'Designated Survivor' Recap: 'The Mission'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

For a moment there, it seemed as though during the closing minutes of the last episode of Designated Survivor, that President Tom Kirkman was saying goodbye to the tough challenges his young administration was forced to face in rapid fire fashion. After all, he had dealt with the insurrection in Michigan head on by putting Governor Royce in jail, he finally dealt with the defiant General Cochrane by asking him to resign after disobeying a direct order and most importantly, he made the first critical military decision of his career as Commander In Chief by ordering Admiral Chernow to attack the compound harboring Al-Sakar leader, Majid Nassar.  It seemed as though Tom was finally coming into his own and demonstrating to all that he was as tough as they come, and could make this job...look easy. 

But this week's episode, 'The Mission' was a fine reminder that there is nothing that comes easy for those who serve, for while they seem calm and cool and collected, their humanity never leaves them and it turned last night's episode into an intense character study of what the decision to send troops in does to a man, all while finally bringing the conspiracy that has been brewing behind the scenes into the light and well, let's just get one thing out of the way, this was an incredibly good episode, one so well crafted in fact that I found myself hoping for just a few minutes more to get a little bit more of the story and it's safe to say that this freshman show has found its stride because of its ability to tell such a  quality human story set in the middle of real world problems. 

Because really, it was stunning to see the President struggle and struggle mightily with his decision to bomb the compound early on in this episode. Tom knew full well that bad guy or no bad guy, he had just given the order to kill several human beings and while it was the right decision, it is still the act of taking a life and those emotions were only complicated further when Nassar escaped the compound, forcing Kirkman to send Navy Seals in to do the job. In fact, I was particularly fond of Kirkman's decision to meet the Seals before their mission, to see the men that were expected to pull off the impossible and know more about these men and the lives they lead and well...those scenes not only gave us more insight into just how good of a man Kirkman truly is...it raised the stakes for the audience as well when the Seals went in to capture Nassar at last.  

But while one would expect for everything to end happy when it comes to this mission and this episode, there was little to celebrate about the capture of Nassar. A Navy Seal lost his life in the process, something that weighed heavily, and will no doubt continue to weigh heavily on Kirkman's conscience and well...there's a chance he captured the wrong guy since the conspiracy that the show has been toying around with took shape. As it turns out, through some deep digging Hannah came to discover that where the intrepid young senator was discovered recently was inside a secret office, that had been re-designed to become an outright bomb shelter, and those that worked on said shelter, have all turned up dead. It's a chilling revelation to say the least, one that implies that Senator MacLeish is in on the mess and judging from his strange behavior this episode, no good will come from Hannah's discovery.  

At least, on the plus side, Aaron was absolved of any wrong doing since now we know the file he received was to find out everything and anything he could about the President and his family to prevent people from taking advantage of him in the press and in the process we learned Tom may not be Leo's biological father, but that's going to be an issue for another day. Because in the here and the now, MacLeish is of grave concern, and the fact that he is working so hard to keep a low profile is odd to say the least considering this is a time of need for America and truly, it's now a race against time for Hannah to uncover exactly what the suspicious senator is up to, before another tragedy strikes. Either way, it should be interesting to see exactly what MacLeish's role is in all of this, and to find out...who else is involved in this mess. Until next time.

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