The Newsroom - Recap: Just the Tip

Nobody was really taking the Occupy movement seriously until people started getting arrested. It wasn't necessarily that it was seen as a joke, but simply that newsmakers didn't really differentiate it from any of the litany of other protests that happen in a given week, month or year. And even with the benefit of hindsight, I'm not sure anyone in news would have necessarily predicted the Occupy movement would have turned out the way it did, or become what it did. Yet therein lies the rub: hindsight doesn't always provide clarity. It's true of Occupy, and it's true of the Maggie (Alison Pill), Jim (John Gallagher, Jr.), Don (Thomas Sadoski), Sloan (Olivia Munn) and Lisa (Kelen Coleman) love pentagon (for lack of a better term). Sure, anyone could have seen that Maggie's rant to the bus full of Sex and the City patrons might not have been the wisest idea in the world; but hell, characters knew it was a bad idea then, as it was happening. No need for hindsight there. But mistakes were still made, and the consequences continue to affect the lives of the characters at the center of the conflict: Jim went to New Hampshire to get away from Maggie and Don, and now Maggie is trying to go to Africa to get away from the drama she's created. Of course, we have hindsight to tell us that this Africa trip ends catastrophically for Maggie, but we're not quite there yet. The storylines, like the news, unfold little-by-little.

Credit: HBO

Let's just address the Maggie stuff first: I found it kind of absurd that she put all her energy into tracking down the person who posted the YouTube video of her rant by cross-referencing the person's information to ascertain their location via FourSquare. Yet it actually fits the character, in a weird way. The balls-out absurdity of it, in the midst of all the solemn storylines of the hour, made it all the more amusing. And hey, any story that pairs Maggie with Sloan is alright by me, as Olivia Munn continues to be on-point as a comedic presence (such as when she states she has to reassess her entire life upon learning from Maggie that getting a person's voicemail after two rings means they're trying to avoid you). Maggie's attempts to get the video removed from YouTube ultimately fail, and Lisa ends up seeing the clip. The two have it out in a wonderfully venomous scene, with Lisa taking Maggie to task for putting so much effort into lying. I really wish there was some way to make Kelen Coleman a regular, as she's one of the show's best recurring characters (probably the best, actually, as she has a way of making an impression in every one of her scenes, yet still conveying a relatable persona). Maggie, knowing she's in the wrong, has no real response for Lisa. Although she will allow Maggie to stay in her apartment as her tenant, Lisa makes it clear to her that their friendship is over. But don't fret, Maggie; you still have Sloan! You know, assuming she doesn't end up going out with your ex-boyfriend, on whom she's been crushing for, what, over a year now? Drama, man.

Credit: HBO

Maggie tries to smooth things over with Jim via phone, but things don't really go all that well, as they get sort of passive-aggressive with one another. Jim has issues of his own, you see: while he successfully made it onto the Romney campaign bus, he's catching hell from an acerbic reporter (Grace Gummer) who doesn't feel that he belongs on the bus, and isn't sure why he's the one covering the story at all. Perhaps this is why he's relatively cold and distant with Maggie. Regardless, their estrangement has lasting effects. Realizing that she can't win for losing, Maggie approaches Mackenzie (Emily Mortimer) about covering a story in Africa, encouraged upon Jerry's statement that Africa is likely the next place US soldiers will be sent to die. Jerry (Hamish Linklater) is still looking to raise his profile around ACN, and so it's just those sorts of stories he's been pitching. You know, like Operation Genoa. The story, which will inevitably land ACN in hot water in the future, is given the greenlight when MacKenzie gives Jerry approval to investigate further, even though she isn't entirely convinced his tip is legit. She doesn't think it's realistic that an American black ops agent would use nerve gas on civilians in Pakistan without the secret getting out by now. However, Jerry is able to turn her skepticism around once he discovers a solid lead in the form of an ex-Marine named Eric Sweeney, who insists he was there when it happened. We know the story turns out to be false, but what kind of evidence does this Sweeney have that could convince Mackenzie and the News Night team to run the story? The Sweeney business could be just the tip of the iceberg for the Genoa story. This is one case where hindsight actually makes things considerably more interesting.

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Of course, there are other stories worth covering that are unrelated to Operation Genoa. For one, Don wants to cover the story of Troy Davis, a death row inmate who man many believe is innocent, due to the recanted testimony of the witnesses used to convict him. Don thinks that Will (Jeff Daniels), given his role as a former prosecutor, can use News Night as a platform to get Davis a fair shake. But Will, still shaken up about being taken off the 9/11 anniversary broadcast, refuses out of journalistic principle, saying that it's not their job to advocate a position. Will also has his reputation to take into consideration, as pleading for the life of a convicted cop killer won't exactly leave him smelling like roses to the public nose. While Jeff Daniels delivers a strong performance in this episode, I'm not entirely sure Aaron Sorkin needed to double down on the curmudgeonly persona. However, if it's in service of providing a contrast between early-episode Will and late-episode Will, then I suppose I understand why Sorkin took this approach. In many ways, "The Genoa Tip" plays out as the story of how Will got his groove back. And it took Neal Sampat (Dev Patel) getting arrested to bring the old Will back.

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Neal visits an Occupy Wall Street protest and gets wrongfully arrested for his troubles. Thankfully, he got the entire thing on video and sent it to his computer. When Will watches the chaos play out, he's officially pissed off. He orders Maggie to send the video to his phone while he storms off to the police station to demand his friend's release. He gives the officer at the station hell, in one of Daniels's best moments in the series, using his legal expertise to void Neal's arrest, but not before he unleashes all his frustrations -- including his ambivalence about the death of Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen killed in a drone strike without a trial -- out on the officer at the station. Mackenzie had been furious with Will over his hesitance to hold the Obama administration accountable for the strike that killed al-Awlaki, who was highly active in al-Qaeda. However, when Mack confronts Will at the bar after he's secured Neal's release, Will reveals that he'll be calling for the Obama administration to release the memorandum that authorized the attack on the next News Night. Yet with each win comes a defeat, as Don learns that Davis has been killed by lethal injection. It's a downer, but like all cases of hindsight, the outcome was written in stone.

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"The Genoa Tip" keeps things moving from last week's premiere by smartly ditching the frame story and allowing things to just unfold. Sorkin is getting much better at trusting his audience to piece together the thematic and literal significance of the stories he's telling, even if they aren't always the most substantive (love pentagons for all!). At this rate, season two stands to be a marked improvement over season one, which had its fair share of problems but still managed to be solid, engaging television.