Episode Report Card Sara M: B- | 91 USERS: B YOU GRADE IT Snark Is the Idiot's Version of Wit
By Sara M | Season 2 | Episode 3 | Aired on 07.28.2013
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.For some reason, we're rehashing storylines from last season in this episode, as Evil Gossip Columnist Nina Howard returns with a big scoop about how Will got kicked off the 9/11 broadcast and Will decides to "civilize" her by giving her a mimosa and asking her not to publish the story. It works, so Will asks Nina out. She turns him down because she knows he has feelings for MacKenzie from that message. And then I guess she got over it because by the end of the show, she's sleeping with him. And when MacKenzie asks her what that message said, she conveniently leaves out the part where Will said he loved her. By the way, Nina Howard is basically the best journalist on this show except for the part where she hacked people's phones. That was bad.
MacKenzie also has her hands full with Jerry Dantana and his Operation Genoa Investigation. They meet with Eric Sweeney, whose story seems to check out, but can't find anything to back it up. But then! They scan Twitter for sarin gas-related tweets and at the very last minute, they find them. So the thing that we all know didn't happen seems to have happened, according to one guy on Twitter.
Also, MacKenzie is still taunting Neal about Occupy Wall Street, so he snaps and tells her that maybe she can't understand it because she's rich. ACN needs to pay its staff better. Maggie's been there for years now and she still can't afford not to live with Lisa, who hates her. Speaking of Maggie, she takes malaria pills without reading about their potential side effects and this is who they're trusting to report from Africa. I can't imagine how that could possibly go wrong.
Jim gets fed up with the campaign gig he wanted so badly. The campaign gets fed up with him and dumps him, Hallie, and Stillman on the side of the road when they try to lead a mutiny against the Romney campaign workers who are giving them free food and board and transportation. Who could have ever seen that coming.
Don has gotten over his sadness over an innocent man being executed and has turned to fixing his office furniture.
And just in case you thought women were the only people on this show incapable of operating electronics, Will and Charlie discover that their blackmail tape of Reese admitting to hacking phones has nothing on it. They don't know how to operate a recorder. It doesn't matter anyway, as Reese has decided he won't be blackmailed by his underlings (even though he was pretty willing to do that last season) and proves it by leaking the Will 9/11 information to Nina Howard.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!We begin the show with more of Will's Republican-bashing. He shows clips of Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum talking about how great the troops are and then Captain Stephen Hill, currently serving in Iraq, asking them via YouTube if they'll prevent gays and lesbians like him from serving in the military if they are elected. A few people in the debate audience boo loudly.
Will says those audience members are in Orlando, but "soon they'll surely be in hell." Um, they're in Orlando, which is in Florida. So they already are. Will says he's sure that the members of that audience would cross-dress to get out of military service while Capt. Hill is desperate to stay in the military despite being gay. Because cross-dressing and being gay are totally the same! Anyway, what Will's really annoyed about is the fact that none of the candidates told the boo-ers to shut up, thereby making them "witless bullies and hapless punks." I think he might also be mad that Fox News got to show the Republican primary debate and not ACN, like he wanted last season. With that, he says goodnight to the three people still watching his show, which won't devote more than ten seconds to celebrity news but will spend five minutes being a lesser Maddow.
Also, Terry Smith is next with the Capital Report. I'm still waiting to see the awesomeness that is Terry Smith. I hope the show's been doing okay without Dantana around.
Once the show's over, MacKenzie asks Will to position himself half an inch back when he's looking at the keylight in the future. Will throws a hissy fit about this and basically refuses. MacKenzie's second request is that he not stare at his guests' ridiculous toupees. He won't agree to that, either. Diva.
And then MacKenzie asks him to tell her what he said on that message he left her last season while he was high, as she's apparently asked him every day since she found out about it. Will insists that he doesn't remember what he said. I hope we're not going back to this well. I was pretty happy leaving Season One back in Season One, weren't you?
Will heads into Charlie's office, where Charlie says he should've told "what's her name, the moderator" to "go fuck herself." I believe her name is Megyn Kelly, and that's disrespectful. Oh god, this show is making me defend Fox News. Will says he's "not allowed" to say things like that. Charlie says he is – "we're protected" because they have that recording of Reese admitting to phone hacking. Again with the Season One! None of this was referenced in the first two episodes of this season – why now? Also, what is Charlie doing wearing a regular tie and not a bowtie? Everything is different, but also the same.