The Morning Show Showrunner Explains That Huge Season 3 Finale Twist For Reese Witherspoon's Bradley Jackson
It was a big season for the truth-teller.
The recently wrapped season of The Morning Show was full of soapy goodness, featuring a steamy romance for Jennifer Aniston’s Alex Levy and tech billionaire Paul Marks in Jon Hamm’s TV comeback and increasingly turbulent times for Cory, Stella and the rest of the UBA staff. However, it was Bradley Jackson who dug herself into the deepest hole, after destroying evidence from the January 6 Capitol attack, and this season’s new showrunner Charlotte Stoudt explained why we saw that huge twist for Reese Witherspoon’s character.
Bradley Jackson has always been an intense truth-seeker on The Morning Show (with Season 3 available to stream now with an AppleTV+ subscription), but she’s also an impulsive character who carries a lot of baggage in regards to her childhood and her small-town family. That really played into the Season 3 storyline, Charlotte Stoudt told Variety, explaining:
We saw this divide in a flashback this season, when it was revealed that Bradley’s mom contracted and ultimately died from COVID after refusing to wear a mask, but it was during the Capitol riots that things got really messy.
Bradley happened to be in the Capitol when the raid began, and she was documenting the events with her phone when she saw her brother Hal assault a Capitol police officer. She made the choice to delete the footage in hopes of saving her brother, despite her recordings being subpoenaed for the federal investigation that followed. The showrunner continued:
We learned in earlier seasons that Bradley and Hal’s father was sent to prison after Bradley informed police that he was driving drunk when he’d killed a child. Their family was never the same after that, particularly with Hal falling into addiction. Knowing that, on top of Bradley not being able to save her mom from COVID, and you can see why she chose to prioritize her family over the truth this time around.
The truth-teller in Bradley prevailed in the end, as Bradley resigned from UBA, and she and Hal turned themselves in to the FBI at the end of the season finale to face whatever consequences await. We’ll have to see how that big twist affects Season 4, which was already ordered before Season 3 aired. In the meantime, though, check out some of the other best shows to stream on AppleTV+.
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Heidi Venable is a Content Producer for CinemaBlend, a mom of two and a hard-core '90s kid. She started freelancing for CinemaBlend in 2020 and officially came on board in 2021. Her job entails writing news stories and TV reactions from some of her favorite prime-time shows like Grey's Anatomy and The Bachelor. She graduated from Louisiana Tech University with a degree in Journalism and worked in the newspaper industry for almost two decades in multiple roles including Sports Editor, Page Designer and Online Editor. Unprovoked, will quote Friends in any situation. Thrives on New Orleans Saints football, The West Wing and taco trucks.