The Girls on the Bus is about 4 journalists who form a bond on the campaign trail for the presidential elections. The series is streaming on Max.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary:
It’s election season and Sadie McCarthy of the New York Sentinel is focused on covering the campaign of presidential hopeful Caroline Bennett.
She is joined by Grace Gordon Greene, an experienced journalist who has been covering the campaign for many cycles.
There’s also Kimberlyn Anaya Kendrick, a woman of color working for the right-leaning Liberty New Media hoping to get the republican perspective on the opposing candidates.
Finally, there is Lola Rahaii, a content creator who is reporting through social media to reach a much younger base and educate them on the state of politics.
They all begin on Caroline Bennett’s press tour, although they have different preferences and ideologies.
The other candidates in the race are given nicknames based on their archetypes because they are comparable with contestants on ‘The Bachelor’.
There’s the Geriatric, the Freshman, the Action Star, and the Hot White Guy. Grace supports the Geriatric while Lola is there for the Freshman.
The race starts quite dramatically when Bennett is caught up in a sex scandal that forces her out of the race.
Felicity Walker, the candidate who lost the previous election, jumps back in much to the surprise of everyone.
Sadie became a meme when she was caught crying after Walker lost, and she idolized the woman.
The campaign trudges along as the journalists get to know the candidates, and each other better.
Kimberlyn is questioning her position at Liberty because she is there as a token person of color. She also gets married to her long-time partner but then gets back on the trail.
Her focus on work puts a strain on her marriage from the beginning. Grace has always put work first and this has pushed her daughter away from her.
Annie got kicked out of college and when she visits Grace, she gets a lecture. Then Annie decides to go off with some guy and Grace’s husband blames her.
Sadie gets into some professional trouble when she sleeps with Malcolm, Felicity Walker’s press secretary. She gets caught and her career is almost derailed but she survives.
It does disturb things between her and her editor and mentor, Bruce. It also comes at a tough time as Sadie gets an anonymous tip to follow the money in Walker’s campaign.
The Geriatric dies after attempting to complete a marathon and prove he has the vigor to do the job.
Lola realizes how layered the political landscape is within the country and not everyone is who they portray themselves to be.
She attends one of the Freshman’s talks and sees that her preference is just like the others because she talks a big game but stops short of committing to policies that might alienate the moderates.
Sadie brings in Grace to help investigate Walker’s campaign and together they discover that her biggest donor is a sexual predator.
They break the news which essentially ends Walker’s campaign and also ruins things between Malcolm and Sadie.
To make things more complicated, Sadie finds out she is pregnant with Malcolm’s child but she decides to get an abortion.
She is prescribed abortion pills by a doctor but getting them is a task because she’s traveling for the campaign and certain states wouldn’t allow her to get them.
She eventually gets the abortion and her fellow journalists stick by her side to support her.
Sadie still wants to find out who paid the anonymous source to dig the dirt on Walker, and Bruce uses his knowledge to find out that the person doing the digging was an ex-CIA operative named Declan Morales.
Sadie wants to meet Declan and Bruce sets it up, but before it can happen, Bruce dies of a heart condition.
Sadie meets with Declan and he tells her that Walker’s disgraced donor in the last election, Dick Braun, is the one who paid for the dirt.
He’s also secretly backing another candidate so that he has the next president in his back pocket.
That candidate is the Hot White Guy, Hayden Wells Garrett. Throughout the campaign, he was polling last, and yet, he made it to the roll call vote.
He’s been running under the radar and winning over everyone with his “nice guy” facade but now Sadie questions whether that is truly who he is.
She gets Grace, Kimberlyn, and Lola to help her investigate him and Dick Braun to ensure the wrong person doesn’t head to the White House.
Ending explained:
Divvying up the work
Sadie tells her colleagues all that she has learned about Dick Braun’s plan and they get to work on uncovering the details.
She gets a call from Declan Morales for another meeting where he hands her classified documents and records on Hayden’s campaign.
Kimberlyn goes back home to her husband and tells him about the new offer she has gotten from Liberty for her own show.
She doesn’t tell him that she had a meeting with someone about starting her own network for which she needed a viral moment that would boost her engagement numbers.
Grace is spending time with her family for once but the Dick Braun scandal is important and her daughter wants to help with the investigation.
Laila decides to look into Hayden’s finances, especially regarding the campaign donations because she feels there is a story there.
Pulling the trigger
Laila reaches out to her younger sources who specialize in cryptocurrency and dark web shenanigans to dig deeper into Hayden’s finances.
Grace and her daughter investigate the woman involved in the accident that got Hayden in the news earlier in the campaign.
Kimberlyn is getting ready for a panel discussion on Liberty and Sadie goes to Hayden for comment before she blows things wide open.
Meanwhile, the roll call vote commences and Hayden wins the presidential nomination. Laila publishes her article exposing Dick Braun as the true investor behind Hayden.
Kimberlyn goes on a centrist rant criticizing both sides of the political divide with a small nod to the Mayor too.
Felicity Walker heads to her bus after her defeat and Sadie goes to talk to her.
It’s not over yet
Sadie tells Walker who was responsible for bringing her down but Walker says that no matter who it was, there was no way she was winning.
They discuss how broken the system is, but Sadie and her colleagues aren’t ready to give up yet.
The Wall Street Journal approaches Laila for a job because of the quality of her article. Kimberlyn is trending because of her rant but Eric is taken aback when he finds out that it was partly planned.
Grace gets a response from the woman stating that there is more to the story. The FBI earlier summoned Sadie.
They show up at the DNC and take her in. She is questioned about the classified documents but she handed them to her friends before she was taken in.
The four of them promise to take down Hayden before he can make it to the White House.
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