February 9, 2021
The Professor and the President.
Thomas "Glasses" Kirkman ("Glasses" was his Secret Service code) was the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) when the unthinkable happened: the US Capitol was attacked in an unspeakable act of evil (unthinkable, that is, until January 2021). Next thing he knew, he was placing his left hand on the Bible while raising his right hand as the thirteenth member of President Richmond's Cabinet in the presidential line of succession uttered the words "So help me God" before being taken away by Secret Service into his White House office. What ensued became 21 nail-biting episodes of Season One of "Designated Survivor", a show available on Netflix in which I binged for three days to completion. Before moving onto Season Two, I could not help but write a blog post about it, noting one item in the TV series that I shared a bond close to my heart: the pair of glasses that Kirkman wore and the interplay between the donning of this ocular apparatus and the lack thereof throughout the series. The symbolism of his glasses in Season One represented a duality of the meek protagonist between his studious demeanor and reasoning required to bring a nation together after an indescribable tragedy and the Machiavellian manipulation needed to survive the political fallout of his designated survivorship. As I progressed through each episode, it became more and more apparent on the surface that the producers of the show tried to project the wearing of glasses as "unpresidential", perhaps suggesting that "geeks" or "nerds", cannot be in a position of leadership. As someone who always wore a pair (yes, not even contacts), I knew I had to examine deeper and find out the real meaning behind the pair of glasses that Kirkman wore for granted until that fateful day in episode 1.
WARNING: Major spoiler alert for Season One of "Designated Survivor" ahead. If you do not wish to have anything revealed to you, I don't mind losing a reader for doing the right thing. Though, Season One aired in 2016, so on one hand, it's been five years and I am hoping most of my readers have either watched the show or not planning to watch it. (This is one of the reasons I am not going to write anything on "Queen's Gambit" any time soon!)
DISCLAIMER: Netflix does not have the functionality of taking screenshots directly from the device, so all of the pictures were taking using a phone, which the quality would not be as good as that from a direct capture, and I ask of you for your understanding. However, I want to state here that it is NOT illegal to take screenshots of Netflix shows. Screencasts are illegal, of course, and Netflix rightfully disabled such actions, and as a result, screenshots became collateral damage. Taking pictures from my phone was the only viable option as a result. I did NOT record nor screencast any part of the show.
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Thomas Kirkman was simply a "glorified real estate agent", as one of his staffers put it, when he was assigned the designated survivor during then-President Richmond's State of the Union Address at the US Capitol. The location of his stay during the address was unknown, as expected. When he grabbed a beer and watched the scripted address from the comforts of his hideout, dismayed by the fact that none of the HUD talking points were included in the actual speech, he was just chilling as he donned his Lemtosh glasses. Before he was the leader of the free world, he was a studious HUD Secretary just doing his job and making housing more affordable in America. This is the first moment where I noticed the subtle relationship between Kirkman wearing his pair of glasses and the show portraying the protagonist as a demure "nerd" staff in the White House.
Then things blew up, literally, and after a few tense moments, Secret Service transported him to the White House, where amid scrambling staff members he was taken to a room and took what could only be described as the most unceremonious oath in the world. Throughout this dream-like sequence, he never took off his glasses (not sure if that was even on his mind). Whatever character evolutions Kirkman would undergo later in the show, the image of this "nerd" HUD Secretary taking the oath of the Office of the POTUS will forever be an iconic and defining moment of the series.
Even though all this happened in episode 1 (and we're not done here!), inside my heart I already felt a small win for us "glasses-wearing nerds", because Kirkman became president while wearing his glasses. Yes, later on he would take them off, and yes, even later we would not see him wearing his glasses ever again while out in public. Nonetheless, he only needed to take the oath once to become THE President of the United States of America, which meant that he became president while being a "glasses-wearing nerd". Looking deeper, I felt that the director wanted this approach to plant a seed into viewers' conscience from the onset: no matter how hectic things would transpire during Kirkman's presidency (and saying "hectic" would be an understatement), he will never betray his principle of letting reasoning and rationality guide his final decisions. He would never be a politician at heart, even as politics would consume every aspect of his governance swiftly in an overwhelming fashion later in the show.
Of course, on the surface things looked differently. At the very end of the "Pilot" episode 1, as President Kirkman got ready to address the mourning nation, his speech writer Seth Wright remarked on his ocular apparel to no casual viewer's surprise:
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What transpired in the next few episodes were the cracking of an intricate web of conspiracies that hinted at the unimaginable magnitude of the attack. Before President Kirkman even had time to mull elections and the rebuilding of the United States Government, he needed to place, as commander-in-chief, orders to capture the perpetrators. Given the limited intel (I mean, Season One did have 21 hour-long episodes!), he was bound to make sub-optimal decisions. However, the professorship in his heart, symbolized by his glasses and buried beneath all the politics, shone brightly and timely as he acted with caution and rejected impulsive decisions. His steadfast reasoning, in part, prevented unnecessary wars abroad and de-escalated racial tensions within the country that were ready to erupt as the Muslim community was casted as a scapegoat. Nonetheless, when overwhelming evidence mounted against the fictious terrorist group Al-Sakar, Kirkman had to order an operation to take down its leader, Majid Nassar, even though he had a strong inclination and later proven correct that it was just a diversion. When he had no choice but to issue a ground strike led by a SEAL team, as he anxiously awaited the outcome, he took a brief moment, sitting alone, like this:
He just got out of Command Ops to take a breather, so he did not have his glasses on, of course, as to appear "presidential" in front of his generals and advisers. However, he HAD his glasses with him, and as he waited, he clenched them in his hands, pressing the frame against his fingers rapidly like a nervous student with the cap of a retractable pen at a final exam. He was thinking with his glasses and the symbolism here is beyond subtle in this iconic scene. With his glasses by his side, he was portrayed as a ponderous professor in a president's skin. He cared about those SEAL members and did not want to place their lives at risk unnecessarily, neither was he fully convinced Al-Sakar was behind the bombings. However, in front of his staff, he could only act in the context of the evidence presented because only presidents, and not professors, were allowed inside Command Ops. In fact, he had no choice but to order the covert operation because the video of Nassar's confession to the Capitol attack was leaked, by none other than his Chief of Staff Aaron Shore. Shore's motivation? Everyone thought the glasses-wearing "HUD nerd" was illegitimate and unfit for Office of POTUS, and the only way to have everyone rallying behind President Kirkman was to identify the enemy and eliminate thereafter. This was later revealed to fall right into the plans of the true perpetrators as a diversion. As Kirkman's Chief of Staff, Shore had to let the president take the bite because in public, presidents take charge, not professors. Nonetheless, the glasses-clenching scene showed exactly the form in which Kirkman took the oath: a glasses-wearing nerd whose devotion to making the right choice shall ultimately prevail.
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Another interesting aspect of the interplay between donning and lacking thereof of Kirkman's glasses is its implications to Kirkman's family. The protagonist was not cast as a hermit in the show and he did have a lovely family--a beautiful and supporting wife, a teenage son, and a young daughter. Throughout the show Thomas Kirkman felt intense guilt for dragging his family into an unforgiving crossfire, though to no fault of his own. At one point he even arranged to have his family moved to Camp David when the threat levels in the nation's capital became too severe as he realized he had to draw the line between being a family man and the President of the United States. The line became more and more demarcated as the conspiracies behind the Capitol bombing grew. The web of manipulation and lies concealing the truth behind the attack was slowly but surely reaching the president, and he realized in order to keep his loved ones safe, he cannot disclose any information except to his closest personnel: Secret Service agent Mike Ritter and FBI Special Agent Hannah Wells. Neither of those two people are part of Kirkman's family, and so when his wife tried to make sense of it all, the president delivered the inconvenient truth. His glasses were in play here. See if you can spot what happened:
Thomas Kirkman was sympathizing with his wife regarding placing their children, albeit unwillingly, into the ordeal caused by the conspiracies. As he felt "awful" about the situation, he was wearing his glasses. As soon as his wife realized the president was hiding information, Thomas Kirkman took his glasses off as he refused to give away classified intel. At this point, Kirkman undoubtedly drew the line between being a husband and the president, and the line was represented by his glasses. His wife, Alex, had always known her man as the studious "glasses-wearing nerd", and so to portray Kirkman as someone with bigger responsibilities, glasses came off. Don't be fooled though. The professorship inside Kirkman never left, but there was only one pair of glasses and Kirkman's situation and character is simply too complex. His glasses needed to take on multiple roles in decoding the mysterious persona of the president and could only be done with the help of context. Therefore, when he talked to his family, it would have to be glasses off if he were to ensure the conspirators suspected nothing about the countermeasures planned to take them down.
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Finally, as the show went on and thanks in large part to the brave, smart, and relentless actions of FBI Special Agent Hannah Wells, the conspiracies broke off one node at a time, with many of the true perpetrators either brought to justice or shot dead. At last, President Kirkman had the time and the focus to rebuild the United States Government, which he executed competently by successfully holding elections for Congress and getting his Cabinet positions approved by the board of State Governors. One of the Cabinet positions was the Secretary of State, which was filled by the former president Cornelius Moss. Moss was brought in later in the show as the antithesis to Kirkman's studious character: Moss was a politician like Kirkman never was. President Moss was cunning and in full awareness of the maneuvers needed to secure his tenure. Kirkman publicly stated that he had always looked up to Moss, but later we knew that Kirkman deep down did not approve of Moss's manipulating nature. Needless to say, Moss never wore glasses, and during a personal conversation aboard Air Force One on their way to the NATO Summit in Toronto during the penultimate episode, Moss summarized what the director went all along:
The reason why Kirkman brought Moss onboard his Cabinet, to the Secretary of State position no less, is Kirkman's inner submission that he is never a politician, yet political fallout is everyone in tense times. President Kirkman can either take the easy road of changing his character and becoming the politician he needed to survive the snake pit or hire someone with the expertise to do it for him, knowing full well that the latter choice can backfire at any time. Kirkman brought onboard Moss because the glasses that Kirkman never wore in public also never left. He knew in his heart that he will always be the professor--a steadfast voice of reason and caution in a new White House. Therefore, if politics are needed to get his ideals realized, then he would rather bring onboard a politician than to betray his principles. That way, he never stops being the voice of reason.
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So where do we go from here? Well, for one I would of course be very excited to watch Season Two, follow on Kirkman's journey and rooting hard for him. However, as someone who has been wearing glasses since a very young age, I cannot help (forgive me for any bias here) but view Season One as a win for "our glasses-touting nerds". The glasses that Kirkman wore, behind the "unpresidential" facade in the context of his public appearance, symbolized the unbreachable studiousness and professorship inside Kirkman that ensured his ultimate prevailing in forming his government and uncovering the conspiracies behind the Capitol attack. Had he acted impulsively and minding his image before making the right choice, countless more innocent blood would've been shed. The glasses, in a sense, kept him human, and it showed the respect the show's directors and producers had in people who wore glasses as those symbolizing reason. In the real world where there are misinformation spreading everywhere, we need more people wearing those "glasses" than ever before.