The ending is rocky...
So I'm still digging The Newsroom.
Neal's just settled in for the night, laptop shut down and NPR playing softly, when his phone rings. He squints his eyes shut tighter and considers the merits of letting it ring and pretending he slept through it even though he's not actually asleep yet. He's not surprised when he grabs the phone and answers; he is surprised when it's Will again.
"I hope I'm not calling too late," Will says so matter-of-fact Neal almost thinks he's being sardonic.
"No, it's fine." He retraces the day's stories but Neal can't come up with anything he'd said about them to earn a late night phone call. "What can I do for you?"
"Oh, it's nothing. Just something I've been thinking about." Neal waits and for a moment thinks Will isn't going to continue. "Do you think Peter Barlow is right? I mean the guy made some pretty compelling arguments."
"Compelling, sure, but not everything can be based on reason. Like it or not, people have ethics and though some are subjective, at the end of the day some things are wrong no matter how sensible they sound."
Will snorts. "You're not going to tell me you oppose the death penalty."
"Isn't there enough death and destruction in this world?" Neal shakes his head, not even sure why he's arguing with someone as stubborn as Will but knowing he can't just let it lie. "If we punish murder with murder, what does that say about us?"
"That reform is an optimistic dream not a reality, that once you cross a line you're no longer worth our precious tax dollars, that we're fed up with indulging this criminal element?" Will's grasping for points; there really are only two favorable points.
The counterpoints might make him sound like a bleeding heart, but Neal makes them because someone has to and apparently having experts on News Night wasn't good enough for Will. "That we're no better than they are. Making some killing legal and some illegal is stupid and we don't want to wind up in this vicious murder circle." Neal sighs. "Reform may not be as effective as we might hope, but the death sentence isn't a deterrent."
"Is it supposed to be?" Will sounds incredulous. "The death sentence is the final solution, that's all."
"But what next, if it's solely for financial reasons and preventing repeat offenders? Broadening the range of crimes that qualify for the death penalty?" The radio clicks off when the sleep timer runs out and Neal wonders how late they'll keep talking.
"Why not?" Will challenges.
"Because I don't like the idea of a DUI putting a man on death row."
"Now that you mention it, neither do I," Will concedes. "But do you really think it would come to that?"
"I think humanity has an infinite potential for making stupid decisions for the sake of the people at large, so we shouldn't make it easier to go in that direction." Neal shrugs.
"All right." Will pauses. "Thanks for talking. I'll see you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow." Neal resets the sleep timer on the radio and thinks too hard to fall asleep.
~
"What's the point?" Will's sharp voice jolts some of the sleep from Neal's mind. Not enough for him to have a clue what Will's talking about, but enough for him to go along with it.
"I'm sorry?"
"No, you didn't miss anything, I do mean that as a broad question, perhaps the biggest question." Neal buries his face in his pillow and remembers a time Will didn't even know his name, let alone his phone number. "Nowhere has it right. They might not fuck up as badly as America does, but I think we both know enough international news to know that no other country is actually doing great enough we can point at them and say 'That, let's emulate that.'"
"You're not wrong," Neal admits.
"So?"
"...so?"
"So why bother?" Will snaps, but Neal knows it's just how he talks off-air, not anything directed at him. "Why bother with any of it? I'm starting to doubt it's even possible to do it right."
"I think I'm supposed to say it's not about succeeding." Neal blinks and tries not to yawn into the phone.
"Forget supposed to, tell me what you really think."
"Right. What I really think is that you're trying to turn insomnia into an infectious disease and that even if there is no point, we aren't just going to give up as a species." Will laughs like it was startled out of him. "I think that the fact no one has succeeded yet isn't a guarantee no one will ever succeed. The needs of people change and it's not a precise science, there are too many factors."
Will hms quietly. "So you're saying we won't find the answer in one night."
"I'm saying even if we did, the answer changes," Neal corrects. "But I agree, it's probably not a one night solution."
"And for now?"
"For now, keep informing people. We don't need to stack the deck against an already unlikely solution." Neal blinks harder, hoping he's managing to be supportive enough.
"Yeah, all right. Get some sleep."
"Goodnight."
~
"Well you're gay, what's your stance on gay marriage?"
Neal chokes. "What gave you that impression?"
"Reality," Will answers dryly. "Specifically the reality that you spend an awful lot of time in the newsroom watching Jim. I don't have to be a reporter to figure out you like the guy."
"Oh god, this conversation is so embarrassing," Neal mumbles. "It's worse than when my parents ask why I never bring home any nice girls."
"So you're not out?" Will asks.
"I'm too busy to date."
"That's great. That's not what I asked."
"Well since you're being so considerate of my privacy and all, I suppose I don't mind telling you." He can hear Will's smug satisfaction at getting him to be sarcastic. "I am, in fact, out to my parents. My father doesn't talk about it, but he doesn't really talk about much of anything; and I have resigned myself to a mother and step-father in denial."
"And at work?"
"It doesn't come up."
"Except when I say something," Will adds.
"It's not really my defining characteristic," Neal can't help pointing out. "At work, I don't talk about it. Office gossip, office dating, they're messy and I want them far away from me. So my preferences aren't really relevant."
"We'll talk about how you're full of bullshit later." Will doesn't pause before repeating his inquiry. "Come on, gay marriage, what are your thoughts?"
"I support it," Neal says simply.
Will makes an annoying buzzer sound. "Not good enough."
"Right, the meat and potatoes of it. I don't agree with people in one breath asking for small government and the next asking for laws forbidding something that doesn't affect them. Homosexuality isn't a crime; same sex marriage shouldn't be either. We shouldn't need to specify that marriage is for everyone, and we definitely shouldn't specify that it isn't."
He pauses for a breath and to arrange his thoughts further; amazingly enough, Will remains silent. Sometimes Neal wonders why he's one of the few that get such a distinct reminder Will does, in fact, care.
"If civil partnership is the same, which is what the advocates of it say, then why can't we have the word marriage? You can't convince me any word is sacred. They're all just words and the power they hold comes from people and how we use them."
Will does interject during his next pause. "Do you ever see yourself getting married?"
"No. But it hurts to not have the option to choose not to."
"I bet." Will pauses. "You're all right, Neal."
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