Kate starts asking questions. Ramirez finds a weakness. David builds the attack, spends the night in Archer's bed, and drops the story in the morning.

The WHCA dinner. A bathroom. An invitation to Georgetown. The second time is slower, more deliberate, and harder to walk away from.

David tries to pull back. Six days of discipline, a press panel, and a text from an unknown number that changes everything.

A crisis hits Caldwell's campaign. An emergency meeting at the Eisenhower Building puts David and Archer in the same corridor again — and this time, the distance collapses.

Three days after the debate, a late-night news alert sends David to a hotel bar. Archer is already there.

The earpiece was dying. David Mercer meets Nate Archer for the first time in a TV studio corridor — and can't look away.