as they return to the white house, duncan reveals that he had actually earlier entered the password, which he got from text messages with the anonymous leaker recovered from nina's phone. assembling his team to guess was just a ruse to lure the leaker into the light. the president confronts his chief of staff and tells her that he has evidence that she leaked "dark ages", and she tipped off suliman as well. she had tried to frame the vice president, so she could be the hero and then take over as vice president, rescuing a once-promising political career nearly ended by a microphone gaffe. duncan learns that suliman had been sponsored by russia and a faction in the house of saud, both of whom wanted to weaken the superpower status of the us so they could expand their territory without interference. the president's popularity soars, and impeachment talks are dropped.