The Newsroom: Word Salad

Lisa tries to bum-rush them out because she works on commission but Jim, Sainted Prince Jim, butts in and tries to rush the customer out of the store by telling her he’s heterosexual and she looks hot in that dress so she should buy it and leave without even changing. Dick. The young woman doesn’t even acknowledge Jim, she just wants to try on another dress, and another glass of wine.

With her briefly out of the way, Maggie goes all Sookie Stackhouse and points out how much it would mean to her and how she needs this and if Lisa were here friend she’d do this for Maggie because everyone’s relying on her. To her credit, Lisa still can’t seem to find any fucks to give among all the designer dresses.

More dresses, more Jim being inappropriate, more customer thinking Jim’s a fly she wants to swat and Lisa’s still not budging because she finds it repulsive and profane and doesn’t want to compromise her principles so Maggie can get a gold star at work.

I can’t hear you through your bad hair and cheap clothes.

Then the customer calls Lisa to help her with her dress so Jim can turn into a geezer and go on about how cheap he is then…oh gah. Jim’s musing about whether or not Lisa and the customer are making out and says he doesn’t understand “straight women or gay men” because they never kiss other women. And Don’s the asshole in that triangle.

One last inappropriate outburst by Jim toward the customer, who is too stupid to know just how awful he is, then some final haranguing of Lisa about how important this all is to them because she should always consider what matters most to them, and she gives in. Now that Maggie’s gotten what she wanted she blows out of the store while Jim picks the most inopportune time to try to “woo” Lisa. Blessedly, Maggie could not care less about Lisa or Jim or their possible relationship so she starts banging on the window to make him heel. This whole scene was ridiculous. Never mind. Chance.

Don comes to Will’s office because Will wanted to see him. Turns out the flowers are for him, and they’re from a woman named “Jenna.” Oops. Now, pilot Don wouldn’t care what Will thought but this is Episode 9 Don and he confides in Will that he’s not exactly the wallowing kind of guy. He’s been dating other women whenever he and Maggie break up. As you do when you’re broken up. Will isn’t judging (That’s a first.) Then he asks Don, not Mackenzie or Charlie, if he’s doing the right thing, and Don says yes because he understands Machiavelli. But Will won’t tell Don he’s doing the right thing because Will’s a dick. Even if he’s actually kind of not entirely wrong.

Unlike you, I just hop right back in that saddle.