S01.E10: The Oath

[piequinn35]

On 12/15/2016 at 7:57 AM, Princess Lucky said:

Oh and Catalan is really hot (in a cro magnon sort of  way). They need to give him a line or two.

I'm not the only one haha!

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

Will The Designated Survivor Survive?

Two trails of clues lead to the White House Chief of Staff, but will it be in time to prevent another assassination at the Capitol?

[izabella]

oh-oh - that picture ^^ makes me worry that Mike is the one who will be shot by the errant sniper bullet. 

[piequinn35]

Mike got shot already, I'm guessing it's the wifey.

[Princess Lucky]

Now that I look at this picture, I don't want it to be the FLOTUS because it would be a shame to ruin that fabulous coat.

I kind of think it might be MacLeish who gets it. That would be the most dramatic development in terms of the plot. The bad guys wanted him to be the POTUS but he ends up injured/dead, and now what? That could lead to tons of possibilities story-wise. Maybe a back-up plan. A back-up person. Aaron going full villain (though I still think he's a red herring, at least this week), or Mrs. MacLeish stepping up.

But the FLOTUS also makes sense. If Kirkman is widowed, or if he has to look after his heavily injured wife, that would leave MacLeish, the new Veep, to handle the day-to-day issues for a long while. So he may not actually become the POTUS but he may still have some power, so the "major plan" would be half-successful. Plus, maybe a widowed Kirkman would even decide to quit, and his team would have to convince him to stay, or something.

Hm.

I don't think it'll be Mike (because yeah, been there done that, and also I love him), and I also don't think it'll be Mrs. MacLeish because we just got the reveal she's evil, so we need to see that play out a little more.

[marinw]

I can't shake the feeling that it is Tom. You should have worn that Kievlar, Mr. President!

An injured Tom would still give Lady McLiesh and her apparent puppet/husband Peter the powers of the preisendency, with that nagging feeling that the job isn't finished. Although I wouldn't put it past the Writers to have it be a relatively minor injury, further foiling Lady McLiesh's plan. If Hannah can apparently recover from internal injuries with some glue, all things are possible. Not that the Writers would ever manipulate us emotionally or anything.

Edited December 16, 2016 by marinw
spelling

[shapeshifter]

4 hours ago, Princess Lucky said:

Now that I look at this picture, I don't want it to be the FLOTUS because it would be a shame to ruin that fabulous coat....

Ha! So true! I loved that coat; maybe Joan on Elementary can get one in her size. Or if FLOTUS does get shot, maybe they can rush the coat to the cleaners and get it altered for Joan while they're at it. 

If FLOTUS gets killed, would Kirkman and Hannah become an item by season 3?

If we are taking bets, I would put most of my raffle tickets on Lady MacLeish because she acts like a red shirt, and maybe she could take some secrets to her grave that would set up some plot worthy intrigue.

I'd probably also toss a few raffle tickets into the Peter MacLeish bucket since it seems more likely that he'd be comatose while Lady MacLeish plots to poison the POTUS.

[jhlipton]

"Hello, DC Police?  I planted a bomb in room 7 on the 8th floor of the only company in town that has an M in their logo, ya know, MetSec or whatever.  It's going to go off in 15 minutes.  Got that?  Toodles!"

[thuganomics85]

Well, if nothing else, I got a kick out of Hannah discovering that the Chief of Staff/Langdon is alive, because that allowed Melinda Clarke and Peter Outerbridge to share the screen once again!  It's Nikita and Ari!  Now, they just need to get Melinda Clarke and Xander Berkley onboard...

Not sure why Hannah didn't just call in some kind of fake threat, after she discovered the truth.  Even if they thought it was a fake or prank call, they'd would sure as hell treat it seriously, with the President near-by.  There had to be a better way to do it.  Anyway, Hannah does managed to make the sniper misaim, so I guess the big cliffhanger is who.  I did see which direction he moved too, so I'm guessing it's either Alex or MacLeish.  It it's Alex, it will be typical "Oh, no!  The lead's wife is in trouble!" thing.  If it's MacLeish, it will be a way to have the bad guys get knocked back for a second.  I guess we'll find out in a few months.

Meanwhile, the search for the traitor continues, and naturally Aaron ends up being a suspect.  Which is the worst timing ever for Emily since she and him finally moved to the making out stage (at leas they politely waited for Seth to leave), so now she fears he might be the traitor.  I'm guessing not.  It's always the one no one expects.  So.... Seth, maybe?

Beth MacLeish not only being in on it, but seeming to be the one pushing her husband to do it, was interesting.  Underestimate Lara Jean Chorostecki at your own peril!

Hey, it's Cochrane!  And he wasn't a complete dick this time!

Man, no new episodes till March?  That's a big gap. Not sure that's a smart move, ABC.

[ClareWalks]

This whole assassination attempt was sloppy AF. Maggie knew the goddamn room number, but she didn't just go THERE? The entire plan depends on one sniper bullet from at least 1/4 mile away? They didn't think it'd be a wee bit suspicious that MacLeish was involved if Kirkman was shot LITERALLY SECONDS after MacLeish is sworn in as VP? Jesus, people, get your shit together. And after all their maneuvering to blame the Capitol bombing on Islamic terrorism, they're gonna do some kind of obviously-all-American shit like "position a nearby sniper?" Booo.

[Raja]

7 minutes ago, ClareWalks said:

This whole assassination attempt was sloppy AF. Maggie knew the goddamn room number, but she didn't just go THERE? The entire plan depends on one sniper bullet from at least 1/4 mile away? They didn't think it'd be a wee bit suspicious that MacLeish was involved if Kirkman was shot LITERALLY SECONDS after MacLeish is sworn in as VP? Jesus, people, get your shit together. And after all their maneuvering to blame the Capitol bombing on Islamic terrorism, they're gonna do some kind of obviously-all-American shit like "position a nearby sniper?" Booo.

With Shooter and the best sniper ever on the air, they need to up their game. Having the worst sniper ever trying to kill the President seconds after swearing in a new Vice President just isn't going to cut it..

[DrSpaceman73]

Quote

And can Hookstraten be VP? K&K make a good team imo, plus she's so interesting that I wouldn't want her to be the Big Bad. Frenemies working together would be more fun to watch at least for this viewer.

That would have made the most sense since the beginning, much more so than McLeish. 

Its a horrific national tragedy and you tell the public its time to restart and in that spirit its going to be a joint administration of two different parties finally working together

Plus it would help alleviate many of the concerns of those criticizing him earlier for not having enough experience for the job.  You can say while that's true, he has a VP with a ton of experience and she will be relied upon heavily in the new administration. 

And she was the "designated survivor" choice for the other party, so it would only make sense for the two of them to be the choices to start the new government. 

[marinw]

7 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Not sure why Hannah didn't just call in some kind of fake threat, after she discovered the truth. 

Because there is no one she can trust! Or something like that.

13 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

If FLOTUS gets killed, would Kirkman and Hannah become an item by season 3?

As much as I HATE the idea of Alex getting written off (Lazy writing IMO) I would not object to this. 

[Dowel Jones]

I'm going to go with Mrs. McLeish.  Why?  Because, as shown in the picture, she is the only redshirt in the crowd.  Okay, it's a jacket, but close enough.

[rur]

4 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

I'm going to go with Mrs. McLeish.  Why?  Because, as shown in the picture, she is the only redshirt in the crowd.  Okay, it's a jacket, but close enough.

I'll put my money on her because I like the idea that she really was a Lady MacBeth, pushing her husband to succeed. If he now has the power, but doesn't have the motivation because of her death, it could be an interesting second half of the season. The bad guys would have stuff on him, but he would want to do good . . . 

[Danielg342]

This show...

OK, so I knew the episode would end with the gunshot and the fade to black. Too predictable at this stage.

It's also too predictable that President Kirkman survives. I mean, c'mon...he's the executive producer of this show.

I also have to roll my eyes at the incompetent Secret Service guys who somehow don't notice a building with a line of sight to the President has a window open. I mean...seriously.

...but the real Idiot of the Week is Hannah Wells. Some dude is choking her, she rolls over into the backseat...and doesn't think just to grab her files so that no one could steal them? If I was her, it would be the first thing I'd do before bolting, if not just drive to a police officer or something.

It's not like she didn't just have a guy choking her or something.

If she had done that, all that stuff with Chuck would have been avoided. Then again, we might not have met Charles Langdon.

Or we probably would have because Emily Rhoades would have revealed his presence.

I could bring up Rhoades and her erstwhile dalliance with Aaron Shore, or Seth Wright vs. Lisa Jordan. I could even speculate who actually got shot, but my money is on "no one".

...but, it would do a disservice to reviewing, since I'm not sure I really care. This "conspiracy" is even more ridiculous than I ever thought possible, and the amount of stupid things the conspirators had to do and had to rely on is absolutely mind-boggling.

These guys make The Blacklist look smart. That's saying something.

I think I might be back for what will be in effect the show's second pilot in March. However, if things aren't better then, I'll be out.

Episode Grade: D-. A mind-numbing fall finale that provides no real answers and trudges along like the rest of the season did. This show has its work cut out for them in 2017.

[MVFrostsMyPie]

The thing that stood out the most to me this episode was the volunteer bag checkers. And not in a good way.

I watch this show for comedic relief. That was their intention, right? :)

[Muffyn]

I keep reminding myself this is not 24.  Kiefer is Kirkman, a milquetoast policy wonk with a love of housing policies.  And then there was a commercial for the local news highlighting a story on a mountain lion.  Suddenly, I wondered where Kim is? Is she safe?  Does she know a mountain lion is on the hunt?  Dammit, Kiefer, protect your 24 daughter!

[Danielg342]

I sometimes feel like Maggie Q's character is being trapped by mountain lions...

[marinw]

10 hours ago, Muffyn said:

I keep reminding myself this is not 24.  

Yes. Nothing will ever be like 24. Not even the new 24 will be like 24.

[paigow]

How many months did we wait to find out that Abe & Glen were Neganized???? The Kiefer hiatus seems reasonable by that standard......

[kili]

I think that Aaron is at least injured in the shooting. He needs to be in a coma for a few weeks for the false herring of his guilt to fester. If they could just throw him in prison and use "advanced interrogation techniques" on him, they would quickly know he is not to blame. And he would reveal who really either placed that call or was told to place that call. I think he gets nailed by a bullet that passes through somebody else (so it's slow enough by the time it hits him not to kill him) - I think it will go through Mrs. McLeish. Aaron seems to earnest to have been involved with the conspiracy. He could have done a bunch of stuff that would have made people glad the president was shot and MacLiesh was the new president, but he didn't do those things in public or private.

I think the VP must survive or the conspiracy really has nowhere to go. Surely they can't drum up another conspiracy member to be VP in such short order. Kirkman will be forced to try and remain alive while trying to expose the conspiracy.  Without his wife, the VP might be more willing to come over to the light side.

Why does the president keep rewarding Lisa with exclusives? He gave her an exclusive because she was blackmailing him and she still ran with the blackmail (just by giving it to another reporter).  She clearly doesn't know who has been arrested. Reward somebody who can keep a deal with the exclusive.

BTW How does she keep getting intel like that? Not many people know that somebody was arrested for the crime. I think that somebody from the conspiracy is feeding it to her.

I'm sorry, but I think Mike is in on the conspiracy. He kept reverting to arguing that Hannah was crazy and then the secret service did an absolutely terrible job. First, they have volunteers checking bags, then they had agents declaring a floor clear when a guy was just walking on the floor, then they didn't notice that the room had been accessed (the key card entrance to the room should have been logged and somebody should have noticed that a door was accessed on a clear room) and then they didn't notice a gun sticking out of an office window - one of the few with a clear shot on the dais where the president would be standing. So, is Mike incompetent or in on it? I like Mike...but...?

They should be asking themselves who the original designated survivor was. Surely the plan wasn't always going to be  "Kill everybody, make MacLeish VP, kill designated survivor." That seems too risky. I'm sure the plan was "Kill everybody, have our designated survivor be president, have him make MacLiesh VP. Conspire away."

[MaryPatShelby]

On 12/15/2016 at 11:41 AM, Dowel Jones said:

Was Wells talking to Chuck when she blurted out "They're going to shoot the President?"  If so, Agent Chuck of the FBI is going to have serious splainin' to do in the after action report, as to why, AS AN FBI AGENT, he didn't notify anyone of a possible threat and the actual building where the threat might be located.

And all this after just saying that he joined the FBI to "help people".  Just who did you help in this scenario, bud?

I don't have long, lovely, perfectly styled hair; I have a shoulder length bob.  And it's in a ponytail for cooking, working out, and any other time I want my hair out of the way.  I feel fairly certain that if I were searching a bomb site for clues, chasing bad guys, or having a shoot-out in the woods, my hair would be in a ponytail.  Am I that much of an outlier that Hannah's hair annoys the crap out of me?  Every time I see women in impossible situations with gorgeous hair, I feel that it's the actress being so full of herself that she can't possibly present on screen on a ponytail or even a messy updo. (Full disclosure:  I don't know Maggie Q, I've never seen her in anything, so she has not built up any goodwill with me that I can just let this go!)

[Princess Lucky]

18 hours ago, kili said:

Why does the president keep rewarding Lisa with exclusives? He gave her an exclusive because she was blackmailing him and she still ran with the blackmail (just by giving it to another reporter).  She clearly doesn't know who has been arrested. Reward somebody who can keep a deal with the exclusive.

BTW How does she keep getting intel like that? Not many people know that somebody was arrested for the crime. I think that somebody from the conspiracy is feeding it to her.

Agreed. I gave her a pass when it came to the Leo/paternity information, because that was easy to "find out" (since the potential bio dad was blabbing about it), but this? No way. Somebody is totally sending her info, probably anonymously, for whatever purpose. To weaken Kirkman's position? I do think it's the bad guys, and not, like, Aaron (assuming he's not a bad guy, lol) or somebody from the White House.

And I do hate how she's constantly rewarded for being shady (or "spunky" I guess), but I do love how butthurt Seth is over that, it's fun to watch.

18 hours ago, kili said:

I'm sorry, but I think Mike is in on the conspiracy. He kept reverting to arguing that Hannah was crazy and then the secret service did an absolutely terrible job. First, they have volunteers checking bags, then they had agents declaring a floor clear when a guy was just walking on the floor, then they didn't notice that the room had been accessed (the key card entrance to the room should have been logged and somebody should have noticed that a door was accessed on a clear room) and then they didn't notice a gun sticking out of an office window - one of the few with a clear shot on the dais where the president would be standing. So, is Mike incompetent or in on it? I like Mike...but...?

Hush your mouth! But yeah, not noticing the single open window in an entire building? Which should have been totally empty, I assume? I do love Mike, but he's sleeping on the job. I assume. Maybe we'll see the next episode and he'll have shielded Kirkman only for Mrs. Kirkman to get it, or something. Let's see how he did first. I mean, the shooting itself did take place, so that's a fail, but maybe he responded to it successfully. I want to believe!

1 hour ago, MaryPatShelby said:

I don't have long, lovely, perfectly styled hair; I have a shoulder length bob.  And it's in a ponytail for cooking, working out, and any other time I want my hair out of the way.  I feel fairly certain that if I were searching a bomb site for clues, chasing bad guys, or having a shoot-out in the woods, my hair would be in a ponytail.  Am I that much of an outlier that Hannah's hair annoys the crap out of me?  Every time I see women in impossible situations with gorgeous hair, I feel that it's the actress being so full of herself that she can't possibly present on screen on a ponytail or even a messy updo. (Full disclosure:  I don't know Maggie Q, I've never seen her in anything, so she has not built up any goodwill with me that I can just let this go!)

But Hannah's hair flips are the best part of each episode! (full disclosure: I adore Maggie Q so, to my eyes, she can do no wrong)

[waving feather]

I'm guessing Mike is the one too. It's always the person who is suspected the least in these type of shows.

[Danielg342]

Open question- would this show have been better if the series began with the VP's swearing in ceremony and we saw how it got to this point?

[dmc]

11 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

Open question- would this show have been better if the series began with the VP's swearing in ceremony and we saw how it got to this point?

Hmmm no. It sucks for other reasons.

I think the issue the is the story lines and the actors.

The premise is good BUT...

The cast doesn't have the right chemistry, the plots all seem kind of predictive and not that exciting, and I don't like the way the main character is played. I suspect...they will revamp it so when it comes back on March some of the dead weight is gone.

[jhlipton]

On 12/19/2016 at 1:36 PM, kili said:

. I'm sure the plan was "Kill everybody, have our designated survivor be president, have him make MacLiesh VP. Conspire away."

"Kill everybody, [protect MacLeish just in case], have our designated survivor be president, have him make MacLiesh VP [as a backup]. Conspire away."

If their designated survivor becomes President, MacLeish is only needed as backup.

 

1 hour ago, Danielg342 said:

Open question- would this show have been better if the series began with the VP's swearing in ceremony and we saw how it got to this point?

I don't think so, because then the discovery of the bomb shelter is kind of anti-climactic.

[Netfoot]

6 hours ago, MaryPatShelby said:

I feel fairly certain that if I were searching a bomb site for clues, chasing bad guys, or having a shoot-out in the woods, my hair would be in a ponytail.

I bet you wear stiletto heels while running away from The Monster!

[secnarf]

4 hours ago, dmc said:

I suspect...they will revamp it so when it comes back on March some of the dead weight is gone.

This would be hard to do considering it's already filmed. They filmed from March - December. That should be enough for a season, no? And unless they start up again immediately in January, they probably wouldn't be able to film new material for March anyways. Although, if they did, it would at least become obvious that it is winter and the characters would have to dress like it!

[Princess Lucky]

49 minutes ago, secnarf said:

This would be hard to do considering it's already filmed. They filmed from March - December. That should be enough for a season, no? And unless they start up again immediately in January, they probably wouldn't be able to film new material for March anyways. Although, if they did, it would at least become obvious that it is winter and the characters would have to dress like it!

Wait, they started filming in March? I was under the impression fall shows start filming over the summer. In, like, July. And they continue filming until about March/April, after a Christmas break. Plus, didn't the show get a new showrunner recently? I'm assuming there's still more episodes for him to work on. Like, there better be. This show could use a revamp.

7 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

Open question- would this show have been better if the series began with the VP's swearing in ceremony and we saw how it got to this point?

Hm. Not the VP specifically, if you ask me, because I liked seeing how MacLeish was eventually selected and I think that was a tense little storyline, but I think it would have been interesting if we had opened on an assassination attempt on the designated survivor. We'd see the attack, and everything else we were shown in the pilot, and then we'd get a flash forward to an assassination attempt, say 6 months in, without knowing if Kirkman survives it. Then we could go back to day one, and see the in-between. We'd be watching a reluctant POTUS, learning the ropes, without knowing if he was even alive. We'd reach the point of the assassination in the midseason finale, and then we'd find out what happened. Schrödinger's POTUS.

I mean, it'd be messy in terms of storytelling and timelines, but it could be fun.

[secnarf]

38 minutes ago, Princess Lucky said:

Wait, they started filming in March? I was under the impression fall shows start filming over the summer. In, like, July. And they continue filming until about March/April, after a Christmas break. Plus, didn't the show get a new showrunner recently? I'm assuming there's still more episodes for him to work on. Like, there better be. This show could use a revamp.

Hm. Not the VP specifically, if you ask me, because I liked seeing how MacLeish was eventually selected and I think that was a tense little storyline, but I think it would have been interesting if we had opened on an assassination attempt on the designated survivor. We'd see the attack, and everything else we were shown in the pilot, and then we'd get a flash forward to an assassination attempt, say 6 months in, without knowing if Kirkman survives it. Then we could go back to day one, and see the in-between. We'd be watching a reluctant POTUS, learning the ropes, without knowing if he was even alive. We'd reach the point of the assassination in the midseason finale, and then we'd find out what happened. Schrödinger's POTUS.

I mean, it'd be messy in terms of storytelling and timelines, but it could be fun.

The ACTRA website posts everything that is currently filming in Toronto, as well as the start and end dates. DS is no longer posted since it is no longer currently filming, but when I checked before it said sometime in March to sometime in December. Whether or not it will start up again is unclear, though. I don't know anything about the showrunner or how shows are typically filmed, I'm just going off of what was on the ACTRA website. For all I know, they did the pilot in March and then took a break before starting up again. I just assumed that they did it straight through from March to December.

That's a really good idea as to how this could have played out! But of course, he would have survived ;) Still a good way of framing things, though.

[Ceindreadh]

19 hours ago, MaryPatShelby said:

 

I don't have long, lovely, perfectly styled hair; I have a shoulder length bob.  And it's in a ponytail for cooking, working out, and any other time I want my hair out of the way.  I feel fairly certain that if I were searching a bomb site for clues, chasing bad guys, or having a shoot-out in the woods, my hair would be in a ponytail.  Am I that much of an outlier that Hannah's hair annoys the crap out of me?  Every time I see women in impossible situations with gorgeous hair, I feel that it's the actress being so full of herself that she can't possibly present on screen on a ponytail or even a messy updo. (Full disclosure:  I don't know Maggie Q, I've never seen her in anything, so she has not built up any goodwill with me that I can just let this go!)

I think that a lot of times long hair will be left loose on screen to make it easier to hide the face of a stand in/body double for action scenes. But I'm pretty sure Maggie Q does all her own fights. 

And yes, I find it annoying when characters don't tie back long hair at crime scenes, lab work etc. 

[marinw]

3 hours ago, Ceindreadh said:

And yes, I find it annoying when characters don't tie back long hair at crime scenes, lab work etc. 

This and female field agents who run around in high heels (except for Dana Scully of course)

[MaryPatShelby]

17 hours ago, Netfoot said:

I bet you wear stiletto heels while running away from The Monster!

Damn, there's a mole in my household!

[dmc]

15 hours ago, secnarf said:

This would be hard to do considering it's already filmed. They filmed from March - December. That should be enough for a season, no? And unless they start up again immediately in January, they probably wouldn't be able to film new material for March anyways. Although, if they did, it would at least become obvious that it is winter and the characters would have to dress like it!

they've already filmed?  Then I guess the best we can hope for is it gets better

[Roseanna]

On 12/14/2016 at 10:35 PM, scarynikki12 said:

I think it's the First Lady. I also don't think Aaron is involved in the conspiracy. We don't know what the phone call specifically entailed. He could have been tasked with that job by the COS during that overseas trip and did what he was told without knowing what it all meant. 

Actually, we don't even know if the general told the truth that he didn't open the file before his right was denied. Was his story checked at all?

On 12/19/2016 at 0:36 PM, kili said:

I'm sorry, but I think Mike is in on the conspiracy.

I don't think so.  First, the conspirators couldn't know who the designated survivor was. Second, if Mike were one of them, he could have staged an "accident" and there would be no need to assassinate Kirkman.

Also, assuming the general told the truth, one must search for someone in White House staff.   

[MaryPatShelby]

On 12/21/2016 at 1:39 AM, Ceindreadh said:

I think that a lot of times long hair will be left loose on screen to make it easier to hide the face of a stand in/body double for action scenes. But I'm pretty sure Maggie Q does all her own fights. 

And yes, I find it annoying when characters don't tie back long hair at crime scenes, lab work etc. 

Don't get me started on prime example CSI: Miami, the worst show of all time that I'm somehow compelled to watch.

[formerlyfreedom]

2 hours ago, MaryPatShelby said:

Don't get me started on prime example CSI: Miami, the worst show of all time that I'm somehow compelled to watch.

I thought I was the only one! Hang in there, you can break the cycle! ;)

[gymratgrandma]

Of course she left the classified documents in the car. Grrrr show needs a smart agent 

[Danielg342]

8 hours ago, gymratgrandma said:

Of course she left the classified documents in the car. Grrrr show needs a smart agent 

What makes it worse was that she even rolled into the backseat, where she could have presumably picked up the files. If she had rolled out of the car I might have understood it, but not if she rolled into the backseat.

[queenanne]

On 12/14/2016 at 11:43 PM, Moose135 said:

I was thinking the same thing. Also, when Aaron, Emily, and Seth are having the drink to celebrate MacLeish's selection, I was thinking they were tempting fate, as it wasn't official yet.  And really bad timing for Aaron and Emily to get together, right before POTUS tells her Aaron may be the traitor...

At this rate, I don't know that I'll be back in three months when the show returns.  Seriously, though, three months until the next episode?

I feel like I've seen an ABC show make this decision in the past.  Conversely, I also feel like this is a big red flag signaling that someone made these particular people take extra time out of a schedule to make some serious scalpel-ing changes.

On 12/15/2016 at 0:19 AM, Happy Harpy said:

 In hindsight, so much of the half-season looks like filler to me after this fast-paced and action-packed episode. Again, the pacing problem is this show's biggest enemy imo. If the writers stop stalling for the sake of it, a very large dose of plot contrivances should disappear

....

I will be there after the hiatus. The cast is very talented, and I like most of the characters which are always my motivation for watching a show. That said, I wouldn't be against better writing, pacing and a clear direction.

Apparently they're getting a third showrunner, which doesn't strike me as particularly good (cf. above point).  I think someone knows DS stinks like week-old fish at the moment, and doesn't like it.

[Kromm]

"It's bigger than you think, don't trust anyone".

I wonder exactly how many shitty shows and movies that cliche has been uttered in.

[Kromm]

On 12/16/2016 at 4:28 PM, Princess Lucky said:

I kind of think it might be MacLeish who gets it. That would be the most dramatic development in terms of the plot. The bad guys wanted him to be the POTUS but he ends up injured/dead, and now what?

Howbout McLeish gets shot, but it's a deliberate wounding. Seeming to bolster the idea that he's a hero (and can't possibly be guilty of anything).

Of course this also requires that Maggie Q's character has been setup to look like she's part of a conspiracy against him. Clearly ballistics will eventually show that the shot came from further away, but that won't necessarily clear her.

[fauxphysician]

Given what reality will be like come March (assuming that drumpf is still soiling the Office by then), I look to this Show for some more  fanciful escapism 

--one request: more "Nikita" for Maggie Q and less Inspector Gadget please

my prediction about who was shot-- the VP. Wounded,maybe even in a coma, but not dead.   That way the current s/l can advance (he becomes more sympathetic and harder for Hannah to discredit; his wife can continue to exude evilness; etc etc)

[FishyJoe]

So I guess Hannah never heard of wikileaks? And her FBI lackey doesn't know how to make backup copies of evidence?

And nobody in the FBI realizes that the director's son is missing? The FBI has to know his family would be an instant target once it was known he was the murderer.

Shouldn't the FBI director be some kind of expert of kidnapping and would know that the second he did what they want, his son would probably be dead anyways? 

This FBI is even more incompetent than the CTU. One has to wonder why any of these agencies would hire people with families, because they will do whatever you want if you kidnap someone they care about.

Edited January 21, 2017 by FishyJoe

[jhlipton]

On 1/21/2017 at 0:55 AM, FishyJoe said:

One has to wonder why any of these agencies would hire people with families, because they will do whatever you want if you kidnap someone they care about.

"This time it's personal!!!!"

[Chas411]

The relstionship between Aaron and Emily is about the only thing keeping me interested in the show so I hope he's not shady or shot.

[TimWil]

I just don't see Natasha McElhone taking on the role of a boring wife who ends up the victim of a sniper. Not only do I think Alex is evil and helped orchestrate Tom's Designated Survivor status but she and Aaron have been embroiled in a long-term affair!

[betsyboo]

On 12/14/2016 at 11:02 PM, merylinkid said:

Who's been hit?  Who's been hit?   Oh wait wrong show.   That was the GOOD one where we cared.

At least we know who's really pushing McLeish.   Someone tell me when this show was conceived?   

HA! that was EXACTLY my reaction!!

 

On 12/15/2016 at 5:58 AM, marinw said:

I loved this episode, although the show still feels like a poor man's 24. Hannah is definitely from the Jack Bauer School of counter-terrorism. She even comes her with her own very-put upon Man Chloe.

 

OMG I LOVE THIS COMPARISON!!

 

On 12/15/2016 at 3:50 PM, marinw said:

I really liked the moment when Tom stepped out of the SUV and waved to cheering crowds. It would seem as if the nation has accepted him as their leader and had to at least some part STFU about how qualified he is. It was a real moment of coming together, of hope for a rebuilt government. So naturally the scene has to end in an attempted or successful assassination of somebody. I also fear Alex is the casuality, because Kiefer's TV wives are contractually obligated to perish.

*Snicker*

 

On 12/15/2016 at 4:39 PM, blackwing said:

I agree that Alex Kirkman is probably the casualty... if so, won't be sad.  Her character is useless.  Then maybe Kiefer will go all Rogue Jack and he and Maggie Q can team up to kick butt.  That's the show I want to see.

As it is... with all of this "conspiracy in the government" and "mysterious puzzles to be solved", the show pretty much is a standard formulaic David Baldacci novel.  Which was ripped off last year by "Quantico".

Me, too. And I heart Baldacci.