'Designated Survivor' Recap: 'In the Dark'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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​As I settled in to watch last night’s episode of Designated Survivor, a realization washed over me, in that, it’s been quite some time since we’ve seen a full-blown crisis on the show. Granted, that’s not exactly a bad thing since hey, it’s nice to not always have the president dealing with a waking nightmare every single week. But, this show, and the Kirkman Administration were founded upon crisis and the story is overdue for one and wouldn’t you know it? Last night’s episode of the show, resurrected the disaster of the week by putting D.C. in quite the bind.
 
But before trouble got underway in ‘In the Dark’, the series took a moment to toy with the audience by revisiting a plot point that hasn’t been addressed since season one, the fact that Tom Kirkman is operating without a Vice President, and there’s some logic behind that. Because Tom makes it clear in this tale, he only wants someone of the highest integrity to hold that office since a traitor held the post last in Peter MacLeish and as the White House prepared more interviews for this all-important position, and went about their usual routines, the crisis in question arrived.
 
Because suddenly all the lights went off in Washington D.C., and it didn’t take long for everyone to realize that this was the result of another hack, which meant that every emergency service had to be mobilized as people began to succumb to the fear of the unknown and despite Mayor Eleanor Darby’s best efforts to stabilize the situation, the president activated the National Guard to restore order, something that caused more harm than good. Because the Mayor saw that as the wrong move and pulled the police in minor protest and while this seemed like an amazing act of irresponsible insurrection at first, there was a rhyme and a reason to her decision.
 
Because, the mayor knew exactly how Federal intervention would be viewed amongst the people and she made her move to grab Tom’s attention so that she could explain her concerns, challenge his stance and to get another shot at containing the situation and while that second attempt to restore order failed, their heated confrontation allowed for Kirkman to think of a potential solution to their problem. And in the midst of the blackout, he and the mayor hit the streets to rally the people and make them believe in one another over anything else shortly before the lights came back on and well, the Mayor’s decision to challenge and question Tom for all the right reasons, ended up earning her the nomination to become Vice President of the United States.
 
Yet while all of that was amazing to watch in its own right, what truly made this episode shine were the little side vignettes that worked on character growth for Tom and his staff and I like that the series is throwing this in more as the season goes on so we get a complete balance storytelling wise, and I was also appreciative of the fact that this hacker storyline is progressing along nicely at a proper pace. Every week the series gives us just enough, allowing for the mystery to build and I’m certain these attacks are only going to intensify in the weeks to come. Either way, this was just a fun episode through and through, and you can never go wrong with a story where Tom Kirkman is allowed to just do his thing. Until next time. 

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