Designated Survivor - The First Day

Do you remember your first full day at a new job? Did it go as smoothly as you hoped?  Well, Tom Kirkman's first full day as President wasn't great.  Then again, what's to be expected from someone who's been thrusted into a position he's clearly unprepared for.

Nobody is perfect and I don't expect Kirkman to be an expert at what he is doing.  If anything, this series will highlight how no one can be fully prepared to be a leader.  Kirkman will have good moments only to be knocked back a peg or two a half hour later. He'll make mistakes and but he will move forward because what else is there to do? Someone needs to step up.

Good ol' General Cochrane will never warm up to Kirkman being the President, that's clear.  I get him wanting to give a show of force and name Al-Sakar as the ones behind the bombing.  Kirkman does have a point, 75% isn't enough, but being 100% sure isn't going to happen either unless a group steps forward.  FBI Analyst Hannah Wells isn't sure Al-Sakar is the culprit, but her boss wants her to provide backup to her theory and right now, she doesn't have anything to that effect.

In the wake of the bombing, Kirkman also has to deal with civil rights unrest in Michigan wherein Muslim neighborhoods are specifically being targeted by the police, under order of Governor Royce. Ugh, that Royce is a big jerk. You don't hang up on the President. It's the same Michigan unrest that usurps what could've been a good moment at at the bombing site for Kirkman when he took the blowhorn in his hands and addressed everyone.  Kirkman finally has a the "upper hand" on Royce and gets him to have his cops stand down when he advises that undercover operatives were detained by Michigan police and doing that obstructs justice. Royce does back down and crisis in Michigan is averted.

At the end of the day, Kirkman asks Mike the Secret Service Agent for a baseball cap and next scene the two of them are back at the bombing site.  He's shaking hands and thanking the workers once more.  It's a pretty somber site and as they leave, Hannah notices from the tent.  She then takes a glance at the wall of photos, I assume are of the missing when there's a shout that a survivor has been found!!