* Right around the time that Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson came down with the ‘rona, the UBA launch event was cancelled - which wasn’t great news for the nascent streaming service. Mia called to try to lure him back to the network, but he steadfastly refused to return to a place where he’d never have a meaningful seat at the table. * Daniel quit UBA and drove across country to see to his grandfather, who was at a facility where one of the nurses was ill - likely with COVID. “Either get on the Alex Levy train, or stay at the station.” “I’m done apologizing for myself,” she announced to whomever was watching. But he said he’d already tested positive (we later learned that was a lie), so he had a front-row seat to Alex’s on-air ruminations about what matters and what doesn’t. The exec reluctantly greenlit it, and when Chip went to Alex’s to produce it, she worried that she’d get him sick, too. * Chip pitched Cory a UBA+ broadcast about watching Alex fight her way through COVID in real-time. Chip spent a lot of time on FaceTime with her as she worried that she’d die alone meanwhile, the network moved to investigate her based on the claims raised in Maggie Brenner’s book. * Alex was diagnosed with COVID-19, causing a freak-out among the show’s staff when they realize they’d all been exposed. In addition to that big Cory/Bradley moment, the finale also featured the following developments: So it definitely is setting up an interesting triangle between Laura, Bradley, and Cory. So with everything so complex at the studio and at the network, she can’t even explore that, and I don’t think he can either. WITHERSPOON | Bradley has this incredible chemistry with Cory, and they always have, but they have this workplace dynamic where he’s always her boss. When she does have a moment to think about what’s transpired, what do you think will run through her head? And she’s still technically dating Laura.
TVLINE | Reese, we don’t get to see Bradley’s reaction when Cory tells her he loves her she gets the call about Hal being in the emergency room right afterward. I loved that he had an opportunity to express that kind of connection, and it only raises the stakes for him wanting to succeed. Like, “What is that feeling? Oh, I think it might be love.” That’s a very strange feeling for a person like me to have, but it’s beautiful to see it articulated the way that they wrote it… I’m happy to hear that it has an impact, because it certainly had an impact on me playing it.
The way that it was written, it was such that he was trying to describe a feeling that he had never been able to put his finger on. That being said, it’s great to see that Cory has a connection with a human being that is almost beyond his comprehension. So if you want to be a part of that system, you have to speak that language. I do think that, despite his duplicity and the way in which he navigates the business world, there’s an authenticity in that insofar as the entire environment is inauthentic, it’s all a construct of people wielding their power in ways that are unpredictable so that they might continue to hold power.
Certainly, the way that I felt it was written and the way that I played it was that was as close to being at the core of his being as maybe he’s capable of exposing. On his BS meter, where are we? Is he completely earnest? Is there a game going on there? Somewhere in-between?ĬRUDUP | Oh no. TVLINE | Cory says a lot of things to a lot of people this season, but I don’t think anything makes more of an impact than his telling Bradley he loves her at the end. In a moment, we’ll run down the other big stuff - including Alex’s big broadcast - that happened in Episode 10, “Fever.” But first, let’s hear what stars Reese Witherspoon and Billy Crudup had to say in separate interviews about their characters’ big, potentially game-changing moment near the end of the hour.