'Press' Episode 5 promo confirms Holly jumps ship to join The Post and will compete against Herald to cover covert operation Resonance
The promo of 'Press' Episode 5 was released by PBS and we see Holly Evans (Charlotte Riley) finally walk away from the office of The Herald. She stands in front of The Post building with James Edwards (Al Weaver), the investigative journalist of The Herald.
James tries to convince her to reconsider her decision until the very last minute, but Holly has made her choice. She walks into The Post to the surprise of not only James, but also Ed Washburn (Paapa Essiedu).
Ed, the rising star at The Post also happens to be Holly's flatmate who stole the Joshua West story. The Herald was forced to stop the papers from going on stands with an injunction because they did the ethically right thing and reached out to Joshua West for comment.
The Post, on the other hand, published the story with a quote from another anonymous source. This only added fuel to the fire on The Herald's side, because for the first time since The Herald had gone into business, the paper had not gone on the stands.
The magnitude of such a thing is probably something that only a press person can understand and we saw Amina Chaudury (Priyanga Burford), the editor of The Herald wrestle between her guilt at not being capable enough and the need to fight for what is right in episode 4.
While her colleagues expected her to go down swinging, she gave in without much fight and this, in a big way, influenced Holly's decision to join Duncan Allen (Ben Chaplin). For all their ideological differences, Duncan has the power to really influence people.
It may be a result of working on stories the kind of which Holly would never touch, but after the sit-down conversation they had at The Post, she is fairly certain The Post is the right place to be. What really swung Holly to Duncan's side was the fact that she was the Deputy News Editor, who didn't think an apology was news.
Yet, she had to not only give a go-ahead because of Amina, but she also had to write it. What she had wanted was to do follow-up interviews with women who were calling about Joshua West.
Now that Holly has arrived at The Post, not only does she surprise Ed but there is something brewing here that Ed is not too comfortable facing. The decisions that he takes as a reporter at The Post in comparison to the person that he has projected himself to be in front of Holly are two entirely different things.
So, Ed is going to have trouble facing it all. Then we have Duncan, who as usual got what he wanted. With Holly on board, he expects The Post to gain a semblance of credibility when it comes to stories that can change the world.
With her appointed as the Special Correspondent, he can keep his boss at an arm's length with regards to interfering in editorial decisions. And speaking of the first story that Holly would work on, she is going to be competing with The Herald's investigative journalist James to uncover the truth behind a covert operation called Resonance.
This is something Duncan had promised the Prime Minister he would stay away from, when they were on good terms. With the Prime Minister feeling testy about being on the same cover as a man accused of sexual harassment -- a family feature on top of that -- Duncan is free to investigate Resonance.
We would have to see how far the investigation goes because Duncan is someone who is capable of dropping the story the instant he deems something more newsworthy. So, if his need to investigate Resonance is because he is presently incensed with the Prime Minister for banning access to The Post's reporters, then Holly is in for a shock.
The next episode of 'Press' will air Sunday on PBS at 10 p.m. ET.