The Morning Show Season 3 Episode 7 Review: Strict Scrutiny

The always fabulous Lindsay Duncan guest stars on The Morning Show Season 3 Episode 7, “Strict Scrutiny,” for an hour that takes a deep dive into Cory’s complicated family history and somehow makes things even more awkward between him Bradley.

At some point, The Morning Show is really going to have to put some sort of label on whatever’s going on with Cory and Bradley, because their relationship just keeps getting weirder and weirder every week with little hint as to what (if anything!) the two actually mean to one another.

That he has a damaged relationship with his mother isn’t a surprise, it seems pretty unlikely that a man like Cory can exist without having a distressed or difficult connection with one parent or another. But, still, the existence of Martha Ellison truly explains a whole lot. (Her offhanded reference about wondering what her life might have been like if she’d had the option to abort her son while he’s standing in front of her is…something else!)

A political strategist who was once the press secretary for Geraldine Ferraro, she’s been questioning the DOJ about the upcoming UBA/Paul Marks deal for reasons that seem to go little beyond getting her son’s attention. She’s incredibly petty in the way that only rich and powerful people can be, dropping sharp-edged, snide comments in the midst of seemingly bland conversation. (Who knew cooking lobsters could be such a comment on someone’s personality!) 

The back and forth between Cory and Martha feels like another step in a complicated dance that’s been going on for a long time — but it’s unclear what either of them is getting out of it. She guilt trips him about his dad leaving, he insists she needs to stop meddling in his business affairs. 

Interestingly enough, Martha also clearly has some misconceptions about her son’s relationship with Bradley — which, who can honestly blame her given how insane whatever is between them is? — and she seems honestly disappointed when she finds out Bradley’s giving it another go with Laura. It’s possible she sees something of herself in the younger woman, given how impressed she was by Bradley’s decision to go public with her abortion, but like so many other characters on The Morning Show, we’re only given the briefest glimpse of her interior life.

Of course, five minutes later, Martha is back to insisting her son deserves to be alone and tells Bradley that Cory’s probably just manipulating her anyway. (“There’s something very wrong with you,” she tells him in a striking bit of emotional violence.) Cory’s voice is strangely absent throughout most of this, though he does finally apologize to Bradley for not being there when her mom died. It all makes for pretty entertaining TV — Lindsay Duncan remains unmatched — it’s unclear what Cory thought would actually happen here or why this was a situation that couldn’t have been handled with a simple phone call. 

 The “meet your boyfriend’s mom” vibes are…well, let’s just call them interesting given that these two have not managed to talk about whatever’s going on between them for the better part of two years. Why was Cory so insistent that Bradley came with him in the first place? It’d be nice to ever get a legitimate glimpse of what either of them is thinking about the other. 

Elsewhere, Paul and Alex seem to be building the foundation of what…appears to be an actual functional and healthy relationship? They spend a weekend shacked up where they have a bunch of sex, and both slowly share details about their lives with one another. Both are divorced workaholic control freaks who are wary about getting romantically involved, and it’s honestly all very sweet and mature in a way this show rarely manages to achieve. (I ship it, is what I’m saying.)

They agree that they’ll be cordial and friendly at the upcoming UBA gala event with Valentino, and take things slow between them. Unfortunately, a tabloid manages to snag a photo of them looking all kinds of intimate and cozy on Alex’s (truly massive) terrace and the pair are forced to confront putting a label on things well before they were planning to. Paul says their only options are to release a statement they’re grown adults in a happy consenting relationship or pay the outlet to kill the story. Alex, clearly anxious, opts for the latter, and Paul — who may actually be dream man material — goes so far as to try and buy the tabloid to kill the story. But despite his best efforts the photo is going to be published anyway, which seems to push Paul to finally tell Alex he wants more than a weekend hookup with her. They kiss, just as Chip — whose own relationship just disintegrated because of his inability to separate himself from Alex — arrives outside her office to catch them in the act. Dun dun dunnnnnn…… 

Stray Thoughts and Observations:

• Somehow I’d let myself forget that the specific setting of this season meant that The Morning Show was absolutely going to cover the fall of Roe v. Wade and reader, I am in no way emotionally prepared for wherever this is going next.
• The growing friendship we see between Chris and Alex is so good and we should see more of them together. 
• Chris gets what is maybe the best single scene of the episode as she scrawls “Abort the court” on a bathroom mirror at the swanky Valentino party and then Instragrams herself giving it the finger.  
• Stella’s sudden decision to come clean to Cory about Paul’s attempt to push him out may be great drama but this show has not done the work in any way to justify that move from a character perspective. After all, just because she hates Paul, doesn’t mean she and Cory are some kind of great team or that she owes him her loyalty. 
• I’m not sure when this show decided that Yanko’s only reason for existing is to repeatedly say the worst possible things but here we are. Like, what timeline is this character even living in? Sorry, Nesor Carbonell, you deserve better! 
• Apparently, Mia’s boyfriend has been missing in Ukraine for like two weeks? I guess? (I mean, if the show doesn’t care about this plotline why am I supposed to??)

What did you think of this episode of The Morning Show? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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New episodes of The Morning Show stream Wednesdays on Apple TV+.

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