Hail Mary

**"Hail Mary"** is the fourth episode of the second season of The Politician.

## Summary

McAfee's prurient sleuthing uncovers an explosive secret, Payton's tangled affairs turn fruitful, and Georgina's link to Tino proves problematic.

## Plot

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

Georgina is on a quest to reach an approval rating of 100 percent and is thinking up bold plays to get there. But there is a looming wrinkle in her quest for universal affection: the comatose wife of Senator Tino McCutcheon, with whom she’s been having an affair, wakes up from her three-year-long coma and has an announcement.

It’s less than a week before the election, and McAfee makes a major discovery inside the Standish campaign. After cozying up to Hadassah and gaining access to her home, McAfee learns Hadassah is in a secret relationship with William, meaning Dede’s throuple is all a sham. While McAfee positions it as news Payton can use to narrow the margin of his impending loss to Dede in order to set up for his next campaign, Payton wants to take it a step further. He tricks Hadassah into meeting with him and makes her an offer: She either gets Dede to pull out of the campaign or he will go to the press with the news.

While outwardly blasé about Payton’s threats, a panicked Hadassah rushes to formulate a plan to keep the Standish campaign’s messy “sex pentagram” under wraps and salvage Dede’s political future. Luckily, they are interrupted by Mary McCutcheon’s press conference, which she uses to tank Tino’s shot at the presidency, thus refocusing Dede’s efforts on her senate campaign.

James feels betrayed that he wasn’t in on the secret plan to send McAfee into the Standish campaign. Unfortunately for him, Payton just doesn’t see him as a big enough risk taker. But before Team Hobart can really air grievances, William shows up at campaign headquarters to share inside information on Dede’s professor husband in exchange for keeping his affair with Hadassah on the down-low. Unbeknownst to Dede, Marcus makes six figures writing papers for students across the country — which would ruin Dede’s clean candidate claims. Additionally, their new third partner is Marcus’s student. After weighing their options, Payton and the team decide to keep William’s information under wraps. But James, still reeling from Payton’s risk taker comments, goes ahead and leaks it to the press.

Meanwhile, Alice tells Payton that she is pregnant and the pair make plans to announce the pregnancy and their impending engagement the night before the election to stir up some positive press. They are quickly hit with even bigger news as Astrid, with whom they have been in a throuple of their own, reveals she is also pregnant with Payton’s baby.

## Cast

### Main

* Ben Platt as Payton Hobart
* Judith Light as Dede Standish
* Lucy Boynton as Astrid Sloan
* Zoey Deutch as Infinity Jackson
* Julia Schlaepfer as Alice Charles
* Laura Dreyfuss as McAfee Westbrook
* Theo Germaine as James Sullivan
* Rahne Jones as Skye Leighton
* Bette Midler as Hadassah Gold
* Gwyneth Paltrow as Georgina Hobart

### Guest

* Jackie Hoffman as Sherry Dougal
* Joe Morton as Marcus Standish
* Teddy Sears as William Ward
* Sam Jaeger as Tino McCutcheon
* Heather Burns as Mary McCutcheon
* B.K. Cannon as Kris
* Josh Bonzie as Randal