My Theory

[Moodawg]

Ok Guys- take it easy on me.  I've only watched the first 15 episodes.  Here's my theory.

Kirkman himself is the primary conspirator.  We won't find out until Season 8 however.

Direction and casting are excellent.  Sutherland is a great actor, and he plays the 'aw shucks' character perfectly, as he is being directed.  The director(s) use music and filmography to make us all think the bad guys are 'bad', but in the end we will find out there is actually only one true bad guy- Kirkman!

I'll be honest.  On one hand I feel like I'm an idiot who has no idea what is happening.  On the other hand I feel like I 'solved' the series and everything is a formality from here on out.

I do fall asleep sometimes because the plot lines get tangled....

Why could I be right?  Why am I wrong?

Go!

Edited May 13, 2017 by Moodawg

[Moose135]

Given the convoluted mess we've seen so far, I think you would be a leading candidate to be the next show runner.  Your theory makes as much sense (if not more) than anything they've given us so far!

[Moodawg]

I am so happy to see that the first reply is not "hey dummy didn't you see that part where xxx happened".  Sucks that Jason got shot though- uncool.  Why so many ads on this site?  Wells is on a cargo ship- wtf?!

Edited May 13, 2017 by Moodawg

[Moodawg]

"the mole in the White House remains unknown..."

[jhlipton]

Kirkman even got himself shot in such a way that he made a full recovery within a few days.  Your theory has legs!

[Danielg342]

I'd say, logically, this doesn't make sense at all. Occam's Razor would definitely say that Tom Kirkman just isn't savvy-enough or even the type of person who would think taking down the entire U.S. government would make sense. I'd even note that Kirkman in no way ever anticipated being the "designated survivor" (he didn't even know what it was) and appears to have so few friends in Washington (at least friends who seem to think that he knows what he's doing) that you'd have to wonder if he could compile the network needed to pull off a catastrophe this big off.

Not to mention his personality- that of a jittery, insecure, dithering and very submissive person- just doesn't inspire a lot of people to think that Kirkman could in any way be some kind of "saviour" that the disenfranchised would think about rallying behind.

...but yet...

I know Hollywood. I know there's some executive that thinks "Kirkman being the main conspirator would be the perfect twist!" Hollywood just loves their twist endings, especially ones that are so "out there" and convoluted that "no one could see it coming".

Without, of course, realizing that those kinds of explanations only work when they're carefully crafted, where the writer engages in multiple sleight of hands to obscure the audience from the truth, meaning only the eagle-eyed will be able to say "oh yeah, I knew all along it was him!"

So I could see someone saying "Kirkman is the big bad", just because it's too "sexy" a twist to ignore. It'll be the television equivalent of "the butler did it", but TV shows have made stranger explanations.