The Morning Show is saying goodbye to one of its major players after two seasons.
*Warning: this article contains major spoilers from The Morning Show season four*
The Apple TV+ drama’s latest episode, “If Then,” ends with Stella Bak (Greta Lee) departing New York solo after her affair with Miles (Aaron Pierre), the husband of her new boss Celine Dumont (Marion Cotillard), is publicly exposed during a company presentation about a new AI strategy.
While the season four cliffhanger ambiguously left fans wondering if that was a definite goodbye to Stella, the actor has indeed confirmed she is leaving behind her Emmy-nominated role.
“I’m just going to say straight up, I think this is the end,” Lee told People.
“I think this is goodbye. And I know that’s hard, but I think that there's certain... Again, I keep thinking about wanting to do her justice, and do right by her,” she added.
“And there’s a certain point sometimes with certain characters where the story ends. And the story, in my mind, needs to end because of everything that she's been through, and the person she was when she started on this journey, she was so full of this bright-eyed optimism, and the world that existed a few years ago is gone.”
The Morning Show, which is currently in its fourth season, stars Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Billy Crudup and Mark Duplass as a team of network bigwigs behind a fictional network’s famed morning news show.
Lee, 42, joined the newsroom drama in 2021 in its second season. Her character, Stella, was introduced as the new president of the news division at UBA.
Though her time on the series was brief, she quickly emerged as a fan-favorite. Speaking to People, Lee described Stella as an “innovator” who thought she could “change the vision of this company.” She was also “so passionate about equity and diversity, and the power of representation, but really meant it,” the Past Lives star said.
“Slowly, over time, and I can relate to this, feeling slowly like, ‘Wait a second, what happened...’ It feels too painful to bear. And when the reality of like, ‘Oh no, we have to change our tactics, and the same methodology, it’s not working. And what does that mean, starting from zero again? What does that mean for someone like her?’ I think it’s all in there,” she noted.
“And it’s sort of why she has to say goodbye and why things blow up and she’s blowing it up for herself because, really, it’s like, for the first time, she’s free.”
Last year, Lee’s performance as Stella earned her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.
