Designated Survivor: The Conspiracy Is Right Under Tom's Nose

Designated Survivor turned in one of its better episodes of its young season with "The Mission," a tense hour that punctuated the cost of waging war.

There was also a major sense of "now we're getting somewhere" with the terror plot and Hannah's (Maggie Q) attempts to uncover the conspiracy behind it, and a really, really, mouth-watering juicy tidbit about the Kirkman family that's about to blow up in Tom's (Kiefer Sutherland) face.

Tom struggles to make a tough decision, makes a tough decision, then struggles with the outcome of his tough decision

Once you get tired of being able to get any food you want 24/7 or throwing out first pitches at baseball games, the real pressures of the job weigh on you hard.

Tom made the decision to drop an air strike on Algeria, only to find out that supposed evildoer Majid Nassar had left the targeted building.

Because his new hideout was a hospital full of kids, doctors and innocent people who didn't blow up the Capitol, the only option was to put boots on the ground and haul Majid out by hand in order to retain any intelligence he may have on Al-Sakar.

[...] lib-leaning Tom couldn't go full-on war without digressing over the potential costs, and we endured something like a dozen self-reflective speeches where he worried about the safety of the SEALs he was sending into enemy territory while everyone else essentially said, "This is what these guys do."

Waiting for Tom to channel Jack Bauer and belt out the 24 character's infamous exclamation is by far my favorite part of the show.

According to Alex, Tom knows all about it.

[...] you're telling me that Leo did all that drug dealing, clubbing and sexual experimentation without having real daddy issues?

In order to figure out the clues about the mysterious Room 105 -- who called her and told her about it, btw? -- Hannah tracked down the architect of the Capitol building renovations and discovered it was a hideaway office for