“The Newsroom” continues impressing in its final season, having every story feel rewarding, as well as amping up the stakes dramatically in both the buyout and Neal storylines.

“Neal Run”

Note: The following review goes into detail about the episode. SPOILER ALERT!

“Run” might just be my favorite episode yet of this entire series. I have absolutely no idea what its endgame is, but The Newsroom sure is having a blast setting it all up.

Starting with last week’s cliffhanger, this week we got to meet Reese’s half-siblings who are trying to buy ACN. This led to some great back and forth between Reese and his half-sister Blair (Kat Dennings) (not to be confused with her brother Randy), and it was a great way to begin the episode. Having Reese go from being the antagonist to something of an anti-hero was a nice touch this season, one which hopefully won’t be ignored later. It was nice seeing Leona again, and her immediate smack-down of Blair was just plain awesome. I can’t say that I know how the team is going to put together $4 billion, but I am definitely intrigued.

The biggest story this week belongs to Neal, culminating with him calling in the feds so that the rest of the news team wouldn’t try to protect him, followed by him going on the run. His conversation with Will in the studio was a poignant break from the rest of the action of the episode, and was honestly one of my favorite scenes. It now seems to be inevitable that the team will run his story, which at least makes his downfall worth it in some way.

Sloan and Don took a look at whether or not they were a couple. This was the funniest plot, from the waffle-related buffet jokes, to the awkward screaming of how the sex was good to Jim and the “I love you” fake out. I have never been a huge fan of the relationships on this show in the past, but I really liked the two of them together. Theirs’ was a welcome break from the heavy emotional drama of the rest of the episode.

Maggie had another great episode, keeping in line with her reporting in Boston last week. This time around she listened to a phone conversation with a guy working with the EPA and another reporter. And though she could have used the story, she decided not to after the EPA worker pointed out how distrustful it would be. This led to the worker being so impressed that he gave her an embargoed EPA report on how bad global warming is getting. So far, her storyline this season has been very isolated from the rest of the team, so it will be nice to see how they all react to her new story. This also led to her meeting a college professor of ethics, ironically, and it seems like they are setting up a romance between the two. Maybe that will mean her relationship with Jim can finally be put down for good.

Speaking of Jim, he and Hallie also had an interesting episode, as she got fired after tweeting a bad joke about Republicans under the ACN Twitter handle. While I said earlier that this was a good episode all around, this was the weakest storyline. It was a sudden and unfulfilling end to Hallie’s job in the newsroom, and made more bitter by the fact that this season was her first there. That being said, it did lead to a stronger development of Hallie and Jim’s relationship.

THE BREAKDOWN

“Run” was one of the most overall pleasing episodes of The Newsroom so far, while also setting up multiple future plots. This is how a mid-season episode should be, tying up/expanding on the stories of the last episode, while perfectly setting up for future (remaining) ones.

Where do you think Neal’s story is headed. Leak your predictions in the comments below.

95/100 – ‘Superb’

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