S02.E08: Home

[thewhiteowl]

The President has a secret mission during his visit to Afghanistan. Seth has a run-in with DC police.

[paigow]

On 11/26/2017 at 0:04 PM, thewhiteowl said:

Seth has a run-in with DC police.

Again????? He was already arrested as a terrorist last season......

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, paigow said:

Again????? He was already arrested as a terrorist last season......

That was my first reaction too. So I wasn't mixing this up with something from Madam Secretary.

[paigow]

He was on his way to the White House -  wearing a backpack - Aaron or Emily eventually bailed him out...Of course he had already done this in Harold & Kumar: Gitmo...

[marinw]

So Aaron gets the sexy black Jack Bauer Kevlar and Kirkman gets the dumpy Jared Kushner Kevlar.

And that is my profound observation for this episode.

Edited November 30, 2017 by marinw

[heisenberg]

What was that?...    It is getting more annoying from one episode to another...  Next week will he be throwing paper towels at people?

[Frozendiva]

I did like the President's chats with the troops. Warm, human, showing a genuine interest in their lives.

[The Wild Sow]

We were just amazed that Harry the Cook survived till the end.  Seriously expected the tent to blow up as POTUS walked away.

Who was kissing in the preview.  It looked like Hannah, but who was the guy?  Not the British agent (they already did it and wouldn't be preview-worthy.)  Aaron??

[The Wild Sow]

3 hours ago, marinw said:

So Aaron gets the sexy black Jack Bauer Kevlar and Kirkman gets the dumpy Jared Kushner Kevlar.

The dumpy beige vest blends in with sand and rocks a lot better - makes him less of a sitting target from a distance!

Wondered why Hannah & Mike took their little road trip with just their sidearms, no rifles.  Oh, well, I guess they were already in the truck!  And their attacker was a pretty poor marksman!

[DrScottie]

49 minutes ago, The Wild Sow said:

We were just amazed that Harry the Cook survived till the end.  Seriously expected the tent to blow up as POTUS walked away.

Who was kissing in the preview.  It looked like Hannah, but who was the guy?  Not the British agent (they already did it and wouldn't be preview-worthy.)  Aaron??

I must admit I too was surprised Harry made it through the episode especially considering they just detained the warlord.  

Was that Chuck, the tech guy? Could be him. That would be preview-worthy. 

 

Tiffany (that reporter) is really going to be a problem for them, I think.  

I suppose Lyor never mentioned being married on his date with the lady who was going to make him pay millions for that vase he broke. 

[Dowel Jones]

Spurt - Streaming the Best of Your Dreams????  Lyor picked a winner, there. 

Glad they moved the CIA safe house to an undisclosed location, since both DS and MS blew theirs up in the last episodes.  Maybe they shouldn't get mail addressed to "CIA Agent in Charge" at the location.

So Kirkman lives up to his name and goes StarTrek on his latest mission.  Maybe sometime they could do an episode crossover and have him meet up with Henry McCord.

[marinw]

6 hours ago, The Wild Sow said:

10 hours ago, marinw said:

So Aaron gets the sexy black Jack Bauer Kevlar and Kirkman gets the dumpy Jared Kushner Kevlar.

The dumpy beige vest blends in with sand and rocks a lot better - makes him less of a sitting target from a distance!

True. I was just being shallow!

[janeta]

Ok, someone please explain to me how Lior owes $800k in taxes? (I'm not married, so i don't know about these things; i do know married couples who do their taxes twice: do the calculations as single people, and as a married couple, and decide which one saves them more money, and they file that way. Is this illegal or something?)

 

oh, and who was the guy playing the cook? He looked familiar....

 

and wasn't the date more of a blackmail thing? He didn't initiate it, did he?

Edited November 30, 2017 by janeta

[DrScottie]

2 hours ago, janeta said:

oh, and who was the guy playing the cook? He looked familiar....

Brian Howe. 

[paigow]

Seth goes to jail / holding...not a single D.C. cop ever watches TV news...dude is on TV every day...WTF....

[marinw]

14 hours ago, Frozendiva said:

I did like the President's chats with the troops. Warm, human, showing a genuine interest in their lives

Kiefer does unironic sincerity well.

[paigow]

[ Interior: White House Meeting Room ]

Emily: Where did you get the drugs?

Mike Wright: Some kid...Leon....Leopold....something like that....

Edited November 30, 2017 by paigow

[paigow]

Do all the online gamers work at the various embassies around D.C.??? The federal deficit is out of control because Lyor and the "24 hour live stream" girl are exceeding the Verizon bandwidth limits.....

[AnimeMania]

19 hours ago, paigow said:

Do all the online gamers work at the various embassies around D.C.??? The federal deficit is out of control because Lyor and the "24 hour live stream" girl are exceeding the Verizon bandwidth limits.....

That is why the government eliminated Net Neutrality.

[jhlipton]

Who didn't guess that the terrorist was the "young one" right off?  BTW, Kirkman owes a massive apology to the other warlord, who will rightfully spurn America for calling him a terrorist.  Way to be smart, Kirkman!

On 11/29/2017 at 8:33 PM, The Wild Sow said:

We were just amazed that Harry the Cook survived till the end.  Seriously expected the tent to blow up as POTUS walked away.

Same.  He hit all the tropes, didn't he?

[Dowel Jones]

Harry is the mole.  That must be it.

[shapeshifter]

What was the point of making us think Harry was going to die, only to have him survive to live in a world where his wife died prematurely of cancer when he wasn't there and his daughter holds it against him? We just met the guy and now he's gone—are we really supposed to be picturing him knocking on his daughter's door off screen?? 

But I did appreciate a svelte Commander in Chief who left the untouched cheesecake sitting there while he still had loved ones of the casualties to contact, rather than having two scoops of ice cream while everyone else had one.

[Diana Berry]

Can someone briefly tell me what happened at the end since this is the winter finale?  I fell asleep.

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Diana Berry said:

Can someone briefly tell me what happened at the end since this is the winter finale?  I fell asleep.

My understanding:

• The graybeard warlord was the good guy; the younger warlord tried to frame the graybeard's people for blowing up American soldiers. Only unnamed soldiers died in this episode.
• The sizeable stash of stimulant drugs in Seth's car were leftovers from his brother cramming for the MCAT. Seth insisted on claiming they were his drugs, but got off anyway because the White House lawyer demonstrated that the arresting beat cop had a crap ton of similar arrests thrown out in his hopes that enough would stick so he could make detective. Seriously. 

[paigow]

14 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

Harry is the mole.  That must be it.

The cheesecake and Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich have bio-tracker ingredients that Taliban will use to track Kirkman.....

[Diana Berry]

11 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

My understanding:

• The graybeard warlord was the good guy; the younger warlord tried to frame the graybeard's people for blowing up American soldiers. Only unnamed soldiers died in this episode.
• The sizeable stash of stimulant drugs in Seth's car were leftovers from his brother cramming for the MCAT. Seth insisted on claiming they were his drugs, but got off anyway because the White House lawyer demonstrated that the arresting beat cop had a crap ton of similar arrests thrown out in his hopes that enough would stick so he could make detective. Seriously. 

Thanks! I thought I might have missed a big cliffhanger.

The Only reason I'm sticking with this is Sutherland.  Can we just bring back 24 for the umpteenth time and be done with it.

[tvfanatic13]

It was not the fall finale. 2 more episodes. 

[thuganomics85]

Always great seeing Brian Howe, even if I'm not quite sure what was the point of his character outside of humanizing Kirkman and reiterating the importance of family, and both of these aspects are already a significant part of the show.

The main arc was dull because it was obvious that the younger Mullah was going to end up being the bag guy since they made him so openly outgoing and reasonable on the surface, while the older Mullah was more challenging and hostile.  I actually would have loved it if the intelligence ended up being wrong entirely and neither one of them was planning anything.

I love you, Mike, but of all the things to get pissy with Hannah about, the case against Alex isn't one of them.  I still can't believe I'm suppose to hate the FBI for actually doing their job and following the rules.

The Seth stuff was idiotic.  There is no way in hell that there wouldn't be at least one police officer who recognized him.  This isn't some behind the scenes job he has: he's the freaking press secretary who is on television almost every day.  And then of course Emily makes it all about her.  Sure, she tries to pull the whole "You've endangered the President and the rest of us!", bur really, she was just pissed over how it affected her.

So, Lyor naturally has been secretly been married to someone who is gorgeous, talented, and arguably way above his league, but she loves him, quirks and all. OK, admittedly some of that snark is out of jealously, because Sarah Power is freaking awesome (Dr. Pawter from Killjoys!)

Despite being in the main storyline, Aaron still feels insignificant this season.  Not a fan of that.

[jhlipton]

One (more) thing that bothered me about the STOOOPID Lyor plot-line.  If his wife filed as single, she would face the same penalties as Lyor.  If she filed as joint, the IRS would have two filings for Lyor's SSN, which would have brought them down on him from the get-go.

[oakville]

Seth's arrest would have been leaked to the press. 

[TheGreenWave]

On ‎12‎/‎2‎/‎2017 at 6:13 AM, Diana Berry said:

I fell asleep.

that's because this show is incredibly boring.  :-)

Also, I'm pretty sure Lyor not disclosing his marital status to the WH and playing interactive online games from the WH exposing it to hacking would be acts worthy enough to get his security clearance pulled...or at least suspended.  And you cannot tell me that Emily sneaking into Lyor's press conference (because, you know, she's POTUS's Chief of Staff) would not have caused at least one reporter to ask her what is going on!

On ‎12‎/‎2‎/‎2017 at 7:30 AM, shapeshifter said:

but got off anyway because the White House lawyer demonstrated that the arresting beat cop had a crap ton of similar arrests thrown out in his hopes that enough would stick so he could make detective.

Is there nothing that she cannot do???  Good thing she doesn't actually specialize in any one type of law...she would be super bored as the one-and-only White House counsel if she didn't have to argue probable cause in defense of the WH press secretary.  Phew!

[Guest]

21 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Despite being in the main storyline, Aaron still feels insignificant this season.  Not a fan of that.

Agreed. I find myself forgetting he's on the show until he's on screen and then I'm like "Oh, him! What's he doing again?"

[snarkylady]

I think it's time for a new show runner.

[Chas411]

On 30 November 2017 at 4:33 AM, The Wild Sow said:

We were just amazed that Harry the Cook survived till the end.  Seriously expected the tent to blow up as POTUS walked away.

Who was kissing in the preview.  It looked like Hannah, but who was the guy?  Not the British agent (they already did it and wouldn't be preview-worthy.)  Aaron??

It would explain why the show completely dropped Asron/Emily despite them being about the only thing working on the show. I've had a feeling they wanted to sidle him with Maggie Q for a while now.

[Danielg342]

1 hour ago, snarkylady said:

I think it's time for a new show runner.

I think we're too far gone for that to help anymore, although I do agree the current showrunner is awful.

[Moose135]

1 hour ago, snarkylady said:

I think it's time for a new show runner.

Fifth (sixth?) time's the charm!

[Danielg342]

1 hour ago, Moose135 said:

Fifth (sixth?) time's the charm!

I wonder what the record is for most showrunners used in the first two seasons is. Designated Survivor seems to be coming close to that, at least.

[J-Man]

Re: The taxes issue

I think this is what they were getting at: If you're married on the last day of the calendar year, you can either file jointly, or as married-filing separately. The latter is usually the least advantageous of any filing status. And BOTH spouses have to file that way. A married person cannot file as single (or as unmarried head of household, for that matter), which is what I think Lyor and his wife were doing. 

[Addie1917]

Im glad other people saw my concern too: Could that of possibly have been Aaron with Hannah? Damn, this should be interesting. Although it would make sense for it to be Damian, (came back from overseas, happy to see eachother, etc:) it did look eerily like Aaron, or maybe even Chuck?

Mike was being such an ass to Hannah. Not cool. Don't mess with Hannah. Glad they worked it out in the end though.

THIS was the designated survivor I missed this whole season. Intense, action packed, awesome. Jack is BACK baby. Slightly rolled my eyes at the drama at the white house though, especially with Seth. Bring back the old Seth, not this whiney drama causing a-hole that thinks he should be with Emily. "Your dating your boss," What the hell was that all about?? Also why were Kendra and Em dressed exactly the same with the same hair? They need a blonde on this show. Everyone looks the same

Really liked this episode. Hope the next two are even better

Edited December 6, 2017 by Addie1917

[gryphon]

Evan R. Lawson, you crack me up.  

[grommit2]

On 12/4/2017 at 5:05 PM, deaja said:

Agreed. I find myself forgetting he's on the show until he's on screen and then I'm like "Oh, him! What's he doing again?"

Question:  Aaron appeared on camera, but said nothing.  Just stood there, "nodding knowingly".  
What is that all about?  Did I miss something here? 

[queenanne]

There were at least two super weird jarring scene transitions, unless my TiVo screwed up.  The last one was Mrs. Lyor on Emily's couch without having been introduced as walking back into Emily's office in the White House (I know they say it's not always necessary to have characters saying "hi" and "bye" to each other, but I really felt like I was missing something).  Anyone else note this, or am I just off my rocker?  I want to say another one was "Commercial - Smash Cut To:  Hannah, Aaron, Mike and Kirkman Standing in Middle of Tent, Starting Scene In Medias Reas with Dialogue of Hannah about expected behavior of Middle Eastern Folks."  (Primary source of my amusement with this show nowadays, is watching the showrunner's gaping seams show up.)

Edited December 10, 2017 by queenanne

[Taryn74]

On 11/30/2017 at 5:35 AM, janeta said:

Ok, someone please explain to me how Lior owes $800k in taxes? (I'm not married, so i don't know about these things; i do know married couples who do their taxes twice: do the calculations as single people, and as a married couple, and decide which one saves them more money, and they file that way. Is this illegal or something?)

I feel silly coming in and commenting years after the fact, but this whole storyline was so stupid I have to, LOL. As analytical as Lyor is, there is absolutely no way he wouldn't have known he was supposed to be filing Married Filing Single instead of just Single. Even if he does his taxes himself, the instructions are really clear and it's no big deal. (The situation you describe is perfectly legal, too, btw. If you are married you can file Married Filing Joint or Married Filing Single either one, and most people work them out both ways to see which one is better for them that year.)

Also, a good accountant or tax attorney would be the one helping him out if he was stupid enough to screw his taxes up that bad, not the White House counsel.

Moving on.