'Designated Survivor' Recap: 'The Traitor'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

Thus far on Designated Survivor, the vast majority of issues and problems that President Tom Kirkman has had to deal in his short time as leader of the free world are domestic issues and well...why wouldn't they be? After all, the United States was attacked in vicious fashion it's been his task for some time now to rebuild the Federal Government and get America back on track.

Oddly enough, last week's episode almost signaled a slight finale to Kirkman's domestic plight, since he finally had the buy in the from the Governors, elections were about to be held to rebuild Congress...and that sense of safety continued this week, since professional sports resumed play in the good 'ol U.S. of A., and well this air of normalcy almost seemed out of place. Yes, life goes on, but there's still that ugly conspiracy working behind the scenes and while that continues to be dealt with slowly, it just seemed odd that suddenly it was business as usual in Washington. But thankfully last night's episode 'The Traitor' gave Kirkman a new challenge to deal with, by putting him in the midst of an international chess game.

Because a seemingly innocent send off for a decorated track and field coach named Brad Watson, turned into a public relations nightmare when Watson is arrested in Russia for bringing HGH into the country. Naturally, it's a priority to bring an American sports hero home for the Kirkman Administration...but it becomes the top one once it is revealed to Tom that Brad...is an informant for the CIA. He observes and reports what he sees in other countries, so bringing him back is paramount to national security. It leads the President to carefully put together a three nation deal to send spies back to their respective countries, freeing Brad in the process...but despite his incredible work in making this deal come to fruition, Kirkman gets burned since it turns out that Watson is a double agent and more than happy to spend the rest of his days in Russia. 

As Kirkman worked on brokering this deal, the conspiracy surrounding Catalan took us on some dangerous and terrifying turns, because it clearly goes far beyond Congressman MacLeish. Because not only did we learn that Catalan is a person, a mercenary in fact that is so strong and lethal that even the CIA fear him, but we also came to find out that a vast network of shady people are working behind the scenes here, the kind of people who will do whatever it takes to get what they want. Case in point...they kidnapped Jason's son to not only pull him away from the MacLeish vetting process, but to confront him and let him know that if he doesn't do as they ask and help them as they see fit...Jason's son and family will suffer a horrible fate.  

If anything, that little twist ups the game for the show, and one has to wonder now exactly what this mystery organization has up their sleeve for both America and the President since they 'requested' that Jason schedule a meeting with Tom and quite frankly, I'm fascinated by this whole plot thread because clearly they've been working from the shadows for some time and I'm dying to know everything about them. In the meantime though, this episode was quite the pleasant surprise, since I initially thought it might go the boring route considering diplomacy was involved but it ended up being quite thrilling and I love that this particular tale, was another on the job teaching moment for Kirkman since he now knows that not everyone is quite what they seem and to exercise a little more caution before blindly trusting people he doesn't fully know. Either way, this show continues to find new ways to suck me in and I can't until the next episode to see if we learn more about Catalan and the evil going on behind the scenes. Until next time. 

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