‘The Morning Show’ Recap: ‘Love Island’

10/5/2023

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Reese Witherspoon as Bradley Jackson in Episode 305 of ‘The Morning Show’ – ‘Love Island’. (Photo Courtesy of Apple.)

Caution: This article contains spoilers for episode 305 of ‘The Morning Show’. To revisit the previous episode, click here. Also, this piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.

For the most part, popular media, in every medium, has worked hard to in essence, not discuss or explore the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic/Lockdown and understandably so. After all, that was… a scary time in all of our lives. For each and every person on the planet, had to face the very real possibility of losing their lives to a virus that claimed the healthiest of people, and our fears didn’t end there. Because we simply didn’t know what the virus was going to do, and the world was a hot mess during that time and its fate was up in the air, and all we could do… was sit back in our homes and wait and wonder what was next for us. But while there were indeed scary moments for us during that timeframe, there comes a point where we must begin to reflect upon the journey, we all went through.

In part to help us to resolve the traumas that brush with death imparted upon us, but also… to just better understand everything we learned about ourselves and the world during the pandemic. Since it threw so much at us, some of which was good, some of which was bad. Some of which came as a direct result of the fear/trauma that was instilled within us during that trying time. But we must reflect, we must heal, and we must find value in a moment such as that, and well… that is why we are starting to see that edict in popular media be lifted. For stories about the pandemic are finally starting to head our way and it should come as no surprise that one of the boldest shows on television, took the time to dive into all of those elements in a bold manner. For that was the focus of the next episode of The Morning Show on Apple TV+, and that made ‘Love Island’ quite the powerful episode.

Because it covered so much about that moment in time. A feat that it accomplished by transporting us back to March of 2020, on the eve of lockdowns and of a year that would change our lives and well… we quickly came to be reminded that there were a fair number of us that used this time as a season of renewal and exploration for what we wanted in life. Something that Cory and Bradley did by taking bold chances once the world shut down, via love, really. Since Cory got close to his real estate agent for a time, while Bradley cozied up to Laura out in Montana and well, they learned as the pandemic went along that neither Laura or that real estate agent was what they wanted or needed. They needed a deeper connection, and parted ways. All of which helped to remind us that that the pandemic did in fact, teach us a lot about what we need in our lives and what kind of relationship will fulfill us and the explorations of that time period didn’t end there.

Joe Tippett as Hal Jackson in Episode 305 of ‘The Morning Show’ – ‘Love Island’. (Photo Courtesy of Apple.)

For this episode served as a ‘greatest hits’ album of the pandemic, the kind that saw Mia grapple with the George Floyd nightmare that engulfed the country and its harsh reminders that racial equality was not and is not a thing in America in 2020 and 2023, and she also found herself facing some personal traumas once again during the pandemic, since Mitch Kessler’s interviews were released on UBA+ during this time. Plus, she also had a brush with the virus itself when her beloved just decided to go out and get blitzed. All of which just served to remind us of how trying this time was and the chaos that we had to endure from afar and of course… how we could not escape the virus. For it was indeed everywhere and it was indeed scary and unsettling whenever we had a brush with it, especially before the arrival of the vaccine and all of its wonder.

But while that made for a fascinating journey back through time, there was mention of how this story also explored some of the why behind the stranger acts that people took part during this period of time and some of it… was related to loss and the impact it has upon us. For Bradley’s mother, a staunch denier of the science as so many were during that time (and still are), succumbed to the virus. Which left Bradley in a dark place, and understandably so. For she had no closure regarding this since it happened so fast, and a traditional funeral wasn’t possible and that prompted her to do something quite out of character. For she covered 1/6 and was inside the capitol when the madness began, and she found her brother in there. And Hal committed crimes and was obviously in serious trouble, but Bradley bailed him out. She sent him off, deleted the footage and confided in Cory about the matter. Giving rise to the reality that grief makes us do awful things, since her reasoning for this was because Hal was all, she had left.

However, that also explains why she was so concerned about the leak, and what it could mean and well, in the end, this was just a powerful, powerful episode. For it really did ponder deeply upon that dark period of time in our world and it also accomplished something quite unique. In that, any lessons it offered up were topical in nature, in fact, it was mostly reminders. Which meant that this episode wasn’t designed to give us a fix for our own concerns about that dark time in our lives, it tasked us instead. To ponder upon that time, to ponder upon the lessons and our own follies so we can make peace with it all and move on and that’s a bold move for a show about the world to take part in, but it works. Because that really is the right way to handle such matters, for a show cannot give us clarity on a supremely personal journey and now that we have blanks filled in for that era, and plenty to ponder upon, it is time to turn our attention to next week’s tale and how these moments will impact the rest of season three and the fate of UBA. Until next time.

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