Well, tonight marks a Maggie-centered episode, in which we finally find out what happened in Africa that caused her to chop off her hair and dye it red, a look that properly horrified lawyer Marcia Gay Harden back in the season premiere.
It's Maggie's turn at the deposition table, and to trade barbs with lawyer MGH (that's my name for her from now on), who's clearly relishing the bitchy insults she gets to lob at the News Night crew, one by one. Maggie then relays her story about Uganda, where we see an extended flashback of her and Gary (Cooper) traveling to an orphanage and Maggie befriending a young African boy who admires her hair and asks her to read him a story 7 times. Gary has a camera with him and is filming, which causes the trouble- when we return to Maggie's deposition at the end of the episode, we see that after having been stranded at the orphanage for the night, gunshots and shouting wake up the kids, and the crew has to gather them up in a bus and head out fast. Maggie's new friend Daniel, though, has hidden under her bed and she has to go back for him. As they're heading out they hear yells, which apparently translated to "give us the camera," and as Maggie turns around with Daniel on her back, a shot rings out and hits the boy in the spine, killing him instantly. They make it onto the bus and manage an escape, but Maggie is traumatized, and reacts when they get back to New York by getting rid of her hair. She also relays to MGH that even though she was prescribed Paxil by a psychiatrist, she's not taking the meds because she's "fine." MGH doesn't believe this of course, and neither do we, but we'll have to find out in future episodes, because this one ends on this very dramatic note about Maggie's mental state. We also find out that the deposition is apparently taking place a year from the events we're seeing unfold in 2011, so the show is going to be making a major time jump in the near future.
The other plot in this episode was frankly rather repetitive and annoying, as Neal recruits his OWS friend Shelly for an interview with Will, who of course berates and humiliates her on the air. She leaves the building infuriated, which is a problem because she knows someone in her circle at Zucotti Park who has written an article about the phosphorus gas having been used on citizens in Pakistan, and could be the evidence News Night needs to confirm Operation Genoa. Shelly refuses to lead them to her guy unless she receives an on air apology from Will- which, as we all know, will never happen. So Mac sends Sloan to apologize, which doesn't work as they get into another haughty exchange which ends with Sloan insulting Shelly, and then Don, who ends up doing the same thing. Finally, Will comes through and goes to see her in person, not to apologize, but to get into a final obnoxious exchange, where he admits he used her to brandish his reputation as a moderate, but the final point of this whole subplot is revealed when Shelly (apparently charmed by Will's "wisdom") admits that she was the one who sucked on the air, and Will, as always is right in his point about Occupy being a joke due to its lack of leaders. What's funny is that this whole back and forth attempts to point out Will's "smugness" as being a problem (and a charge Aaron Sorkin has received on multiple occasions regarding this show's characters), yet Will still has to win out in the end, no matter how pompous and arrogant he is. Jeff Daniels is so good at playing this guy that you buy it, but at some point this is pushing a character to insane unlikeability levels. Shelly's no peach, but the way she backs down in the face of Will's mere presence is slightly nauseating.
In the C-plot this week, Jim, still covering the Romney campaign but now ostracized from the bus, manages to finally land an interview with the candidate when he pushes spokesperson Taylor (Constance Zimmer again) too far and she tells him to go fuck himself in exasperation. However, after hearing Hallie's boss berate and humiliate her (a common theme this episode) over the phone for not producing enough material, he gives up the interview for her. This, predictably, causes Mac to yank him off the campaign trail, and Hallie to yell at him for patronizing her, but it all works out in Jim's favor when Hallie shows up by his poolside sulk later that night to kiss him (again, predictably) and thank him for what he did. Well, at least in this little side plot the guy who did the yelling and humiliating was not portrayed to be the real stand up guy at the end. Probably because he used the word "bitch," which was just about the only rude thing Will himself did not say to the Occupy girl, which I guess lets him off the hook.
Despite my grumbles at this show letting Will pretty much get away with anything (I don't know how many times I wanted to shout "yes he IS" every time someone defended him as NOT being an asshole in this episode), the Operation Genoa storyline is still heating up, and Maggie was given something a bit more interesting to deal with (I'm starting to think it's just Alison Pill who rubs me the wrong way with that character now). But seriously, if Will's going to be that arrogant, at least have him and the staff ADMIT that he's an asshole and move on. But pretending that he's not? Yeah, not buying it, folks.
