Poor Mia Jordan. You knew there was no way Head of News was going to happen for her after it had already been put off for two years, and yet it’s still pretty awful to watch her become collateral damage in Stella’s affair with Miles. Mia can psych herself up for her big interview all she wants — her “Head of News, motherfuckers” was very convincing! — but there’s too much gameplay going on behind the scenes at UBN. She never stood a chance.

Who is playing this game with Stella? Why, Celine of course. Do not be fooled by Celine’s chic bob; the woman is an agent of chaos. The moment Stella mentions that she’s considering a development deal with Cory Ellison, Celine knows Cory must have some leverage over Stella. There’s no other possible explanation for Stella even considering this deal. It’s certainly not surprising that Celine can read Stella so easily; she seems pretty savvy in regards to everything except the raging blind spot that is her husband. What is surprising, however, is what Cory points out later when he meets up with his old pal to talk art and see which way she’s leaning regarding his return to UBN: When Celine asks Cory what he has on Stella, Cory says she seems almost eager to learn some real dirt on her CEO. Celine must have some grander plans we are not privy to just yet. Cory doesn’t give Stella up at this moment, but you know it’s coming.

While we don’t know Celine’s endgame just yet, we do get to watch her toy with Stella. As much as Stella has told Mia that this Head of News job is hers — she is certainly the most qualified candidate — so much goes wrong for the TMS executive producer on the day of her interview. She’s having a hard time prepping because she has to deal with how poorly Bradley’s return to the anchor chair has been. Her biggest champion, Alex, gets tied up with her own mess and can’t be there for the interview to offer support in the room. The interview itself is brimming with tension, even though Mia’s supposed to be the front-runner. Celine presses her. She wants Mia to have a real vision for the future of the news department. Or, rather, she wants Mia to have Celine’s vision for the future of the news department, which is “incendiary” and “sexy.” Those sound like better descriptors for a Victoria’s Secret fashion show with a pyrotechnic element than for broadcast news programs, but Celine says those words in a French accent, so you know what? Maybe the news should be sexy.

Mia isn’t expecting so much pushback, but she handles it well. She reminds Celine that these days, simply reporting hard news is incendiary. It doesn’t matter how good Mia is or that she confidently punctuates her interview with a “is that sexy enough for you?” retort. Once she leaves the room, it’s obvious that Celine wants to install Ben the Sports Guy as Head of News. Apparently, he has “reinvented the Olympics,” and since all we’ve seen him produce as far as Olympic coverage is one failed sit-down interview with an athlete for UBN’s streaming service, I have to wonder: Does Celine know what the Olympics are?

Regardless, Celine sets a trap for Stella, who walks right into it. She’s only offering counsel, of course, since hiring and firing is Stella’s responsibility, but she notes how off-balance it might look if Stella’s only hiring people from the old guard. If she’s going to bring Cory Ellison back into the fold, shouldn’t she balance the scales a bit by bringing in someone new for Head of News? It works: Stella needs to keep Cory happy lest he spill the beans on her sleeping with Miles, and Mia is going to pay the price. Oh, baby, when Stella breaks the news to her friend, Mia lets her have it. She refuses to sit there and listen to how hard a decision this was for her, and she certainly won’t let Stella claim to be any kind of friend to her. Stella lashes out and changes her story: She says she was trying to soften the blow, but actually Ben was much more qualified. No one is buying that bullshit. Mia quits on the spot. Good for her! I hope she finds a way to go scorched earth on UBN. Or, like, just go on a vacation. Life doesn’t have to be as hard as The Morning Show makes it out to be.

Alex, too, is pushed into a situation where she’s forced to balance some scales. Her impromptu interview with Extinction Revolt during their protest of the big climate summit, you know, when she realized other human beings besides her can feel gaslit, has ruffled the feathers of Zeke Pemberton, a bigwig in the oil and gas industry who has a giant contract for advertising with the network. He’s threatened to pull all of his ad money out of UBN. Celine wants Alex to go down to the climate summit and apologize, face-to-face. She does as she’s told — and runs right into Paul Marks.

It looks like these two still have it real bad for each other, even two years after their monstrous breakup. There is some real yearning and heartbreak in those faces! Sure, Paul has a hot new girlfriend whose life work is to help climate refugees, but that dude has it bad for Real Journalist Alex Levy. And Alex may swear she’s upset because he found someone new first and that Paul only has transactional relationships, but when Paul brokers a peace deal between Alex and Zeke Pemberton in which she doesn’t have to smear Extinction Revolt in order to tip the scales back in Zeke’s favor and Paul tells her he wants nothing in return? Oh, you know this woman wants to smash faces with that man so badly.

Unfortunately for all of us, the only people smashing faces in this episode are Bradley Jackson and Cory Ellison. YOU READ THAT RIGHT. Cory invites Bradley over to his place to talk and eat bomboloni. He wants to let her know that he might soon be working at UBN as well. He wants to make sure she’s okay with that and with the inevitable gossip that will follow once he does. He is also worried that maybe part of her deal with the Feds included informing them of Cory’s role in obstructing justice. A little buzzed on wine and Italian baked goods, Bradley wants Cory to know that he has nothing to worry about, with any of it. She seems relieved to see him again — she thought she never would. She saunters up to him and she plants a big ol’ kiss on him. It’s not long before we get a shot of these two crazy kids naked in bed together, engaging in a post-coital hand-holding sesh. If you’d been wondering if they’d ever go there with these two, here is your answer.

If this is supposed to be the kickoff to some big love story for these two, it could spell trouble for so many reasons. First, love never survives the halls of UBN. That place is a toxic dump, emotionally speaking. Second, I do not for one second believe these two are in any way romantically or sexually attracted to each other. It’s honestly a shame that they decided to pull the trigger on this storyline in the same episode in which Alex and Paul reunite, since Jennifer Aniston and Jon Hamm merely look at each other and ooze sexual tension and on-screen chemistry. The lack of those two things between Billy Crudup and Reese Witherspoon becomes glaringly obvious. Although who knows? Maybe they’ll have time to change our minds. Or maybe this pairing officially turning romantic will lead to some extra-juicy drama. At the very least, I hope it answers the biggest question on all of our minds: Does Cory Ellison give one of his long-winded, psychotic monologues right before he comes? Fingers crossed the answer is yes.

In Other News

• Bradley and Chip finally track down Claire, who is cagey, but does hand over a document that clearly points to former Head of News Bethanne Hines taking a multimillion-dollar payout to kill the Wolf River story. And when Chip meets with Bethanne, she is too scared to say much but confirms he’s on the right track by leaving him a message that points him toward specific UBA documents to seek out. These two might be on to something!

• Before Paul steps in to help Alex, Zeke wants her to report on a not-actually-confirmed story about the Extinction Revolt guy she interviewed on the street being responsible for an oil rig explosion that left multiple people dead. While she ultimately doesn’t need to use the info her research team digs up, surely Alex is eventually going to collide with Bradley and Chip’s investigation.

• I can’t believe this show is trying to make me hate Aaron Pierre, but that whole conversation Miles has with Stella about how she is “undeniable” and he can’t stop thinking about her made me want to barf. Leave Celine if you’re so into Stella! I fear this man is trash.

• When Celine tells Alex that Miles is friendly with Zeke Pemberton after helping his wife shop for art, noting that she and Miles really hit it off — Miles definitely slept with that lady too, right?

 The romantic relationships are in utter shambles, which is no surprise considering love never survives the halls of UBN.