“I’m not going to swoop in there like she’s some rent controlled apartment,” Jim says before realizing if that’s true he’ll never have sex with Maggie.

We cover a lot of ground in this episode, which moves us from May of 2010 up through Election Night of the mid-term elections. As we begin, Will is delivering a nice monologue about having allowed his broadcast to be controlled by ratings in the past. Don’t worry, he realizes how shitty those broadcasts were so now he’s promising to do better.

Mac and Charlie work together to nudge Will in the right direction of what he should be covering and it is a thing of beauty. They seem to work really cohesively. Regardless, Charlie gets taken to task by his superiors at ACN. They are not happy with Will’s new direction for News Night. He’s reporting facts, but audiences are perceiving that as being left-wing, so they’re losing viewers, ergo money. Unless Will can stop heckling the Tea Partiers and include some human interests pieces in his broadcasts, Jane Fonda will fire him.

I have to say, I really thought the show found a good balance between news coverage and creating the news this week. Of course this show wouldn’t work without inter-personal relationships, but, as with News Night, the news sections can be more interesting to viewers than human interest pieces.

That being said, why can’t Maggie have the confidence in her relationship with Don that she has when they’re pitching news stories in the meeting room? She seems to do just fine when dealing with Jim, though. They even have a nice moment where she freaks out in the meeting room (for a second I really thought she was drunk). It turns out her roommate’s flings have been stealing her Xanax. She’s mid-panic attack and Jim finds her to talk her out of it. He knows what to do because a lot of guys he was embedded with would get them. Excuse me while I wipe up my drool. Jim can talk about his time embedded as much as he wants and I’ll never be bored.

Despite Maggie being a little shit to Jim (when isn’t she?), she clearly has a crush on the guy. Her roommate was on the phone the entire time Jim was talking her off the metaphorical ledge. Who wants to bet he was part of the reason it took Maggie and Don so long to get back together during that particular break-up?

Our other weekly dollop of office drama comes from, you guessed it, Mac and Will. Mac’s revved up to chew Will out in the workplace because he’s going out with a cheerleader. And a neurologist. And a hot blonde. Will admits he’s not doing it to hurt Mac, per se, he just isn’t taking her feelings into consideration. REalizing that makes him sound like the douchebag he is, he tries to be just a smidge more considerate. All bets are off, however, when Mac brings her boy-toy to the studio to see the Election Night set-up.

Elsewhere, Neal is continuing to steal my heart. (Sidenote: Let’s not kid, he’s had it as far back as series 1 of Skins.) “I just couldn’t be less interested in Wikileaks,” said Jim. Of course Neal makes fun of him because it’s a huge deal for journalists of our generation. Neal is doing well, show. I like him. Keep it up. And more cardigans, always.

Overall, I’d say that this episode was a solid step up from last week’s. I liked the balance of news to relationships. The camaraderie around the office is obviously developing nicely. That being said, I’m actually liking Olivia Munn. Maybe it’s because she’s a smart, well-spoken character? Maybe it’s because of her limited screen time? Whichever it is, good job, show. Let’s see Maggie and Mac enjoy a little of her poise, huh?

Well, what’d you think? Like it more or less than last week? Have a favorite character yet? What did you think of Will’s coverage of the Tea Party? Hit me up in the comments, I’d love to hear from you.