Previously: It was more important to ask Tom questions than to get the government running.
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The Traitor
Marines: We pick up right where we left off, with the FBI examining Nassar’s dead body. Atwood instructs some soldiers to bring him the names of anyone who handled his food, DNA, fingerprints and camera footage. Atwood then walks to Hannah and very shiftily comments that now no one knows the truth about Nassar. Hannah’s like, “uh, we do…?” But they don’t have proof. Hannah says they need to follow-up with the one lead they have: Catalan. Atwood is scared, though, because if they are the only two who know about Catalan, that means they’ll be targeted next.
Samantha: Atwood is such a shitty FBI Director. Now we know where the Rosewood cops get promoted to. Have I made this joke yet?
Dani: Also, why is Atwood in charge of everything Nassar-related now? Shouldn’t the military be running the homicide investigation, since he was their prisoner? Or the CIA? Pretty sure the FBI’s 24-hour pass just expired.
Mari: JACKET FLIP.
Tom is giving a speech, because apparently he’s okay with his odds of getting shot at 100% of the time while giving speeches. This time, he’s talking about some athletes going to Moscow for an international track and field thing. There is a photo op and the track and field coach shakes hands with the President and says it’s an honor. Tom does not get shot at. It is a happy day. (D: They’ve really lowered the bar here.)
After the press conference, Tom is still talking to Coach Weston. Everything is going so well, and Coach Weston is so supportive that I am immediately convinced bad things will happen to him. Sorry, Coach Weston. (S: We will not invest in ye, Coach.) (D: Nice to know ya, sucker.)
Next up, Tom and Alex have dinner with the MacLeishes. Alex is telling the story of how they first met. It involves Alex getting sick off restaurant food. Peter thinks the story ends with Tom holding her hair while she pukes, but he actually put her in a cab on her own and went back to the restaurant. He sat there until they shut the kitchen down so no one else would get sick off the food. That’s… interesting. And presumptuous? Like, lots of people can eat the same food and not everyone gets sick? Anyway, the Kirkmans joke that that’s how Alex knew Tom would make a good… health inspector.
Samantha: What a weird story to add a weird twist to. Okay, Show, we get it. You’ll keep pulling the rug out from under us until we settle for permanent carpet.
Mari: The MacLeishes share their story next: Beth was set-up with Peter’s roommate, who was not interested. To soften the blow, the roommate introduced her to Peter.
We cut to another room where Emily is pacing and Aaron is at his desk, but also watching basketball. Emily is worried about how the dinner is going. She thinks they won’t find a better candidate for VP than MacLeish. Aaron says they know that, but Tom is just being thorough with his selection. Emily wants to hurry along and give the country some good news. Aaron turns back to the TV and yells some SPORTS! stuff at the TV. Emily joins in and he’s surprised because she’s… she’s… wearing a skirt! She can’t know sports! Emily tells Aaron that men don’t own sports.
They get interrupted by a phone call. Aaron answers and it’s very obviously Bad News. On the way out, Seth asks for five minutes of Tom’s time for a personal matter, but Aaron says that the President isn’t doing personal tonight.
At dinner, Beth asks what it’s like to live in the White House under all that scrutiny. Tom says they are still figuring it out. Peter gives him an appraising look. Either that, or Peter’s face is always that way…? (D: He has two stock expressions: sycophantic weasel, and conspicuously shady.) Aaron interrupts for a moment of Tom’s time.
In another room, Aaron shares the bad news that Nassar is dead. Tom is obviously upset and wants Aaron to get Atwood in for a briefing ASAP. Aaron is to tell no one about Nassar. Tom goes back to dinner and excuses himself. Peter says that he may not be V.P. yet, but if there is ever anything he can do, he will. Tom thanks him.
Atwood gets the call from the White House. He tells Hannah that he has to go give a briefing and she wants him to also tell Tom everything they know about MacLeish. Atwood is still like, “IDK, sharing information is hard,” or whatever, but Hannah insists. He doesn’t say he will or won’t, but asks Hannah to wish him luck.
White House. Atwood walks in slow motion for a second so that I seriously expected him to start shooting up the place or something. That was weird. (D: I was so distracted by that! And also the weird close-ups they kept doing of his briefcase. WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO TELL US, ZOOMY CAMERAMAN?) Atwood is shown into the Oval Office and says he’s got news for the President but surprise! MacLeish is also in the room. Atwood doesn’t do a good job playing off his surprise, but it’s okay because MacLeish doesn’t do a good job playing off his evil glare. Atwood goes from saying he has answers to vague-ing that they are still looking into things and actually have no answers. Tom is put off, but since Atwood has nothing else, he dismisses him. Tom turns to MacLeish and says that made no sense, but Peter thinks the FBI must be doing everything they can.
Samantha: Yes, everything they can to be the worst and continuously drive home how this attack happened in the first place.
Mari: After a not!break, Tom goes to his room where Alex is already sleeping. In the process of undressing himself, Alex wakes up and asks what happened. Tom wonders if Alex has ever gotten the feeling that someone is lying to her. She smiles and he answers his own question: of course. She’s a lawyer. He explains about how Atwood pressed him to interrogate Nassar and 12 hours later, Nassar is dead and Atwood can’t answer any questions. Alex says when she’s trying a case, she doesn’t bring up anything she can’t prove. Maybe Atwood just needs more time.
The next day, Tom and Aaron pedeconference.
Atwood tells Hannah about his botched meeting. He’s gonna need a follow-up as soon as he can. Meanwhile, Hannah’s got nothing on Catalan, but she’s meeting with a source later that day.
Emily’s making calls about the Weston thing. Seth comes in to ask again about 5 minutes with the President. Aaron tries to push him off again, but Seth uses his words and tells them this is about Leo’s paternity. In that case, it’s time to see the President right now.
Samantha: Seth remains my favorite for using his words like actual real humans do.
Mari: Even makes him seemingly good at his job!
In his office, Tom explains that Alex was seeing this guy Myers right before they started dating. When Alex found out she was pregnant, she offered to take a paternity test, but Tom didn’t want to. It didn’t matter to him. Okay, so, maybe the day they met, Alex was suffering pregnancy sickness and Tom made this whole restaurant shut down because of it? Sorry. One day I’ll let it go. (S: Hold on forever, Mari.) (D: I will never let go, Jack!) Tom asks Seth to put this reporter off as long as possible because he wants to talk to Alex and Leo first. Aaron has to awkwardly inform him that Alex already knows and promised to talk to Tom about it… a week ago.
Tom finds Alex and yells at her for not telling him about Myers. Alex asks when she was supposed to do that, but Tom doesn’t want to hear that. Their children come first. After 17 years of keeping this from Leo, it took one month in the White House for it to come out. Alex thinks maybe their mistake was hiding it in the first place. He tells her that Seth can buy them some time, but Alex knows this won’t go away. She offers to talk to Myers herself, but Tom doesn’t think that’s a good idea. They are interrupted, of course.
Tom meets with the acting Secretary of State and the head of the CIA, James Carrera in the HELLMOUTH. They’ve come to talk about Weston. They need to get him out of Russia ASAP because he’s actually a spy for the CIA. Woooow.
Samantha: Hahahahahaha, oh.
Dani: Wow, I’m getting dizzy from all the sweet twists in this week’s episode. Or maybe I’m just lightheaded from laughing?
Mari: After a break, Tom still can’t believe Weston is a spy either. Carrera explains that he’s more of a resource. As a world class athlete, Weston gets into a lot of rooms with important people and when he comes home, he debriefs with the CIA. Tom asks about the drugs, and the Secretary (I missed her name…) says she believes they were planted. The maximum sentence for drugs in Russia is life, and for espionage, it’s death. They need to get Weston out.
Bar. Hannah finds her source, a CIA dude that isn’t too keen on helping her right now since her boss tried to wrestle Nassar away from the CIA. Hannah says that’s fine. She’ll just try to find Catalan on her own. CIA Dude startles at that name and they take the conversation outside. CIA Dude tells Hannah to leave it alone and stop asking around…? But like… the attack on the Capitol…? And then CIA Dude says Catalan is a mercenary and a traitor, implying that he’s American. I was operating under the assumption that Catalan was a group, not a single person…? Okay, whatever. Bro is so bad, the CIA Dude tells Hannah to stop investigating.
Samantha: Lol. I like how the general vibe about the attack that murdered our entire government is “…nope.”
Mari: Carrera and Secretary accompany Tom to meet with the Russian Ambassador. As soon as they walk into the room, it’s super tense. Russian Ambassador says it’s a shame that they couldn’t meet under better circumstances. Tom gets a quip in about how seriously he knows Russia takes drug infractions, which is probably why someone from their defense ministry is present. Russian Ambassador is like, “yeah, kind of like why the head of the CIA is here…” RA drops the pretenses and says they both know that Weston is a U.S. asset. Tom says they see Weston in two different ways, but nonetheless asks what he wants in return for handling this quietly. Russia wants the removal of all nuclear weapons from the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. Tom is like, “ha. No.” Russian Ambassador says that Weston will face the Russian courts, then.
Seth updates the press with stuff we already know. Afterward, he finds Lisa and asks her to please stall that story as long as possible. She gives him 24 hours.
Hannah tells Atwood that Catalan is an American. He can’t even believe it, but he’s talking about the fact that Peter MacLeish is walking toward Atwood’s office. Hannah gets the door and Atwood tells her that they’ll continue this conversation later. MacLeish takes a seat and gives Atwood a file he made on himself, to save the FBI some time vetting him. Uh, bro. 1- That’s probably not the way this works. 2- This makes you look suspicious as hell.
Samantha: “Here is a file about me so that you don’t have to go digging for all my skeletons that definitely don’t exist and also my face always looks suspicious, bye.” (D: A+)
Marines: Atwood gets all grim and growly as he explains that papers are one thing, but the Bureau will also look into the impressions MacLeish has left because that what makes the measure of a man. Peter says of course. Neither of them want the wrong man in office. Atwood promises not to let that happen and stands to let Peter know he’s dismissed.
One second after Peter is gone, Hannah lets herself in and it’s kind of hilarious. Atwood says that MacLeish came in here with 10 years worth of papers they didn’t ask for because obviously he’s hiding something.
Tom, Aaron and Emily watch news coverage of Weston admitting to having the drugs and apologizing to the Russian government. Tom has no idea what to do. Emily draws inspiration from sports and says that maybe another country has something Russia wants and they can do a 3-way trade. Men don’t own sports! (Except literally since they are the primary owners of sports teams thanks to misogyny mostly, but I digress.)
Alex visits Myers in prison, obviously. They’ve chosen an actor who does have the same coloring as Leo so we’re all like, “oooh snap!” right now. I mean, if any of you present care. Alex asks Myers what he wants and he gives a little speech about how he saw Alex on TV with her family and realized that Leo kind of looked like him and he might be the dad. And now Alex is married to the President, the man with the ability to pardon him with time served. And there it is. That’s what he wants.
Samantha: Preeetttyyyyyy sure he has more important things to be worried about right now but okay, selfish human.
Dani: This guy is so douchey I’m having a hard time picturing Alex with him. No wonder she was swept off her feet by Health Inspector Tom.
Mari: Aaron and Emily interrupt Tom in a meeting to inform him that the Saudis have something the Russians want. Tom looks over the file and tells them to set it up.
Hannah still can’t get over Peter’s nerve, bringing in his own paperwork. Problem is that the paperwork is real boring. Atwood sees no way to connect Nassar and MacLeish and Hannah states the obvious: it’s Catalan. Now, for proof. Atwood gets a call from his wife who is slightly panicked because their son Luke never made it home from school. Atwood tells her to hang up and call the police. He runs out to meet his wife at the school. Hannah is left behind, looking at Peter’s file and it looks like she realizes something? Maybe.
Samantha: That would involve facial expressions.
Mari: Harder to come by on this show than you would imagine.
Tom meets with the Saudi Ambassador and the Russian Ambassador and those meetings are intercut, so I just know Dani is so happy right now and having the best time. (D: Srsly, though: who is directing these episodes? Kirk from Gilmore Girls?) The gist is that the US will release 4 Saudi nationals arrested for corporate espionage and Saudi Arabia will release a Russian agent. The Ambassadors all take a moment to consider this unusual trade.
We cut to Emily and Aaron congratulating Tom on the three-way trade. (D: This was definitely Tom’s first three-way.) He tells them it’s not done yet and to stay on top of it so it doesn’t fall apart. (D: Dirty!) Alex is hanging out in the background of this shot, so Tom goes to speak to her next. She tells him about Myer’s demand and Tom can’t believe this is coming up again. He hasn’t thought about it for so long because Leo is his son, you know? Alex says he is, but Tom replies that soon, Leo and the nation may not think so.
After a break, the conversation is still going on and Tom admits that he was really protecting himself when he told Alex not to get a paternity test. He loved Alex and knew what he wanted and was afraid of anything that would endanger that. But Leo deserves to know who his real father is. The next interruption comes via phone call. Tom is needed down in Command Ops.
Atwood meets his wife at his son’s school. There is still no sign of him and the cops are like, “he’ll probably show up.” (D: LOLPD is on the case!) Atwood sends his wife home and takes off to try and find his son himself.
HELLMOUTH, which I guess is really called Command Ops, lame. Everyone watches the progress of the three planes landing. Tom is so happy this is happening, it’s obviously not going to, right? Right. Weston isn’t on the plane from Russia.
Hannah calls Atwood, who still hasn’t found his son. He asks if maybe this isn’t a coincidence. MacLeish shows up in his office and then his son goes missing, just like MacLeish’s daughter went missing the night of the attack. Hannah tries to talk him off that ledge, but also offers to help him.
Command Ops. Hey, so it turns out that Weston never got on that plane because he’s a double agent. Woooooow. One person from the outside voiced support of Tom and his presidency, and that person is a double agent. Seems about right.
Samantha: Hahahahaha, okay.
Dani: So when Weston stressed to Tom “WE’RE really rooting for you,” I guess he meant Russia? That’s hilarious.
Mari: Hey, I mean, Russia is really rooting for our current president elect, so.
Hannah returns to the bar where CIA Dude is still drinking. She begs him for what he has on Catalan because she’s out of time and people she loves are in trouble. She doesn’t care what happens to her. CIA Dude says he’ll see what he can do.
Tom has another meeting with Russian Ambassador. He congratulates him on acquiring a treasure trove of intelligence in Weston. RA is smug as he says that Tom’s been on the international “chess” scene for less than a month, but he’ll learn. Tom chuckles in a “ha ha ha die.” way and says that he’s a quick study and if there is something he knows about chess, it’s that there is nothing more dangerous than a pawn who thinks it’s a queen. Tom stares RA down for a second than opens the door to let him out.
Dani: Honest question: why a queen, and not a king? Is that a chess thing, or was he also insulting his manhood?
Mari: A chess thing, but we can imagine both.
Seth visits Lisa and offers her an exclusive that isn’t gossip. She gets all offended because she isn’t a gossip columnist. Seth says he doesn’t see her that way, but he also doesn’t think she should publish this piece. Tom is in a job he didn’t ask for and now everyone is gunning for him. Leo is 17 and doesn’t deserve to be front page fodder. Lisa softens and asks what the exclusive is. Seth is giving her the story of Weston the double agent. They smile at each other. (D: I still don’t trust her.)
Tom passes by Aaron’s office, where Aaron and Emily are still working. Tom tells them to go home, but can’t stop, won’t stop. Aaron asks if Tom wants to get a jump start on the next day’s work. He passes him some stuff about some stuff (I’m sorry, we are almost done here) and then they bring up MacLeish. They push him to make it official and Tom smartly decides to wait for the FBI to finish their vetting process. Today taught him that you can’t know too much about a person. He asks for updates about Nassar and all Aaron knows is that Atwood has been out of the office on personal business. Tom doesn’t like that one bit and tells Aaron to stay on top of it.
Leo(ugh)’s room. (S: Wow, hey Leo, forgot what you looked like.) Tom tells him that he just wanted to say goodnight and Leo pays him half attention until Tom lingers and gives him feelsy looks. Leo asks what’s up and Tom says that a lot has happened in the last six weeks. Leo asks if anything is wrong, but Tom just says that he loves him. Leo smiles and says he loves him too. Tom leaves and Leo spares him a lingering, questioning look.
Hannah walks to her car in the parking garage and hears a door slam that startles her. She looks and sees it’s her car and the door is propped open. She pulls her gun, but all that’s in the front seat is a packet of information. It contains Catalan’s identity and picture of him. This jogs Hannah’s memory. She remembers seeing Catalan dressed as a soldier where they were holding Nassar. Hannah calls Atwood, but he ignores her call because he’s still looking for his son at the park. As Atwood gets back to his car, a woman in a shady trench coat stops him and says that she noticed Luke never made it to practice. She holds up a phone that has video of Luke, strapped into a car, eating ice cream. Atwood pulls his gun, but Shady Trench says that something bad will happen to Luke and Yvette if Atwood doesn’t follow her instructions exactly. He’s to say nothing of this meeting. He’s to make an appointment with the President. Once he’s face to face with Kirkman, he’s to do exactly as Shady Trench instructs. She hands him a cell phone and leaves.
Samantha: I mean, you know who would be good in this situation, probably? Jack Bauer.
Dani: Gif love!!
Mari: Well, I don’t think I hated that? It was easier to watch than other episodes in terms of pacing. And if there is anyone I’m at all concerned about now, it’s Atwood’s son and his adorable love of coffee ice cream. Also, I’m kind of wondering if this means that Shady Trench also stole MacLeish’s kid and made him hide out in room 105 or something? It’s possible MacLeish is less shady that we anticipated, but that would also make him more dumb.
See you next time!
Next time on Designated Survivor: Another national emergency might delay the votes in S01 E08 – The Results.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
I'm a 28 year old graduated English major and almost librarian. I can often be found singing too loudly (poorly) in the car or spending some time (hours) on Tumblr. I am a lover of Harry Potter, the Spice Girls, and too many other things.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.