Gossip columnist Nina Howard returned to “The Newsroom” on the third episode of Season Two. (Photo property of HBO)
By: Jacob Elyachar
Throughout the past two episodes of Season Two of the hit HBO drama: The Newsroom, viewers learned about a chain of events that led to the implosion of a story that News Night with Will McAvoy featured on their newscast.
What clues did viewers discover tonight that led to their eventual meeting with Atlantis World Media litigator Rebecca Halliday (Marcia Gay Harden)? Read on to find out….
An old frenemy, gossip columnist Nina Howard (Hope Davis), returned to the News Night universe this week as Will continued to hunt down the person who leaked the reason why the News Night anchor was taken off the 9-11 anniversary coverage. Hoping to convince her to drop the story, Will arranged to meet with Nina to mend fences, while both Charlie and Mac were strongly against the meeting.
When Nina met Will at the ACN Executive Dining Room, she was surprised by Will’s honesty and stated that she would not run the story. Before leaving, Will tried to ask her on a date but Nina rebuffed and stated that he still carries feelings for Mac.
While Will made peace with Nina and looked for heads, Sloan confessed to Don that she might be the leak because she cancelled a date due to her coverage of the 9-11 anniversary. The person she cancelled her date was Nina’s book agent. Asking for Don’s support, Sloan confesses to Will and Charlie, who are disappointed with her actions but know who might have really leaked the coverage…Reese Lansing.
Will and Charlie confronted the Atlantis World Media President about this allegation and Mr. Lansing admitted that he did that because of the way he treated his mother. Reese also angrily added that he does not like being blackmailed and barked at the elder newsmen to obey him.
Meanwhile, Mac personally called Nina to thank her for dropping the story and asked her if she remembered any parts of Will’s message and the gossip columnist spilled that he thought that Mac did a great job with the Bin Laden story. However, Nina fails to mention that Will loves Mac.
Tired of being the Romney campaign’s whipping boy, Jim decides to stand up against the bullies and tries to rally his fellow campaign correspondents to join him in leaving the campaign bus. While he only is successful in getting two reporters to follow him, he starts to gain the respect of Hallie Shea.
Around the News Night office, Mac charged Neal to find a representative of the Occupy Wall Street movement to come on News Night to face Will. Plus, Maggie made her final preparations for her trip to Uganda and Jerry Dantana’s quest to cover Operation Genoa becomes a reality courtesy of translated tweets that mention US soliders using “Willie Pete” aka white phosphorus on innocent civilians.
Next week, Maggie reveals what really happen on her trip to Uganda to Rebecca Halliday!
