SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for The Morning Show Season 4 Episode 3.
A will-they, won’t-they question in Apple TV+’s The Morning Show has finally been answered as of Season 4, Episode 3, titled “Tipping Point,” which arrived on the streamer Wednesday.
In a reunion set up from the start of the season, Billy Crudup’s Cory Ellison texts Reese Witherspoon’s Bradley Jackson asking if they can meet up and chat because he’s in town trying to nail down a new deal with UBN via Stella (Greta Lee). After they get to talking over some wine and Bradley assures Cory she cleared him with HR and didn’t tell the Feds anything about his knowing she deleted footage of her brother at the Capitol Jan. 6, the pair finally act on feelings they’ve had since they crossed paths.
“They no longer work together, and that was a major impediment to any kind of pursuit of their mutual affection. Also, their mutual affection didn’t always arrive at the same time for each of them. I remember hearing somebody talk about being in a relationship for 50 years, and the response was, ‘Well, we just never wanted to get divorced at the same time,’” Crudup told Deadline. “It’s kind of similar, but the opposite side, with Corey and Bradley. They just couldn’t coordinate when they wanted to get together, and the obstacle of being colleagues was anathema to everything Corey wanted to try to bring to UBA.”
At the end of Season 3, The Vault published a piece suggesting that Cory had groomed Bradley, which put him in the hot seat at UBA and ultimately ousting him from his position as CEO. Season 4 opened with him having landed on his feet in Los Angeles producing a movie.
“All of those things are gone now, and a little bit of trust has been renewed in them. There was some trust lost at the end of the last season. Confirmation that they had mutual affection and some mutual trust left the door open for whatever a night of Twister or whatever you do,” Crudup added.
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After Alex (Jennifer Aniston) gave Cory the heads up that Bradley was returning to The Morning Show, he went to New York to catch up with Alex. When he discovered some damning information about Stella, he took what was initially just a request for some finishing funds for his film to the next level at the end of Episode 2, blackmailing Stella with his knowledge of her affair with Miles (Aaron Pierre), husband of UBA President Celine Dumont (Marion Cotillard).
“I think they just keep being attracted to each other and pulled together,” Witherspoon said in a separate interview. “They have this connection. They can’t seem to be done with each other.”
Showrunner Charlotte Stoudt agreed with Crudup’s assessment.
“They are in a very different situation. He’s not her boss in any kind of immediate or even sort of partial way. So that helps. The real thing for me is they’re now both outsiders,” she told Deadline separately from both stars. “He’s outside of the institution. He’s back to scrambling up the ladder and, hustling [to] always be closing. He’s in that mindset, and she’s also on the outside. Bradley’s been out of UBA/UBN for a couple of years. I think they meet in a very vulnerable place, and that allows them to move forward emotionally in a way that was impossible before.”
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