'Designated Survivor' Recap: 'Bad Reception'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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​As I settled in to watch last night’s episode of Designated Survivor, I must admit that a wave of curiosity washed over me. Because it dawned on me that as season two winds down, there’s no grand conspiracy to build toward, no incredible crisis on the President’s desk. Just a hacker that loves to toy with the nation, who may or may not be Andrea Frost. Which meant that I really had no clue as to what last night’s episode was going to entail and well, I’m glad I came into this one in clueless fashion because ‘Bad Reception’ ended up being filled to the brim with some pleasant and unexpected surprises.
 
The first one being a bit of a return to the format that made the show famous, wherein President Kirkman creatively finds ways to diffuse an international problem and the one that fell into his lap in this tale, involved a 17-year-old boy who was arrested for painting a smiley face on public property in a foreign country, and the country in question wanted to use the young man as leverage to get drilling rights to oil in a protected part of the world. And with the unexpected help of Ethan West, Tom was able to eventually turn the tide in his favor and rescue the kid from a terrible fate in prison and it was just so lovely to see this lighthearted brand of storytelling find its way back into the series.
 
Yet, while that was wonderful in its own right to watch, simply because Michael J. Fox once again stole the show as Ethan West, the real surprise of the night came by way of Hannah. Because in this tale, we learned that she wasn’t done with the Hacking investigation in the slightest, and she did not let her lack of a badge slow her down and she took the time to meet with Kirkman’s close friend Dax Minter in the hopes that he would help her in exposing Andrea as the hacker that nearly crippled the nation. And surprisingly, he agreed to assist in this off the books investigation, allowing for Hannah to break into Andrea’s house and find the evidence she’s been desperately searching for. 
 
However, I won’t lie. This part of the story felt like a by the numbers affair, stuff we’ve honestly seen before, which is something that’s simply not a staple of this show and wouldn’t you know it? The reason this segment felt like that was because all of this was a ruse, one designed to shock the audience. Because in the middle of a meeting with Dax at the White House, we came to learn that the Oval Office had been bugged by Dax, allowing for him to listen in and use those conversations against Tom and as it turns out…the house that Hannah broke into was in fact Dax’s, and this was all part of a drawn out legal investigation, one where Hannah’s firing was faked since Dax was listening, and with the evidence now in hand, Dax was taken into custody for crimes against his country and just like that…the great mystery as to who was behind this hacking mess was resolved.
 
Which quite frankly, is equally as fascinating because with two episodes left, what other troubles await Kirkman? Because a series such as this thrives on crisis and well, they have seemingly all dried up. There’s no lingering threat from the Pax Americana movement. No hacker left to undermine the nation, and Hannah’s decision is a non-issue since she resigned. Which means that more than likely, this season’s final crisis will end up being quite the surprise, and I have no doubt that Kirkman will be up to the challenge because judging from this episode, the sly and clever President Kirkman is back, and he’s done having unsavory people, test his mettle to further their own agenda. Until next time.  

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