(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)
Marion Cotillard more than earns her Morning Show salary in the Season 4 finale playing the nefarious Celine Dumont. Everything the Oscar-winner does on the Apple TV drama is a Villain 101 masterclass. Screaming into the phone—without knowing she is live on TV—that she will let Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) rot in a Belarus gulag is the crowning moment.
Pitting Celine against Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) is delicious plotting, giving both actresses something juicy to sink their teeth into. It is about time Alex went toe-to-toe with Celine because, on the whole, Alex has been scrambling in the dark without a single clue as to what is happening in front of her face.
The penultimate episode went all in on the spy genre with silly and sublime results, but the finale is even more satisfying, all while co-opting the Succession playbook.
Despite a lack of originality, I still clapped my hands with glee when I realized that Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) had switched sides to aid Alex and bring down the woman he was sleeping with. There is a deeper personal connection for Cory because he is also throwing a grenade on his recently deceased mother’s reputation, though it seems likely that this is what she wanted her son to do.
Legacy has been a significant contributing factor to Alex’s thorny relationship with her father, Martin (Jeremy Irons). While Martin hasn’t always been a supportive papa, he comes through for his daughter in what appears to be an unwinnable battle against Celine and the Dumont global empire.
Whereas Kendall Roy (Jeremy Armstrong) uses a press conference to finally prove to his dad that he has killer business instincts in the Succession Season 2 finale, Martin plays an active role in Alex’s truth-telling session. It is Martin’s idea to launch the first legal attack in which Alex breaks her NDA to reveal that Celine covered up a chemical company’s deadly activity and forced Alex out of UBN. Of course, The Morning Show isn’t the same caliber as Succession. Still, this bombshell is a thrilling reckoning that taps into what TMS does best: over-the-top corporate maneuvering and backstabbing.
Take how Alex lost her job in the first place. After discovering Celine orchestrated a deepfake, Alex expects Celine to do as she demands. Instead, Celine tosses that unemployment grenade back. Celine uses the meeting Alex had with a sanctioned Russian billionaire to deliver an ultimatum. Firing Alex has always been the French executive’s goal, and for a brief moment, everything is coming up Celine Dumont.
However, public humiliation is incoming. What happens in the last 15 minutes is tension building at its best as scenes ricochet between the TMS control room, Alex’s press conference, and Celine’s office. Chip (Mark Duplass) links to the livestream online, ensuring all eyeballs are on Alex as she files a lawsuit against UBN and Celine for wrongful termination.
I watched and then immediately rewatched this spectacle unfold to catch the overlapping dialogue to savor every morsel. Mia (Karen Pittman) goads Ben (William Jackson Harper) into cutting into the scheduled TMS lineup with the breaking news because this story will haunt his news career if he doesn’t. Celine mutters “oh, putain” when Ben calls her to alert her to Alex’s TV bombshell. Google tells me this is a French insult that literally means “whore” but is akin to an f-bomb. It sounds furiously chic when Cotillard says it, regardless of its meaning.
Alex reveals that her cordial farewell package on TMS the day before is BS; Celine forced her out. New York Times reporter Kabir (Rushi Kota) wants to know if this is a cover-up or a “palace coup” at UBN. Martin answers that it is both: “Ms. Dumont is the insurrectionist.” Irons eats up the press conference like a full meal.
The twists and turns that follow are electric, in part because an uncharacteristically sedate Cory has spent the majority of the episode looking sad, trudging across New York City—the use of Central Park’s Turtle Pond is a highlight. He has a document that proves Celine’s involvement in killing this story, but his personal life weaves a tangled web.
For one, he is sleeping with Celine. Cory is also still smarting from how things went down with Bradley—no, the flashback of them in bed doesn’t change my mind about them hooking up. Professionally, Cory received the UBA head of news promotion position as part of this cover-up. Cory didn’t know about any of this at the time, but his grief is an open wound.
So when Cory arrives while Alex is answering questions, it is filmed as if he is doing Celine’s bidding. Even though I could foresee that Cory would do the right thing (ultimately, he is Team Bradley), it is a joy to see the soap opera-like heights of how he double-crosses Celine.
Asking Celine to repeat her diabolical plan because he can’t hear her is such a tell, but Celine is so caught up in the moment that she doesn’t realize her words are being broadcast. It is only when she catches the echo of her own words on TV in her office, as she continues to talk, that she understands the gravity of what has just happened.
“Tell her if she doesn’t stop, I will find a way to keep Bradley in Belarus forever!” is quite the statement to yell to the world.
A flashback to Cory and Alex’s earlier confrontation reveals the missing piece of the plan to ensure maximum bombshell impact. Much like Marty McFly, Cory doesn’t like to be called a “f---ing chicken.” Alex has everything she needs to bring down Celine and rescue Bradley from her current hell.
As if this wasn’t enough, a panicked Celine runs from her office with Moby’s “Porcelain” accompanying the sprint in slow-motion. Yes, that is the sound of 1999 calling because it wants its soundtrack back. Ben and two security guards stop Celine from fleeing: This finale and Cotillard are the gift that keeps on giving.
Given that Alex reluctantly reconnected with her father at the start of the season because she needed his legal advice, it is a lovely full-circle moment that Martin’s expertise then leads to this televised takedown. Alex had to provoke Celine to get Bradley out of the gulag, where she is currently being sleep-deprived and interrogated.
The final scenes show an emotional Bradley and Alex reuniting, while a now-outcast Celine is on a private jet heading back to France. But you can’t keep an opportunist down, and I can but hope that Cotillard will return for another round opposite Aniston and Witherspoon in the TMS media wars.
