'The Newsroom' Season 3 Spoilers: Neal And Will Faced With Prison In Episode 2; What Happened In 'Run'? [RECAP]

In the Season 3 premiere of “The Newsroom,” Will (Jeff Daniels), Mackenzie (Emily Mortimer) and the ACN team struggled to restore their credibility and maintain ratings with their coverage of the Boston Marathon Bombing. However, Neal (Dev Patel) got the company into legal hot water again when he accidently induced a source to turn over classified documents. In episode 2, “Run,” the team at the station was struggling to save themselves.

The episode began with Reese (Chris Messina) meeting with his siblings, Blair (Kat Dennings of “2 Broke Girls”) and Randy Lansing (Chris Smith), over their attempted buyout of the company. After Reese condescendingly lectured his siblings about the history of ACN, Charlie (Sam Waterston) arrived to kiss up to his possible future bosses, but things got hostile when they implied they would likely sell off the news division.

Meanwhile, Will was helping to protect Neal from any legal trouble over the classified documents controversy. The two met with ACN’s lawyer, Rebecca Halliday (a returning Marcia Gay Harden). After Neal recounted how he induced and assisted in the stealing of classified documents, Rebecca confirmed what Will and Neal already knew -- that he was guilty of espionage and possibly treason. Despite Neal’s protests and Mackenzie’s support to go ahead with reporting the story and let Neal deal with the consequences, Will and Rebecca decided that they should say nothing and avoid any legal problems.

Elsewhere, Mackenzie met with an F.B.I. friend of hers, Molly (Mary McCormack), who told her that the consequences for a reporter who had received information in Neal’s situation would be just 10 days in prison for contempt if he refused to reveal the source, not espionage.

Back at the station, Jim (John Gallagher) stumbled on a crisis with his girlfriend, Hallie (Scottie Thompson), when he found out that she had tweeted out disparaging comments about Republicans and the Boston Bombing that got picked up by other news outlets. Under pressure from Republicans, Charlie was forced to fire Hallie.

Meanwhile on a train back from Boston, Maggie (Alison Pill) overheard an E.P.A. official (Paul Lieberstein) making candid remarks about the President. When he found out that she had heard him he gave her another story about new carbon dioxide studies in exchange for her not reporting his previous remarks (even though she had already said she wouldn’t).

Back in the boardroom, Leona Lansing (Jane Fonda) realized that Blair and Randy just wanted money. She offered them more money than the capital firm offered to buy their shares. They agreed, but after they left the boardroom Reese revealed that his mother did not have the money to make good on the deal she had just made, leaving ACN with a bit of a problem.

In the continuing debate over whether or not to report Neal’s story, Will noticed something funny and pulled Neal aside where he learned that Neal had already called for comment on the story, outing himself. Not long after, the F.B.I. (including Molly) showed up to raid the newsroom and question Neal. They noted that due to the dangerous nature of the source and the fact that Neal may have helped the source steal more documents, Neal may in fact be charged with espionage (and therefore serious prison time). However, Will had tipped Neal off and the reporter fled the station to hide. Will on the other hand claimed to know the name of the source as well, putting the pressure on him as ACN faced big trouble.

What did you think of “Run?” Tweet your thoughts to @Ja9GarofaloTV.