Image Source: Wikimedia – Commons, slate.com, Vulture

The Morning Show cast is suffering from a bout of Covid, and hence, season 2 has just ended, just like season 1. The anchor of the show for Jennifer Aniston, Alex Levy, has been performing on the show while she fights off the deadly Coronavirus. However, a certain affair of the host with Mitch Kessler, ( Steve Carell ) a co-host on the show has put things into a bit of a bind. 

The season one’s finale that aired in December 2019 had a coronavirus reference as the show anchor Kerry Ehrin shared that Covid would soon be making an appearance in America. Soon, Bradley Jackson ( Reese Witherspoon ) reported that a cruise ship headed for Papua Guinea has been set up for four days of quarantine. Season 2 aired in March and while the globe collectively went into shock over the new work from home situation, TMS producer Chip Black ( Mark Duplass ) shared that he knows how to overcome the little obstacle that the pandemic was.

Now that Ehrin has also revealed that Alex has Covid in season 2’s episode ‘Fever,’ it was possible that the audience would backlash at the host. Especially as Alex was canceled for the Covid status, it was almost predictable that Ehrin would have to face this in the future of the show. However, she was saved from imminent doom because she and Laura Peterson ( Julianna Margulies ) have a remote studio at their house where she can host the show from. Cory Ellison ( Billy Crudup ) shows a particular favor for Bradley and hence, she will stick on the show for now. 

On the other hand, there is the case of Mitch’s documentary by the filmmaker Paola ( Valeria Golino ). The documentary will be featuring a confession from the anchor as she comes crashing into Cory's office. The footage contains a  “living monument for humanity’s capacity for good” moment and hence, they might get to reverse the very dire effects of the canceled culture through an assessment of the season. 

While the third season is not in sight any time soon, it will surely have some interesting themes to watch.

Upon being asked if Alex's Covid situation would have been the only finale needed for season 2, Kerry Ehrin shared with Deadline, "I didn’t ever think of that as an ending. One of the really interesting things about doing this job is seeing how other people interpret it, react to it, and respond to it emotionally. It’s really interesting to me, and it’s cool, but I always felt like we needed a landing place for Alex emotionally, for Bradley." 

While season 2 does have its own dangler moment, Ehrin added, "I’m not really a writer that lives in cliffhangers. I do them to some extent because they’re great, they have a purpose, but I really feel good emotionally about what I’m doing, when I need to land it. I need to land the plane a little bit.:

With cancel culture being so strongly discussed by Mitch and Alex in season 2, getting a better perspective on it again can do greater general good. When asked if society, in general, can learn to forgive. Ehrin revealed, "I don’t think it’s that severe of a thesis. It’s just looking inside of various aspects of it, and really raising questions, different points of view because it’s all so complicated, and I think sometimes –and I’m not talking about cancel culture, I’m talking about issues in general– we have a tendency to put them in a box and say ‘This is what that is, and I feel like as human beings we’re very complicated and messy creatures with so many conflicting impulses for self-preservation, for wanting to be morally a good person, for wanting to succeed in the world."

In the end, Ehrin chose not to answer the question for everyone as he said, "All of these things are all at play all the time in everybody, and I was really more interested in looking at that aspect of it than making some sort of definitive statement about culture."

Now that Laura has stated that she would stand against the cancel culture and work from home, especially after Alex faced extreme public backlash, it is truly a defining moment for people. Talking about the two's subjective approach to cancel culture, Ehrin said, "You can equate them by saying it has to do with the rejection, your rejection by society. Which I think is — I believe shunning is considered one of the most psychologically abusive forms of punishment. People need to feel community and a presence of being in a community for their mental and emotional health."

Sharing how Mitch and Laura are actually not on the same side of the coin, Ehrin said, "So, it’s interesting from that perspective, although I think it’s very different. They’re pretty different circumstances, one being Laura did not do anything wrong, and Mitch did a lot of shit wrong, you know?"

Explaining further where things end up wrong for Mitch, he said, "Mitch’s story isn’t about, it really isn’t about cancel, you know, ‘boo-hoo’ cancel culture, poor Mitch, in any way. His story was about Mitch the human who had lived his life in a state of denial, who had believed he was a good guy, who lived in a bubble that was supported by all the people who worked around him, and when that bubble burst and when he had to look at who the world thought he was now, he had to reconcile that inside of himself, and his story is really about his internal journey of walking through the rest of his life as this person he doesn’t want to be and having to ultimately acknowledge that he was responsible for those actions."

Holding Mitch to the pedestal of right and wrong, Ehrin said, "Whether or not he at the time was thinking, ‘Oh, I’m going to use my power to get this girl in bed,’ he wasn’t. He was in denial. He thought he was like the most attractive man in the world because he bought into his own PR and that women liked him. He wasn’t looking at it from an honest place, and I think once he is looking at it from an honest place, it’s not easy to live with.  And it kind of leaves him painted in a corner because he doesn’t want to accept that that’s who he is, and yet, he is slowly realizing that is who he is."

While Covid has stayed as a main theme on the show, Ehrin is not yet sure if the episode that yet reached up to the events of Mid March will also show the Capitol Riots. He thinks that a time jump for season 3 is possible. 

Resse Witherspoon's character Bradley learns to adapt to the news show environment; Credits: Tom's Guide

The now mostly women characters of the show, Bradley, Laura, and Alex will get to have a great time on the show in season 3. Ehrin shared, "Well, I definitely want to see more of Bradley and Laura. I feel like Alex has come to a place for the first time since the pilot of accepting who she is and facing her worst fears, and I want to see how the phoenix rises from the ashes for her and learning how to have a full life and be present and loving."