Designated Survivor (TV Series)

#thesystemisbroken (2019)

Kal Penn: Seth Wright

Photos 

Quotes 

• Secret Service Agent #1 : It's not a clean site, but we made a buffer between POTUS and the RPs.

  Dontae Evans : RPs?

  Seth Wright : Uh, real people.

  Tom Kirkman : I'm not sure about this. What am I supposed to do, the speech?

  Seth Wright : Well, just, um... just feel it out when you get up there. Wing it.

  Tom Kirkman : Wing it? That's an interesting communications strategy, Seth.

• Mars Harper : Seth, we need to change the narrative.

  Seth Wright : Uh, y-yeah. Uh... I, um... I have some ideas to run by Mark.

  Mars Harper : Don't bother.

  Seth Wright : Uh, well, he's my boss.

  Mars Harper : The communications director is no longer in the employ of the United States government.

  Seth Wright : Oh, my god, you fired him.

  Mars Harper : Chiefs of Staff sometimes have to do that, Seth.

• Mars Harper : The news media needs a new story. Steer them on to the infrastructure vote coming up.

  Seth Wright : I don't think that's gonna be enough to distract the press from last night. They're like a dog with a bone.

  Mars Harper : Well, you know how to get a bone away from a dog, don't you?

  Seth Wright : I really hope you're not gonna say "shoot the dog."

  Mars Harper : We're in the barrel here.

  Seth Wright : Yeah, that's another phrase that's always confused me. People say it all the time around here.

  Mars Harper : In the barrel of a gun pointed at you.

  Seth Wright : Yeah, I don't think that's it.

  Mars Harper : Seth, change the narrative. Or you and Mark can meet up at the public library for the résumé-writing workshop. I hear it's very informative.

• Seth Wright : How's Florida?

  Emily Rhodes : It's humid and infuriating. How's D.C.?

  Seth Wright : Cold and infuriating.

  Emily Rhodes : I bet it is, especially after last night.

  Seth Wright : Oh, you watched?

  Emily Rhodes : Yes, Seth, I watched the president deliver the State of the Union.

  Seth Wright : What'd you think?

  Emily Rhodes : You mean policy-wise or...

  Seth Wright : Emily, what'd you think?

  Emily Rhodes : It was refreshing, actually. It was nice to hear some honesty in and about the swamp.

  Seth Wright : [snickering]  Maybe you could convey that to the swamp, 'cause we're getting absolutely murdered up here.

• Seth Wright : The president's been... you know, different, since you left.

  Emily Rhodes : Different how?

  Seth Wright : I don't wanna say unmoored, but, um, you were always sort of the Kirkman whisperer, and, uh, I thought if you could... if you could come back, you know, just maybe for a visit.

  Emily Rhodes : I don't know, Seth. My mom's not doing so well and needs me here, so...

  Seth Wright : I get it. I do. Maybe just think about it?

  Emily Rhodes : Okay, I'll think about it, all right?

• Seth Wright : You know that phrase "in the barrel", like "We're in the barrel"? Where does that come from?

  Emily Rhodes : What? I don't know, like, going over the falls in a barrel?

  Seth Wright : Mmm, I don't think that's it.

• Tom Kirkman : Emily, I didn't know you were coming in today.

  Mars Harper : Neither did I. Didn't see her name on the schedule.

  Seth Wright : Oh, uh, it was a last-minute addition.

• Emily Rhodes : [after meeting Mars]  You two seem to get along well.

  Seth Wright : He terrifies me.

• Seth Wright : How's your mom?

  Emily Rhodes : She's hanging in. Ovarian cancer's a bitch.

  Seth Wright : Are you, uh, thinking of staying in Tampa for a while?

  Emily Rhodes : I don't know if I'm built for D.C.

  Seth Wright : I wish you'd come back. Emily, you know him better than anybody else. You guys have been together since before he was president. And it's not like you'd need to take your old job back.

  Emily Rhodes : God forbid.

  Seth Wright : Okay, putting aside the fact that I almost shit my pants every time he walks by, Harper's really good at what he does. And he knows everybody. Obviously, that's why Kirkman brought him in. But... something's missing. Someone's missing.

  Emily Rhodes : I was Chief of Staff. What do you do after that?

  Seth Wright : They're creating new jobs around here all the time. You could be whatever you want. You know that.

• Mars Harper : In the future, I'd appreciate a heads-up when former staff come to the building. Especially when former staff happened to previously hold the job that I currently possess.

  Seth Wright : Yes, of course. Uh, it won't happen again.

  Mars Harper : [glancing at the waiting press corps]  They're smelling blood, so cut their fucking noses off.

• Seth Wright : The president's not focused on coverage, he's focused... look, I know it's not the White House's place to, uh, suggest lines of inquiry to our partners in the press, but come on, guys, don't you ever get tired of these tabloid obsessions? Why not clear your palate? Ask about the school lunch initiative, or, uh, what we're doing on veterans' affairs. Why don't you ask about the bridge collapse which highlights exactly why we need this infrastructure bill? You could ask about Annabelle Martin, thirteen years old, from Asheville. She lost both parents and a brother in the tragedy in North Carolina. Ask about things that are important.

• Seth Wright : Which monster invented this?

  Emily Rhodes : A genius monster of Cincinnati.

  Seth Wright : Seriously, who puts chili over spaghetti?

  Aaron Shore : Hey, don't judge. I was in India, street vendors were hawking steamed hornets on top of fried snails.

  Seth Wright : Oh, come on, I am not responsible for the cuisine of my people, okay? I've never even been there. But if you are gonna eat hornets, I hear steamed is the way to go.

• Tom Kirkman : I know that I surprised all of you with my announcement to run. And I'm sorry I didn't share that decision with you. But each one of you has been with me since the beginning of this ride, Emily even longer. And since Alex died, you've become the people I trust the most. So I need your opinion, your advice. This election, can I win it?

  Emily Rhodes : [simultaneously]  Yes.

  Aaron Shore : It's a wide-open race.

  Tom Kirkman : Okay, okay. As well-intentioned as your bullshit responses are, come on, I need you to be honest. Tell me what you really think. Tell me the truth.

  Seth Wright : Uh, it's not impossible. But, uh, and this has nothing to do with you, I don't see a clear path forward for any Independent candidate. There are too many structural obstacles for you to circumvent, particularly without the support of a party organization. This is one of the reasons a lot of people are jumping ship. They're looking for their next jobs.

  Aaron Shore : As a member of the Republican Party, Moss will score conservatives and the older demographic, and those people vote. The Democratic nominee will take the progressives, and if it's Darby's, to be blunt, she'll pick up African-Americans, and, you gotta assume, other racial minorities. It's a tough needle to thread. And think of it this way. You could punch your ticket as the guy who put the coutry back on track after an historic tragedy. Posterity will remember you well. But if you run, and if you lose, if you come in third, that's your legacy.

  Tom Kirkman : Yeah. Emily, what do you think?

  Emily Rhodes : I think you can do it. But I think you're asking the wrong thing. "Can I win?" makes the question about you, when the question should be about the country. So it's not "can I win?", it's "Why am I running in the first place?". So why are you?

• Dontae Evans : Holy shit. You're the press secretary.

  Seth Wright : Uh, for now, yeah. You are?

  Dontae Evans : Dontae Evans. I'm the, um, director of online engagement. I mean, my boss is director of online engagement, but she hasn't shown up the last couple days.

  Seth Wright : Okay, well, I need someone to come along on the president's Iowa trip, handle online messaging. Can you do that?

  Dontae Evans : Yeah.

  Seth Wright : [turning to leave]  Great.

  Dontae Evans : What, like, right now?

  Seth Wright : Now would be great, yeah.

• Dontae Evans : You're on Twitter, right?

  Seth Wright : Bane of my existence, Dontae.

  Dontae Evans : Maybe you saw this hashtag I created a couple days ago. "The system is broken", it's called. I can show you...

  Seth Wright : Let's just keep it moving, Dontae.

• Seth Wright : The Senate voted on the infrastructure bill.

  Tom Kirkman : What's the tally?

  Seth Wright : Failed. 48-52.

  Tom Kirkman : Son of a bitch.

  Seth Wright : Also, sir, we got word that there may be a glitch at this event.

  Cornelius Moss : Mr. President!

  Seth Wright : Ugh, Moss.

  Tom Kirkman : Oh, great. I'll see you at the car.

• Tom Kirkman : Seth, why am I staring at an empty room?

  Seth Wright : I think this is the glitch that I mentioned, sir. Let me find out more.

• Seth Wright : Hey, what's going on?

  Advance Team Supervisor : We're shrinking the room.

  Seth Wright : Yeah, I can see that. Why?

  Advance Team Supervisor : Because there's almost no one here.

  Seth Wright : Okay, and why is that?

  [returning to Kirkman] 

  Seth Wright : So, apparently, and this is unsubstantiated, but Moss' campaign robocalled all of our confirmed attendees telling them the event had been canceled. Hence, the meager turnout. We have a field team out to try to fill seats. Still want to go through with this?

  Tom Kirkman : Absolutely not. Buy their lunches. Fix this.

• Seth Wright : [on the phone]  I know it's short notice, but it's "rabbit out of the hat" time, okay? I need you to look at the entire caucus event calendar, see if there's something we can piggyback on.

  [hanging up] 

  Seth Wright : You better not be playing "Fortnite", dude.

  Dontae Evans : Not all millenials play video games, dude.

• Dontae Evans : Do you remember the hashtag I told you about before we left?

  Seth Wright : I hope it doesn't hurt your feelings to say that I do not.

  Dontae Evans : Okay, after the State of the Union, I put this hashtag out, "the system is broken." You know what trending is?

  Seth Wright : I know what trending is, Dontae.

  Dontae Evans : [showing him his tablet]  It's generating a ton of traffic. People are really responding to what the president said. They're posting videos, venting about broke shit, broke politics.

  Seth Wright : These videos, they're all coming from one specific event.

  Dontae Evans : Yeah. It's an abandoned mall. It's a protest. I guess they planned it to counterprogram the caucuses.

  [Seth leaves] 

  Dontae Evans : Hey, where are you going with my tablet, man?

  Seth Wright : I gotta talk to the president.

• Tom Kirkman : Thank you for letting me crash your party. I came here to Iowa to deliver a speech. And now that I'm standing here among you, it doesn't feel as relevant. Now, I don't know if you've heard, but I had my ass handed to me today. By the Senate. You see, we had a bill. A really, really good bill. A bill that was designed to help people like you, in places like this. To transform forgotten communities and turn them into revitalized ones. Communities of hope and industriousness. It was designed to help the people in North Carolina, who right now are suffering a loss that, unfortunately, I am far too familiar with. This bill would have helped them rebuild the failing infrastructure that surrounds them. But the Senate... the Senate killed it.

  Male Protestor : All they wanna do is tear things down!

  Tom Kirkman : It makes sense to be angry. Angry like all of you are. Hell, I am with you. But anger alone is no prescription. We need to figure out how to take that anger and turn it into action. So please tell me, how do we fix this?

  Female Protestor : It's unfixable!

  Tom Kirkman : Why do you say that, ma'am?

  Female Protestor : Because no one listens.

  Tom Kirkman : Okay. Okay, I understand that because I feel like that sometimes, and, hell, I'm the President of the United States. People have to listen to me. But I felt like that in the Capitol the other night. I felt like that today when the Senate voted down the bill. But if I'm gonna be honest, I think all of us might be a little guilty of not listening. Myself included. But I wanna do better. In fact, I promise you, I am going to do better. So, ma'am, here I am. Standing right in front of you. What do you want me to hear?

  Female Protestor : When the shop closed, I tried to find other work, but there's nothing.

  Tom Kirkman : [his voice fades as he talks]  These are the kinds of things that we're not addressing. Party politics are interfering with your neighborhood...

  Seth Wright : I love this job.

• Seth Wright : At the risk of repeating myself, sir, you were amazing back there.

  Tom Kirkman : Come on, Seth, it was your idea. Give credit where credit's due.

• Mars Harper : I heard you, uh, came up with the whole mall idea.

  Seth Wright : [stammering]  Um, well, it... it was sort of...

  Mars Harper : I asked for a new strategy. It seems I got one. Oh, and by the way, I Googled that, uh, "in the barrel" thing. It turns out it was a form of punishment for petty criminals in the 19th century. They'd get put in a barrel, holes were cut at different heights, and then men would come by and insert their, uh... their manhoods into the holes for various reasons. So, turns out I was wrong. Oh, and I forgot, you're the new communications director. So, I guess, report to yourself.

• Seth Wright : Man, I started the day thinking I was gonna get fired and I ended the day getting promoted.

  Dontae Evans : I mean, I started the day as a low-ranking specialist in the Office of Digital Strategy. I ended the day as director of online engagement.

  Seth Wright : [with a laugh]  Nice try, Donate.

  Dontae Evans : It's worth a shot.

  Seth Wright : Hey, tomorrow, though, I want you to pack up your desk in the EEOB and head over to the West Wing. You work for me now.

• Seth Wright : Hi, I'm Seth.

  Mike Carter : Uh, Mike. I'm Dontae's boyfriend.

  Seth Wright : Yeah, I figured. Have a seat. Let me buy you two intimidatingly fit gentlemen a drink.

• Emily Rhodes : I love what you've done with the place.

  Seth Wright : I guess I could put up some dream catchers or Ani DiFranco and Phish posters from college.

  Emily Rhodes : Or, I don't know, maybe a family photo like a normal human with a human connection.