Newsroom is just reaching its fourth episode but we, as viewers, are already going deep into how did the channel and our favorite news team ended with a lawsuit against them. The main aspect of this episode was, without any doubt, Maggie’s story in Uganda. At first I thought it would be full of blood, gun shots, horror…well the usual stuff you see in movies and shows when dealing with African crisis but instead of this…we got a great story!
Sounds like starting the episode with the black screen and the voice of the Rebecca interviewing the news team about what happened months ago. This week it’s all about Maggie. Rebecca starts by asking her simple question about her name, where she lives…before making a joke – which is absolutely not funny but she says so – just to check if Maggie can still laugh. “I’ve messed up, I’m damaged”. Maggie explains before actually laughing when she thinks of something Will did.
Back into early October Shelley, Neal’s friend from Occupy Wall Street, is about to appear on Will’s show to defend the movement. She is quite nervous but Neal tries to comfort her when Jerry comes to talk to him about Genoa and the twitter message. Surprise surprise, Shelley hears the conversation and happens to know a guy who knew a few things about an operation in Pakistan. But she has no time to continue as she has to be on the show.
There Will completely breaks her and the movement. He is not taking it seriously and destroys it little by little: the absence of leader, the fact OWS is defending not a particular things but protest about a lot of things, the lack of a message, the numerous criticisms against capitalism but the lack of solution…etc. Feeling humiliated Shelley refuses to talk to Neal anymore and to give any clue about the guy with the Genoa information.
Mackenzie learns about Shelley’s friend who wants an official apologize from Will. Instead, Mac decides to send Sloan to talk to her so they could get the name because she doesn’t Will to know about Genoa. It’s a failure as Sloan is “smug”, said an angry Neal. Surprisingly, Will meets Shelley at the university where she is teaching to talk with her. He still refuses to apologize about what he said. In a sense, I admit, Will’s kinda right about the OWS lack of organization and clear message. Nevertheless, he accepts to apologize for the way he did it. He is sorry he embarrassed her. It’s a sort of new Will we’re seeing, a new Will who is “having a crisis of confidence”.
Jim, Halley and Steve arrived at the hotel where the Romney press group is. The problem is that they all check in and so they just have only one room left. Jim tries to explain to the receptionist the situation. “Well we’re staging a protest.” Halley makes fun of him and the Romney press manager arrives at this moment. She’ll give one of the free rooms booked by the Romney campaign to the person who will say “Romney Rocks”. Jim teases her by accepting to say such a thing if he can get 30 minutes one to one interview with the candidate. The press manager refuses.
On the road, Halley receives a phone call from a boss who yells at her and threatens her to put someone else on the campaign. Mackenzie is reacting the same way with Jim, being mad at him for not getting any information and for getting out of the bus. Still she is protecting him from ACN leaders. Spotting, Romney’s spokesperson in the hotel bar, he finally gets his 30 minute one-to-one interview after she makes a “go f*** yourself” comments to one of his question. But instead of accepting it, he gives his interview to Hallie. Later in the room, Jim receives a skype call from Mackenzie who learns about it. She threatens to bring him back to NYC. Hallie hears everything and understands how she gets the interview. Later, at the pool side, she tells Jim he is acting this way only because he wants to go back to New York. “I don’t like that” she says before she kisses him.
Meanwhile, Maggie arrives in Uganda with Gary. They stopped at an orphanage built by some military people. Gary
and her do their job by interviewing those people and then get into the classroom where the kids are having a lesson. Immediately, we have a beautiful emotional moment with Maggie and a little kid there: Daniel.
Daniel really likes her and makes her read a story 3 times (that’s what she said to the NYC lawyer), actually 7 times. He plays with her blond hair, something that makes the teacher smiles. “It (blond hair) is nothing but trouble,” he teases. Maggie and Gary learn they can’t leave tonight for some security reason and have to spend the night at the orphanage.
Around Midnight, that’s when the big event, that will change our sweet Maggie forever, happens. Outside, they hear a “pop pop” sound and some man talking in an African language they can’t understand. Kids get worried and they decide to evacuate the place. On the bus, they notice Daniel is missing. Maggie and Gary go back to the orphanage and find him under Maggie’s bed. After a long moment, they catch him; Maggie takes him on her back and run to the bus. Sadly, once inside, they discover he was shot. The bullet had his spine. Immediately after that, she was sent back to New York, and so was Jim who finds her sat alone in a dark room.
Back to the present, she admits she translated the phrase they heard that night and discovered that the men wanted their camera. So there’s a possibility that nothing would have happened, if they had given the camera. The lawyer wants to know why she is not taking the prescription. “I’m fine,” Maggie repeats while back to the past, we saw her cutting her blond hair with the teacher’s sentence is coming back into her memory “It (blond hair) is nothing but trouble.”
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