Plot

When Charlie gets a tip from a mysterious informant that the President is about to make a major announcement, the news team tries to confirm what it is about.

Sunday evening, May 1, 2011. The ACN news team is at Will's for a party to mark a year of good reporting. Charlie gets a call alerting him to a major news announcement at 10. By 9:00, everyone's on their way to the studio (with Will under the influence of a Vicodin and two pot-laced cookies). Don, Sloan, and Elliot are stuck on the tarmac at LaGuardia waiting for a gate. As the team uses brains and sources to narrow the possibilities - and get confirmation of what's going on - Charlie has to make the call as to when they go on the air: get it right without collateral damage. By evening's end, he gets a second tip suggesting that another story is brewing.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

An anonymous source contacts Charlie and provides advance details on an imminent story of national importance. When news breaks that the President will be making a televised speech that night, the 2.0 staff cuts short its one-year (and one-week) anniversary party, and rushes back to the newsroom amidst a flurry of speculation as to what exactly happened.—HBO Publicity

"The Newsroom" - "5/1" - August 5, 2012

Charlie is out on the terrace at Will's apartment getting a call from an anonymous source, he wants to be a "Deep Throat" for him.

Inside Will's throwing the one year and one week anniversary party for the reboot of "News Night." The kids are playing drinking games. Will is singing Jonathan Edwards tunes with Jim. Lonny is playing chess. Will is justifying his need for medical marijuana, which is in the cookies he was handed by Neal and his girlfriend. They warn him to be careful. Charlie waits for the email that his source told him was coming.

Later Jim is looking at his computer and Maggie comes in to chat. He's watching the Mets/Phillies game. Lisa sends a video call and Maggie asks him to take it. They chat with her with video chat as she walks to the party, she says she loves him, in front of Maggie. Jim admits to Maggie that Lisa said it too soon and doesn't feel the same way. Maggie explains he can't keep telling her that he loves her when he doesn't. He suggests he leaves the country. She says he should just break up with her in person and tonight. But then he gets an email from Mike Tapley who says he's available and Jim should call him. (Mackenzie also got this email inside the party and thought he was hitting on her.) Jim goes to tell Mac about the email and Charlie looks at his watch. Just as he does Charlie gets the email: The president is about to address the nation in 90 minutes on a matter of national security. The party mobilizes back to the office. They don't know what it is but Charlie thinks it's that we've gotten bin Laden. Lisa arrives and Jim tells her she can come ot the office with them.

Meanwhile, Sloan, Don and Eliot have just landed from their flight from Washington D.C. They get the news when they turn on their phones. They end up stuck on the tarmac waiting for their gate and Don and Sloan and Eliot start freaking. They want to switch seats so they can all sit together and the flight attendant gives them a hard time.

Will is stuck in traffic with Lonny. He wants to run. Lonny doesn't want him to since he's not safe. Lonny jumps out and ends up getting shook down by the police.

The gang arrives back in the newsroom and begins to mobilize, 45 minutes to the president's speech. They start to try and narrow it down: Khaddafi, bin Laden, alien lie forms? They all want it to be bin Laden and Mac wants to break it before the president announces it.

Meanwhile Sloan and Don work on trying to get off the plane.

Neal explains to his girlfriend and Lisa what's going on. Lisa thinks that they know it's bin Laden. Will shows up. The marijuana cookies have kicked in. He's very high. He ran all the way. He bought a falafel.

While they wait from the president, the anchor in D.C. on the air sees a tweet from the White House chief of staff to Donald Rumsfeld that they got bin Laden. She wants to report it but Mac shuts her down saying they need "double confirmation." Mac and Will talk and she notices that he's a little goofy. He admits he's "completely baked." She is mortified. He convinces her he can go on because there's no way he's not reporting this story. He says he won't let her down and then says "we got Obama" and she gasps. He says he got it out of his system.

On the plane Sloan gets the first confirmation. Back in the office they get the second confirmation. Charlie shuts them down explaining in a poignant speech that he made costly mistakes in the first Gulf War that costs soldier's lives and he won't do it again. He goes out and addresses the newsroom staff and breaks the news. They cheer. Neal's girlfriend Kaylee looks distraught for some reason.

She goes out to the terrace. Neal and Jim find her. It turns out her father died in one of the towers.

Mac fights with the Washington anchor Jane who wants to report it and not just warm up for Will. She is going to report it and Mac has the control room cut the feed from D.C. Mac says it's Charlie's call and Will will be breaking thenews.

Meanwhile Maggie tries to convince Jim to break up with Lisa. Then Lisa comes over and apologizes and says she needs to let him off the hook because she realizes he's just being nice. She breaks up with him. He says he really did like her. Lisa goes to Maggie and says she can't do this to her anymore because she saw her face when she said she loved Jim. Maggie marches her over and forces Jim to say he doesn't like her and Maggie says she doesn't like him either. Lisa is unconvinced.

Meanwhile on the plane, Don is kvetching. Eliot points out that they did help put it together. Everyone on the plane heard him talking about Maggie and Jim and all chime in. One by one passengers start seeing tweets and emails about the news coming out and begin to worry it's a terrorist attack. Don finally gets so frustrated with not being able to say anything that he stands up and addresses the passengers, reassuring them everything is okay. The annoyed flight attendant calls the captains out, and when confronted with them, he looks at their wings and in their faces and tells them that he wanted them to be the first to know that the President killed bin Laden for them. He turns to Eliot and says "we reported the news."

Back in the newsroom Jim admits to Lisa that this was a fix-up he didn't want but he wants a complete do over, he likes her and he's asking her out on a date.

Lonny arrives with the police. Will admits that he's his bodyguard and he ran out on him. Since he was a former MP in the army Will says he wants to tell him something and calls Lonny over. He whispers in his ear and Lonny lights up. Then Lonny tells the police.

Charlie waits in a conference room and he gets another call. His "deep throat" turns out to be from NSA.

Then Joe Biden texts Will and gives him serious confirmation. Unfortunately, the text came 20 minutes earlier but Will was too high to remember to check his Blackberry.

Will reports the news. He then throws to Pres. Obama who addresses the nation.