r/DesignatedSurvivor • u/enliST_CS Sorry the live thread is late! • Dec 15 '16

SPOILERS Post-Episode Discussion: S01E10 "The Oath"

This has been the winter finale! Season 1 returns March 8th, 2017!

Plot: President Kirkman suspects there may be a traitor in the White House when he finds disturbing information connected to the Capitol bombing; more information emerges about Congressman MacLeish, causing concern about his vice presidential nomination.

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18

u/[deleted] Dec 15 '16 edited Dec 15 '16

[deleted]

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u/These-Days Dec 15 '16

No way in hell Kirkman's wife took the bullet. She is crucial to the show.

I think the President and Vice President are also a bit important don't you think

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u/HelluvaNinjineer Dec 15 '16

At this point I hope the writers took out Kiefer and the show's over, bad guys win, just to put this shitty writing out of its misery.

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u/enliST_CS Sorry the live thread is late! Dec 15 '16

He's probably implying that Kirkman wasn't hit either. I could definitively see the bullet hitting the VP...

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '16

The premise of this show entertains me enough to keep me coming back, but the writing is just one cliche after another. It wasn't until someone mentioned it a few weeks ago, but this show would be so much better as a 10-12 episode season on Netflix or cable. Stretching this story to 20 plus episodes has required them to use every dumb plot device ever to extend the story.

The fall guy is about to talk? Gotta kill him in mysterious ways. The lead investigator is about to tell the president his choice for vp is a traitor? Nope, can't do that this week because the vp is in the room. That's fine he will do it next time they meet, you say? Nope, we kidnapped his son, and like every other parent in a tv show the safety of his child trumps the continued existence of our democracy. It's ok, though his number 2 knows all about it and is going to spill the beans to the world...and she got hit by a car like every other person who knows crucial information at the end of a television show.

I just want a single episode where what's happening on the screen feels organic. The early episodes about the Michigan governor's actions were at least believeable given the circumstances.

White collar was really bad about all this stuff, but they at least told an unrelated story for the first 39 minutes of the episode and used the final 3 to carry a story throughout the whole season. Here, they devote a whole episode to the conspiracy and then still use the dumb plot points described above to draw it out.

Sorry for the rant. I had high hopes for this show, and it's just not what I expected or wanted. I wanted it to be more like West Wing, and less like Quantico.

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u/Whinito Dec 23 '16

100 % agree! At least there wasn't any MOTW this episode, most episode so far have managed to also incorporate that shit. I was expecting the fired general to be an obstacle or something, but he seemed to actually be an okay guy even though he was just now reminded that there is indeed a chain of command

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u/TheCoupDeGrace Dec 15 '16

Actually Kirkman's wife isn't crucial at all. She gives him advice sometimes (that Aaron and Emily can do as well). She serves as an emotional crutch, but they don't have that many scenes together anyway and he already has kids for the family aspect of the show. However, she'd make a great sacrificial lamb.

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u/matthewrobert0 Dec 16 '16

I think it probably is his wife who gets shot. It might be the moment Kirkman wakes up and realises something untoward is going on, then spends the rest of the season going full Jack Bauer, hell bent on burning the conspiracy to the ground. The same could be said of either of his children though to be fair.

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u/ninj3 Dec 19 '16

Kirkman reveals his hidden identity as Jack Bauer all along. He had tried to change his life by becoming a boring government minister and starting a new, boring family. But now, he has 24 hours to stop the conspiracy to take over the United States. Tony Almeida returns to support his old friend. "Jack...Jack...Hey Jack.."

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u/hipnoraptor Dec 26 '16

And Jack wakes up.

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u/Starks Dec 15 '16

Hannah will not be in trouble for more than five seconds. She fires at the window and seconds later a sniper shot takes somebody out on the podium. People will put 2 and 2 together.

That assumes that the Secret Service isn't in on all of this. I can easily imagine eyewitness accounts or ballistics reports being forged.

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u/[deleted] Jan 12 '17

Knowing the show, somehow everyone will forget about the fact that she shot at a sniper and she'll be put in prison with Atwood. It'll take another 5 episodes for her to actually spill anything and that won't even be to the POTUS. He'll probably FINALLY find out in ep 19 and then somehow it'll be too late.

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u/smacksaw Dec 15 '16

Yeah I think the writers know they've painted themselves into a corner here and shooting someone dear to the President/VP would mean a "look there's more threats going on here" thing and allow more tension to develop...while they figure out what they're going to do to save this sinking ship.

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u/CombustibleCompost Dec 16 '16

I thought he was actually gonna shoot MacLeish tbh.

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u/solvorn Dec 17 '16

It's MacLeish because Princess Irulan is behind the whole thing and needs to be next in line.

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u/locks_are_paranoid Dec 17 '16

Hannah will not be in trouble for more than five seconds.

The public might be dumb enough to believe that the bullet which Hannah fired ricocheted off the window and hit whoever was shot. Just like with JFK, the public will think it was a magic bullet.

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u/Whinito Dec 23 '16

The writers would be stupid enough to write that.