peek scene with Sloan, Elliot, and Taylor in the dressing room. Elliot tells Sloan about a particularly interesting Congressional campaign and she and Taylor gang up on him about Sloan “calling it”. Jim and Maggie then enter the room so that Maggie can brief Taylor on what exactly will be going on/expected of her that evening. Jim leaves and we get a moment of bonding between Maggie and Taylor over their mutual hatred of Jim.
Neal and Sloan have a short chat in the hallway about a book that Sloan signed that was auctioned off for charity. Neal was simply trying to congratulate her on the book going for $1000 dollars, but instead, he sets her off on a crusade due to her never having signed the book. After going off on a tangent about how it was initially suggested that she auction off an evening out with her and she thought it would be less embarrassing if no one bid on a book she signed than on an evening out with her, she tells Neal to find the purchaser so that she can fix the fraud, and he runs off to do just that.
The next scene takes us to Don’s office where Maggie tells us what Taylor shared with her in the make up room. Earlier that day a congressional candidate had condemned Congressman Akin’s comments about rape victims, and Taylor gave Maggie a tip that earlier in his career he made eerily similar statements about rape victims and pregnancy. Don calls a friend of his that works for the accused hypocritical Congressman, and they agree to hold off on reporting the hypocrisy until 8:30pm EST, after which they will air the report with the only note from the Congressman’s campaign being, “No comment.”
Our first look at Mac shows just how badly she is fairing in the Genoa aftermath. She looks tired, restless, and ready for relief. Mac implores Will to tell her what her punishment is going to be this time, citing her previous infidelity in their relationship and how he is still punishing her for that mistake. Will talks about how he blames Jerry Dantana for the Genoa debacle, not Mac, and that he will not fire her.
Will and Mac walk out into the newsroom where Charlie is inspiring the staff by showing pictures of people from around the globe, including China, India, South Korea, Senegal, and Hungary, celebrating the American elections, and how monumental this night truly is. The moment reminded this fan of the more poignant moments from season 1 and may have gotten a chill watching Charlie boosting morale.
While Will is downstairs beginning the Election coverage by calling Kentucky and Indiana for Romney, Charlie is upstairs at an Election Day party Reese is throwing in order to convince him to accept at least his letter of resignation. Reese admits in front of Charlie and Rebecca Halliday that he wants to fire Charlie, but that his mother, Leona Lansing, won’t allow him to.
In one of the episodes funnier segments, Elliot takes a camera through the newsroom to show the behind the scenes work of the staff during the hectic night of election coverage. He tries to show an “in the moment” call in the decision room, and is hilariously rejected every time. If there is one thing this episode has done remarkably well, it’s remind us how crucial Elliot’s character is to the humor and light-heartedness of the show.
We get a bit of interaction between Taylor and Mac in which Taylor congratulates Mac on being the President of the Oxford Union while she was at school there. Mac goes on to correct her and tell her that she went to Cambridge, which sets Mac off on a quest to have her Wikipedia page fixed due to that being the source of Taylor’s misinformation. Mac sends Neal off on this quest in addition to his maintaining of the website.
The next major scene is between Don and Rebecca Halliday as he interrupts her leaving him a note in his office. She informs him that he is going to be a named defendant in a separate lawsuit with Jerry Dantana due to his giving a poor job recommendation for Jerry by calling him a sociopath. Don leaves after comedically calling her a godless, soulless extortionist.
Our next scene is the other sneak peek from earlier this week, in which we see Jim make a mistake in state abbreviations, mixing up Michigan (MI) with Mississippi (MS). This would normally be a retractable offense and an honest mistake, but after the major missteps of the last few weeks, no mistake is a nominal one anymore. That happens to be the exact moment that Charlie marches through the newsroom waving an application to the NYC Sanitation Dept, declaring that the first person to “eat it” will be given this application to fill out after their inevitable firing.
After considering retracting the call, Jim and Maggie decide to keep it quiet and simply remove it from the scroll bar as it is assumed that the call will turn out not to be wrong later in the night.
Next we see Neal informing Mac that although he changed her Wikipedia page, the creator of the page changed the information back to Oxford rather than Cambridge, because Wikipedia does not accept firsthand information as a legitimate new source.
While Will takes a quick break from the live Election Night coverage, he and Mac have a conversation in which she implores him to fire her, insisting that it will not look like he scapegoated her, but that it will simply look like the firing of someone responsible for the airing of a fabricated story. After debating the issue for a few moments, Will fires Mac, effective following that night’s broadcast. To say that this fan was shocked at this development would be a total understatement.
The last major development of the episode shows Don and Maggie updating Charlie, Mac, and Will in the newsroom about what story the Congressman’s staff would like to trade in return for them shelving the rape victim condemnation story until after the election. The story: the Petraeus scandal. Will and Mac are speechless after the admission by Don, and Charlie yells something unintelligible.
The episode closes with Will telling Taylor to rip into his personal political leanings telling her to “light it up,” as he stares down the camera, which does not bode well for the rest of the broadcast.
Quite the episode, huh? We saw the first part of the two part finale tonight, and it makes us even more anxious to see what Sorkin has in store for us in the last and final installment of The Newsroom season 2. The events of tonight’s episode set up the finale to be downright explosive, and we can’t wait to see it. Here’s the promo look at what the finale has in store for us:
Next’s week’s episode of The Newsroom season 2, “Election Night, Part 2” looks more enticing than ever after that preview. Make sure to check back for sneak peeks and more as they get released this week.