We Need To Know: Is Anyone Sane on HBO’s The Newsroom? 

Crazy, whacky and nutty are just a few of the words that describe the latest antics of those kooky kids in The Newsroom. Did I mention that I’m referring to the adults?

Sunday night’s episode, “Election Night Part I” was filled drama, comedy and unforgettable lines. I promise that I’ll get to all it, but not before dropping the TWO BIG BOMSHELLS. I wouldn’t bury the lead; I’m not that kind of writer!

1. We knew it was coming. Mac loses it with Will and finally gets her wish, but not before an emotional exchange between the ex-lovers. After Mac verbally throws everything she has at Will, he finally gives in, “I was a good guy. I was a good guy, you’re fired, end of the broadcast, please don’t tell anyone.” Here’s the bottom line, Will never got over the fact that Mac cheated on him and she never came to terms with her guilt. Kudos to Jeff Daniels and Emily Mortimer, they were BRILLIANT!

2. Jerry Dantana slaps Don with a $20 million dollar lawsuit after he tells a potential employer that Jerry was a sociopath, he asks Rebecca, “Why in the world would he put me down as a reference?” Her response? “So this would happen.” Don, when are you going to keep your big mouth shut?

Now that we have the BREAKING NEWS out of the way, it’s time to rewind and recap the rest of “Election Night, Part 1.” It’s kind of a bumpy ride. Strap yourself in!

As Jim puts in some FaceTime with Hallie and tells her things he shouldn’t be repeating, like the fact that Charlie, Will and Mac tried to resign and Leona turned them down, another meeting is going on elsewhere in the building. Rebecca, Charlie and Will discuss the network’s credibility. As Charlie continues to freak out, Will calmly appoints himself in charge of morale and Rebecca who is in a hurry to get a party hosted by Reese Lansing, refers to herself as, “Liquid Sex.” Marcia Gay Harden, you are 54 and fabulous!

Remember the election? Decision 2012 continues in the green room. Jim brings Maggie in to prep Taylor for the election night coverage. It was good to see Constance Zimmer reprise her role as the former Romney spokesperson. You may recall, a few episodes back, she was booted off the Romney campaign. Now a Republican strategist for ACN, Maggie and Taylor quickly hit if off and it turns out to be a win-win situation, when Taylor decides to share a hot news tip with her, before Jim gets wind of it. Does this make them frenemies? Just wondering.

After Sloan tells Elliot, “I’m gonna own you out there”, she bumps into Neal in the hallway, only to learn that an “autographed” book was auctioned off to the tune of $1,000 bucks, except there is a problem, she never signed it; someone else did. Feeling bad, Sloan becomes obsessed and enlists the web guru on the busiest night of the year to find out who bought it.

Meanwhile, Maggie decides to tell her ex-boyfriend, Don, about the news tip that Taylor gave to her. He makes a few phone calls and follows up on it, but is offered a better deal. Don decides not to do anything about the story at this time. Good call Don! After all, ACN is trying to win back the trust of the public.

With Mac becoming unglued minute-by-minute, she charges into Will’s office and lets loose, leading to a heated battle between the ex-lovers and current coworkers.  Mac is still holding onto her guilt over ruining Will’s personal and now his professional life wants to know, “What is the punishment going to be this time?” But with the Presidential election looming in the background, their war of words are cut short, but not before Will insists that he never punished her, “I’m sorry I didn’t explode for you.” “It’s a long night,” Mac replied.

Charlie, who is still on edge, explains to everyone that “our elections are the envy of the world” and has one warning for everyone, “if you make a mistake, run out of the building as fast as you can, and keep running til you hit water then swim.” It seems everyone got the message except for Jim.

But before we get to Jim’s mistake, it’s time for Charlie and Reese to party. Still begging to be FIRED, Charlie continues to drone on to Reese. Guess what? Reese finally agrees with him, “I think your resignation should be accepted immediately and we should write Dantana a check and get to the business of rebooting this once respected brand.” And with that, Charlie wants to know why he can’t accept his resignation and here comes one of my favorite lines of the night: “My mom says, I can’t.” That was a laugh out loud moment! Reese is a mama’s boy.

Back on the news set, during ACN’s so-called election coverage, Mac goes ballistic when Taylor attempts to compliment her. Why you ask? Well it seems an online website stated that Mac attended Oxford when indeed she went to Cambridge. She wanted to drive that point home! Then Sloan finds out that producer, Gary Cooper, is the one who signed her book, but he was only trying to help her out. Still crazy over the matter, she insists that Neal finds out who purchased the book. Can we all agree that this wasn’t Neal’s night? So much for being a good guy, he’s stuck with cleaning up Mac and Sloan’s messes.

Now back to Don. The hard-nosed producer is furious when he finds out that he’s being slapped with a $20 million dollar lawsuit. Don being Don, he has some choice words for Rebecca: “You are a member of a godless, soulless, race of extortionists.” “No fair,” says Rebecca and Don agrees or so it seems.

About Jim’s election night faux pas, his own handwriting led to the calling of a Michigan congressional race instead of a Mississippi race. After giving it some thought, he decides to make it go away by taking it out of the scroll. I sure hope that my favorite no-nonsense, senior producer isn’t turning into Jerry Dantana – say it ain’t so?

Back in Will’s office, the impassioned and tear jerking conversation between the co-workers and once lovebirds, leads to Will finally firing Mac. As I mentioned earlier, Jeff and Emily brought their “A” game to this episode. The lines and the looks between them make it so real; it actually brought me to tears.

And just when you think you’ve scene it all, Charlie completely loses it when Don tells him that General David Petraeus is about to resign over an extra marital affair. With that, Mr. Skinner screams, “what the f’=ck” – and that’s all folks.

Not really, this coming Sunday is the season two finale and from what I saw in the previews, it is a MUST SEE episode.

How will The Newsroom end? You’ll find out Sunday on HBO at 10/9c. Make sure you set your DVR. You might want to watch it again.