'The Bold Type' Season 4 ending explained: Why was Jacqueline forcing Jane to drop the #MeToo story?
Spoilers for 'The Bold Type' Season 4 finale 'Not Far From the Tree'
The editor-in-chief of Scarlet Magazine Jacqueline Carlyle (Melora Hardin) has long believed that Jane Sloan (Katie Stevens) is their star reporter — the future of the magazine, as she says in the season finale. Over the course of the last four seasons, Jane has proved to Jacqueline (definitely not to real-life journalists) that she deserves her own vertical at the magazine. She has dug up important stories on pressing matters that no one else had even thought of pursuing. In the season finale, Jacqueline tells her that as she hopes to repair her marriage with her husband Ian (played by Hardin's real-life husband Gildart Jackson), she will be relying more and more on Jane.
She also gives her a new lead — a follow-up to her story about sexism in the #MeToo era. However, what she doesn't know yet is that this story is close to her husband Ian and might threaten their marriage. At another news agency, a female managing editor Nicole Keating is helping to cover up her male subordinate's unruly, sexist behavior. This man, after doing it with his mistress in his office, has his female staff clean up the room.
Keating is, as it turns out, the woman Ian dated when the two were separated. Ian thinks that should the story get out, it will look like Jacqueline is vying for revenge — even though the story is not like that. But more importantly, he's worried that should the story go in to become tabloid fodder, they will have to explain their separation to their two children, which won't be easy or good for their family. So, Jacqueline asks Jane to drop the story.
Jane, however, finally does understand what is going on and then confronts Jacqueline asking her to give an explanation as to why she scrapped it. When Jacqueline tells her the truth, Jane says that while she understands the tense situation her boss is in, what she is being asked to do is completely contrary to not only her ethics as a journalist but also stands against everything that Scarlet stands for. She insists that the truth will help a lot of women. And so Jacqueline agrees for Jane to go ahead with the story — with the only condition that it be bulletproof.
All four seasons of 'The Bold Type' are available to stream on Hulu.