'Designated Survivor' Recap: 'Line of Fire'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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​I have to admit that last week’s episode of Designated Survivor stayed with me for quite some time after I watched it, simply because it was becoming more and more obvious that we were in the middle of the eye of a proverbial storm for the Kirkman Administration and it wouldn’t be long before gale force winds of trouble would once again find their way to the Oval Office, making life incredibly difficult for our favorite T.V. President and wouldn’t you know it…the storm we’ve all been waiting for arrived on last night’s episode of the show.
 
Because ‘Line of Fire’ not only put Tom Kirkman to the test, it irrevocably changed his life in devastating fashion. But before we get to that jaw dropping and unexpected moment, let’s take a little time to talk about the trials and tribulations that the President had to face in this particular tale. Since in the midst of a dangerous fire, one that required massive evacuations, Tom had to deal with a religious group that put themselves in the path of the fire in order to protest a necessary surgery for an infant that was recently born to someone in their parish, because said surgery conflicted with their religious beliefs.
 
Now what made this part of the story so incredibly lovely and joyful was the fact that once again, the President found a way to make everyone involved the matter, happy, by thinking outside of the box while also taking calculated and intelligent risks to save the child’s life and with an assist from Emily, the baby survived, the congregation came off the mountain and while this story brought us all smiles, ugly things were happening behind the scenes while the President dealt with this mess. Specifically, Hannah was trying to figure out where Damian’s real loyalties lie, and unfortunately for Hannah, her worst fears were realized when she discovered that he is in fact a double agent and in a tense moment of confrontation, she was forced to put a bullet in him and say goodbye.
 
However, while all of this was fascinating and tense, none of it compared with the titular moment that changed the course of the President’s life. Because shortly after Alex settled in to give her disposition to the FBI, she found a way to foil Forstell’s inquiry and get him to withdraw his investigation for that matter as well, and it finally seemed as though Alex and the President were going to be able to reconcile and move forward. That is until a truck slammed through the First Lady’s convoy on her way back to the White House, killing Alex Kirkman in the collision and as we saw in the closing moments of the episode, the loss of her life completely and utterly broke the President’s heart.
 
To make matters worse, Damian is alive and well and we still don’t fully know what the heck he’s up to, but it’s clear now that part of Patrick Lloyd’s long-term plans were to break the President down to the point where he may be unable to properly perform his duties because this isn’t exactly the kind of job where Tom can take some time off to grieve. The world is still turning, and a new crisis will find its way to his desk daily, which means that going forward, Tom Kirkman is going to have to find a way to put the grief aside in order to keep the world and the nation safe and while the President is as tough as they come, it’s hard to say if he can overcome something as big as losing the love of his life. But sadly, we will have to wait until February to find out who murdered Alex and whether or not Tom can stay on task and considering how powerful this episode turned out to be…it’s going to be a long and painful wait for the midseason premiere. Until then. 

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