Through Bradley and Laura’s Montana Quarantine, The Morning Show Thoughtfully Examines Destructive Grief

Grief has been portrayed endlessly on television—and for good reason. As one of the most ubiquitous emotions, we will all grieve something or someone at some point in our lives, and that pain reaches across borders, languages, and belief barriers in its universality. And The Morning Show is no stranger to it either; in Season 1, Bradley (Reese Witherspoon) grieved her normal life, Alex (Jennifer Anniston) mourned her former glory, Hannah (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) longed for her peace and privacy, and in Season 2, the series showcased the lead-up to COVID and all the anguish that would follow in its wake. Now in its third season, The Morning Show scales back from its larger early-pandemic ambitions to focus on Bradley, her relationship with Laura (Julianna Margulies), and the loss of her mother in Episode 5, “Love Island.” 

In many ways, the beginning of Episode 5 feels like something straight out of Bradley and Laura fanfiction. The two are now permanently hosting The Morning Show together in Alex’s absence, solid as ever after the shaky footing they found in the Season 2 finale, and Bradley leaves New York to begin quarantining at Laura’s Montana ranch. Their easy cohabitation is sickeningly sweet, and their conversations surrounding their feelings and vastly different upbringings showcase this couple in a tentative honeymoon phase. It’s near-perfect in their little bubble as Bradley decides that it isn’t a big deal if they act a little flirty on air, marking a major milestone in her journey from her forceful outing in the previous season. They play lesbian charades, they talk about their feelings, they have mature and honest conversations about their traumas—and then it all comes crashing down when Bradley’s mother passes away from COVID, and she wasn’t there to say goodbye. 

From there, the episode begins to catalog the slow rot that begins to fester in their relationship as the seasons change. Bradley has always been a hot-headed character, she’s always been quick to snap and throw a mean comment when pushed. But the grief smothers her fire to a slow simmer. We watch as Bradley and Laura’s relationship dissolves not all at once in a burning blaze of smashed vases and hurled insults, but instead in a slow, acidic erosion. Bradley pulls away, Laura tries to reach out, Bradley needs her space. She begins to grow resentful of the Montana ranch—it looks more like a prison now than the sanctuary it had once been. All the precautions taken to protect Laura from the virus feel stifling instead of necessary sacrifices to protect her lover (Laura looks particularly stricken when Bradley asks if they can just go to a restaurant, as it marks the shift in what she deems a risk worth taking; Bradley’s restlessness trumps Laura’s wellbeing). Their relationship spoils over months, poisoned by Bradley’s persistent grief and self-loathing, so by the time they do have their massive, blow-up fight filled with baseless accusations and long-suppressed frustration, the relationship was practically unsalvageable. Laura becomes collateral damage in a battle Bradley must fight within herself, one that is built on guilt and shame over her own complicated feelings about her mother, and her lack of reconciliation with her death. 

And there, in the slow decay of this once-beautiful relationship, is where The Morning Show makes its most poignant commentary of the season. Because, sure, as much as this series thinks it has to say about newsroom inequity or January 6th, the examination of Bradley, her grief, and her self-destruction is the most compelling and sound through-line. As Bradley begins to push Laura away, The Morning Show posits that grief warps and shifts your worldview. It ultimately takes the things that are meant to be most important and shuffles them, bringing long-buried emotions to the surface. 

In that way, Bradley regresses in Montana. She believes she isn’t deserving of the happiness she has fostered with Laura in their shared oasis (her comment about being her girlfriend’s “white trash pet” reveals just how little Bradley thinks of herself), and the illusion of their shared happiness is shattered by that unmanageable grief and guilt. When the world is scary and uncertain, Bradley just wants her mother. Despite their strained relationship, her mother becomes a martyr, a beacon of Bradley’s connection to her home, her family, and her roots, and she begins to loath herself for staying away—even if it was the best decision she ever made. And that’s why, when she sees Hal (Joe Tippett) at the Capitol, beating on a police officer, she saves him. She’s pushed Laura away, she’s lost her mother, so the only person left in her life is her addict brother. And unfortunately, in Bradley’s efforts to not lose any more people in her life, she ironically loses herself. She sacrifices her morals, her integrity, her relationships, and her soul to avoid another loss, all while never truly realizing that it’s all already slipped through her fingers. 

So when Bradley confesses to Laura in Episode 4 that a part of her wants nothing more than to run away with her and leave all the madness behind, The Morning Show exposes that still-lingering emptiness inside of Bradley two years later. Without the context of their time in Montana, that scene (while still an incredible, if brief, outing for Witherspoon and Margulies in its own right) breezes by, seeming like Bradley simply yearning for an unattainable future for a lost relationship. However, after Episode 5, that scene shifts. When Bradley reminds Laura how “miserable” she was at the ranch, the series establishes that she is still holding on to that grief and resentment, even as she longs for the connection they once shared. It’s a painful scene in hindsight; Bradley, looking at the woman she loves (who is offering her nothing but grace and kindness even after everything) and realizing that there’s still a part of her stuck on that ranch, sliding down the glass door after hearing Hal utter the words she didn’t think she would hear so soon. 

And that’s what grief is.

Yes, WandaVision, it most certainly is “love persevering,” but it’s also a cryogenic stagnation. A cracked, broken clock that stopped the moment your life changed forever. It twists and it rots and it aches and it grows until you’re hollowed out from the inside, trapped in that temporarily shared grave until you can claw your way out. In The Morning Show, grief has touched every central character, but Bradley’s powerful and moving battle with her own emotions (a battle that she is far from done fighting) is the highlight of this season, and gives true gravity to the series’ last-minute COVID inclusion from Season 2. Because, while it may be easy to write in jokes about 6-foot distances and Alex becoming the savior of UBA in a fever-induced haze, it’s much harder to accurately convey the ball-and-chain that grief becomes, and through Bradley’s devastating storyline, The Morning Show gets pretty damn close. 

Anna Govert is the TV Editor of Paste Magazine. For any and all thoughts about TV, film, and her unshakable obsession with queer representation, you can follow her @annagovert.

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