ABC’s Designated Survivor season finale ends on a high note. The FBI score a big win in stopping the muscle in the season-long charade of conspiracy theories and traitors. But the show sets itself up for the next season in the last few minutes of the episode. Patrick Lloyd, AKA the architect of the entire plot to take over the white house, disappears.
For those of you who haven’t seen the show, someone bombs the Capitol building. This then forces the country to rebuild with a new president, known as the designated survivor. And fun fact: the designated survivor is a real thing, by the way. Meanwhile, the search to find the killer starts and FBI agent Hannah Wells uncovers who bombed the Capitol. Surprisingly, it came from a group of traitors on U.S soil as opposed to a foreign terrorist group, which everyone initially assumed. Now, onto everything that happened in the season finale. Warning: spoilers ahead.
Full Recap
The finale starts where we last left off: FBI agents pointing their guns at Hannah, who just found a van full of timed explosives. So, of course, she decides to drive the van to the closest body of water, eliminating the possibility of killing everyone in that building. After that, Agent Forstell clears her name at the request of the president himself. Then, the search for Patrick Lloyd, Lozano, and Jay Whitaker (the White House mole) continues. Unfortunately, they’re unable to find and arrest Lloyd because the conspiracy group sends the FBI on a goose hunt. To do this, group members used Lloyd’s credit card in different locations simultaneously. Additionally, Lloyd also has an escape tunnel in his house, which is what every good house needs, right?
We then follow Lozano as he goes into the Pentagon to get information about “troop movements, intel on nuclear arsenal, [and] identities about [their] covert assets”. But before that, Agent Wells sees him leave the Pentagon to what looks to be a house in the middle of construction. The grueling hand-to-hand combat ends with Agent Wells stabbing Lozano with long construction rods.
They Find the Mole
On the more political side of things, President Kirkman and his staff have their own problems to deal with. Specifically, journalist Abe Leonard’s impending questions and article about leaked information he got from the White House mole. But they don’t really deal with the problem. Instead, they just actively try to avoid having to comment on the situation per the request of President Kirkman. Later, after meeting with Kirkman, Leonard thankfully decides to honor his wishes by holding onto his speculations for a little longer. By the end of the episode, they find the mole surprisingly with the help of Aaron (Kirkman’s Chief-of-Staff) and General Cochrane (who Kirkman fired earlier this season) and all’s good with the world. Or so we all think.
The finale ends with Kirkman giving an empowering speech to the public. In it, he finally addresses Leonard’s claims and clues everyone in on the investigation. At the end of it, he leaves the American people on a good note, at least for the most part. That is until we all discover that Lloyd now has the resources to do whatever he wants without any suspicion. Given all the information he has relates to the country’s security, it makes the country’s defense superstructure completely vulnerable. Ultimately, this means they’re presumably in more danger than before.
Final Thoughts
Overall, it’s great that they found the mole. Plus, the FBI apparently arrested 200 people involved (done via exposing the mole). But there’s definitely still more people out there that’s part of this conspiracy group, including Lloyd, who’s obviously on the run. Even though Lloyd and who knows how many more people are still out there, finding the mole and eliminating Lozano is a definite win. Plus, the FBI knows exactly who they’re looking for which is unlike where they were at the beginning of the season.
From here, there’s a lot of ways the rest of the story can unfold. But what’s great about this show is that we never really know what’s about to happen. But if it’s anything like this first season, I can only expect more exciting conspiracy theories and action scenes in the future. So, here’s to hoping more of the same will come when it comes back for its second season in the fall.
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