"The Newsroom": Season Three Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Boston Marathon bombing

Charlie Skinner, understandably cautious after the Genoa fiasco, waits to run the story until two independent and credible sources have verified the events that took place. This results in News Night's not being first on the air with the story, frustrating to some of the younger, more tech-oriented staffers on the team.

Answer: The Republic of Equatorial Kundu

Riots in Equatorial Kundu are the subject of some classified documents sent unsolicited to Neal Sampat. This sets in motion a story line that runs the entire season.

Answer: Rebecca Halliday-Marcia Gay Harden

Marcia Gay Harden and Jane Fonda both have roles on "The Newsroom", but Fonda portrays the owner of the network. The character of Alexandra Cabot was a District Attorney on "Law and Order: SVU", and Alicia Florrick the title character on "The Good Wife".

The character Rebecca Halliday is smart, tough, sexy and irreverent. In this season of "The Newsroom" she is primarily focused on defending Will and Neal from charges of contempt of court and espionage, respectively.

Answer: She sends a tweet from ACN's account that is in poor taste.

In the middle of the night, very tired after a long day of breaking news, Hallie notices that Neal, who normally administers ACN's Twitter account, hasn't tweeted anything in several hours, so she sends one out herself. Unfortunately, what she tweets is grossly insulting to the Republican Party. Half an hour later she realizes her mistake and takes the tweet down, but of course the damage is done and in the morning the matter goes viral and the Republican National Committee demands an apology from ACN. When Charlie Skinner learns of the tweet, he fires Hallie.

This story line is based on an actual event that occurred at MSNBC, according to the show's writer Aaron Sorkin.

Answer: Reese's half-siblings

Reese's younger half-siblings, fraternal twins Randy and Blair, are about to turn 25, when they will gain control of 45% of AWM's stock. They have partnered with a company, Savannah Capital, which quietly bought up 6% of AWM's stock. The Savannah purchase is discovered by Sloan Sabbith, who has been monitoring AWM's stock values closely because ACN's ratings fell and she was anticipating a corresponding drop in share prices.

Instead, the stock gained value because of Savannah's purchase. Randy and Blair intend to sell their 45% to Savannah for billions of dollars, making Savannah a 51% shareholder in AWM, and causing the Lansings to lose control of their company.

Answer: Will McAvoy

Will admits to an investigator from the government that Neal Sampat has told him the source of the classified documents that were received by ACN. He refuses to name the source, however, and ends up being jailed for several weeks, only to be let out after the source commits suicide. Neal, meanwhile, has fled the country to avoid prosecution for espionage.

Answer: She sells ACN.

Leona very reluctantly sells ACN to one Lucas Pruitt, who is portrayed from the get-go as a colossal jerk. His perspective has nothing to do with delivering the news with integrity. This exerts crushing pressure on Charlie Skinner, who has to please both his boss and a newsroom staff who are committed to taking the high road in their broadcasts. Charlie, caught between the two factions, suffers a fatal heart attack on the job in the second-last episode of the series.

Answer: On a flight that departed from Moscow

Maggie and Jim, along with a myriad of other reporters, are assigned to track down Edward Snowden, who leaked classified information from the NSA (National Security Agency) to the media and subsequently accepted asylum in Russia. In the course of their travels they revisit their feelings for one another, eventually acknowledging that they are still mutually attracted, providing resolution to a situation that's been unsettled since the beginning of the first season of the show. Whew!

Answer: Don Quixote

"Don Quixote" is a particularly appropriate gift, with its theme of striving for the impossible. This forms the seeds of the News Night 2.0 concept-striving for excellence in news reporting rather than just garnering ratings, which underpins the entire series beginning with Mackenzie's hiring in the first episode.

Answer: Charlie Skinner's

At the gathering following Charlie's funeral, Will looks for Charlie's teenaged grandson Bo and is told he's in the garage. The garage turns out to be something of a music studio and Will and Bo, later joined by Jim Harper, play and sing the Tom T. Hall song.

The scene relates back to a flashback, presented at the start of the episode, of Charlie and Will talking about how much Bo loves the song. It's quite the tearjerker.