The Morning Show Season 2, Episode 8 recap: Confirmations

The Morning Show season 2 ended with a massive twist in last week’s episode, with Mitch getting in a fatal car accident. This episode explored the repercussions of that in true The Morning Show fashion.

While Cory and Stella are more concerned about their network being the first one to break the news, the news just about breaks Alex — and deepens the fracture in her and Chip’s relationship. Meanwhile, Mia is dealing with her own complicated emotions on top of Maggie’s book excerpt. Bradley and Hal drift further apart, but she also grows closer to Laura. Read on to discover what else happened in The Morning Show season 2, episode 8: “Confirmations.”

The Morning Show season 2 episode 8: Breaking news and breaking down

It’s no secret that Cory and Stella are having a bit of a rough go of it right now, what with the lawsuits, bad press, and Alex MIA. When Stella asks Cory if he’s okay in the elevator on the way to the office, he acts even more unhinged than usual, giving her a rapid-fire speech about how, in this job, you can’t absorb other people’s feelings.

This is a lesson that’s going to become very important very soon. While in a meeting discussing how they can twist the excerpt from Maggie’s book into a redemption arc for the network, they get a call from an obscure Italian newspaper asking for a quote about Mitch’s death. Cory pounces on the opportunity, telling Stella to get Alex in to break the news by any means necessary.

Stella, naturally, runs to fetch Chip, who has also had a less-than-stellar morning himself. So far, his day has consisted of leaving Alex a scathing voicemail that included calling her an emotional murderer and self-esteem parasite and ended with his fiance storming out after he made a bad joke about having sex in Alex’s office to get back at her. Yikes!

Under pressure from Stella and Mia alike, Chip goes to drastic measures to get Alex’s whereabouts, resorting to calling her bank and pretending to be her (he knows really knows all the gory details of her life to be able to answer those obscure security questions). He manages to discover the last charge on her credit card was a ticket to the Milan airport and assumes the worst: that she was in the car with Mitch.

Panicked, he calls the hospital (that’s completely overwhelmed by COVID, might I add), and they confirm there was indeed a woman at the hospital with him who isn’t doing so well. Chip frantically tells Stella and Cory that he thinks Alex might be dead in Italy. Fortunately, with some help from Alex’s assistant, they figure out that Alex is alive and is set to arrive at a nearby airport in half an hour. Chip promptly vomits on the table before going to meet her. (Understandable!)

Though Alex is happy to see Chip, her relief is short-lived when he drops the news about Mitch. She’s in disbelief at first, only accepting the news after calling Mitch’s number and having Paola confirm it. When Alex learns his family doesn’t know yet, she’s adamant that she be the one to tell them, telling Chip to drive her to Paige’s house instead of the studio.

On their way there, Alex begins to get all the messages she missed while she was traveling — including the brutal rant Chip left her. The two get into a massive fight, with each of them delivering low blows: Alex accuses Chip of being jealous of Mitch and not having a spine, while Chip tells her she’s a terrible, self-absorbed person for never returning his messages after he got fired.

Breaking the news to Paige somehow goes even worst than expected, as after Alex gently asks her if she wants to talk about anything, Paige shoots back that she knows the two of them slept together. Unlike the other girls, Alex had a choice, and she made the decision to help him cheat. What’s worse, Alex continued to hug and be fake to her at parties. Paige tells her she and Mitch were perfect for each other — in fact, they might as well have been the same person.

The Morning Show season 2 episode 8: Liked me for me

Mia is dealing with complicated emotions of her own. In addition to frantically trying to get two confirmations of Mitch’s death so they can report on it, there’s also the matter of Maggie’s book excerpt that accused Mitch of targeting Black women.

Though she holds it together while delivering the unconfirmed news to the crew, she finally breaks down while apologizing to Rena for losing it on her the previous day. She admits that she thought Mitch actually liked her for her and feels ridiculous that she was the side chick while so many others were victimized by him. Though Mitch was petty and awful to her after it ended, she had genuine feelings for him and believes he was a layered person. Because of this, she writes the copy for the news segment herself.

The Morning Show season 2 episode 8: Stepping away

Bradley is also dealing with some complex issues. Though she attempts to book a flight to Charleston for her brother and call Laura to apologize, things don’t quite work out the way she plans. Laura doesn’t want to have a deep conversation right before the show, noting she needs to get in the right headspace before she goes on the air. They do a fairly awkward segment together before Bradley has to run out of the studio, as Hal has unexpectedly shown up.

Clearly high, Hal begins rambling and causing a scene. When Bradley tells him he needs to be quiet because Mitch just died in a car wreck, Hal yells that their dad killed someone while they were in the car with him. Bradley pleads with him to stop, but Hal gets violent in return, smashing dishes and throwing food everywhere until security has to remove him from the building.

Bradley sobs in her dressing room, and Laura comforts her, encouraging her to get therapy and gently telling her to think about stepping away from her family. Bradley is distraught, telling her that it’s not Hal’s fault — that he’s bipolar and has terrible parents and she can’t imagine abandoning him. Laura tells her she can help get Hal into rehab if he’s serious about changing, but if he’s not, Bradley needs to let that part of her life go and do what’s best for her.

A small silver lining comes in the form of a call from Alex. She tells her that she thinks Bradley should be the one to break the news about Mitch. Everything is changing, after all, and she was the start of that shift.

What do you think will happen during The Morning Show season 2’s penultimate episode next week? Comment below!