Warning: This post contains spoilers for season 4 of The Morning Show.
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Greta Lee’s time on The Morning Show, much like that of her character Stella Bak, has come to a close.
The latest episode of the Apple TV series, released on Wednesday, Oct. 22, followed the exit of the UBN CEO. In the episode, titled “If Then,” Stella has a breakdown as her affair with Miles (Aaron Pierre) is exposed during a presentation, leading to her leaving for the airport and boarding a plane solo, heading for whatever is next for her beyond the company.
“I’m just going to say straight up, I think this is the end,” Lee, 42, tells PEOPLE of her character’s departure.
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“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 adds. “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.”
As Lee explains, Stella entered The Morning Show during season 2 believing she was an “innovator” who 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,” Lee says.
“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 says.
Lee adds, “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.”
As for the character’s ending on the show, Lee says “it’s like I owed it to her.”
“We can’t continue to show women who are just these fearless warriors who are robotic in their nature and have no limit, basically,” she says. “I think showing the wound and the suffering and the sacrifice, it was so, so important. And, yeah, ultimately devastating. But that’s sort of the truth from where I sit. I think that is the darker truth behind what it is to actually live like Stella… the price she pays.”
Showrunner Charlotte Stoudt told The Hollywood Reporter, in an interview published on Wednesday, that she “was interested in Stella as a person who grew up in tech, who always thought of tech as something like a superpower that could enhance her.”
“What happens when tech becomes a way to look in the mirror and ask, who am I really,” she asked. “Am I on the right path?”
Filming the character’s final scene, Stoudt added, was “emotional.”
“Just thinking about it, I tear up. It was very hard to leave her, even though it was time for Stella to go rediscover some part of herself, and she couldn’t do that at UBN,” she said. “She had to get on that plane by herself. When you really are at a crossroads, people can support you, but you can’t have a buddy. You have to figure it out by yourself.”
Speaking with the outlet, Lee similarly called the exit “bittersweet” and “surreal,” adding that she expects Stella to “go to the tiki bar and maybe last a few weeks” since she’s “a fighter and a worker.”
“So in my fantasy, I imagine there are Stellas out there everywhere who are plotting their comeback and who are thinking about the future and who are committed, and can’t not think about it any other way,” she told THR. “I think she’s plotting and scheming and will be back in some way.”
New episodes of The Morning Show season 4 premiere Wednesdays on Apple TV.
