‘Designated Survivor’ Recap: ‘#scaredsh*tless’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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

Over the course of its three-year run, Designated Survivor has accomplished some storytelling wonders. Because I’m hard pressed to think of any other political themed show that is able to switch gears from thriller to drama in such seamless fashion or for that matter, happens to feature a lead character that has been forced to handle insurmountable odds on an almost weekly basis. For Tom Kirkman has faced some incredible crises during his tenure as President of the United States and really, when there is trouble and POTUS is forced to step in and handle the matter, the series is truly at its best since Kirkman is quick on his feet and able to pull of miracles on a moment’s notice and thankfully, that dynamic part of the character was on display once again in the next episode of this magnificent series.
​
Because ‘#scaredsh*tless’ saw the hunt for Momberg get underway, without the help of Hannah Wells and that meant, finding this guy without her resourceful mind was easier said than done. Because Momberg was constantly on the move and in the event he was spotted, he was quick to stay on the move. Which meant that Kirkman had to pool every last resource available to him in hunting this guy down and that meant some incredible teamwork from just about every law enforcement division at his disposal and even then, the going got tough. Because there was no rhyme or reason to Momberg’s path, he was seemingly moving about the countryside, but eventually, it became clear that he was going to try and deploy this virus into the water supply of a major city, and something told Kirkman, it would be one of the bigger cities in Texas, most likely Houston, so that Momberg’s message was made loud and clear.

Which in turn prompted the president to deploy every resource at his disposal into the city of Houston to find this man and that’s when quite the complication arose. Because in order to tighten the net, the administration needed to alert the governor of Texas and Houston’s mayor in order to work with them on this terrifying threat. But politics came into play and the governor catapulted this mess into the public eye by going on television to chastise Kirkman as an incompetent leader, after he called former President Moss for advice of course, and well, thanks to some quick thinking from one of Eli’s virus loving friends, they were able to track Momberg after all and put an end to him and his scheme. But not before he uploaded the recipe for the virus into the cloud and sadly, Eli’s friend lost her life as well for participating in the hunt, making this conclusion bittersweet at best.

Yet, while all of that was thrilling and powerful in its own right, there were thankfully, some storylines present to help break up the intensity and much of that came by way of Lorraine and the campaign. Because Lorraine saw a grand opportunity to make President Moss look bad in regard to the whole opioid mess that Mars brought to her attention and while that seems pretty by the numbers and quite frankly, unremarkable in comparison to that thrilling main plotline, the fact that Emily is starting to suspect that Lorraine has a mole in the Moss campaign, something which was already revealed to the audience, is a bad thing because hey, there’s a lot of legal problems that come about with that. But, while that little plot thread was interesting in its own right, its resolution will have to wait for another time. For in the closing moments of this tale, it was revealed that a member of Moss’ campaign, was involved in commissioning the very virus that scared everyone sh*tless in this tale.

Which means, there are going to be some powerful repercussions to come about from this discovery and while I should be shocked to find out that Moss has a white supremacist in his midst, I’m not, because Moss has surrounded himself with garbage in order to win. But what matters more in this moment, is that once again, the wonder of President Tom Kirkman was on display in this tale and it was just delightful to see him doing his thing and making quick and powerful decisions to save lives, because damnit, he’s good at that and now with this crisis out of the way, it’s back to the campaign and the fallout of this discovery. And well, I simply cannot wait to see what’s coming next, so if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to Netflix to enjoy the next chapter in this resurgent story. Until next time. 

---