Designated Survivor: President Clueless Gets a Clue

"The Blueprints" was a very bottom-heavy episode of Designated Survivor, slowly meandering through 40 minutes of television before smashing us over the head with a few whoppers at the end, including one that corrects a lot of what I noted about last week's episode: that president Tom Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland) was tragically misinformed about what was really happening under his watch, and it wasn't a whole lot of fun to see that since we knew a lot more than he did.

On the flip side, the plot of the week involved a government whistle blower and NSA employee whose path led him directly to Kirkman, who he endorsed fully.

Why?

Because he read every email and text that Kirkman sent and liked his moral stance and the fact that he texts his kids a lot.

Though Kirkman admitted the whistle blower would head to jail for a long time for stealing NSA data, including dirt on the late exploded president's cabinet, he admitted that the whistleblower wasn't insane and showed him a lot of respect.

What does this really mean and why am I blabbering on about it?

Because it's another clue that Kirkman -- who claims to be independent and is supposedly equally on the right and left (so, center) -- is fundamentally more liberal than the show claims he is.

Several episodes back, Designated Survivor planted seeds for a romance between Emily (Italia Ricci) and Aaron (Adan Canto).

Hannah tracked down (well, Chuck did) MacLeish's squad mates to interview them, and she found out (well, Chuck found out too because she made him interview people also) that all his vet friends said the same thing and had the same story.

[...] Hannah found an old photo of MacLeish's squad and lo and behold, mystery terror suspect Catalan was in his squad!

Visiting her CIA friend and their dingy diner meeting spot, Hannah learned the truth that the government covered up:

Racing to MacLeish's confirmation to reveal the truth, Hannah was speeding through D.