‘”The Traitor” (Season-1;Episode-7;aired-11/16/16)
Presidential Stuff
Kirkman is delivering a speech about the Yankees playing baseball post-9/11. This segues into talking about how sending Coach Weston and the USA Track & Field to Russia for competition is a good thing.
Except, is it isn’t as Coach Weston is arrested upon arrival with 20+ vials of HGH. Not only that, but all of team USA is implicated as well. So much for the awesome speech, right?
Kirkman is obviously upset and further investigation reveals that Coach Weston is a CIA spy and that the Russians were onto him. The drug thing was just a way for them to get more time and intelligence on him.
Kirkman needs to fix this and so he goes for a three-way trade, working with Russia and Turkey without them necessarily knowing he’s working with them.
Here’s how it’ll work:
- Russia will return Weston to the U.S.
- The U.S. will disarm a base in Russia near Turkey
- Saudi Arabia will get some spies.
It’s a win-win-win. Except, Russia pulls a fast one and Weston isn’t returned to the U.S. He’s a double agent and also works for the Russians.
Family Ties
Seth is dealing with Lisa Jordan. She’s threatening to go public with “Leo’s Real Dad” story. Turns out some guy in prison is saying he’s the father so that he can get some leverage to get out (or possibly more workout time?).
Kirkman confirms the story may be true to Seth. He knew his wife was dating the guy but he didn’t care. He always saw himself as Leo’s son and no paternity test can change that.
Lisa settles on holding off on the story for now IF she gets exclusive access to the president. For now, it works.
Dinner Time
POTUS and FLOTUS are having dinner with MacLeish and wife to get a feel for how they might fit in as Veep and Ms. Veep. Of course the dinner is cut short; with the news the Nassar is dead. With his evil spidey senses tingling, MacLeish suspects something is afoot and pulls the president aside and offers his full support. TO the viewer, his look suggests deceit as though he’s trying to cover his tracks and plant seeds of how allied he is at every turn.
Maggie Q is also suspicious and thinks her boss, Jason Atwood – FBI Deputy Director, should inform POTUS. So, as Kirkman walks into Oval office to meet with Atwood (who can discuss this), MacLeish walks in at the president’s request. In the vein of Jack Bauer, Atwood is probably internally screaming “Dammit MacLeish”. He can’t offer up the theory, so he gives a lame excuse of “still looking into it” in reference of Nassar’s death. POTUS finds this odd as this non-information information was sufficient to interrupt dinner.
Pool Time
Maggie meets up with a source playing pool. She mentions “Catalan” by him and he freaks out and encourages her to stay out, get out, stand down, and basically stay away from all of this. Turns out Catalan is an American traitor. Maggie is hopeful.
She high tails it back to FBI HQ to tell Atwood. Meanwhile in Atwood’s office, guess who shows up. Yup, MacLeish. He sits down with Atwood and gives his own vetting files, you know, just to help speed along the process and show what an upright, squeaky clean guy he is. Suspicious? You betcha!
He leaves and Atwood gets a call. Turns out his son never turned up from school.
Let’s do the Twist
Maggie finds an envelope in her car. She looks through the files of which one photo shows Catalan, real name Nestor Lozano (I’d personally go by Catalan too!). Her mind goes back to visiting Nassar in his cell and walking past a man pushing a cart: Catalan. It wasn’t suicide. It was murder!
She phones Atwood to tell him of this, but Atwood has to deal with a mysterious women telling him she has her son, and will release him under two conditions: 1) Speak to no one 2) Go see the president and do what she says. If so, Luke lives. If not, he dies.
Questions:
- Will Atwood be instructed to kill the president?
- What’s up with MacLeish? Good, bad, or double agent like Coach Weston?