S06.E07: Accountability

[thewhiteowl]

The mastermind behind a foreign country's hack of a senator's personal information is located.

[NUguy514]

If Dmitri is going to be shirtless, he can be onscreen every second of every remaining episode.

Dear Elizabeth and Henry,

Re: Your youngest offspring.

Yours,

NUguy514

[rlc]

I attended junior high school with the actor playing the vindictive senator, and I couldn’t stop yelling at the tv ‘Wentworth, when did you become such a d*ck’.

[kwnyc]

Yes! Nothing like a privileged undergrad lecturing a young woman of color about misogyny. Then declaring "I'M the victim!" 

I'm wondering why the DOJ (with an Attorney General presumably appointed by Bess) is at Senator Prison Break's beck and call. And his demand that he essentially make HIM the President (with all the power and none of the responsibility) also smacks of privilege.

I thought the flash drive would come back...and in fact, Blake did the right thing by hiding it in a secure place. He just didn't expect the FBI raiding his house and taking everything he owned. 

I'm interested in seeing how this plays out: will they have Bess resign? I would say, since this is a TV show, they won't. Senator Prison Break will be brought down by something.

And Bess really is cuddly on domestic issues and a total hawk on foreign policy. I think she's right that letting a foreign power meddle with a US election is an act of war, and I'm glad she decided to get the head of the op, rather than invade!

[HurricaneVal]

Is it wrong that I'm attracted to the vindictive senator?

Oy.  I kind of like how Bess and Henry are going to let their youngest marinate in his mess.  They gave their best advice, and he screwed it up.  Sucks to be him!  He's an angry white boy, well on his way to becoming an incel.

When did Stevie become the most tolerable McCord child?

[kwnyc]

6 minutes ago, HurricaneVal said:

He's an angry white boy, well on his way to becoming an incel.

I had that exact thought. He reminds me of MANY people on Twitter!

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, kwnyc said:

1 hour ago, HurricaneVal said:

He's an angry white boy, well on his way to becoming an incel.

I had that exact thought. He reminds me of MANY people on Twitter!

I hope they don’t go there, but it wouldn’t be inconsistent with his character. Except. I thought incels are misogynists, not anti-misogyny. 🤔
  

5 hours ago, kwnyc said:

I'm interested in seeing how this plays out: will they have Bess resign? I would say, since this is a TV show, they won't. Senator Prison Break will be brought down by something.

You’re probably right, that the good guy (Bess) will win in the end —especially since this is a major network family show.

But it would be more interesting IMO to have her resign and then, after a lot of political backstabbing amongst the remaining power grabbers, Senator Prison Break is seen leaving D.C. against a smoldering backdrop of some horrific strike; he gazes our the window of a train at the ruins, and then arrives at Bess and Henry’s farm to say (through great manly sobs) how sorry he is and how wrong he was.
Then cut away to 2040 in which we see a graying Blake with his middle-aged wife, Stevie, at a book signing for the biographical account of the first woman POTUS.
And maybe even a 50+ Daisy steps up to have her copy signed and is greeted by Blake and Stevie as "Madam President." 

Edited November 18, 2019 by shapeshifter

[bobalina]

Daisy will never be president. Shes oroven herself untrustworthy.

[HurricaneVal]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

Except. I thought incels are misogynists, not anti-misogyny. 🤔

You are correct!  But....I'm not so sure Jason is exactly a big crusader against misogyny so much as I think he's mainly just defending his mom.  Is there a left-leaning version of an incel?  We used to just call them unpopular gamer nerds.

The more I think about it, the more I realize what an interesting situation and plot this is.  Yes, I have to get past the annoying Jason character so see that.  It is an interesting lesson in intent and perception and spin. 

When Jason said he needed to leave, because his Secret Service agents get jumpy if he stays in one place too long, I think he intended it both as a joke and to inflate his self-importance.  The subsequent article said that he pointed out his armed security detail as an intimidation tactic with an implicit threat.  Maybe the campus newspaper editor truly felt threatened, but at no point in the conversation did Jason point out his guards were armed, or would do his bidding, as her article implied.

I hope they explore more of this kind of thing.

[kwnyc]

...oh, and the comic who was MCing the Correspondents' dinner was Judy Gold! She's a favorite of mine. :-)

[rlc]

1 hour ago, kwnyc said:

...oh, and the comic who was MCing the Correspondents' dinner was Judy Gold! She's a favorite of mine. 🙂

She’s great, but I was really hoping they’d get Michelle Wolf.

[MaryHedwig]

2 hours ago, HurricaneVal said:

Maybe the campus newspaper editor truly felt threatened, but at no point in the conversation did Jason point out his guards were armed, or would do his bidding, as her article implied.

I thought one of Jason's hands was in the shape of a gun.

[Noneofyourbusiness]

5 hours ago, bobalina said:

Daisy will never be president. Shes oroven herself untrustworthy.

That hasn't stopped people from becoming president before.

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Noneofyourbusiness said:

6 hours ago, bobalina said:

Daisy will never be president. Shes oroven herself untrustworthy.

That hasn't stopped people from becoming president before

Heh. So true. But in my version of the MSecLand future, Daisy was vindicated by a remorseful Senator Prison Break —maybe his suicide note was wrapped around a flash drive of self- (and others-) incriminating evidence that somehow exonerated Daisy.  

[KaveDweller]

I'm really not enjoying this storyline of Bess being targeted so much during her presidency, but I guess they will wrap it all up happily and she'll be vindicated. 

Jason went from being slightly annoying to complete asshole. I didn't actually think his talk to the blogger was that bad, he was defending his mother and I didn't take the reference to the secret service as a threat. But his apology totally sucked.

How did Senator Prison Break know that Dimitri is an ex spy? Isn't that still classified? And way to misconstrue what came out at the hearings. I will enjoy his downfall. 

[bobalina]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

Heh. So true. But in my version of the MSecLand future, Daisy was vindicated by a remorseful Senator Prison Break —maybe his suicide note was wrapped around a flash drive of self- (and others-) incriminating evidence that somehow exonerated Daisy.  It's

 not about what was on the flashdrive. It's about Daisy and her choices.

[NUguy514]

9 hours ago, bobalina said:

Daisy will never be president. Shes oroven herself untrustworthy.

I would trust Daisy every single day and twice on Sundays over basically every character ever on this show except for Jay, Nadine, and maybe Blake.

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, bobalina said:

 not about what was on the flashdrive. It's about Daisy and her choices.

Sorry for the confusion. If you and I were at the writers’ table, I would agree that a reveal about Daisy’s choices having ultimately having been heroically self-sacrificing should be in a folder of papers to differentiate it from that flash drive. 

[bros402]

16 hours ago, kwnyc said:

I thought the flash drive would come back...and in fact, Blake did the right thing by hiding it in a secure place. He just didn't expect the FBI raiding his house and taking everything he owned. 

I'm interested in seeing how this plays out: will they have Bess resign? I would say, since this is a TV show, they won't. Senator Prison Break will be brought down by something.

And Bess really is cuddly on domestic issues and a total hawk on foreign policy. I think she's right that letting a foreign power meddle with a US election is an act of war, and I'm glad she decided to get the head of the op, rather than invade!

I would like if he was taken down by something like maybe he went to an adversarial nation on the 4th of July to meet with members of that nation's government

They won't have Bess resign, I think they will have the show end on a positive note, maybe a flash forward where we see Henry & Bess surrounded by kids and grandkids.

[cameron]

17 hours ago, kwnyc said:

I had that exact thought. He reminds me of MANY people on Twitter!

When did he become a junior in college.  Seems like they skipped ahead here.

[Florinaldo]

On 11/18/2019 at 10:02 AM, kwnyc said:

Nothing like a privileged undergrad lecturing a young woman of color about misogyny.

Even a young woman of colour can be wrong. And it can be argued that, judging from the selected bits that Jason quoted, she was indeed wrong or at least that valid objections could be raised to her opinions. However, it was clear from the get-go that the writers were setting him up for a spectacular fall. Confronting someone who runs a blog and apparently has a wide following is a dumb idea; I thought he had be shown to been Web-savvy in previous seasons. He fell victim to an expedient plot point and forgot everything he knew; even his joke about his security detail was clumsy and open to interpretation, especially from a thin-skinned person who is already highly suspicious of his mother's stand on freedom of expression. I had another look at his hand gesture and I am not sure that the staging and writing intended it as him mimicking a gun.

It was particularly unwise for him to talk to her considering she is writing from her own position of privilege: youth.

Remember when you were in college (or still are), perhaps working on the student newspaper? We thought of ourselves as infallible and on a sacred mission to promote the truth, against all of those who disagreed with us. Everything was seen as either Right or Wrong. With no possibility of nuances or in-between positions. From the little we have heard quoted of her writings, that is exactly where she stands.

There's also her other position of privilege: she has a platform at the ready to reach  a huge amount of people.

I thought his non-apology was very good, hitting some very relevant points, but of course without any political sense about the consequences. It had the right amount of sarcasm to counter the blogger's point of view, which is derived from her Manichean perspective on the world. It points the way to what might have been a more efficient response to her writings: Jason creating a blog of his own. Although it would require him to pay for it without any financial contribution from his parents and only from his own money, assuming he has an independant source of income, to avoid conflict of interests (although accusations would be made anyway). And it would take quite an effort to sustain it, either in this narrative or in real-life.

Could a Senator legitimately make a summary report on the floor of the Senate without putting it in writing first and providing the attendant pieces of evidence? With none of his colleagues objecting to that method and his outlandish accusations? I know it's more dramatic the way they did it but it's another example of the fairy-tale view of the political process this show has. Including the US as "the bellwether of freedom" statement from Bess. Typically self-centered and self-righteous words from a US president, real or imagined.

The administration is not without munitions against Senator Prison Break. They could make public his overtures to the VP about helping him move up a spot, or his totally absurd offer to the President for her to abdicate all her powers to him. They may not have written or audio proof but he still would have to deal with the resulting media kerfuffle, which would keep him busy and score some points for Bess. But they are apparently writing her as standing passively on principles and morality to win in this contest of wills, which is rather naive and pollyanaish.

Edited November 19, 2019 by Florinaldo

[roughing it]

8 hours ago, cameron said:

When did he become a junior in college.  Seems like they skipped ahead here.

They did a time jump from when Bess announced her candidacy to after the inauguration.  Would that be enough time for Jr to become a, um, junior?

[kwnyc]

Quote

 Would that be enough time for Jr to become a, um, junior?

Maybe...he was shown as a senior in high school...was it last season or the season before, right? (And being scared of his good scores on his SAT). So assume a year of campaigning, and now Elizabeth is in her first term. Theoretically he could be a junior.

[shapeshifter]

11 hours ago, cameron said:

When did he become a junior in college.  Seems like they skipped ahead here.

3 hours ago, roughing it said:

They did a time jump from when Bess announced her candidacy to after the inauguration.  Would that be enough time for Jr to become a, um, junior?

Evan Roe (Jason) is only 19, and it doesn't help that he has a "baby face." 
I agree with Florinaldo's post that most of Jason's points were spot on.
But clearly Mom and Dad failed to adequately point out to him that First Kids do not have quite as much freedom of speech as the average kids do.

But the writers did seem to try to point out that even when a First Kid is conscientious and seeks parental advice (i.e. Stevie) that their personal lives can still wind up in the crapper.

I  hope we at least get a Noodle cameo before the series finale.

[KaveDweller]

4 hours ago, kwnyc said:

Maybe...he was shown as a senior in high school...was it last season or the season before, right? (And being scared of his good scores on his SAT). So assume a year of campaigning, and now Elizabeth is in her first term. Theoretically he could be a junior.

The timing only works for him to be a Junior if months have gone by since the season premiere and it is now fall.. He was finishing high school when Bess announced her candidacy. If that was real time, spring of 2019, then when this season started it would have been spring 2021 (100 days into a term that started in Jan 01 ). So if we have now jumped to fall 2021 he could have just started his junior year. But if a new school year has started Aly should be back from her semester abroad.

[auntiemel]

I'm wondering if all of this info from Blake's secret flash drive is going to lead to Stevie finding out about the time her Mom handed her boyfriend over to near-certain death in order to avoid a nuclear war.

[kwnyc]

10 hours ago, auntiemel said:

I'm wondering if all of this info from Blake's secret flash drive is going to lead to Stevie finding out about the time her Mom handed her boyfriend over to near-certain death in order to avoid a nuclear war.

I think t that happened AFTER the flash drive. Not sure of the timeline. And she most likely would NOT have told Blake, who wasn't there. (It was her, POTUS & Dr. Arm Candy, if I remember correctly.)

[auntiemel]

You're probably right, I have no idea about the timeline. I just thought it would be a super dramatic reveal, and it seemed like they were building toward something with regards to that relationship.

I actually kind of want it to come out. That would be a freaking great argument scene! 😯

[shapeshifter]

10 hours ago, auntiemel said:

You're probably right, I have no idea about the timeline. I just thought it would be a super dramatic reveal, and it seemed like they were building toward something with regards to that relationship.

I actually kind of want it to come out. That would be a freaking great argument scene! 😯

It would explain why they brought him back (besides the actor being good looking and likely inexpensive). BTW, when we saw his bare back, I thought there was some other scene several seasons ago that showed he was scarred from torture. If they were going to reveal to Stevie that her Mom contributed to that, you'd think he wouldn't have miraculously, tvland-healed scars now. 

[Dowel Jones]

On 11/19/2019 at 6:42 AM, Florinaldo said:

Confronting someone who runs a blog and apparently has a wide following is a dumb idea;

As the pre-internet saying went, never sue an organization that buys ink by the barrel.

On 11/19/2019 at 6:42 AM, Florinaldo said:

I thought his non-apology was very good, hitting some very relevant points, but of course without any political sense about the consequences.

The main problem I saw with his statement was that the content was overshadowed by a very weak presentation.  He came off as a boy who had been told to apologize, and was weaseling through every bit of it.  He wouldn't look at the camera, he ran his hand through his hair, etc.  All of that combines to create very bad optics, and essentially renders his non-apology something equivalent to a sixth grader.  Which, of course, he more or less is.

It's interesting that America's allies were less than enthusiastic about McCord's zeal to kidnap the Iranian hacker.  The reason there is, I think, that they maybe realize that they are much closer to the problem area than the US is, and there will be consequences.  Or at least there would be in real life.  I wonder why an option to hack into Iran's computer grid and cause havoc was not raised.  Do we not have that ability (in the show, anyway)?

The other interesting thing I think of is that the US has laws that regulate the behavior of other nation's citizens in their own country, both on the show and in real life.  What if those nations reciprocated?  Don't tell me that the US has never interfered in other countries' electoral processes, or shipped arms in order to foment revolutions.  What if indictments were handed down against people in the McCord administration, or in the various intelligence agencies?

"People in my administration have told me that I'm not funny.  I will miss them deeply."  Heh.

[Netfoot]

16 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

"People in my administration have told me that I'm not funny.  I will miss them deeply."  Heh.

Only funny until you realize that the USA is one of the few (only?) countries in the world with a legal mechanism for ignoring Habeas Corpus.

[shapeshifter]

22 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

The main problem I saw with his statement was that the content was overshadowed by a very weak presentation.  He came off as a boy who had been told to apologize, and was weaseling through every bit of it.  He wouldn't look at the camera, he ran his hand through his hair, etc.  All of that combines to create very bad optics, and essentially renders his non-apology something equivalent to a sixth grader.  Which, of course, he more or less is.

Yes to all of this, and yet, both in show and IRL it could work to his (or at least his mom’s and her administration’s) advantage in that he can be brushed off as a kid who has a lot to learn. Like: Was it Clinton who had a rascal, bootlegging half brother?

[mrsbagnet]

Line of the episode: Jason's date asking to switch seats with Stevie so she wouldn't be sitting next to him while he was getting roasted.