Does Mark Duplass think his Morning Show character deserves a second chance?

In the new, second season of The Morning Show on Apple TV+, we’re reintroduced to Chip Black, onetime Morning Show producer and complicit participant in Mitch Kessler’s workplace sexual misdeeds. Chip was fired in the season one finale, in part as a fall guy for the network but also because he wasn’t without fault. Now, though, he’s back, tapped by Jennifer Aniston’s Alex Levy to act as her personal producer and once again thrust into the faces of The Morning Show staffers who would rather never deal with him again.

The A.V. Club recently sat down for a video chat with Duplass to talk about Black’s role in the newsroom and society’s constant struggle over what to do with all these cancelled men.

Duplass says Chip’s storyline is:

…a very nuanced thing because one could look at what Chip did in the whole storyline of season one and say, “Well, he didn’t commit any of those atrocities himself, but he did turn a blind eye and he knew some things. Were his intentions good? Was he just part of an old culture? Is he ready to change?” I think Chip at his core is a good person, but he’s a little behind the times. He’s trying to catch up, but he’s slow. Does that mean that the world should be patient with another white man trying to catch up and offer him opportunities? I’m not so sure about that. I certainly know a lot of people who would think, ‘no, let’s give this to someone else who’s ready,’ and I think all those opinions are really valid.

Duplass also weighed in on Chip’s romantic feelings for Aniston’s Levy, something that’s hinted at on the show but never really spoken. In Duplass’ opinion, Chip “definitely harbors some romantic feelings,” but he also asserts that “Chip is the type of person who has shouldered the responsibility for The Morning Show for so long that he hasn’t even allowed himself to examine what it would mean to have romantic feelings, to feel joy, or to share a life with someone.”

New episodes of The Morning Show are available every Friday on Apple TV+. Mark Duplass also co-stars in the new movie Language Lessons alongside Natalie Morales, and our review called the film “charming—especially for a movie shot on Zoom.” That movie is in select theaters now.