I like how they characterize the head editor. He's in an antagonistic position and you wish he'd just have a little more sympathy for Mariko, but he's also genuinely in a really tough position. You believe him when he says he truly loves the magazine and is terrified of it dying. And you see how if he makes an exception for Mariko, he ought to be making an exception for a dozen other people too, which is totally unsustainable.