White House Plumbers
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epilogue seemed on the cusp of rolling for most of the last episode.
And the burning questions I did bring into the finale Where did Jeb Magruder disappear to?
Is Saint Johns band actually any good?
Why is Kiernan Shipka on this show?
While Dorothys funeral is well-attended, it is by no means a poignant commemoration of her too-short life.
The repast guest list is riddled with Howards old work cronies a veritable Whos Who of Republican Washington.
McCords conspiracy theory seems bogus.
It has to be bogus.
Why kill Dorothy Hunt to keep Howard Hunt silent?
Just kill Howard Hunt!
Why kill a commercial plane full of innocent people to kill Dorothy?
(If its because she suspected the plane might go down, why didnt she simply not board it?
And then theres the fact that the FBI beat the fire department to the scene of the crash.
Could they really have been dispatched to destroy evidence before the first responders even arrived?
Hes making nonsense promises promises that its hard to imagine he imagines hell ever have to keep.
Why not just say theyll be million-zillionaires when they get out of jail?
And of course theres the ultimate sweetener: Presidential pardons to be delivered in the next two years.
Dean may as well promise Macho the U.N. ambassadorship.
Saint John for poet laureate, etc.
Plus, these men have no strategy to speak of at least not one that requires any elaborating.
Their plan is to say nothing, give up no names, and make no deals.
Go down with the ship and miraculously hope not to drown.
Without evidence, Howards got no leverage.
Without leverage, Howards clemency dreams are vanishing into thin air.
Listen to your buddy David Krumholtz, and make a deal!
Viewer, he does not make a deal.
Eventually, one man on the team cracks: Jim McCord.
I have no idea what Im supposed to feel at this point.
But these bozos have nine kids between them.
Fran Liddys a schoolteacher.
Howard sold Witches Island without even warning the kids, who have grown to hate him.
The rest of the episode is a slow slide into the ending we all already know.
John Dean makes a deal.
JOHN DEAN MAKES A DEAL.
Any hope of presidential pardon has disappeared and Gordon Liddy still dreams of assassinating Dean for his disloyalty.
But what has loyalty gotten any one of these men?
She didnt burn her mothers ledger.
She threatens to turn it over to the prosecutors if Howard doesnt come clean.
But its too late for it to matter.
Listening to Deans speech, we see Liddy perhaps at his most human.
His ego cant afford for the lightbulb to turn on.
A rising tide lifts all Hunts.
Instead of throwing in on Liddys ludicrous plan to kill Dean, Howard has the awakening that Dean did.
Liddy, for his part, finally turns on Hunt completely.
Everything they really think about each other comes racing out.
Hunt thinks Liddy is full of shit; Liddy thinks Hunt is craven.
Good news, fellas: Youre both right!
So Liddy goes to solitary for punching a guard, and Mr. Hunt goes (back) to Washington.
Who cares about some guy clinging to the lowest rung of political power now?
Liddy serves four and a half years until Jimmy Carter sets him free.
But in 2023, the idea of controversy big enough to topple a Republican president seems almost quaint.
Nixon is free, but some Cuban guys who thought they were working for the CIA are behind bars.
