The Newsroom Review: Maggie's African Adventure

Life is full of "Unintended Consequences. But once it happens, there is no going back. 

This week, it was Maggie's turn on the hot seat as she was interviewed by ACN's high priced attorney concerning Genoa. But whether a Colonel said "it happened" or it didn't wasn't the real story. What they were really asking about was whether or not Maggie's state of mind was clouding her memory.

And it all circled back to her trip to Africa.

There had been so much build up about Maggie's African adventure that I had a knot in my stomach for every scene, anticipating the horror that I knew would eventually occur. 

The moment the pastor explained who Daniel was, I knew he wouldn't be alive at the end of the hour. Daniel's parents sent him to the orphanage for a few days to avoid the cattle raiders who were stealing cattle from neighboring farms with AK-47s... and raping and killing people in the process.

Unfortunately for Daniel, no where was safe.

The scene where Gary walked into the orphanage with the camera was heartbreaking. The kids mistook it for a gun and they screamed out in terror and dove for cover. Then there was the chilling realization that these children live with this kind of fear every single day.

Watching Maggie open her heart up to this little boy - who was fascinated by her long hair - was agonizing because there was little doubt the end of this story would be crushing. 

When the Pastor explained to Daniel that Maggie's hair color, something the boy had never seen in his short life, was called blonde and it was nothing but trouble, I'm sure he never thought that his harmless joke would haunt her for the rest of her life.

Maggie is consumed with guilt and what-ifs. What if she'd never gone to Africa? What if she hadn't dragged Daniel out from under her bed? What if her hair hadn't been blonde? As she told Rebecca in this The Newsroom quote…

They were there 'cause they spotted us filming the engineers and I pulled him out from under the bed forcibly and his spine ended up stopping a bullet that was plainly going to hit me. | permalink

So when Maggie came home she cut off her long blonde locks and dyed them orange. I couldn't really blame her.

All of it made her drama with Jim and Don seem like the silliness it was. Of course Jim's life was bordering on the ridiculous this week as he and his friends spent their time chasing the Romney press bus. Apparently they're making buses faster these days. 

Jim finally got his 30 minutes with the candidate, only to give it away to Hailey because he liked her and her boss was an ass. The gesture bought him a dressing down from Mac and a rebound fling with Hailey. Compared to Maggie's story, Jim's was downright boring.

We didn't see a lot of Will tonight but what we got was classic McAvoy. 

Shelly was humiliated when Will basically called her Occupy Wall Street protests a lot of noise signifying nothing. Yes, Will was smug but I was happy that someone pointed out that a movement without leaders or set goals was basically a movement about nothing. 

Punching Neal because she was frustrated was just childish and when Shelly petulantly reminded Sloan that she was a college professor, I liked her even less. 

Will apologizing to her in person was more than I ever expected. He was an ass, and he was having fun at her expense, but that didn't mean what he said was wrong.

And once again we came back around to Genoa. Rebecca mentioned that her questions for Maggie had to do with a wrongful termination suit. I'm going to guess that Jerry's the one who loses his job but I'm sure there's plenty more to that story. I'm also looking forward to the day the Red Team is brought in to give their opinions before Genoa makes it to air.

Despite, Will's interview, Jim's bus tour, and the continuation of the Genoa story, this week was all Maggie's - and her African adventure is something I won't soon forget.

C. Orlando was a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. Follow her on Twitter.