'Designated Survivor' Recap: 'Outbreak'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

The more time I've had to think about last week's episode of Designated Survivor, the more I found myself pondering on where the show would go next. Because, while the end of Patrick Lloyd made for a satisfying and powerful episode, he was Tom Kirkman's biggest challenge to date and by removing a villain of that magnitude so quickly, what kinds of challenges would the Kirkman Administration face from here on out?  Well as it turns out, the series has plenty of issues for Tom to face down the line and last night's episode, 'Outbreak', packed in a buffet of problems for our favorite Commander-in-Chief as he dealt with a hint of life imitating art, nature doing its thing and an idea of what Patrick Lloyd was up to before he passed into the great beyond. 

The notion of life imitating art came about in a fairly direct way since the White House was posed with the problem of what to do with a Confederate statue that some wanted removed and I won't lie, I definitely sucked some breath in when it came to this portion of the story because I was curious as to how the writer's room was going to handle this sliver of the real world. This is of course, careful territory to tread upon at the moment and the show handled it in classy fashion. Rather than slam down a heavy handed message, the story settled upon the need for compromise and understanding to solve matters such as these and that made for the quite the satisfying ending to this particular series of tense moments.

Speaking of tense, let's talk about the centerpiece story of the night, the flu epidemic that broke out in Louisiana because that, was the stuff of nightmares. With visuals straight out of movies like Outbreak and Contagion, the series explored what might happen if an outbreak such as this hit our shores and this made for some incredible television. Because not only was it scary in its own right since we've all pondered upon this possibility, but watching Kirkman spring to action to save American lives, going so far as to dress down and damage the reputation of a Pharmaceutical CEO to save the people already infected and to stop the flu from spreading further was downright magical. Kiefer Sutherland is at his best on this series when he gets the chance to let loose and speak the President's mind and this was another one of those perfect moments. 

But, while it was nice to see both of those storylines wrap up in happy fashion, there is something ominous brewing on the horizon for the President and his family and I guess we can call it a parting gift from the late Patrick Lloyd. Because Hannah figured out that Lloyd's attack on the President's mother-in-law wasn't random, nor was it an attempt to be seen by the FBI. He was trying to reveal something and slowly but surely, she came to uncover the fact that Alex's father had a heart transplant in 1987, and her mother had something to do with getting her dad moved up on the transplant list in record time, leaving Hannah to wonder as to whether or not something illegal occurred here and considering the fact that people in the know when it comes to this matter are turning up dead, Lloyd has clearly helped Hannah uncover something significant.

I'm certain of course the exact details of this little mess are on their way in future episodes, but I think the core of what Lloyd is trying to accomplish from beyond the grave is to generate doubt in the public's mind when it comes to the United States Government. If the squeaky clean President, the same one who brought the country back from the brink of disaster has skeletons in his closet, that could be disastrous for his future and perhaps further a hidden agenda from the Pax Americana followers we've not seen yet. Either way, holy cow was this episode packed to the gills this week. In fact, I think this is the only series that can pull off this kind of 'story sandwich' with any measure of success and while it didn't have any heavier meaning or advance the plot too much, it was still a joy to watch and I love that there is indeed a bigger plot thread/threat brewing without Lloyd completely in the picture and it should be interesting to see what kind of family secrets are going to be revealed down the road. Until next time.

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