Designated Survivor Review: Kirkman Comes Clean To His Inner Circle

The penultimate episode of Designated Survivor didn’t reveal or unravel the conspiracy to the audience, but it packed a heck of punch to everyone on the screen. The back half of the season not only ramped up the details behind the conspiracy which blew up the Capitol, it focused on setting good bipartisan policies (as a presidential administration should). One does not exist independently of the other, as we saw when at least one truth about that fateful day came to light just when it could derail international negotiations of peace. It’s clear these terrorists understand with scary accuracy how their actions shape the domestic and international landscape.

President Kirkman has the chance to do something really great at his first NATO summit. Critics have thought of Kirkman as the pretender President because he’s been playing catch-up. Successfully introducing a proposal at the summit that would reduce the world’s nuclear arms would go a long way to improving international relations, and his own reputation. Then Abe Leonard has to go and ruin everything. Going public with the knowledge that Al-Sakar did not blow up the Capitol is the worst thing he could have done, for the country and for himself. He thinks he’s a patriot, but a good journalist questions where his information is coming from.

Since Kirkman is immediately bombarded with questions he can’t legally deny, he has to come clean to Secretary Moss about everything. Alex figures it out on her own. The truth strengthens Kirkman’s personal relationships, but his professional ones are severely compromised. His NATO deal is completely off the table given Kirkman has to scramble just to keep respectful ties between nations. The plane ride back to the U.S. is the only peace Kirkman will get, so I hope he enjoyed it. Now that Hannah is gone, Kirkman has more reason to fear now. Forstell and Ritter have a hell of a time finding Hannah when she’s quite literally in the middle of nowhere. All they can do is try to smoke out the mole while Hannah does her damnest to try to escape. Hannah was able to lead her friends in her general direction, just an hour or so too late. They thought it would be a nice twist of irony to leave Hannah literally holding the bomb in the very building which defined her career.

Was there anything else Kirkman could have done differently to avoid this disastrous reveal? Tune in to the season finale of Designated Survivor next week to find out if the Kirkman administration can stop the next terrorist attack and unravel the season’s long conspiracy.