MacLeish makes a power play as the president recuperates
Man, this show moves fast.
There are no small steps anymore, no slow drips of information.
In other words, the episode lives up to its title.
Credit: ABC/Ben Mark Holzberg
Hospital Intrigue
Still lying in his hospital bed, President Kirkman reviews Agent Wells findings on Vice President MacLeish.
He was involved from the very beginning, Kirkman muses.
In other words, anyone in government could be a suspect, and he should trust no one.
In the meantime, Wells goes about trying to find more evidence.
She meets with ol Jason Atwood in prison.
Hes hesitant to cooperate, and with good reason.
Wells tries another route and meets with an Army veteran named Joyner who served with MacLeish.
Immediately, she picks up a weird vibe.
Back at the hospital, the president has a nightmare.
In the dream, he relives that time he got shot at MacLeishs inauguration day.
He sees himself lying on the ground bleeding as his wife hovers above him.
The image jolts him out of his sleep.
Thats right, it was a classic DOUBLE NIGHTMARE!
Luckily this time, his children are there by his bed.
His young daughter shows him recent drawings she made for him.
On the surface, it seems innocuous he mainly says hes thankful for the presidents recovery, blah blah.
But really, its an underhanded PR stunt to assert his strength in a time of uncertainty.
Speaker Kimble Hookstraten barges into Aaron Shores office and demands to see the president ASAP.
Aaron says thats not possible, but shes very insistent.
But you know whodoesscore some face time with POTUS?
Kirkman plays it cool, making sure not to tip MacLeish off.
He gets it, he says, and apologizes for being a dick to her.
Maybe they will be make-out buddies again soon?
Its about the gunman, she announces.
She wants to know why the FBI was ordered to shoot the guy on sight and who ordered it.
A grave expression overtakes Hookstratens face.
When MacLeish tells his wife Beth about this, she decides they need to murder Joyner immediately.
They served together in the same unit!
That still means something to MacLeish.
We pledged ourselves to a higher cause, Beth responds.
And now he becomes another casualty of war.
No victory without sacrifice, remember.
MacLeish vetoes her, deciding instead to meet Joyner and offer him some reassurance.
She relents, but begs him to be smart about it.
So of course, MacLeish does something very dumb.
But before she can cuff him, MacLeish gets shot out of nowhere.
He looks pretty dead.
Wells turns around to find Beth holding the smoking gun.
Beth then points her weapon at herself and commits suicide.
After everything thatsalreadyhappened so far, now people will learn that the Vice President was murdered?
And that the main witness was a rogue FBI agent who was thought to be in custody?
Cant wait to see how everyone reacts to all that.
Has the public actually identified theoriginalInauguration Day gunman yet?
Like, do they even know his name?
Wouldnt his whole story have been the only topic that everyone everywhere wanted to talk about?
Looks like were going to have a new Veepstakes.
Seth is definitely the best character on the show.
I should probably note for posterity that it looks like Atwoods son Luke was found dead in a creek.
There, I noted it.
The governments not interested in truth, MacLeish says.
Its the government that lies.
They sent us into a slaughterhouse, and then they covered it up.
Who is the eye-in-the-sky contact that MacLeish and Beth kept calling for updates?
Is he a liaison to whoever is up at the next level of this conspiracy?
Or is he the ringleader himself?
This could be the next thread to pull.
On a related note MacLeish has been this shadow groups most visible chess piece throughout the series.
Who will they use to achieve their objectives now?
Perhaps, say… Aaron?
Theres a chance hes playing dumb for fool everyone.
