When a social media user starts posting about how Chris doped during her Olympic career, Ben tells her to brush it off. But she can’t, and when news outlets start picking up the story, it really gets under the former Olympian’s skin. Her husband/manager, Marcus, eventually figures out that the poster is Tunde Johnson, a former teammate of Chris’. Despite his pleas for her to let him and their lawyers do the job, Chris leaves Tunde a scathing voicemail… that Tunde immediately posts online.
When UBN takes her off the air for a while, Chris feels silenced — until she runs into Mia, who is mightily irked that Alex blocked her from getting a great job at another network. “I’m guessing no one has your back in the building,” the producer says. “I know what you deserve. I can help you get it.”
So she sets Chris up with an interview on Bro’s podcast. Tunde is there, too; she is REALLY not a fan of Chris, whom she thinks has forgotten where she comes from and the people she came up with. “You’re gonna shut this down, you’re gonna go home clean,” Mia says to Chris as she enters the studio, unaware of how very wrong the next half hour will prove her.
Chris apologizes to Tunde about the email but maintains that everything that’s being said about her taking performance-enhancing drugs is a lie. THEN Tunde says she can prove her claims. “Chris pissed off a lot of people over the years and they gave receipts,” she says, producing a copy of a prescription for anabolic steroids she says a concierge doctor wrote for Chris while she was training for the Olympics. “Anything you want to say?” Bro asks, flippantly. “I did what I had to do,” Chris says quietly, admitting to the use of banned substances.
She clarifies as she explains. She didn’t dope during the London games but when she got pregnant a few years later, she lost all of her sponsors. And then her pregnancy went south; she had a problem with her placenta and eventually went into labor at 5-and-a-half months. “We didn’t get to take my son home,” she says, starting to cry. “When I got back on that track, I was so slow. I had to do something.” She details how the drugs made her sick at first but how she felt like she deserved it, and how much she grieves her little boy. “His name is Amari. Amari Marcus,” she says, fully sobbing. Even Tunde is crying, and Bro is uncharacteristically quiet as the show goes to commercial.
In her dressing room afterward, Chris kneels on the floor in front of Marcus, who cries as she wipes his face with her palms. I’m guessing he didn’t know about the steroids, either.
When Alex runs into Mia later, they have it out about Alex’s interference in Mia’s professional prospects. “Chris isn’t sure that UBN is the right fit for her anymore,” Mia, who is Chris’ agent now or something?, informs her. “She’s exploring her options, and so am I. And I think we make a great team.”
Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!
