Chip is the executive producer of a morning television show who knows that he could be fired at any moment. If they are going to go after Fred, they need to wait until the perfect moment, with ironclad evidence against him, before they strike.
Cory, with a mouth full of falafel, tells Chip he needs to be patient, he needs to be like the ambush predators on Planet Earth (a documentary series, thank you very much). Chip, who, let’s face it, is always on the verge of a meltdown these days, is especially on edge at the moment as he makes some ill-advised moves to make this coup with Cory happen.
Not like things are any calmer back at the studio. And Alex turning around to take back her pizza is absolute perfection. It’s not particularly fun to watch parents scream obscenities at their children, but that entire scene is a car crash from which you cannot look away. Alex also refuses to apologize for her ambition or career. It starts out with “I’m sorry I broke your heart” and ends with “Fuck you, kid,” and in between we get Lizzy calling out her mother for playing the victim and Alex reminding her daughter in a very loud voice that she gave her life, her love, and her body to Lizzie, who apparently had a very large head as a baby.
Oh, you guys, I do not know how to accurately state how terrible this visit goes. It’s with all of this emotion - plus, like, every other emotion Alex has been feeling since TMS imploded - that Alex visits Lizzy at her boarding school, large pizza in hand, in an attempt to make amends. She hops from that conversation to another super-fun one with her PR team, who informs her that “it’s not the best time to get divorced” and proceeds to list reasons why - mostly, the suspicious timing with Mitch’s divorce - as well as ways the actual filing for divorce could make her look good and pitiable or bad and like a heartless bitch, all with the sterility of the listing of side effects on a drug commercial. Basically, like, true Alex Levy nightmare stuff. She loves her job more than she’s ever loved her family. Lizzy immediately blames Alex and her job and tells her mother that she treats her and her father like assistants.
The conversation goes about as poorly as Alex had feared. Freshly back from the wildfires in Los Angeles, Alex must do the thing that caused her to hurl her guts into a toilet in front of sometimes archenemy Bradley Jackson, and tell her young daughter Lizzy that she and Jason are getting a divorce. The most spectacular of these meltdowns belongs to our girl Alex Levy. It feels appropriate that “Open Waters” airs the week of Thanksgiving, a holiday that, with its potent mix of extended family members, free-flowing booze, and a truly overwhelming amount of meat, always runs the risk of ending in a full-on family meltdown, because that’s exactly what’s going on at The Morning Show this week: People are melting the hell down.