Saving lives is what it's all about.

On Designated Survivor Season 1 Episode 16, President Kirkman worked hard to get votes to pass his gun control bill in the Senate and with someone's surprising help, he succeeded.

It's amazing what people can do when they work together.

While Hookstraten took Kirkman's side on the gun control issue, it's still not clear exactly why.

She said she did it because it was the "right thing to do," but did she really believe that? I guess she would have to considering she put her herself at risk by coming out in support of the legislation.

Maybe Hookstraten actually is a fair-minded person who sees the necessity of expanded background checks.

But the problem for Hookstraten is going to be who did she isolate by taking the President's side on this issue. 

Obviously, Bowman is going to become her enemy number one. He wasn't too thrilled about being called into her office. And he probably wasn't thrilled by her press conference supporting Kirkman.

Now that Kirkman has the win, Bowman is sure to become a big thorn in everyone's side.

He doesn't seem like the type of guy to let something like this go. Not when it comes to guns.

Even though Tom assured Bowman that the bill wasn't about revoking the Second Amendment, the idea of any sort of gun legislation does not sit well with the gun crowd.

As crazy as it is, to them it's perfectly logical. The more legislation there is, the more likely people's right to bear arms will be taken away. Less government is better government is a solid argument.

Yet on the flip side, wouldn't expanding background checks for guns keep us all safe from gun violence? Or least take a step towards it? And why do we need all these guns anyway? What's the fascination?

There are so many arguments for and against the issue of gun control it would take years for Designated Survivor to delve into all of it.

What I thought was the most interesting was the Senators who were worried about their jobs if they voted for the bill. The one Senator seemed more concerned she wouldn't have a job rather than being concerned about people's safety. 

Now that's a sad thing. Politics is truly ridiculous if you think about it. It's just a bunch of people maneuvering around to make things better for themselves. Are they really thinking about the big picture? About the real reason why they're in office? 

I don't get that feeling at all. 

President Kirkman is doing his best to serve the American people, but when it comes to gun control who is he really listening to? This wasn't even supposed to be on his 100-day agenda, yet here it is number one on the list.

And Alex keeps doing things that continue to undermine the President. When is she going to stop? Does she even know what she's doing?

There's no doubt she's a strong, independent First Lady, but she can't continue doing things that are going to hurt Tom in the end. She's too smart for that which is why I really think she's doing this stuff on purpose.

She wants Tom to fail no matter how much she acts like she's happy for him. Why else would she continue to do things behind his back?

The best part of the hour when it came to getting the votes needed to pass the bill (and it was seriously yawn-inducing) was President Moss'. The guy is great and livens up every scene he's in.

Can we please have more President Moss?

While all this excitement was happening at the White House, Hannah and Jason took a trip to North Dakota and found a bunch of bombs similar to the ones they found at the Capitol bombing site.

I want to suspend my disbelief, but why were there no guards watching that site? Are the people behind the bombing that dumb they'd leave a bunch of bombs just sitting around?

Or have they rigged up the landmarks and those bombs are just the leftovers?

These conspirators seem rather sloppy so I'm surprised that it's taking Hannah so long to get to the bottom of it. They don't seem to be very organized, do they?

This was a rather slow episode of Designated Survivor, but it did a fair job of taking one small sliver of politics and dissecting it for us whether we wanted to see it or not. And this is a political show after all so we should be seeing politics.

Kirkman isn't going to get very far on his good looks alone. He has to do something useful and this hour he made a significant step and showed the American people why he's the best man for the job.

He showed that he can get things done and that he can do it between party lines.

What did you think of this episode? Were you surprised Hookstraten took Tom's side? Where are all the bad guys and gals in the conspiracy?

Hit the comments and share your thoughts!

If you need to catch up you can watch Designated Survivor online right here via TV Fanatic.