[grunting]
- [Tom] The polls are tightening. - Don't ride the poller coaster.
That way madness lies. The only poll that matters...
- November fifth. - Yep.
Would you be saying that if we were leading?
Ask me when we're leading. How is your convention speech coming?
It's getting there. Anything else?
Yes. I wanna make an issue of Moss' age.
- Not a chance. Not going there. - That he is out of touch.
He's looking backward, not forward. Old versus new.
His ideas, not that he gets to pay less to go to the movies.
Implied contrast spots, then, with you doing vigorous things.
- Like, you know, sports. - I play hockey.
American sports.
[Tom] Hey, honey.
Hi. I'm gonna be late for school. I will snack there. See you later.
[sighs] It's like that now.
What am I in for when she turns into a teenager?
You wanna hear, "It'll be fine," or you want the truth?
It'll be fine.
What do you expect to find that we didn't see yesterday?
Which was nothing.
I'm an investigator. I investigate.
Is this boring for you? 'Cause there's a nice empty car outside.
[Eli] Investigator? The "I" in "CIA" stands for "intelligence."
- I used to be FBI. - "Used to"?
[sighs] Yeah, well, I move fast and break things.
This wasn't here yesterday, all these dots.
- What is that? - Don't... touch anything.
[theme music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
Your files.
Hi.
I have a meeting with people who have important things to get to.
As I mentioned last night,
you're being considered for the vice-presidential spot on the ticket.
Well, let me cut this short. While honored, I like my current position.
The one with the very important people?
Right. And I'm from Texas, which Moss will carry as a native son,
so I'd be of no help to the ticket, geographically.
Geographic balance is a relic concept.
[scoffs] Okay. Look, I've never run for office.
I don't have the appetite to.
Frankly, I'm not sure I'd be particularly good at it.
And yet you waited, despite my rude tardiness.
So you must be at least somewhat intrigued.
Hey, your surname, did you have an Anglo father?
No, that was changed.
Would you mind changing it back?
Okay. Well, if this is about exploiting my Latino background,
- I'll most certainly pass. - Oh, come on, Aaron.
Don't be so touchy. You're an excellent fit.
You bolster Kirkman's foreign policy bona fides,
you're experienced, you're admired and, yeah, sue me, you're Latino.
Latinos, millennials, urban blacks,
they were all a huge chunk of the 45% of eligible voters
who stayed home last time, whining about having no real choice.
What I'm trying to explain to them, and to all of America,
is that the president, and hopefully you, are a new and amazing choice.
Let me think about it.
Try thinking about anything else.
Sir?
I've been working on platform thoughts for the reelect,
but I am president now and I need to govern.
I know Congress isn't gonna take up our agenda in the waning months of my term,
but isn't there something we can do?
What's in your platform?
Real tax reform, common sense immigration, health care for all.
I got a memo from someone at NIH
about the potential way to lower pricing on certain drugs.
That's good. Let's get someone on that.
Uh...
On the subject of drugs... Lynn has relapsed.
- She's back in rehab. - I am so sorry.
[softly] Yeah.
- How are you doing? - I'm all right. Thanks for asking.
- Do you need to take some time? - Not necessary.
I just don't want this to become an issue for the administration or campaign.
It's a private matter.
Does that even exist anymore?
- We won't let it become an issue. - Thank you, sir.
Okay, we've gotta do something very important and extremely stupid.
Pick our color.
For the electoral map.
Republicans are red. Democrats are blue. What are we gonna be?
- Easy. Third color of the flag, white. - We really wanna be the white party?
- Black, then. - Connoting foreboding and malevolence. No.
There's already a Green Party. Gray is ambivalent.
- Yellow? - The color of cowardice and urine. No.
Purple. Already used to symbolize neither party.
To what do we owe the honor?
Reporting for duty.
Can we talk in my office?
I think there's been a misunderstanding.
The president assured me that I would have exclusive prerogative
over hiring and firing.
- Well, if you'd like to call him... - He doesn't trust me.
Not the case. I don't trust you, and he trusts me.
Okay, so you're here as what, exactly? Keeper of the flame?
I'm here to help in any way that I can.
[sighs]
Okay, fine. You're the new campaign spokesperson.
Your first duty, go demote the old one. You'll like his office.
- [knocking on door] - Nope! Go away!
- I've got zip to do. - All the action's on the campaign, man.
I can't blame Emily for bolting.
The next three months, the only thing for us to do
is defend the record and prevent any gaffes.
Hmm. It gives you time to connect with this daughter you didn't know you had.
How the fuck do you know about that?
[chuckles] Privacy's a last century jam.
I don't know that I have the right to call
this 21-year-old product of my DNA my daughter.
- But you're gonna contact her? - I don't know what I'd be getting into.
I bet you're great at online stalking.
- Don't even... - All I want is the basics, okay?
SAT score, voting record, whether she's ever been wasted at a rave.
I could be indicted for even hearing this.
It's not like I'm asking the NSA to draw up her file.
You really need to find something to do.
I think I just did.
Smallpox?
That was the shape of its viral structure, marked on that wall.
How? The whole place was scrubbed with bleach.
The researcher would've known
scratching a bleached wall with anything copper,
like a penny minted before '82,
eventually reveals a mark for someone to find.
The kinetics of the reaction were slow. That's why it didn't show up until today.
- Where are we going? - Fort Detrick in Maryland.
They keep one of the rare stores of smallpox vaccine.
We get it in time, we'll be fine.
[tires screeching]
Are you fucking kidding me?
- You'll think about it? - It's not a great job, anyway.
Oh, right. Vice presidency's not worth a bucket of warm spit.
They cleaned that up. It's "piss."
Garner actually said, "Bucket of warm piss."
Kirkman can only serve one more term.
You'd be heir apparent next time, win or lose.
Let me make it simpler for you.
Do you wanna be the first Latino president of the United States?
- Jesus Christ. - Oh, my God. Of course.
You don't want people thinking you were chosen because you're Latino.
- I know you think that's stupid... - "Stupid" is the nicest word I'd use.
Yes, come in. You expressed an interest in pharmaceuticals.
Yes, for parasitic worm disease in sub-Saharan Africa.
Praziquantel for schistosomiasis costs 21 cents a pill,
but helminths can be fought with albendazole, costing three cents.
That's what you wanna do.
What I want is for you to get this woman from the National Institutes of Health in
and learn about march-in rights.
Now would be good.
What's up?
[narrator] President Kirkman has never mentioned
his transgender sister-in-law.
What exactly is he hiding?
Paid for by Citizens For Family.
Moss?
Super PAC, run by a guy who used to work for him.
- What do you wanna do, sir? - Respect Sasha's privacy and ignore it.
- That's not gonna be possible. - [Seth] This has already gone viral.
All the major networks are gonna cover it. It's a free media firestorm.
Not only gonna get whacked by the social conservatives,
but the LGBTQ activists are gonna hit you for willful neglect.
So, on one hand, I will be accused of having a secret agenda,
and on the other, ducking the subject completely.
All because I don't wanna drag my sister-in-law
through this political maelstrom.
- I'd avoid the word "drag." - Okay, we're done talking about this.
- I need you to check in with the campaign. - Yep.
[telephone ringing]
- [Emily] Emily Rhodes. - [Seth] Emily?
- [Emily chuckles] Ta-da. - Oh. Congratulations?
Yeah, we'll see. When we have a second, I'm gonna need some pointers.
Here are the two basic ones. Don't lie and don't get into an argument.
Okay, well, I assume you're calling about the sister-in-law spot. Fucking Moss.
He's an unprincipled, ego-drunk choad.
Yeah, well, he and the president were friends.
- I never trusted him. - Okay, great. Then you win.
Naivete is among your elemental charms.
Did you know about Sasha?
Yeah, she and the First Lady were pretty close.
It was really hard on Alex when she moved to Paris.
But, you know, she never wanted to be in the spotlight.
Well, sadly, that's all over now.
That's what I'm on my way to talk to the president about now.
I'll catch you later. Okay.
[knocking on door]
- [Isabel] Hi. - Hi. I'm Kasey from the NIH.
Isabel.
[coughs] It's okay, I don't have meningitis.
Jury's still out on lupus, but that's not contagious, so...
You're here to educate me on march-in rights.
Okay. So, a significant portion of drug research and development
is actually funded by federal grants to university labs and foundations.
The Bayh-Dole Act allows pharmaceutical companies
to then purchase patents on any marketable medications that result.
And charge whatever they like for them, usually exorbitantly.
With their usual justification of R&D costs. Complete bullshit.
Yeah. However, tucked away in Bayh-Dole
is a provision allowing the federal government to march in
and take away patents for drugs developed using federal dollars
that aren't reaching an adequate portion of the patients who need them.
Because they cost too fucking much.
[grunts] Are we allowed to swear like that?
The FBI's not gonna burst through the door.
[chuckles]
So you're saying that the president possesses previously legislated authority
to force certain drug prices down?
Yes.
Fuckin' A.
She's received death threats. Death threats!
That harassment isn't gonna stop until you make it.
A statement alone is not gonna do it. You have to bring her here.
Normalize her to neutralize this as a talking point.
She doesn't deserve any of this.
Fine. You're right. I'll invite her.
Moss is gonna keep this up until we bloody his nose.
I wanna leak that he's carrying the Alzheimer's gene.
Oh, my God.
- We can't make up something like that. - Not making it up.
You know the AIPAC event that all three campaigns did last week?
Our team came in to set up while they were clearing away after Moss,
- and I swiped his spoon. - [Emily] I don't believe this.
I had it tested for DNA. I think the result speaks for itself.
That's gene theft.
Illegal in only eight states, none of them being Virginia.
And unethical in all 50, and a complete violation of his privacy.
Sort of like what they did to Sasha, only this is actually relevant.
Oh, come on.
A 70-year-old man running for a four-year term,
with a 12 times greater-than-normal risk of cognitive decline.
You think the American people really want an Alzheimer's-addled Moss
answering the 3:00 a.m. crisis call?
This is absolutely fair game.
And what's next? A break-in at his cardiologist's?
The American people have the right to know.
And Moss has a right not to, if that's his choice.
We are certainly not going to be the people
to make such a personal decision for him.
I wouldn't want anyone making it for me.
I forbid this. That's final. Thank you.
Mr. Harper, Penny's school's calling for the president.
- Can he be interrupted? - [Mars] What's it about?
May I ask what this is concerning?
[clears throat]
This is Chief of Staff Harper.
I see. Thank you for informing us. I'll let the president know.
Good day not to be you.
That's most days, but, uh, yeah.
What now?
- Penny's school called. - Is she all right?
Nothing alarming. At least, I wouldn't...
Not that I'd... I mean, it's part of... You know...
Not so far.
It's a bit awkward.
I would say the awkwardness is verging on profound.
Penny got her period. So... that.
Hmm.
Two middle-aged men talking about one of their daughter's first period.
What could be awkward about that?
- I'm not sure what I... - I think you just leave.
She's growing up, honey.
She's growing up.
[Hannah] Yeah, Dianne, we're fine.
As transmissible as smallpox is, the vaccine is completely effective
if taken within the 12-day incubation period
that someone nicer would've told me about sooner, but he didn't.
Yeah. She wants to know how this guy got his hands on smallpox.
He didn't. He ordered separate pieces of DNA and put it together.
Which is supposed to be closely monitored and isn't. Ergo...
Did you get that?
Dr. Mays believes the researcher isolated the contagion section of smallpox DNA,
and then via CRISPR, he inserted it into the bird flu virus,
which accounts for its sudden greater communicability.
Tell her we're going to Toronto.
There's been an outbreak at an OB-GYN clinic in Toronto.
We're gonna head... Yes, Dianne.
Yeah, I got it. Okay. Goodbye.
What was that?
She's just reminding me I'm CIA now, whose stock-in-trade is stealth.
So she would prefer that I go about my business
without attracting the attention of the local constabulary.
[clamoring]
- [Seth] Philip! - [Philip] Thank you, Seth.
Why has the president not mentioned his sister-in-law before?
Not mentioning something is not the same thing as not mentioning it.
If that's not too Zen koan.
- Seth! - [Seth] Yes, Dennis.
Was President Kirkman trying to conceal it?
"It" is a human being with a name, which is private.
The president's intent being to respect said privacy,
not to try to conceal anything. Yeah.
Seth, what's the president's position on transgender rights?
The president supports all human rights.
Seth! Is the president's position on transgender rights
influenced by his sister-in-law?
It was just asked what that position even was.
Obviously, a position you can't identify
can't magically be brought into being just because of a family relation.
That made sense in my head before I said it.
- [reporters clamoring] - Gary Lee.
- Oui, allô. - [Tom] Sasha. It's me, Tom.
Hello, Mr. President.
I am so sorry for everything that you're dealing with.
Well, the suddenness along with the almost surreal invasiveness,
it has been a bit disorienting.
It's appalling.
It didn't occur to me that running for a second term would bring this on.
- [Sasha] And so it has. - Right.
Well, now I find myself in the awkward position
of having to ask you if you'd be willing to come to Washington, DC.
To help you politically?
No, to help us both.
I'm told that the only way to stop this intrusion into your private life
is for us to stand together, a public appearance.
I need to relinquish my privacy in order to restore it?
[sighs] I'm afraid so. Obviously, the choice is yours.
I'll catch the first flight out in the morning.
Okay. Thank you, Sasha. I'll see you soon.
Good night, Tom.
So I just wanted to let you and everyone at the Post know
that all campaign-related questions should now be directed my way.
And as for trading leaks for favorable coverage,
heaven forfend.
Bye, Howard.
- What's up? You miss me already? - Oh. Envious.
But I decided that, as always,
jealousy is stupid, when I could just join you.
- I can't poach you from Seth. - That's a little plantationy, no?
Well, he's a friend, and he raves about you.
- [Lorraine] What? What? - What?
The FCC just ruled that our convention is not a convention, it's a rally,
and thus not entitled to free air time on the networks.
We would have to pay for four days of coverage,
which we cannot afford to do.
Take a wild guess who first appointed the commissioner
- who cast the swing vote. - Moss.
Are you starting to understand what kind of a dick we're dealing with, Pollyanna?
Stage it someplace cool and free. And put it on the Web.
- You're the White House digital guy. - I guess.
So an unconvention? That could work.
You work here now, for her. Set it up.
- Sir. - [Tom] Aaron, please.
I intended to get to this earlier, but it's been a day.
Well, aren't they all?
It's a wonder anybody even wants this job, let alone chases after it
as hard as I'm learning you have to, to get it.
Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about something.
Something rather momentous.
Sir.
Syria.
[stutters] Sir?
I want you to quietly, secretly reach out to the parties involved in the conflict,
with an eye not just towards a cessation of hostilities,
but a realistic, workable peace plan.
Syria is quickly becoming a potential tinderbox for World War III,
and we have to do absolutely everything we can to solve this before it's too late.
It will be an honor to try.
- Was there anything else? - [chuckles] No. Isn't that enough?
- Right. Thank you, Mr. President. - Come on.
[sniffles]
- Sorry to be late. - That was for you. I'm used to it.
Quite all right. Please, sit down, Mr. Harper.
Okay, well, the purpose of today's session is to...
Our second go-around.
You wanna know what in our relationship might help account for my being here.
- Is that what you want to discuss today? - Let her...
He's a wonderful partner.
He's attentive and irreproachable and unimpeachably correct.
She doesn't mean that as a compliment.
I noticed that you didn't say loving.
It's not applicable.
- That's unfair. - Our marriage was transactional.
There's no shame in it.
There's just no sense in pretending otherwise.
Transactional in what way?
She means I'm the poor-boy grocer's son who married into her money.
Money was incidental. He married me for my father.
And your father was a prominent politician?
He was the "Lion of the Senate."
Just the ticket for an ambitious young climber
with a degree in political science from a mediocre university.
Earlier, you said that your husband was irreproachable.
Do you know he's never smoked pot? Or whatever they call it these days.
It took me the longest time to decide if that was, uh...
discipline, timidity,
or just the avoidance of a biographical detail
that might jeopardize his professional ascent.
And did you arrive at any conclusions?
- [chuckles] It was an implied rebuke. - In other words, this is all my fault.
Not all.
But not none.
I'm there waiting for him to bring up the VP slot.
And it hit me, "Idiot!" I told her I'd think about it.
So have you?
[Aaron] Well, it is the second most powerful position in the free world.
Oh. This morning it was "a bucket of warm piss."
Well, my views on the subject are evolving.
On the office, or wanting it?
You said it would instantly make me a plausible presidential contender.
It's something I've never dreamt of.
An opportunity that might never come again.
But?
You and Lorraine and, for all I know, the president,
want me to be the Great Latino Hope.
Which you're not okay with.
I've been looking to avoid that all my life.
- And I know you don't agree with that... - It's not for me to agree or disagree.
Just stop, okay? Just tell me what you think.
I think you're a grown-ass man and that your identity,
and your relationship to it, is something you worked out for yourself
a long time ago and will survive
whatever external objectification you might be in for in a national campaign.
- Yeah, "might be"? - Will be. My point stands.
- [sighs] All right. - Holy shit, is this really happening?
[clears throat] Lorraine. Hey, sorry to bother you so late. I...
I guess it's your voice mail, so this is not really, uh...
Look, I just wanted to touch base...
[stuttering] Yeah, not touch base so much as...
Oh, my God.
Look, I wanted to call you to tell you... Shit.
Smooth. Really, I wouldn't change a word.
What? You gotta be shitting... Her mailbox is full.
- Well, text her. - I'm not gonna text her.
You don't accept a VP nod via text message.
E-mail, then. Whatever, baby. Just get it done.
What do you want me to do? Do you want me...
[cell phone ringing]
Lorraine.
Okay, this is doable. Yeah?
An unconvention for the accidental president.
- It's not just doable, it's almost cool. - Almost.
It's still politics.
- Hey, do you think I'm naive? - That Pollyanna crack?
Consider the source.
Lorraine is a pro, and that wasn't really an answer.
- You have principles. - Mmm. So in other words, yes.
Having principles doesn't make you naive.
[sighs] I probably need to toughen up a little.
He thought he could keep it hidden away, lurking.
And then spring it on an unsuspecting American public,
a radical, alt-gender, alt-sexuality agenda.
It's such an out-of-sight-out-of-mind, back-in-the-closet marginalization.
Pretend she doesn't exist and wish it into oblivion.
The right gets angry, and the left gets sad.
We need to seize the news cycle back.
We're gonna do this unconvention thing, but move it up.
- [Lorraine] To? - Tomorrow night.
That's impossible.
Sasha lands today.
We do a photo op, then we change the story right back to what we're running on.
That should work.
If it were workable. There are logistics involved.
Like what? All we need are cameras and an Internet connection.
I can't pull together a crowd that quickly.
We don't need one. That's the point. I talk directly to the voter, personally.
- Well, what about your speech? - Pull an all-nighter.
Uh, the story just broke about Moss carrying the Alzheimer's gene.
What?
- Did I not make myself perfectly clear? - I didn't do this.
You got 30 seconds to make me believe that.
Hey, I know that you and, you know, Jiminy Cricket here
think that I would do anything to win, and, okay, you're right, I would,
right up to ignoring explicit, unambiguous instructions from my candidate,
which I have never done and would never do.
Because you do it once, you can kiss your career goodbye.
This wasn't me. Polygraph me on a stack of Bibles,
holding a gun to my dog's and my mother's head.
Someone at the lab, maybe?
We'll deal with it later, but we are definitely doing this.
We are gonna steal the news cycle back from this shit.
- The flu hit roughly three weeks ago. - Isolated to this clinic?
[Eli] Mortality rate, Dr. Mouray?
Zero. People got pretty intense symptoms. I caught it, and it kicked my butt.
[Hannah] That's scary, in your condition.
A bit. But two weeks later, I was completely fine.
Everyone was.
I'm sorry there's nothing more dramatic to report.
Well, not sorry, obviously. But you may have come up here for nothing.
Have you identified a patient zero for the outbreak?
Not really.
Anything unusual or different here around that time?
No.
We did hire this new nurse.
- I'll need to speak to him or her. - Mmm-hmm. A guy. But he quit.
Then I'll need his contact information, please.
And we have clear statutory authority
to strong-arm these drug companies on this?
I checked with Counsel's office. They signed off.
But my only question is,
this law has been on the books for decades.
- Why has no administration tried this? - You know why.
President's willing to tick off Big Pharma in an election year?
- He wants to govern. - Plus, he can run on this.
We need to find the exact right test case.
A medication way too expensive for something common and serious.
Preferably where people have died. I am going to hell.
Heaven, anyone asks me.
Insulin.
Helmdale Pharmaceuticals has raised their price eight-fold in the last decade,
leading some diabetics to ration their dosage with fatal results.
Get the CEO in here.
I will coordinate with your office on a time.
This is your project. You bring this guy in.
Yes, sir.
[Tom] Oolong.
- [Sasha] You remembered. - Of course.
So, tell me, how is Penny?
Evidently she had her first period yesterday.
"Evidently"?
The school didn't have her mother to call anymore, so...
So they called her father, the president.
Worse, they left a message.
Oh, how awful. Have you spoken to her?
Not yet. She stayed at a friend's house last night.
Poor thing.
I'd be happy to speak with her, if you like.
I don't know. I can...
It's okay. You're correct. I didn't actually go through it myself.
It only felt like I did.
But that's the whole point.
But don't you think that she'd be more comfortable
discussing it with someone who looks like me rather than like you?
- Maybe you're right. Thank you. - Yeah.
I made a decision on the flight here
that I not be employed as simply a prop.
- Sasha, when I asked you to come... - No, Tom, let me finish.
Now that the things are as they are,
there's no reason for me to continue to absent myself
from this place, from a young girl who's lost her mother.
So, unless you object,
after we do the photo op and wave from the balcony,
I'd like to remain on, for her...
and for Alex.
Thank you. Penny would love that.
And you?
Of course.
You know, you never asked me any questions.
Like, about my transition.
I mean, everyone has questions. You must have had some.
I wanted to respect your privacy.
So, tell me, how do you feel, personally, about me?
Completely accepting.
Intellectually, sure. But what about viscerally?
I mean, have you fully accepted it viscerally?
Be truthful. Please.
Honestly...
I'd have to say that, viscerally...
I'm still a work-in-progress.
Aren't we all?
I'm not sure why this is necessary.
I've been extensively vetted many times over for my previous positions.
This is different, a political vetting.
You'll be asked about more personal information than for your previous posts.
- Shall we begin? - Yes, by all means.
You've had an extensive bachelorhood.
Has it resulted in any sexually transmitted diseases?
[laughs] Okay. Talk about starting off with a bang.
- No. - No herpes?
- HIV? - No means no.
Have you had sexual relations with underage girls?
Absolutely not.
- Underage boys? - No.
- [Gwen] Men? - No.
Have you had sexual relations with married women?
Technically, yes. She was separated at the time.
We'll need her name and contact information.
- Why would that be necessary? - For confirmation.
But I already explained the circumstances.
Then why object to obtaining corroboration?
'Cause she's not the one being considered for office, I am.
She deserves having her privacy respected.
Anyone you've had intimacies with, gotten drunk, high, gambled
or broken the speed limit with you on land, sea or air
is fair game in this inquiry.
Privacy be damned.
In a word, yes.
[line ringing]
Hello?
Hi. This is Seth Wright. I'm your... You contacted me?
I wasn't sure you'd respond.
No, no, of course. I'm really glad you reached out.
Are you? I didn't want it to be weird for you.
- No, no, no. Not at all. - Well, probably a little.
[Seth] Maybe. But also, you know, kind of...
[scoffs] I'm trying to find a less lame word for "cool."
[chuckles] "Cool" is fine. I think so, too.
So, uh, do you wanna meet?
Maybe grab a... I guess a drink might be a little weird, but not illegal.
- Let's have that drink. - Great. How's tomorrow evening?
[Stephanie] Tomorrow's good.
Great. I just said "great." At least I've moved on from "cool."
[both chuckle]
- Uh... Okay, so tomorrow, then? - Tomorrow.
All right. I'll text you.
- [Stephanie] Bye. - Bye.
I can feel you watching me.
Sorry.
[sighs] No, I'm not.
This is the most important speech of my career.
Until the next one.
- Take a walk, sir. - Fine.
- [Penny chuckling] - [Sasha] This is true. This is true.
[Penny] I know! It's the worst.
[Sasha] No. No, no, no, no.
Actually, I have it on good authority from your mom,
- childbirth is the worst. - Oh, God. Don't tell me that.
But Leo's, not yours. Evidently you were a breeze.
She said she could've squatted in a field
- and you would've popped right out. - That's disgusting.
- [Sasha] No, it's beautiful. - [Penny] That's so gross.
It's kind of gross. It's kind of gross.
[Penny chuckling]
So?
It hits all the points you've talked about.
But?
They're all things other candidates have said.
What can you tell voters that they haven't already heard?
What have you been thinking about that wasn't on some memo from the policy shop?
I know what it is.
Hey. There's no trace of this male nurse. He just blew in from nowhere.
He's got a fake name, false credentials, bogus references,
and then he just ghosted.
He could be a candidate for who infected them all.
I examined the virus.
Entirely different than what killed the birds,
and no smallpox-derived contagion piece.
So it could be a natural outbreak?
No. There was something CRISPR'd into the virus.
I just don't recognize what it is.
There's something else. Dr. Mouray's office called.
- She miscarried. - Oh, my God.
As did several other pregnant patients who also got sick.
- Can a bad flu do that? - Up to a point.
But I ran the numbers. This is in excess of what you'd expect to find.
An induced miscarriage cluster
camouflaged to mimic something that might occur naturally.
What connects miscarriages in Canada to dead birds in Florida?
Maybe nothing.
Maybe not.
[Aaron] Sir.
One of the nice things about being president,
no one tells you you look like shit in the morning.
[chuckles] I'm gonna observe that tradition. Trouble sleeping?
Up late working on the speech for tonight, which is why I asked you here.
I would like to begin with an announcement of my running mate,
and I would like that to be you.
[exhales sharply]
I'm deeply honored.
Well, before you say that,
I'd be remiss if I didn't warn you about what you were getting into.
[sighs]
Absolute loss of privacy.
In fact, in no way, shape or form would your life be your own.
I understand.
No, you don't. That's what I'm trying to convey.
Sir, if it's not impertinent, there is something I do have to ask you.
Shoot.
I need to know you're not choosing me because I'm Latino.
I respect the question.
And I hope you'll respect my answer.
The easiest thing for me to say is that I hired the right man for the job,
and as much as I believe that, the honest answer is, I don't know.
I'm not immune to the arguments of an electoral advantage.
But I can tell you this, Aaron.
If at any point the campaign were to treat your heritage
in a way that made you uncomfortable,
come to me, and I would make an immediate course correction.
I appreciate that, sir.
And it would be my great privilege to accept.
Mr. Ralsch. Isabel Pardo. Thank you for coming.
Please.
- The reason we invited you to... - Are we waiting for Mr. Harper?
You'll just be meeting with me.
[clears throat]
We are here to discuss march-in rights
as applies to your Keziax brand of insulin.
As undoubtedly you know,
Bayh-Dole allows for intervention by the federal government...
Purportedly allows.
Quoting from the statute,
"When action is necessary to alleviate health needs
which are not being reasonably satisfied..."
Our attorneys would engage on the interpretation of "reasonably."
And when the patented product is not, again, quoting,
"available to the public on reasonable terms..."
White House wants to dictate how we conduct our business?
Sir, I'm not here to deliver a lecture on moral responsibility.
[scoffs]
[Isabel] I understand you have an obligation to your shareholders,
your board, your bottom line.
I'm not gonna use charged language
or make hand-wringing appeals to a public good
that's essentially an irrelevance to the American pharmaceutical business.
Well, that language sounds charged enough to me.
On the contrary, sir. I didn't use words like "unconscionable,"
"avaricious," or the term I use at home, "extortionate."
[Ralsch] I believe we've heard enough.
Due respect, sir, you haven't.
Our son Alec Smith, who would be 27, is no longer with us.
What I miss most about Alec is his hugs and his smiles.
He had the goofiest grin,
but it was so original and so unique that I miss seeing that grin.
The official cause of death on my son's death certificate
is diabetic ketoacidosis.
Unofficially, the cause of death is corporate greed.
Insulin was created almost 100 years ago.
These insulin companies, they got it for free,
so every penny that they have made off of insulin in almost 100 years
has been profit.
It costs $6 to create a vial of insulin,
but they're selling it for almost $400.
The price of his life.
Alec died from rationing his insulin because he couldn't afford it.
Now I have to live the rest of my life without my son.
A part of my soul is gone because the greedy people
think that it's okay to randomly increase the price of life-saving medications
to the point where they're unaffordable
for the people who need them to stay alive.
It's unfair, it's unethical and it's unjust,
and it needs to end.
So no other mother has to needlessly lose a child
due to the unaffordability of your life-sustaining drugs,
we suggest you lower the price to this.
Or we take away your patent and award it to a competitor,
and release videos like these justifying why.
[indistinct chatter]
- [Seth] Here we go. - Thanks.
I don't know how I feel about you having a beer.
- Seth. - Not "Dad"?
- Too soon. - [chuckles]
- Cheers. - Cheers.
Meet your daughter, day one. Here it is.
[exhales heavily]
It's showtime, Mr. President.
[Tom] Thank you.
[exhales heavily]
When you're ready. Five, four, three, two, and we're live.
My fellow Americans, wherever you are viewing this tonight,
your options in this new era seem limitless.
So I have chosen to speak to you in this less-than-traditional fashion,
streaming via smartphone, laptop, satellite or onto your television,
because I want you to understand that I am trying
to talk to each and every one of you personally, as my fellow citizen.
Not to any special interest groups or corporate America.
To begin, I'd like to tell you that I have chosen
National Security Advisor Aaron Shore to be my candidate for vice president.
- Hi. - [Mars] Hello.
[Tom] I am very proud to have Aaron as my running mate.
- What did I miss? - Just the VP announcement. Go.
Detailed information on all these proposals and more
will be posted on our campaign website immediately following this address.
On a personal note, there is something I would like you to reflect on.
Recent days have seen egregious violations of personal privacy
involving my sister-in-law and one of my opponents.
These incidents are connected to what I believe to be
a general erosion of the concept of personal privacy.
Sometimes we, as citizens, are all too often complicit
in the erasing of boundaries between our public and private lives via social media.
And we may also find ourselves unwitting and often unwilling captors
to algorithms that invasively track our every click.
In consideration of this,
I will ask Congress to authorize a new cabinet office,
the Department of Digital Technology,
to bring enlightened oversight to our now hyperconnected world.
Via the Internet, it has become too easy to stir anger and fear
where none is deserved.
My sister-in-law is a perfect example of that.
Sasha isn't a symbol for either the intolerant or the activist.
She is a fellow American citizen,
endowed with the same inalienable rights
to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as all of us.
Now, I am not so naive as to believe that simply because we are all Americans,
we will all agree on every issue.
But if history teaches us anything,
it is that our country's ability to be understanding and tolerant of each other
has made us one of the great shining lights
for democracy and the world.
We arrive at tolerance and acceptance by varied paths.
Some come by it as a matter of course, and some through time and experience.
I've been blessed to have Sasha in my life,
someone who introduced me to a life journey
completely foreign to my understanding.
And I will admit before all of you,
my tolerance and acceptance of her took time,
and even now, is more intellectual than instinctive.
But I will continue to work every day to try and make myself whole.
And I can only urge all Americans to look into their own hearts,
where I believe they will find their own compassion and understanding.
My name is Tom Kirkman,
and I present myself as a candidate for the presidency of the United States.
Not as a partisan of the right or the left,
but as one of you, the frustrated majority of Americans
who just want sensible solutions to the issues of our time.
In asking for your vote,
I ask you to take this giant leap with me away from politics as usual
and declare your independence.
Thank you. Good night, and God bless you,
and God bless these United States of America.
[all cheering]
[Tom] Thank you.
The Moss leak. It wasn't the lab, and it wasn't me.
I underestimated you. Don't underestimate me.
[theme music playing]