The Newsroom: Maggie's Story

Does anyone understand why Maggie has been treated as if she experienced the most horrible night imaginable when Daniel died? She had known the child mere hours, and knew little about him beyond the fact that his parents owned cattle and that he was a big fan of Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile. Will and the others have been talking as if she had been gang-raped and beaten to a bloody pulp. Surely Mackenzie has seen worse than this! Also, although it came as no surprise that Daniel died (the dramatic irony of one non-orphan at an orphanage was too obvious), the dueling visions in Maggie's memory were a bit confusing. Viewers are left wondering if it's a M*A*S*H scenario where she's blocking out the truth of what happened on the bus, or if she is struggling to distinguish fact from fiction. Of course, she may begin blocking out even more now that Jim is headed back from Romney's campaign trail...

The Newsroom "Unintended Consequences" (S02E04): Rebecca (who is a first amendment lawyer, by the way) is back to work on the wrongful termination suit and talks with Maggie about the events taking place in late September and early October, though there is also mention of a March 22nd interview Maggie conducted with a Polish guy in Silver Springs, MD. [what was with the Dutch jokes?] A freelance reporter in Africa met the pair and took them to the orphanage site immediately, where they began interviews with soldiers. Then, they go inside a classroom, where the kids think they're evil because of the video camera. [that was a very sad scene.] There's a kid named Daniel who is alone a lot, so Maggie tries to befriend him, reading him the same book eight times. Maggie and Gary unexpectedly wind up staying the night, and there's danger because men with guns arrive on the property after midnight. Nobody understands the language that is being spoken, so the request to hand over the camera was not comprehended. Instead, as the orphanage is evacuated, Maggie is left trying to save a terrified Daniel, who winds up getting shot in the back and dying. [but she pictured reading him the book again on the bus, perhaps to make herself feel better.] Because of the situation, they never made it to the big story, as they had to head back and be debriefed by HR. Maggie was prescribed Paxil, but she doesn't take it, feeling she doesn't need it. [figures.] She does, however, think that the boy saving her life, and she cuts and dyes her hair in a response to a comment that the African pastor made about blondes being nothing but trouble. The big question is to answer whether or not someone said "it happened," though the details remain sketchy.

Maggie and Gary left the night Will interviewed Shelly, Neal's OWS contact. [she's also an adjunct of some sort??] The interview went miserably, but the bigger problem is that Shelly will no longer help Neal, and he's desperate to gain access to someone else who knows about Genoa, as there's been no luck in contacting the tweeter. Shelly demands an on-air apology from Will, but he won't agree, of course. Both Sloan and Don separately try to talk to her, but both conversations end in disaster. [Don offering Shelly time on his news hour was nice.] In the end, Will actually goes down to her college to interrupt a class to tell her that her movement needs leaders. And, after she admits to being terrible on the show, he apologizes for treating her poorly because he is having a "crisis of confidence."

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He didn't even need to go down there, as ACN was able to track down the source she knows - Leon Deet, who was working for a human rights commission and wrote a report that sounds a lot like the Genoa story.

Jim, Hallie, and Stillman make it to the hotel but they no longer have rooms because of their protest, so they share a room and intend to follow the bus the next day. After losing the bus, Hallie gets in trouble for not writing about the latest news, and Jim and Stillman witness just how poorly she is treated at work. [I'm more dumbfounded that something actually happened on the campaign trail!] Mack tells Jim to get it together and get comments on the news breaks, so he wears down spokesperson Taylor... only to get Hallie thirty minutes with Romney. [now he's just trying to be a nice guy, but I wish that he wouldn't!] Mack finds out and pulls Jim from the trail. There could be long-distance romance on the horizon, however, as Hallie kisses Jim. ["Vassar" could be the drinking word this episode!]  

There's also a small storyline where Don approves a copy containing the N-word, pissing off Charlie. Apparently, most other networks are talking around actually saying Rick Perry owns Niggerhead Ranch, though ACN uses the actual name of the location.