Yes, That Person Really Left The Morning Show
Spoilers abound for season four of The Morning Show.
Here’s some news that would make even Alex Levy gasp: Stella Bak will not be back at UBN. Greta Lee is leaving The Morning Show, and last night’s episode, the sixth in the show’s fourth season, was her surprise swan song. The episode was a series of Job-like trials for UBN CEO Stella: She betrayed Chris (Karen Pittman), she learned that her AI programs aren’t ready for the Olympics, she attempted to broker a deal with a lame stand-up comic who ultimately turned her down, and then she vented about all that to the saddest option possible, the AI version of herself. Then, that very same AI version of Stella went rogue during a press conference and revealed a bunch of her secrets to the press including her affair with her boss’s husband, Miles (Aaron Pierre). Like the Coldplay execs before her, she resigned. Then, she arrived at the airport to steal away to Italy with her boo who isn’t her boo only to find that he won’t be joining her. And so Stella Bak ends her arc in a tragedy: crying on a plane, betrayed by man and by AI.
“Of course, I would have loved to have stayed on indefinitely,” Lee told The Hollywood Reporter after Stella’s demise. “This is like family to me. I moved to L.A. because of this show a few years ago from New York. I had my babies while doing the show and so much has happened. But it got to the point where it just wasn’t possible. These shows are such a commitment. We kept trying and it just got harder and harder, scheduling-wise, to be there, and to be able to hand over my resources and time to keep being on the show. So this was where we had to land.” This year alone, Lee is starring in not just TMS, but also Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite, alongside Willem Dafoe in Late Fame, and in another AI tragedy, Tron: Ares.
Still, this twist doesn’t mean Stella is necessarily gone forever. Lee told to THR that, after the episode, she thinks Stella will relax in a tiki bar for “a few weeks” before getting a move on things, adding, “I think she’s plotting and scheming and will be back in some way.” Well, either that or her AI is going for it. Either way, don’t stop holding out hope for more Greta Lee.
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