The Morning Show Season 2, Episode 5 recap: What’s going on with Alex?

The Morning Show season 2 is officially halfway over, and things are taking a turn — for better and for worse. Alex’s life is starting to crumble, Maggie’s impending book release causing her to unravel. And while things seem to be looking up for Bradley, the threat of Cory leaking the secret between her and Laura may threaten her newfound success. Yanko and Stella are both facing violent racism, and Mitch is facing the consequences of his past actions.

Read on to find out what trouble our Morning Show crew got themselves into this week. We’re in Las Vegas, after all — they don’t call it “Sin City” for nothing.

The Morning Show Season 2, Episode 5 recap: Opening the vault

Cory is still dealing with the dilemma of how to keep Hannah’s name out of the press. He calls Fred, threatening him to stop trying to smear her, but Fred reminds Cory that he is the one who paid him off in order to step into the CEO position. He’s not as innocent as he’s acting.

Cory cancels his trip to Vegas in order to pay Hannah’s father a visit at his bar in Green Bay. He begs him to take the money the network is offering or else the case will get thrown out and he’ll be left with nothing. He pleads with Hannah’s dad, saying he wants to do right by his daughter and keep everyone from thinking she was a drug addict who tried to sleep her way to the top. Hannah’s dad, however, is more concerned with whether these rumors are actually true, and after hearing the gossip, he no longer cares if Hannah’s name gets dragged through the mud.

But this doesn’t deter Cory from his mission. He asks around and finds out the story has been killed at every place except a tabloid called The Vault — and the only thing that kills a story there is a more salacious one taking its place. Having heard the rumors about Laura and Bradley’s romance (and clearly feeling a bit jealous of Bradley’s newfound companionship), Cory considers leaking their relationship in exchange for the Hannah story.

He calls Bradley, putting the pieces together that she is indeed with Laura in her hotel room, and asks her whether he should do whatever it takes to get the Hannah article killed. Bradley, obviously not thinking the solution would ever be her own personal life, tells him yes.

The Morning Show Season 2, Episode 5 recap: A Very Vegas Valentine

Speaking of Bradley and Laura, the two are getting awfully cozy. Laura has managed to get an interview with Mayor Pete just so they can spend Valentine’s Day in Vegas together — and spend time together they do, ordering mountains of room service and getting deep about why Laura and Alex dislike each other.

Laura tells Bradley that she and Alex used to run in similar circles, and while Alex used to be a bit more laid back, she’s always been a careerist. Alex found out through the grapevine that Laura was a lesbian, and YDA discovered soon after. Alex always suspected that Alex had something to do with the leak, but even if she didn’t, she didn’t step up and support Laura when she needed it most. In fact, she went out of her way to avoid Laura on the street a few months after it all happened.

The Morning Show Season 2, Episode 5 recap: The Wrong Side of the Bed

Between her moderating duties, Maggie’s book, and her back pain, Alex is feeling stressed, to say the least. Stress manifests itself in a fight with Chip. Alex demands that he get her Maggie’s book so she can see what’s inside, and they get into an argument about Chip talking to Maggie off the record and Alex conveniently forgetting things she said and did. It all comes to a head when Chip reminds her that he continued to do her PR even when she got him fired and reveals that he was the one who leaked the story that started it all in the first place.

Unable to sleep, Alex shows up at Maggie’s hotel room in the middle of the night, demanding to see the book. Maggie doesn’t have one on her, but she does have a mockup cover — a humiliating picture with the title The Wrong Side of the Bed.

Alex accuses Maggie of never liking her, and Maggie cooly replies the “never” part of that statement isn’t true. She offers to tell Alex anything she wants to know about the book, confirming that there is a part in there about her sleeping with Mitch. If it’s inaccurate, Maggie says, Alex can go ahead and try to sue her. Maggie also shares that she briefly talked to Mitch to get his perspective, but he aggressively refused.

All the pressure gets to be too much for Alex, and she drops out of moderating the debate, with Bradley stepping in instead.

The Morning Show Season 2, Episode 5 recap: Won’t bow down

Yanko is facing problems of his own, particularly with the “spirit animal” controversy. Mia tells him he’s being sent to a museum to learn about Native American culture, and although Yanko is fine with this, he isn’t fine with the fact there will be a film crew there following him around. He firmly says he refuses to bow to Stella’s progressive agenda.

Despite not being Stella’s biggest fan, he does come to her defense when a group of men threaten her and call her anti-Asian slurs. Yanko even ends up punching one of them in the face.

The Morning Show Season 2, Episode 5 recap: Under pressure

Mitch decides to quarantine with Paola, using the two weeks to help her work on the documentary. He does, however, make it clear the two of them aren’t going to sleep together — she’s beautiful and smart, but he’s too damaged. Paola doesn’t mind, saying damage makes her feel like home and she’s never been known for her good judgment.

After some pleading, Paola even convinces Mitch to let her practice her interviewing skills on him. He gives a surprisingly deep fake interview, admitting he feels guilt about Hannah. He was so self-absorbed and ignorant that he genuinely thought she wanted to have sex with him. He feels worse about asking her to help him clear his name than sleeping with her because he can’t claim he didn’t know exactly what he was doing in that respect. He knew she would break if he kept pressing harder, and eventually, she did.

What did you think of the episode? Comment your thoughts below!