Directed by Frederick EO Toye
Written by Paul Redford
President Kirkman's plan to reassemble the Supreme Court is thrown into disarray when Senator Bowman uses his majority in the Senate to block one of the nominees. Agent Wells and Jason Atwood investigate a mysterious gathering in North Dakota. Seth Wright learns that Abe Leonard is writing a story about the truth behind the Capitol bombing.
Tropes in this episode:
- Cutting the Knot: Kirkman's administration resorts to simply leaving the titular ninth seat on the Supreme Court vacant — which has precedent in American political history — to subvert Senator Bowman's obstruction.
- Faking the Dead: Wells and Atwood discover that Nestor "Catalan" Lozano has been doing this, instead of his supposed death in a firefight in "Warriors", when he steps off of a helicopter into the camp in North Dakota.
- Intrepid Reporter: Abe Leonard, once again, goes to great lengths to obtain what he believes to be the truth.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Senator Bowman, unable to get his tie-breaking conservative justice onto the Supreme Court, accepts the compromise of four liberal and four conservative justices for the time being.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: President Kirkman gives one of these excoriating Senator Bowman in front of the congressional representatives when the latter's obstruction comes to light, not that it helps at all. May also be a brief Author Filibuster throwing a Take That! at real-life Republicans for doing the same thing in 2016.
- Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: Wells and Atwood encounter a gathering of these in rural North Dakota, nearby where they found the cache of explosives belonging to The Conspiracy, complete with booklets entitled "Pax Americana" which outline the group's philosophy.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Senator Bowman's obstructionism is a close mirror for the real-life Republicans adamantly refusing to approve a new justice to the Supreme Court in the waning months of President Barack Obama's administration. It paid off for them when Donald Trump was elected President; here in-universe, not so much.
- Spanner in the Works: Senator Bowman is again one of these for Kirkman's administration, as he obstructs the nomination of the ninth justice to the Supreme Court in a bid to gain leverage for himself and his allies.
- Wham Line: Professor Julia Rombauer revealing to Kirkman that she has early-onset dementia (thus making her unfit to serve as Chief Justice) is this. Kirkman is understandably floored by the news from his old idol.
- What really sells it is Rombauer asking him to remember her always at her best, not as what will become of her at the end of the episode.
