'The Newsroom' Season 2 Episode 3 Recap: 'Willie Pete' has 'News Night' William McAvoy Back on his Feet to 'Civilize' [VIDEO]
‘The Newsroom’ Episode 3 of the CBS hit series for Season 2 features News Night going back to “civilize” after being off the air last week.
In the headlines for this week episode: William Duncan McAvoy ‘s monologue admonishing GOP candidates; Senior Producer Jim Harper getting tired of “trekking along” in the campaign; TMI columnist Nina Howard out to destroy Will once again; McAvoy’s exclusion from the 9/11 anniversary coverage leaked; Maggie Jordan prepares for her trip to Africa; Neal Sampat convincing colleagues on the importance of Occupy Wall Street; more actions in the Genoa Tip; Jim taking actions for better campaign coverage.
Will McAvoy’s Monologue on 'News Night'
This week’s episode began with Wil McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) giving a monologue on Atlantic Cable News (ACN) News Night, reprimanding GOP candidates who kept a blind eye on a debate audience who booed a gay soldier, Stephen Hill when the latter asked a question.
Will said, "The audience members who were booing were in Orlando, soon they'll surely be in hell -- though not soon enough," the anchor admonished, before comparing Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney and Co. to "witless bullies and hapless punks."
Jim Harper Getting Tired of Being Dragged in the Campaign Trail
ACN’s Senior Producer, Jim Harper (John Gallagher, Jr.) decided the days are over for trekking along and following the Romney campaign trail and being dragged in the campaign bus. He (finally) realized that being an owl, repeating the candidate’s messages released by the Republican’s frontrunner, is no longer cool and he decided to take actions. He decided to take a bite and ask tougher questions. Not a good move for Jim who is in the company of reporters getting annoyed by breaking the ice.
Will McAvoy’s No-Flu Story in 9/11 Anniversary Gets Leaked
The face of ACN has continued to make headlines for the wrong reasons. Early episodes for this season had the News Night anchor making the headlines for a tabloid called TMI and they were all not very good. While the management editor for News Night thought that his nightmares are over when she met Nina Howard (Hope Davis) at a restaurant in “Genoa Tip” episode, he was wrong.
This week shows that’s there’s no let up from Nina from making Will’s life miserable. Will was facing another tabloid headline this week and it focused on Will’s exclusion from the 9/11 anniversary coverage. It will be recalled that Will told a white lie to both Sloan and Elliot of ACN’s 10pm and its editors when he announced that it was his decision to have Sloan and Elliot anchor the anniversary celebration. When he was alone with Mackenzie McHale or Mac (Emily Mortimer) he admitted it was embarrassing to reveal he was deliberately taken of the coverage. The network’s press release was Will having a flu on the day of the anniversary, thus Elliot and Sloan on his seat.
This did not escape Nina. Sloan Sabbith (Oliver Munn) wasn’t sure if he was the one to leak the story. It turned out, it was the President of ACN, ReeseLansing (Chris Messina) who has been after Will since day one this season.
Will found a way to convince Nina not to run the no-flu story on TMI and when she did, he felt it was appropriate to ask the columnist for a real date. Though Nina tried to resist Will, arguing she knows he still love Mac, the Executive Producer, Nina gave in in the end.
ACN Associate Producer Maggie Jordan Preparing to Leave for Africa
This week did not have much of the Jim-Maggie-Don love triangle in between editing of soundbytes for this week’s coverage. But Maggie has a bigger thing going for her. After the approval she got last week from McKenzie to travel to Sudan, South Africa, Maggie seemed to be all set. Joining her to cover big thing relevant to America, as Maggie put it when she asked Jerry Dantana (Hamish Linklater).Joining her in the highly-anticipated trip is Garr Cooper (Chris Chalk).
Don Keefer (Thomas Sadowski) did not take it well that he took it on his chair. He broke it. But after calming down, he decided to fix it. But it didn’t work. Not the same way it used to be. Don is Maggie’s ex boyfriend, who is likely to end up with Sloan (wild guess).
Neelamani "Neal" Sampat Continues to Convince Colleagues on the Importance of Occupy Wall Street
Neal continues to rave about the importance of the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon. His co-workers at the news room finally gave him the time of day when he was arrested for following up stories relating to the Occupy Wall Street. In last week’s episode, Neal, whose main job at The Newsroom, was to write for Will’s blog and scan internet news, decided to cover the OWS event when organizers claim Radiohead was to perform in its latest gathering. But Radiohead didn’t came. Neal however, got much of a bigger story when he captured video of protesters getting rowdy and the NY police getting even more violent when they were trying to stop the protest. Neal was arrested for it and Will stepped up to get him out using his, well, great ways with words.
The Genoa Tip continues as Jerry Dantana Found a Source
This week had Jerry Dantana, the senior producer who replaced Jim while on campaign tour, continuously looking for the source. In last week’s episode, Jerry had Mac talked on the phone a soldier who was part of the black ops to extract US marines hostaged by Pakistani rebels. He affirmed the tip Jerry got that the U.S. used nerve Sarin gas over Pakistanis using helicopter - - this when proven will lead to hell all break loose for the U.S. government and ACN facing lawsuit.
Wrapping up the headlines and more questions after watching Season, Episode 3: “Willie Pete”
- Will Maggie Jordan ever see (or even talk ) to Jim Harper before she leaves for Africa?
- Will there be no turning back to Don for Maggie?
- When will Don ask Sloan out on a date?
- How will Mac react when she finds out that Will ask the gossip columnist out on a date?
- How long can Jim put up with the “regurgitating” release from Republican candidate, Mitt Romney?
- How long will Jim stand Cameron?
- Will Neal ever get his much-deserved break?
More questions and intrigues as news staff bring the news on Will McAvoy’s News Night on ACN. The Newsroom airs on CBS, Sundays 10 p.m.
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