(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)
The Morning Show consistently proves that it will take the bonkers option over the safe, dull path. Still, nothing made me rub my eyes in disbelief quite like what occurred during Bradley Jackson’s (Reese Witherspoon) reunion with Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) in this week’s new episode.
No one drives off a cliff, goes to space, or gets caught up in an insurrection—a Holy Trinity of past WTF Morning Show moments. Instead, the series turns a “will-they-won’t-they” pairing of characters into a reality of “they did.” It shouldn’t be a whiplash-inducing plot turn, and yet I am still feeling the effects on my neck after seeing Bradley and Cory cross that line. Yep, Cory and Bradley end up in bed together.
What makes this a record scratch development isn’t that this duo sleeps together, but that their conversation and general mood leading up to the rendezvous lacked any heat that signified this would ever happen.
Awkward pleasantries, talk of the past, and several glasses of wine lead to Cory’s apparent fantasy of sleeping with Bradley come true—even if it feels like I am hallucinating while watching it. Crudup and Witherspoon have always had a sparring chemistry, but their overall dynamic reads as a one-sided crush. Any attempt to have Bradley lean toward anything more than platonic intimacy felt forced. It still does.
Bradley and Cory haven’t seen each other since events two years earlier in the Season 3 finale. Bradley quit live on air, and Cory lost his job in the merger. Now, Cory wants to know if Bradley told the FBI that he knew she had doctored the January 6 footage. He also wants to ask if she will be okay working in the same building together. Cory is in the middle of acquiring a development deal with UBN (via blackmailing current CEO, Stella, no less), and past events with Bradley could lead to an image rehabilitation issue. It is classic TMS: shenanigans involving mixing work with pleasure.
The text message Cory sends Bradley to arrange this meeting isn’t exactly a “hey, u up?” missive. Instead, it says, “Hi stranger… I’m in town. I have a question for you. Can we talk?”
It would be easy to write Cory’s motives off as selfish, but Bradley is the only person, other than his mother, whom he doesn’t see solely through the eyes of business. Again, this deep yearning is all Cory, including the time Cory told Bradley he loved her. So color me surprised when Bradley playfully tilts her head to the side before putting down her drink to take it to the next level.
There’s a lot of talk on Bradley’s end about everything feeling different since she returned to the TMS desk, which might explain the sudden shift from friends to lovers. Still, this reasoning is not satisfying; Bradley hasn’t undergone a personality overhaul. Sure, she’s impulsive, but this reads as out of character. Or maybe the next TMS twist is an Invasion of the Body Snatchers plot—now, that I would watch.
No doubt there will be Bradley-Cory shippers who are thrilled to see their faves naked in bed together after four seasons of waiting. I am on the record celebrating many will-they-won’t-they pairings finally doing the deed, but I cannot for the life of me fathom this Morning Show choice. I say this as someone who typically lets whatever TMS chaos wash over me like a soothing bath.
You could also argue that not seeing each other for two years was enough to make Bradley realize that Cory is the one, but that doesn’t explain the rapid shift in tone during this sequence of events. Or that their post-coital haze is a mix of gazing at each other with plastered-on smiles and a sea of space between their bodies in bed. The clasped hands and Bradley’s leg wrapped over Cory’s do not explain the distance between their torsos. Another person could snuggle in between them.
Not that TMS can’t do sexual desire. Another pairing this season certainly brings heat. Stella’s (Greta Lee) illicit affair with UBN board president Celine’s (Marion Cotillard) husband, Miles (Aaron Pierre), is absolutely steamy. Elsewhere, clothes remain on during Alex’s (Jennifer Aniston) interactions with ex Paul (Jon Hamm) this week, but the tension between them crackles. The same cannot be said for Cory and Bradley, which also makes this impulsive union stand out for the wrong reasons.
Their back-and-forth doesn’t even register as being flirty until Bradley puts her glass down and playfully addresses boundaries. There is no runway from ‘Oh, this is awkward seeing you’ to ‘OMG, I am so horny for you.’
Given how much TMS loves a fun, punchy cliffhanger before smashing to credits, something is disquieting about the third episode concluding with Cory and Bradley making googly eyes at each other in bed. In fact, this joy reads as ominous, as no one stays happy for long on this show. Even if you are on board with this hook-up, I can’t help but think the other shoe is about to drop. Perhaps then there will be fireworks.
The post ‘The Morning Show’ Unleashes Its Most WTF Hook-Up Scene Yet appeared first on The Daily Beast.
