'Designated Survivor' Recap: 'Bombshell'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

I've spent a lot of time pondering on last night's episode of Designated Survivor, simply because I am truly torn as to whether or not I liked this particular story. It wasn't bad by any means, but it also was not the finest that the series has to offer and my mixed emotions on this one exist simply because...I really expected more from the penultimate episode of season one.

Because the plot line of 'Bombshell' had the makings of an instant classic. It put Tom Kirkman in a tough place when Abe Leonard dropped his big story about Al-Sakar not being responsible for the Capitol bombing and Hannah was trapped behind enemy lines, trying desperately to get into contact with her friends at the FBI to let them know about her whereabouts but alas, I walked away from this one not feeling the sense of danger or joy that I normally feel when watching this series and the reason for that is simple...very little was accomplished in this episode.

Normally this show is all about advancing the plot to some degree, especially when it comes to Patrick Lloyd and the whole mess with Browning Reed, but in this episode, nothing new was revealed in the slightest. Sure Hannah saw them loading explosives onto a smaller boat but outside of that, anything to do with Hannah was really nothing earth shattering and that's unfortunate. Plus, back at the White House the best laid plans by Mike and Chuck to expose the traitor failed miserably and well, even that felt out of place because Chuck is damn good at what he does and our NSA traitor doesn't seem smart enough, nor does Browning Reed and their cohorts seem concerned enough about being caught at this point to put the kind of wild technology featured in the closing moments of this episode on the traitor's laptop. 

Even the bombshell that reflects the episode's title was glossed over in quick fashion. The revelation that the White House is covering up a homegrown conspiracy and insurrection is a huge deal and the fact that foreign governments seemed concerned about it enough to table a nuclear peace agreement, but not  concerned enough to press Kirkman further on getting to the bottom of the story, before forgetting about it as quickly as they did, was just odd to see on a show this intelligent. However, there was one saving grace to this episode, the fact that President Kirkman was as awesome and optimistic as always. He still had hope for a better future, he still inspired others and really, you can't go wrong with that. Plus there were some wonderful moments of levity when it came to Seth getting a little air sick aboard Air Force One. 

Either way, this episode still continues to frustrate me because this was a grand opportunity to set up the season finale in epic fashion. The fallout from Abe's newspaper article at home could have played into Senator Bowman's hands and created some incredible dramatic tension, and Hannah's storyline could have set up a showdown with Lloyd and Browning Reed if we knew exactly what target was coming first and when. In the end however, this one simply came up short and it's a shame really because the tension and anticipation for next week's episode simply isn't there at the moment and we can only hope at this point that the season one finale has something special in store for us that will knock our socks off to make us forget about this one off episode on a show that often delivers world class storytelling. Until next time.

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