Murphy’s Not Falling For It — The Gang Covers a Cold Case

The only thing worse than being in a coma for ten years? Waking up in 2018. Brooke Shields makes a guest appearance on this week's Murphy Brown as Holly, a woman waking up to Trump's America.

The morning after the 2016 election is supremely memorial for most Americans. Despite polls asserting that Hillary Clinton would handily win against a businessman with zero political experience and a history of bragging about sexual assault, on November 9th, 2016 Donald J. Trump was declared the next president of the United States.

“She just came out of a coma. She doesn’t need you coming over and scaring her back into one!”

The shock was visceral for citizens who weren’t in a coma for the preceding decade. So when this week’s special guest star Brooke Shields awakens from a ten year coma to learn that Trump is president, her first reaction is “of what?”

But the present — and the president — aren’t what concerns the cast. The thrust of “The Coma and the Oxford Coma” are the events that put Corky (Faith Ford) and Murphy’s (Candice Bergen) friend in the hospital in the first place. Apparently the team covered the story way back when, and is looking to do a follow-up. Back then, Holly’s (Shields) husband Charles was accused of pushing his wife down the stairs, although he was eventually acquitted of attempted murder.

“Void, that’s an interesting name for a woman, no?”

Through Charles was photographed with dozens of women while his wife was in a coma, when he arrives at the hospital he claims he was “trying to fill a void.” Holly even claims to remember tripping over the cat on the stairs. This should be enough to clear her husband’s name, though Murphy is still suspicious, even as they go to air the next day.

Corky covers the exclusive story, which she believes is going to be a love story. But Holly reveals at the last moment that it was indeed her husband who pushed her down the stairs. She lied about the cat in order to trap her husband into being called out on national television.”Maybe the little old lady who lived in a shoe had so many children because she was denied access to contraception, ” Corky whimpers at the end of her piece. Poor Corky, like the majority of American voters on November 9th, 2016, is disillusioned and drinking.

In the end, Murphy and Corky’s typical roles are reversed. It’s Murphy who cheers up Corky by reminding her there is still good in the world. And one small example of that good? Avery (Jake McDorman) getting a taste of what female anchors endure daily. The Wolf Network has decided to capitalize on Avery’s sexuality through a series of slow motion promos highlighting certain specific aspects of his anatomy. Unlike past episodes, Murphy doesn’t get too preachy about this double standard. The disparity is clear without Avery’s mom monologuing about the inequity.

Murphy Brown continues Thursday nights at 9:30 ET on CBS.

Photos and video credit courtesy of CBS. 

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